Editing Brian Haw (section)

===Legal action===
[[File:Iraq demo in london.jpg|right|thumb|Brian Haw's [[Parliament Square Peace Campaign]], January 2002]]
As preparation for implementing the new [[Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005]] began, Haw won an application for [[judicial review]] on 28 July 2005, successfully arguing that a technical defect in the act meant it did not apply in his case. The act states that demonstrations must have authorisation from the police "when the demonstration starts", and Haw asserted that his demonstration had begun before the passage of the act, which was not made retrospective. Although the commencement order made to bring the act into force had made reference to demonstrations begun before the act came into force, there was no power for the commencement order to extend the scope of the act.<ref>{{cite ODNB|author=John Rees|title=Haw, Brian William (1949–2011)|date= Jan 2015 |id= 103787|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/public/dnb/103787.html}}</ref>

The government appealed against the judgement, and on 8 May 2006 the [[Court of Appeal of England and Wales|Court of Appeal]] allowed the appeal and therefore declared that the act did apply to him. The court found that the intent of parliament was clearly to apply to all demonstrations in Parliament Square regardless of when they had begun, saying "The only sensible conclusion to reach in these circumstances is that Parliament intended that those sections of the Act should apply to a demonstration in the designated area, whether it started before or after they came into force. Any other conclusion would be wholly irrational and could fairly be described as manifestly absurd."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2006/532.html |title=Haw, R (on the application of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department & Anor &#91;2006&#93; &#91;EWCA Civ 532&#93; |work=England and Wales Court of Appeal (Civil Division) Decisions |date=8 May 2006}}</ref>

In the meantime Haw had applied for permission to continue his demonstration, and received it on condition that his display of placards was no more than {{convert|3|m}} wide (among other things). Haw was unwilling to comply and the police referred his case to the [[Crown Prosecution Service]]; a number of supporters began camping with him in order to deter attempts to evict him.

[[File:Abby Jackson. Foreign Policy 2000.jpg|thumb|''Foreign Policy 2000'', a painting by [[Abby Jackson]] – one of the items confiscated by the police]]
In the early hours of 23 May 2006, 78 police arrived and removed all but one of Haw's placards citing continual breached conditions of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 as their reason for doing so.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/5007214.stm |title=Anti-war signs seized by police |date=23 May 2006 |work=[[BBC News]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Tempest |first=Matthew |date=23 May 2006 |url=http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,,1781182,00.html?gusrc=ticker-103704 |title=Police seize Parliament Square protester's placards |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |location=London}}</ref> [[Ian Blair]] (head of the Metropolitan Police at the time) later said that the operation to remove Haw's placards had cost £27,000.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/may/31/politics.iraq|location=London|work=The Guardian|first=Hugh|last=Muir|title=Farce as peace campaigner has another day in court|date=31 May 2006}}</ref> The actions of the police were criticised by members of the [[Metropolitan Police Authority]] at its monthly meeting on 25 May 2006.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}} Haw appeared at [[Bow Street Magistrates' Court]] on 30 May, when he refused to enter a plea. The court entered a not guilty plea on his behalf, and he was bailed to return to court on 11 July 2006. At a licensing hearing at [[Westminster City Council]] on 30 June 2006, Haw was granted limited permission to use a loudspeaker in the space allowed to him.

On 22 January 2007 Haw was acquitted on the grounds that the conditions he was accused of breaching were not sufficiently clear, and that they should have been imposed by a police officer of higher rank. District Judge Purdy ruled: "I find the conditions, drafted as they are, lack clarity and are not workable in their current form."<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6287091.stm |title=Parliament protester's legal win |date=22 January 2007 |work=[[BBC News]]}}</ref> At the 2007 [[Channel 4]] Political Awards Haw was voted Most Inspiring Political Figure.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/02/08/npols108.xml |title=Channel 4 award for Brian Haw |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |date=8 February 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070428092614/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/02/08/npols108.xml |archive-date=28 April 2007 |url-status=dead}}</ref>