Vote Brian Haw for Channel4's political awards this year.
See Brian Haw up against Tony Blair amongst others for MOST INSPIRING
POLITICAL FIGURE.
You don't need to pay to vote for him, just email send an email to:-
[log in to unmask] with the subject Brian Haw and this text - I am
voting for Brian Haw as the Channel 4 Political Awards 'Most Inspiring
Political Figure of the Year'
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Few people approach politics with the single-minded determination of Brian
Haw. Since June 2, 2001, he has been manning his own, one-man vigil in front
of parliament, in protest against the Iraq war.
He remains at his spot on the pavement day and night, sleeping a few hours a
night under a tarpaulin and washing in a bucket.
He started the vigil to protest against the suffering of Iraqis under the UN
sanctions regime, and the air raids mounted by Coalition air forces. Since
then, the protest has expanded to take in the War on Terror, and Western
military action in Afghanistan and Iraq.
As he puts it himself on his website, "I want to go back to my own kids and
look them in the face again knowing that I've done all I can to try and save
the children of Iraq and other countries who are dying because of my
government's unjust, amoral, fear - and money - driven policies.”
His sprawling, scruffy and frequently noisy protest site raised the hackles
of parliamentarians, who even resorted to legislation to get him removed.
In 2005, parliament passed the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005
to prevent unlicensed protests within quarter of a mile of parliament. In
March 2006, Brian Haw was arrested. However, he began a legal fight to
defend his right to protest.
In July, judges ruled that because of the clumsy drafting of the act, it did
not apply to protests that began before 2005. So Mr Haw's protest was
exempt, though protests which began after 1 August 2005 were still banned.
Police removed most of his banners and placards, but Mr Haw is still
protesting notching up his 2,000th day in November. And he has had the
satisfaction of seeing an accurate replica of the full-scale protest
displayed in an art exhibition by the artist Marc Wallinger at the Tate
Britain gallery - part of which happens to be within the exclusion zone.
Born in Barking in 1949, Mr Haw grew up in Whitstable, Kent. His father was
a member of the Reconnaissance Corps, one of the first British solders to
enter the concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen. Twenty years later, he
committed suicide.
An evangelical Christian, Mr Haw had a short career in the merchant navy
before travelling the world's troublespots, visiting Cambodia and Belfast,
Berlin and Beijing as an independent missionary. He eventually moved to the
UK to work with difficult children, settling in Redditch, where his wife and
seven children still live, before taking up his peace vigil in Parliament
Square.
It's not just policemen and parliamentarians who have tried to evict him.
Sleeping outdoors, he is frequently accosted by thugs and drunks, and has
had his nose broken three times.
But despite the best efforts of lawyers, MPs and random assailants, the
protest goes on.
Channel4
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