Brian Haw
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Brian William Haw (born 1949) is a former British carpenter who is famous for living in Parliament Square since 2001 in an anti-war protest. Although he had begun before the terror attacks on the United States, Haw has become a symbol of the anti-war protest movement over the policies of both Britain and the United States in Afghanistan and later Iraq.
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[edit] Background
Haw grew up in Barking and Whitstable. His father, who worked in a betting office, had been one of the first British soldiers to enter Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, and committed suicide 20 years later. Haw was apprenticed to a boat-builder from the age of 16 and then entered the Merchant Navy as a deckhand. In this job he visited many of the world's trouble-spots. In 1970 he studied for six months at an evangelical Christian college in Nottingham and then went to Belfast to try to mediate between the two sides in the Troubles.
In the early 1970s Haw moved to Essex and started a removals business, also working part-time as a carpenter. He met his wife Kay in the early 1970s, who gave birth to his seven children. The family eventually settled in Redditch, Worcestershire. In 1989 he travelled to Cambodia to try to help that country, and in the 1990s he tried to help disadvantaged children in the local area. However the family found themselves victims of anti-social behaviour, and Haw's attempt to stop it by presenting a dossier to the Crown Prosecution Service led to its getting worse.
[edit] Parliament Square protests
On June 2, 2001, he began camping in Parliament Square in central London in a one-man political protest against war and foreign policy (initially, the sanctions against Iraq). By his own account, he was first inspired to take up his vigil after seeing the images and information produced by the Mariam Appeal, an anti-sanctions campaign. Haw justifies his campaign on a need to improve his children's future. He only leaves his makeshift campsite in order to attend court hearings, surviving on food brought by supporters. Support for Haw's protest has come from former Labour cabinet minister Tony Benn and activist/comedian Mark Thomas.
Westminster City Council attempted to prosecute Haw for causing an obstruction to the pavement in October 2002 but the case failed as Haw's banners did not impede movement. The continuous use of a megaphone by Haw led to objections by Members of Parliament who have offices close to his protest. The House of Commons Procedure Committee held a brief inquiry in summer 2003 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. Although initially reluctant, the Government passed such a provision in the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 (sections 132 to 138).
In the 2005 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 in to force. He won 298 votes (0.8 percent), making a speech against the ongoing presence of UK troops in Iraq at the declaration of the result. On May 19, 2006, Haw was featured in episode 12 of the Documentally podcast. [1]
[edit] Legal action
As preparation for implementing the new Serious Organised Crime and Police Act began, Haw won an application for judicial review on July 28, 2005, 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 retroactive. 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 judgment, and on May 8, 2006 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:
- 23. 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. [2]
In the meantime Haw had applied for permission to continue his demonstration, and received it on condition that his display of placards is no more than 3m wide (among other things). Haw was unwilling to comply and the Police referred his case to the Crown Prosecution Service; a number of supporters have begun to camp with him in order to deter attempts to evict him.
In the early hours of Tuesday, 23 May 2006, 78 police arrived and removed all but one of Brian Haw's placards citing continual breached conditions of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 as their reason for doing so [3][4][5]. The actions of the police were criticised by members of the Metropolitan Police Authority at its monthly meeting on Thursday, 25 May [6]. Haw appeared at Bow Street Magistrates' Court on 30 May, when he refused to enter a plea. 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.
Brian Haw was featured in the 2006 documentary, Terrorstorm. Director and narrator Alex Jones interviewed Haw and even joined in his protest of Parliament by facetiously answering Haw's inquiry, via bullhorn, about the Statue of Liberty by saying she'd been picked up on suspicion that she was a member of Al-Qaeda.
[edit] External links
- A site set up by Haw's supporters
- Interview in the Guardian
- He shall not, he shall not be moved (another interview in the Guardian)
- Serious Organised Crime and Police Act, sections 132 et seq
- Parliament protester wins review (BBC News online)
- "Life of Brian", The Walrus, March 2005.
- Government wins its appeal
- List of votes relating to Protesting in Parliament Square from Public Whip
