No privileges for veteran protester

I REFER to Bill Carmichael’s column “Privileges of Brian Haw” (Yorkshire Post, March 18).

Brian Haw has spent getting on for 10 years in tented accommodation in the green area in the middle of Parliament Square, with a varied collection of posters and display panels protesting mainly about the war in Iraq.

He has annoyed many MPs and government ministers on this subject. His display doesn’t always look very professional and there has been objection on the grounds it is unsightly. It is surely good for his fellow citizens to see protest in action – and good for foreign tourists to see it, too.

There have been a number of attempts to evict him, but the courts have examined these attempts and found them wanting. There was, a few years ago, a specific attempt – included in Parliamentary anti-terrorist legislation – to finally nail him and remove him. The law was badly drafted and it failed again in the courts when the government tried to apply it to Mr Haw.

Now Brian Haw’s liberty to protest is the same as Bill Carmichael’s liberty to write his column and mine to comment on the column. All our liberties are linked and protected in the courts. Bill Carmichael says that Brian Haw has “nothing original or interesting to say”. Some people may agree; but Brian Haw is rightly protected in saying it.

Does Brian Haw want to get rid of other protesters in Parliament Square, as Bill Carmichael has suggested? No. Over the years, he has accepted, and added to his displays, posters left with him by protesters in other causes. I have discussed such posters in talking to him.

Following the various attempts to remove Mr Haw, I have felt latterly that it might have been better for him if the attempts had succeeded.

All those years, in all weathers, cold, hot, wet, and traffic always a few yards away, must have been grim. “Privileges of Brian Haw”? I think not.

It is laughable of Bill Carmichael to call Brian Haw “a member of the establishment”. Mr Haw has endured an ordeal for long years, and has maintained the rights of all of us; now he has become seriously ill. As Bill Carmichael has the grace to say: “Let’s hope he recovers soon.

State of the unions

From: Richard Billups, East Avenue, Rawmarsh, Rotherham.

TOM Howley’s letter (Yorkshire Post, March 21) doesn’t go far enough when he writes that Maggie’s errand boy Bernard Ingham now mocks the unions.

What he should be writing is what would Sir Bernard write if every worker took exception at being called yellow and walked out en masse? The Government would be foolish to bring in more big stick legislation to beat the workers with. Sir Bernard in his column was challenging the unions to take action and if they did, he would be the first to write that they are trying to bring down the Government.

From: Tim Mickleburgh, Boulevard Avenue, Grimsby.

I WAS pleased to see the letter from Tom Howley (Yorkshire Post, March 21) sticking up for the achievements of trade unions. Without them, the ordinary working man wouldn’t have improved his lot over the last century or so.

Robbed of my pension rights

From: Sandra Crabtree, Leconfield, Beverley, East Yorkshire.

THANK you, Linda Stephenson for speaking out about the injustice regarding the increase of the state pension age for women (Yorkshire Post, March 14). It makes my blood boil! I was born in 1955 and therefore not included in the group of women being “phased into” the new pensionable age of what was to be 65 but now 66.

By the age of 60, I would have exceeded my 39 years of voluntary contributions to entitle me to a full state pension. I now must wait until I reach 66!

To add insult to injury, only 30 years of contributions are now required to receive maximum benefit, the sums do not add up!

A rough calculation of £32,000 minimum (taking into account the delay in receipt of fuel allowances and a bus pass) is the sum I have had “stolen” from me. This is, in anyone’s eyes, a large amount to recover.

If I leave employment at 60, I will have to live on fresh air, not the pension I have earned.

Work hard and reap the rewards? I think not. Once again, we are being made fools of!

Get a grip on reality of risk

From: Peter R Hyde, Kendale View, Driffield.

MASSIVE improvement in services offered by most of our public bodies could be improved without an increase in costs if there was a serious rationalisation of the unecessary administration and paper shuffling that is edemic in public bodies today as well as a more realistic approach to the vastly increased Health and Safety Regulations.

Yes, keep people safe but when somebody drowns while police officers stand by to consider health and safety issues, the situation is beyond conception to me. As a policeman, I and many of my colleagues did things to assist members of the public, that put us at risk, without thought, because we considered it was our duty to do so. I would have been ashamed to do otherwise.

For goodness sake, when will the powers that be get a grip on reality instead of the airy fairy approach we have today?