Brian Haw

Film units from all over the world who were in London reporting on the likelihood of an Iraq war would also come to Parliament Square to see Brian, who they described as "the man of peace in Westminster", and thus he presented to the world a message of reconciliation that was certainly not coming from the two backbenches at the time. I got to know Brian by meeting him and talking to him, and hooting in my car as I drove past his camp, and was deeply touched by his sincerity and passion, which are not always so obvious in the House of Commons when questions of peace and war are discussed.

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Brian sacrificed his life in his work for peace and against the Iraq war, and although he did not succeed in stopping it, what he did and said and the many hours of the day and night he devoted to it kept alive a flicker of hope in the hearts and minds of people who shared his view. Brian did not stop the Iraq war, but he will be remembered as a man who stood against it and put his life at the disposal of those who were against that hideous operation. He will be sadly missed and his death marks the end of a historic enterprise by a man who gave everything to support his beliefs.

Topics Anti-war movement Opinion. London Protest Foreign policy comment. Order by newest oldest recommendations. Show 25 25 50 All. Threads collapsed expanded unthreaded. He originally camped on the grass in Parliament Square, but the Greater London Authority took legal action to remove him, so he relocated to the pavement, which was administered by Westminster City Council instead.

The continuous use of a megaphone by Haw led to objections by Members of Parliament who had offices close to Haw's protest camp. The House of Commons Procedure Committee held a brief inquiry in summer which heard evidence that permanent protests in Parliament Square could provide an opportunity for terrorists to disguise explosive devices, and resulted in a recommendation that the law be changed to prohibit them.

In the general election Haw stood as a candidate in the Cities of London and Westminster in order to further his campaign and oppose the Act which was yet to come into force.

He won votes 0. As preparation for implementing the new Serious Organised Crime and Police Act began, Haw won an application for judicial review on 28 July , successfully arguing that a technical defect in the act meant it did not apply in his case. The act states that demonstrations must have authorisation from the police "when the demonstration starts", and Haw asserted that his demonstration had begun before the passage of the act, which was not made retrospective.

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Although the commencement order made to bring the act into force had made reference to demonstrations begun before the act came into force, there was no power for the commencement order to extend the scope of the act. The government appealed against the judgement, and on 8 May the Court of Appeal allowed the appeal and therefore declared that the act did apply to him.

The court found that the intent of parliament was clearly to apply to all demonstrations in Parliament Square regardless of when they had begun, saying "The only sensible conclusion to reach in these circumstances is that Parliament intended that those sections of the Act should apply to a demonstration in the designated area, whether it started before or after they came into force. Any other conclusion would be wholly irrational and could fairly be described as manifestly absurd.

In the meantime Haw had applied for permission to continue his demonstration, and received it on condition that his display of placards was no more than 3 metres 9. Haw was unwilling to comply and the police referred his case to the Crown Prosecution Service ; a number of supporters began camping with him in order to deter attempts to evict him.

In the early hours of 23 May , 78 police arrived and removed all but one of Haw's placards citing continual breached conditions of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act as their reason for doing so. The court entered a not guilty plea on his behalf, and he was bailed to return to court on 11 July At a licensing hearing at Westminster City Council on 30 June , Haw was granted limited permission to use a loudspeaker in the space allowed to him. On 22 January Haw was acquitted on the grounds that the conditions he was accused of breaching were not sufficiently clear, and that they should have been imposed by a police officer of higher rank.

District Judge Purdy ruled: Director and narrator Alex Jones interviewed Haw and even joined in his protest of Parliament by answering Haw's inquiry, via megaphone , about the Statue of Liberty by saying she had been picked up on suspicion that she was a member of Al-Qaeda. Haw was briefly portrayed in the drama The Trial of Tony Blair. Haw was filmed for many months by independent documentary maker Senara Wilson during the buildup to war in A short version of this documentary is available here.

Haw was featured with activist Mick Meaney [ who? This was an adjourned hearing of an appeal by way of case stated by the Director of Public Prosecutions against a decision of District Judge Purdy in the City of Westminster Magistrates Court on 22 January The judge ruled that there was no case for the Respondent, Brian Haw, to answer on a charge of knowingly failing to comply with a condition imposed under Section of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 'SOCA' in respect of a demonstration in Parliament Square.

Brian Haw sacrificed his life for peace | Tony Benn | Opinion | The Guardian

The hearing before the Administrative Court was adjourned because Mr Haw had not been served with relevant documents in time to give them proper consideration. Haw sought a large number of directions from the court on 18 November After some delay the directions of the court were eventually published in March The court was un-persuaded that a full transcript of the hearing [27] was necessary, even though Haw claimed that it would show that the court sidestepped the issue as to the legality of the seizure.

The case of Tucker v Director of Public Prosecutions , [29] was an appeal by way of case stated. Her defence was that Haw had invited her to join him in his demonstration.

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He gave evidence on her behalf to that effect. Seven people were arrested including Haw, who said "I was filming the students lying down in the road when one officer stepped forward, as I was walking back, and pushed the camera with his hand. It struck my face. In December press releases stated that Haw had declared himself a candidate in the London Mayoral Elections in May , [31] but eventually he did not stand. In September Haw was diagnosed with lung cancer. Haw, who was described as a chain smoker , continued to smoke cigarettes until his death.

His rectitude was a mirror that the people in the building opposite couldn't bear. Now that he's gone, who else have we got? London Assembly Member Jenny Jones called for Westminster Council to erect a blue plaque for Brian Haw immediately, bypassing English Heritage 's criteria that the person commemorated should have been dead for two decades or passed the centenary of their birth, whichever is the earlier.

In December Wallinger's work won the Turner Prize.

Brian Haw: A decade-long protest dedicated to peace

The track incorporated a statement by Haw himself about his motivations for the protest. Haw was featured in the short length documentary Maria: This was performed at the Barbican Theatre, Plymouth. This production was again performed in at Square Chapel Centre for the Arts in Halifax with a new cast of young people. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This section needs expansion.