Brian Haw: Perpetual Protestor.
By Uncle Monty.
Photos By Jeff Moore & Alex Albion
And, Added Web Photograbs.
_._
Brian Haw, the perpetual anti-war protestor at
London's Parliament Square, was age 12 when my
own beloved father died 50 years ago to the very day
of Brian's own death last Saturday, June 18th, 2011.
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Brain William Haw
(7 Jan. 1949 – 18 Jun. 2011)
_._
Although, I didn't know Brian Haw well other than
to visit with him from time to time during his public
protests or to see him standing outside at then Bow
Street Magistrates Court, I always wondered how he
cared for his family and seven children that needed his
care. Especially during the 10 years he squatted at the
square across from the British House of Commons in
his around the clock 24/7 protest against the Labourite
Blair & Brown Governments' support and open
involvement in the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars.
Otherwise, he certainly didn't seem to be an activist
father although his kidz I suspect were grown up by the
time he started his perpetual public protest at age 52.
involvement in the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars.
Otherwise, he certainly didn't seem to be an activist
father although his kidz I suspect were grown up by the
time he started his perpetual public protest at age 52.
_._
I first met him as a badged Big Issue vendor in 2005,
although Brain Haw showed little interest in the issue
of homelessness or The Iffy Big Issue. He nevertheless,
mildly expressed his solidarity with the plight of the street
homeless and Big Issue vendors like me. When I told
Brian last time that I had been ousted from my Covent
Garden pitch of five years standing by The Big Issue's
hideous and ignorant Peter Bird, Brian shrugged his
shoulders and said, "So what else is new, mate?"
_._
While I certainly agreed with his stand against war, I
While I certainly agreed with his stand against war, I
did noticed over the six years that I knew him that he
had became more moody and even more aloof - dare
I say even churlish, too -- at where he castigated me
last time for approaching him from behind him as he
sat on his white plastic chair with the air of a warlord
himself with his clutter of homemade posters and
protest signs along with his well worn English hat that
was crammed with various cap badges of every kind.
_._
3 Brit Copz To 1 Haw. Shame On London Met Police.
_._
Having been police handcuffed and yanked out of the
Having been police handcuffed and yanked out of the
square in past incidents with them, I could understand
to some degree his mental and physical apprehension
of someone approaching him from the back. The only
way I could get to him at that time was from his back to
me since the front was almost impassible to reconnoitre.
It was, however, his curt warning that distrubed me
when he gruffly said I was lucky he didn't react by
attacking me in his own defense. I said to Brian: "I
come unarmed and I am disarmed as best as I can
be!" But it didn't ease his self-apprehension of hostile
intent by some others against him like the Brit police.
come unarmed and I am disarmed as best as I can
be!" But it didn't ease his self-apprehension of hostile
intent by some others against him like the Brit police.
Perhaps Brian Haw had other reasons to be abit
paranoid, but I was so disappionted that he'd gone
from being so open to basically a closed individual
who saw the world around him as threatening and
unfriendly toward him.
_._
When the so-called "Democracy Village" sprang up
and encamped all around him at Parliament Square
last year, Brian complained bitterly to me that they
were a nuisance and the quicker they were closed
down the better. I thought it strange that a man like
him should be the first to complain about others
protesting since he was a perpetual protester him-
self!! What hypocracy, he showed! I think he
was really upset because all the attention was
then focussed on them, instead of him. Not that I
was impressed with the awful people running the
"dirty village." They were a crazy and strange
bunch of oddballs and weirdos to say the least.
.
Democrary Village. By Uncle Monty.
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Perpetual Protestor. By Uncle Monty.
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I must say that I have been quite surprised at the level
of laudatory comments on Brian Haw's perpetual protest
at Parliament Square since his cancer death last Saturday.
of laudatory comments on Brian Haw's perpetual protest
at Parliament Square since his cancer death last Saturday.
Personal tributes from Sir Peter Bottomley, M.P. to
Professor Bill Bowring has graced the newspapers in
memory of Brian William Haw. Some of the tributes to
him have been very giddy is all I can say compared
to my own impression of him as the lone man sitting
opposite the House of Commons. I also do think that
Brain relished his self-appointed role at embassrass-
ing and laying bare the UK parliamentary and govern-
mental mighty and powerful that was at a loss to close
him down and/or to shut him up. It was a political and
opposite the House of Commons. I also do think that
Brain relished his self-appointed role at embassrass-
ing and laying bare the UK parliamentary and govern-
mental mighty and powerful that was at a loss to close
him down and/or to shut him up. It was a political and
legal stalemate in the end between him and them as
the curtain finally came down on Brian Haw's
public anti-war showmanship!!
_._
As for his Brian Haw's "peace camp" at Parliament
Square, I think the days there are now numbered after
his death at Germany where he'd gone for urgent med-
ical treatment. It was too late to save him, I'm afraid.
He was already a goner it seemed. He was an addicted
He was already a goner it seemed. He was an addicted
smoker, too. That certainly didn't help him in his final
battle to save his own life. Sad, but true! Personally,
I cannot stand smoking around me of any kind. Nor
those into heavy booze and loadz of illicit drugz.
battle to save his own life. Sad, but true! Personally,
I cannot stand smoking around me of any kind. Nor
those into heavy booze and loadz of illicit drugz.
_._
He was given special legal immunity for his protest site,
but his Haw followers and his anti-war supporters will
have no such luck in the future when it comes to the
public laws of icy-cold Westminster Council, which
has for years sought to remove the camp for one
reason or another. London Mayor Boris Johnson,
who turned 47 the day after Haw's death, is deter-
mined, he says, to free up Parliament Square for the
use of the general public and visiting tourists and is
public laws of icy-cold Westminster Council, which
has for years sought to remove the camp for one
reason or another. London Mayor Boris Johnson,
who turned 47 the day after Haw's death, is deter-
mined, he says, to free up Parliament Square for the
use of the general public and visiting tourists and is
against any would-be or future perpetual protestor(s)
that come in the name of the late Brian Haw. The
square should be open to all, not just for a chosen
few no matter how worthy their cause or message ...
_._
Brain Haw Utterly Detested Tony Blair
Like Me & So Many Others In The UK.
_._
In looking back at Brian Haw, I think his legacy is
in the quantity and not in the quality per se of his
perpetual anti-war protest. He was after all an
armchair protestor first and foremost that will, I
suspect, be quickly forgotten like so many passing
deaths in a huge city the size of London. People
come and go with only a few indelibly marked in
the collective mind like the vile and vulgar war-
monger, and now British war criminal, Tony Blair.
Brian utterly detested Blair like me along with so
many others in England who hate his guts for what
he, Blair, has been allowed to do to England under
his truly evil New Labour and his socialist gangsters.
His patholoigcal and infantile war support of America's
George Bush by means of the illegal and immoral
invasion of Iraq and the countless loss of lives and
the concerted lies and coverups by Blair then, and
since the war, makes him now a moral and political
outcast in his own country. Blair should be arrested
and shipped off like war cargo to The Hague with-
out any further ado to stand accused and tried for
war crimes. If he should be found guilty, then he
should be locked up for life along with his
Dixie war buddy George W. Bush.
_._
out any further ado to stand accused and tried for
war crimes. If he should be found guilty, then he
should be locked up for life along with his
Dixie war buddy George W. Bush.
_._
Brian Haw, aside from anything else, certainly stands
skycraper tall against such an odious and war shyster
and no-good character like TB. Better for
England, had Tony Blair never been born.
_._
My Last Photo of Brian William Haw.
(1949-2011)
_._
In closing my blog piece "Perpetual Protestor"
- which is not intended to be an obit - I say above
all now for Brain Haw: "Simply Go Rest In Peace."
The new journey for our once Parliament Square
fixture is to enter The Pearly Gate at where no
further public protests will ever be needed ...
Peace then at last for Brian, the
UK perpetual protestor.
.
Peace at last.
_,._
Truly, Uncle Monty.
+St. Alban. England's Protomartyr, 2011.
.
Death Postscript. By Uncle Monty.
In the past 18 months or so, I have now received the
sad news of at least five people that I once knew from
London's pre-eminent Town Crier Peter Moore to the
English eccentric and controversial author Sebastian
Horsley to one of my first dear Big Issue customers Sian
Turner to the one time Prince Charles' Hindu tailor
Pravin Mandalia, and now to the perpetual anti-war
protester Brian Haw. I met each one of them first as
then a Big Issue vendor. But like them, my Big Issue
pitch now lies dead after being deliberately killed by
the vile sods Peter and Anthony John Bird out of their
own hatred and spite that has needlessly destroyed
what was so good for all concerned at London's
Long Acre. I am now waiting to receive the welcome
news at some point in the future of their own deaths
and I shall then paint the ugliest picture I can of both of
them, if the greedy money monguls of The Big Issue's
nasty Bird Brothers should go before I do.
...
Feedback & Comments
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My Part Two: DEAD END for The Big Issue,
will appear next that was set for this week at
allaboutthebigissue, but due to the breaking
news of Brian's passing, I have embargoed the
Dead End story, Part 2, for now until next week.
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2 comments:
He was a phony like some think the same about
The Big Issue. Haw was misguided just like the
Bird bloke.
Monty, Monty, Monty, Uncle Monty, what an amazing insight you have! What you've written
about Mr. Haw is so different from all the other
stories I have read about him in the past few days. Monty, Monty, Monty, Uncle Monty, only
you have the honesty to tell everybody what
the real Mr. Haw was about. It was a critique not an obit regarding him as the "perpetual protestor," as you called him. I think the man stayed over his stay like an in-law who never knows when it's time to go home. His protest did nothing to stop the war. Not that I blame him. I think his anti-war intentions speak for themselves. However, Mr. Haw seems to have lost the plot somewhere along the road. Ten years is a long time to stay on the protest and not to lose sight of what really counts. What counts are results! Mr. Haw produced few, if any, results from his Parliament Square sit-in. It was more of 60'ish style sit-in rather than a forceful protest. I hold him no grudges. He did his best I suppose but now he's gone it is time to clear out the mess in Parliament Square. Mr. Haw is now history. Let's remember him while we go forward from where he left off. Monty, Monty, Monty, Uncle Monty, your story on the perpetual protester made me hang on to every word you wrote. A timely and well-written item by you, I would say. I hope I meet you one day. Very sincerely, Ret. Capt. Mary-Anna Conrad.
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