I believe passionately in democracy. It is a system of government that gives me the opportunity to be my brother's keeper. When I was young and impressionable, my elders taught me that in our democracy I could use my vote to protect the weak, and that I would be free to express views highlighting the plight of the displaced, underprivileged and disaffected. Now I am a man, I have a duty to champion those precious democratic values instilled in me as a young boy and to speak the truth as I see it.
I have been accused of publicity-seeking by protesting against the war in Iraq, but calling on the United Kingdom government to end an illegal war and occupation is a course of action I must follow, for no other reason than it is the right thing to do. As a young boy I was suspended from secondary school eighteen times in one year and finally expelled for protecting children who were being physically and psychologically bullied. I knew that if I got suspended I would get the strap from my father, but that never deterred me. I believe I was right then, and that I am right now to condemn the United Kingdom government for bullying the Iraqis. However odious Saddam Hussein's regime may have been, this was never our battle, our intervention was not just and its effect on the people of Iraq has been devastating.
Messages of support for my anti-war stance are welcome. I've been obsessed with correctness for as long as I can remember, and the United Kingdom's involvement in this illegal and immoral war in Iraq is, quite simply, incorrect. I am prepared to go to prison.
a true Englishman with cajones
about that DJ Snow at Westminster Magistrates Court...
