Tony Benn says you gave your life for peace....that you took your "campaign against the Iraq war to Parliament Square opposite the House of Commons and stayed there for years". But you went there in 2001. The Iraq war started in 2003. Were you clairvoyant then, along with all your other virtues?
You started off campaigning against the UN sanctions. "Stop killing our kids". That was your catchphrase. But your kids - all seven of them - were at home with their mother who divorced you after you walked out.
You thought that 9/11 was an inside job. You had large posters saying the number killed in Iraq was 2,000,000. Even the editor of the Lancet didn't think it was that high. You ranted at Americans like some demented downmarket Harold Pinter. You thought Iraq was all about mass torture and boiling people in oil. There may have been some truth in that while Saddam was in power, but that's not what you meant, was it? Your politics were the politics of the street ranter. Speakers Corner on a Sunday morning, yes: Parliament Square non-stop for 10 solid years, no thanks. A right to protest, yes: a right to live in a camp opposite the Houses of Parliament displaying lurid and absurd posters with barely any connection to reality...frankly, no.
And yet you were universally lauded by all the right people. Mark Wallingford won the Turner Prize in 2007 for his replica of your protest site, State Britain:
"Brian Haw is a remarkable man who has waged a tireless campaign against the folly and hubris of our government's foreign policy," Wallinger said.
"For six-and-a-half years he has remained steadfast in Parliament Square, the last dissenting voice in Britain. Bring home the troops, give us back our rights, trust the people," he added.
The jury commended Wallinger, 48, for its "immediacy, visceral intensity and historic importance".
They said: "The work combines a bold political statement with art's ability to articulate fundamental human truths."
But our rights don't need to be given back to us. They're there, across the road from your ridiculous charade, in the Houses of Parliament. That's where our democratically elected representatives voted to support the overthrow by force of Saddam Hussein. They may have been right, they may have been wrong, but that's democracy in action. There, in the Houses of Parliament - not with you and your self-regarding friends shouting loudly across the road.
Still, we've not the heard the last of you, have we? John McDonnell MP is campaigning for the erection of a permanent monument to you. London Assembly Member Jenny Jones has called on Westminster Council to give you a blue plaque:
Brian Haw was an extraordinary man, his protest was the anti-war emotion of millions of us, made visible outside parliament, to the fury of some.
Yes, truly an icon for the right-thinking: a hero for those who think democracy's just fine as long as it doesn't come up with stuff they disagree with.
Last word to Zia Trench, talking of her 2009 play about you:
There is a messianic illusion around him, something so Jesus-like about him. He has taken on our fight but what has this cost him? The play looks at the man behind the protest and how battles fought for liberty can cost a man his wife, home and sanity.
Half way to canonisation already.
[And, in case anyone else hasn't suggested it, let me be the first: a permanent statue of you for the fourth plinth. With all the protest gear. Ask Mark Wallingford.]
Update: this comment by teganjovanka on Tony Benn's piece at CiF is worth a read.
From Gimpyblog's Posterous:
"Following Mr Haw's diagnosis, fans of David Icke, a notorious conspiracy theorist, took charge of fund raising for his treatment in Germany, via the Shen Clinic. The Shen Clinic believes in, and has promoted, the theories of Tulio Simoncini.
[...]
Mr Simoncini is banned from practising medicine and has fraud and wrongful death convictions in his native Italy."
http://gimpyblog.posterous.com/brian-haw-and-the-false-cures-of-quackery
Posted by: Kellie Strøm | June 21, 2011 at 11:47 AM
A helpful reminder of Mr Benn’s willingness to distort and dissemble. He’s done it so often, it’s practically a reflex.
Posted by: David Thompson | June 21, 2011 at 12:22 PM
Thanks for the link, Kellie. It seems somehow an appropriate way for him to go.
Posted by: Mick H | June 21, 2011 at 02:18 PM
Nice obituary; a most appropriate remembrance.
If John McDonell MP gets his way with the memorial, I shall make a point of relieving myself against it when spinning past on my bike. In honour of the great man, I might even alight the vehicle first.
Posted by: Francis Sedgemore | June 21, 2011 at 03:50 PM
Haw is a hard act to follow, but in that British way he has now become an institution simply by staying put for ten years. I'm running a campaign to find a successor. Nominations below, please. Dr Mabuse and the BBC Question Time audience are leading so far:
http://alfanalf.blogspot.com/2011/06/wars-of-diadochoi.html
Posted by: No Good Boyo | June 22, 2011 at 07:49 AM
Great blog! I am all for having the right to protest and if Haw had just gone on the Anti War marches that take place every year that would be acceptable but it always amazes me how people can justify any kind of behaviour if it supports their own opinion. Some members of the public seem to think that Haw abandoning his wife and seven children leaving the tax payer to pick up the pieces is perfectly justified because he supported their strongly held views on Iraq. NOT so… nothing on earth should come between you and your family for ANY cause. His awful posters and banners made the place look like a dump, you couldn't walk past without hearing him scream abuse in your face and if this was anyone else the public would have no sympathy for him and slate him for walking out on his children. And what about the public that don't agree with his view? What about their right to walk down the road without hearing his dreadful outbusts and seeing the mess he made of Parliament Square. He had clearly lost his marbles. The kindest thing to do would have been to have Haw sectioned.
Posted by: SJT | June 23, 2011 at 10:35 AM
In Brian Haw's world, Saddam Hussein's regime never killed anyone. Neither did the Taliban, nor al-Qaeda - in fact Haw's status as a 9/11 'truther' appears not to have attracted much attention. Neither did the apparent oddity of his campaign against both sanctions and regime change in Iraq (what outcome did you favour, Mr Haw?), nor the fact that he wasn't exactly that concerned about all the hundreds of thousands of Afghan civilians who were killed before 9/11.
If patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel, then pacifism can offer a home for cranks like Haw.
Posted by: sackcloth and ashes | June 25, 2011 at 06:52 PM