Political Awards

[Guest guest]

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:- politicalawards (AT) channel4 (DOT) com with the subject Brian Haw and this text - I amvoting for Brian Haw as the Channel 4 Political Awards 'Most Inspiring Political Figure of the Year'-----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 frontof parliament, in protest against the Iraq war.He remains at his spot on the pavement day and night, sleeping a few hours anight under a tarpaulin and washing in a bucket.He started the vigil to protest against the suffering of Iraqis under the UNsanctions 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 savethe 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 didnot 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 andseven 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