Making a Stand

Brian Haw has died. He was only 62 and lost his battle against lung cancer. He had maintained a visible protest in Parliament Square, campaigning against the various wars that the UK government had become involved in in recent years. All the authorities did their best to have him removed, but they deservedly failed. The last attempt, by Boris Johnson, was to have his tent moved from the green and onto the pavement, despite the fact that he was suffering from cancer. Nice one, brave Boris.

I met and chatted to Brian on a number of occasions. Any time I found myself in central london, I would make a point of visiting his protest site. He was a man who believed that just having a view was not enough. He made a stand - a truly brave and visible stand - and he successfully fought off the various attempts to have him removed by the spineless warmongering authoritarians of successive governments. He held them to account and made quite a sacrifice in the process. A truly decent man.