Brian Haw

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Brian Haw.
Brian Haw.

Brian William Haw (born 1949) is a British former carpenter who is famous for living in a peace camp 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. He was voted most inspiring political figure at the 2007 Channel 4 Political Awards.[1]

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[edit] Background

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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, and they have 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

Brian Haw.
Brian Haw.

On 2 June 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 a provision banning all unlicensed protests, permanent or otherwise, 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.

[edit] Legal action

Brian Haw's protest
Brian Haw's protest

As preparation for implementing the new Serious Organised Crime and Police Act began, Haw won an application for judicial review on 28 July 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 8 May 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. [1]

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 3 m 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.

Foreign Policy 2000, a painting by Abby Jackson – one of the items confiscated by the police.
Foreign Policy 2000, a painting by Abby Jackson – one of the items confiscated by the police.

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 [2][3][4]. The actions of the police were criticised by members of the Metropolitan Police Authority at its monthly meeting on Thursday, 25 May [5]. 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.

On 22 January 2007 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: "I find the conditions, drafted as they are, lack clarity and are not workable in their current form." [6]

[edit] Documentary

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 answering Haw's inquiry, via megaphone, about the Statue of Liberty by saying she'd been picked up on suspicion that she was a member of Al-Qaeda. Haw (played by an actor) also appeared briefly in the 2007 fictional docudrama The Trial of Tony Blair. There is also a documentary film made about him by Mahmoud Shoolizadeh, entitled A Man Called Brian, which shows interviews with him and analysed the Iraq war. This film has participated in some international film festivals.

In January 2007, former Turner Prize nominee Mark Wallinger recreated Brian Haw’s Parliament Square protest in its entirety as an exhibition, in State Britain.[2] Running the length of the Duveen Gallery, State Britain is a painstaking reconstruction of the display confiscated by the Metropolitan Police in 2006.[3] It includes 500 weather-worn banners, photos, peace flags, and messages from well-wishers collected by Haw over the duration of the Peace Protest, as well as his DIY shelter. In December 2007, Wallinger's work won the Turner Prize.[4]

[edit] Director of Public Prosecutions v Haw

Director of Public Prosecutions v Haw[5]

3. The issues raised by the case stated are as follows:
i) Whether the statutory powers available to the Commissioner of Police under section 134 of SOCA can be exercised by a subordinate on his behalf;
ii) Whether the conditions imposed on Mr Haw were ultra vires, or incompatible with Articles 10 and 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights ('ECHR'), as unreasonable or insufficiently clear.

Director of Public Prosecutions v Haw [2007] EWHC 1931 (Admin) (6 August 2007) 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 2007. 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 134 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 ('SOCA') in respect of a demonstration in Parliament Square. 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.

[edit] London Mayor 2008?

Press releases stated that Brian Haw had declared himself a candidate in the London Mayoral Elections in May 2008, but he did not stand.[6][7] On 17th of April 2007 he joined Frank Maloney and Winston McKenzie in support of the Christian Choice candidate Alan Craig[8]

[edit] Tucker v Director of Public Prosecutions (30 November 2007)

Tucker v Director of Public Prosecutions [2007] EWHC 3019 (Admin) (30 November 2007) This was an appeal by way of case stated. The appellant was convicted under section 132 (1) (c) of the Serious Organized Crimes and Police Act (SOCPA) of being within the jurisdiction of the Central Criminal Court, carried on unauthorised demonstration by herself in a public place in a designated area, namely Parliament Square. Her defence was that Mr Brian Haw had invited her to join him in his demonstration. He gave evidence on her behalf to that effect. The magistrate said: "Had I accepted this evidence (which I did not) it would have been argued that the allegation that she had 'carried on an unauthorised demonstration by herself ..... ' could not have been made out, and further more (in my view incorrectly) that it would provide a defence by saying that as Mr Haw is safe from prosecution anyone who joins him is also safe." The question posed by the magistrate was: "Was it lawful under section 6 (1) HRA to convict the appellant?" The Administrative Court held that SOCPA was not incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights (specifically, Articles 10 (freedom of expression) and 11 (freedom of assembly)), and Ms Tucker's conviction was therefore lawful.

[edit] January 2008 Injury and Arrest

On January 12, Haw was observing a protest against the Serious and Organised Crime Police Act, outside Downing Street. Seven people were arrested (including Haw), Haw 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." He accused the police of using "violent and humiliating force".[9]

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes and references

  1. ^ Channel 4 award for Brian Haw, The Daily Telegraph, February 8 2007
  2. ^ BBC online
  3. ^ Tate Gallery
  4. ^ BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Mark Wallinger wins Turner Prize
  5. ^ Director of Public Prosecutions v Haw[2007] EWHC 1931 (Admin) (6 August 2007)
  6. ^ City Mayors: London elections May 2008
  7. ^ UK Indymedia - London Mayor 2008
  8. ^ The Christian Choice - news
  9. ^ BBC NEWS | England | London | Peace protester injured in demo

[edit] External links