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31 Jan 07 - 12:57 PM (#1953695) Subject: BS: Vote BRIAN HAW over Tony Blair! From: Nemesis There's an email vote link - if someone can make it work please? Alternatively... cut and paste the URL? Please vote by 2 February. (See Brian's biog - below) VOTE FOR BRIAN HAW as the Most Inspiring Political Figure, 2007 Brian is one of six people shortlisted for British TV Channel 4's "Most Inspiring Political Figure" 2007 award. It is part of their annual Political Awards, in association with the Hansard Society. The award is presented before an invited audience of Members of Parliament, Peers and journalists and will be screened on Channel 4 at 7pm on 10 February (repeated on 13 Feb). THE AWARD IS VOTED ON BY THE PUBLIC - PLEASE TAKE A MINUTE TO VOTE BY THE DEADLINE OF 2 FEBRUARY. The nominees are Aishah Azmi, Tony Blair, David Cameron, General Sir Richard Dannatt, Brian Haw & the Archbishop of York. TO VOTE: email your vote from http://www.channel4.com/news/microsites/P/politicalawards/haw.html http://www.channel4.com/news/microsites/P/politicalawards/ Please vote by 2 February. Brian Haw biog: 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.² 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. |
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31 Jan 07 - 02:18 PM (#1953749) Subject: RE: BS: BS: Vote BRIAN HAW over Tony Blair! From: Rapparee I'll get right on it.... |
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31 Jan 07 - 07:01 PM (#1954018) Subject: RE: BS: BS: Vote BRIAN HAW over Tony Blair! From: Bunnahabhain These awards have never specified what the person is supposed to most inspire. If it's the Prime minister, then he is very good at inspiring Mistrust, Nausea, a desire for physical violence against him, and several other things.... |
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01 Feb 07 - 01:11 PM (#1954742) Subject: RE: BS: BS: Vote BRIAN HAW over Tony Blair! From: Nemesis That's why it's so important to vote for someone like Brian Haw ... please read his biog ... the man's a quiet hero! |