Brian Haw arrest will fuel public anger" says activist

Published: 28 May 2010
by JAMIE WELHAM

A PEACE activist has warned of a public backlash after Parliament Square protester Brian Haw was arrested for the second time in six months.

Mr Haw appeared in Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday charged with obstructing police who were carrying out anti-terrorism checks in his tent the previous day.

“This is my home,” he said, before his arrest.

The raid took place at 7am ahead of the State Opening of Parliament by the Queen.

Milan Rai, who was arrested under controversial terrorism legislation for reading the names of civilians killed in Iraq in 2005, said: “Brian has become a symbol and will be a challenge for the new government. They will be under pressure to move him, but they will know that a lot of people respect his sacrifice and will be watching their movements very closely.”

He added: “I think there is a libertarian streak in the Conservative Party. That is why they are against ID cards, fingerprinting and databases. But when it comes to the rights of individuals to protest I am not so sure.”

Mr Haw, 60, is due to appear in court next month on obstruction charges after allegedly refusing officers entry to his tent when Parliament reopened last Nov­ember.

On Wednesday lawyers argued that he could not realistically be considered a “threat to life and limb”, adding: “If they think he has bombs in his tent, why do they only search his tent before high-profile state visits?”

Barbara Tucker, an ally of Mr Haw in the Parliament Square peace camp, was also charged with obstruction and a public order offence and held in the cells at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday. Both have denied the charge.

It came on the day the new government pledged to allow “members of the public to protest peacefully without fear of being criminalised”.

Last year Conservative leader David Cameron, now Prime Minister, said: “I am all in favour of free speech and the right to demonstrate and the right to protest – enough is enough.”

Mr Haw, originally from Worcestershire, set up his camp in protest against the invasion of Afghanistan in June 2 2001 and, as of yesterday (Thursday) has been living in the Square for 3,230 days.

In 2007, he was named “most inspiring Briton” in Channel 4’s political awards, and an exhibition in the Tate Modern recreated his famous anti-war display. He later won a legal battle to remain in the square due to a drafting error in a new law banning unauthorised protests in Westminster.

Mr Haw has been joined by dozens of supporters over the last fortnight in the square. But the self-styled “Democracy Village”, made up of around 50 supporters of world peace, has been shunned by Mr Haw.

Anthropologist Chris Knight, a former professor at the University of East London, said: “When we all arrived to help him he felt that instead of helping him we were diluting his own influence. He keeps screaming to the microphone, you are agents of the police, you are scientists.”

He added: “When the police tried to arrest him I lay down in front of the police to stop them.”

Three men from the “Village” scaled the scaffolding outside the House of Commons on Wednesday and unfurled a banner saying: “We respect the soldiers. We do not support the war.” 

They appeared in court on Thursday charged with trespassing.

Mayor Boris Johnson has applied to the High Court to remove the activists from the camp and Mark Field, Conservative MP for Cities of London and Westminster, has described them as “unacceptable”. He has written to Met Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson to demand tougher controls.

In an article for the West End Extra this week, Mr Field said: “It is not acceptable to block public spaces, urinate in public, drop litter, be relentlessly noisy, and dig up and damage public land.”