Brian Haw ( 1949 - 2011 )
Brian Haw started his one man campaign against the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq before they even started, erecting his shelter, which became his permanent home, right opposite the House of Commons in Parliament Square. He defiantly resisted the courts of law, arrest and even parliamentary legislation drafted specifically with his removal in mind, until terminally ill in the year before his death. ..Pictured here on the day an exclusion order came into force granting the home secretary the power to ban unauthorised protests within a half-mile radius of Parliament . Demonstrators wore black gags protesting against the zone as a serious attack on civil liberties . This exclusion zone prohibited demonstrations, even one-person demonstrations, without express police permission. Failure to comply could lead to arrest, and arrests there were on day one. There was only one target for their ban on one-person demonstrations, but he successfully challenged everything the new law could throw at him. Brian Haw stood his ground...1.8. 2005. .