Anti-war campaigner and longstanding supporter of recently deceased Brian Haw, Jenny Jones, has announced her backing for Early Day Motion 1945 [1] which calls for a permanent memorial to the man who many regarded as a leader of the peace movement, to be established in Parliament Square.
Jenny Jones, who used her positions on the London Assembly and Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) to fight repeated threats by Mayor Boris Johnson to evict Brian Haw from his camp at the square and spoke in his defence when arrested, paid this tribute saying:
"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.
"He braved all weathers for 10 years in his commitment to bring the troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan, behaviour worthy of a true British eccentric.
"Westminster Council owes him a blue plaque at the very least, perhaps mounted on a small plinth directly facing east, towards the target of all his campaigning."
The Green Party is urging people who wish to see a permanent memorial to Brian Haw to write to their MP asking for their support.
The party has been consistently opposed to the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan and wholeheartedly supported both Brian Haw’s right to protest and his principled moral position in respect of the War on Terror.
Notes to editors
[1] For further information on EDM 1945 see:
http://www.parliament.uk/edm/2010-11/1945