Anti-war hecklers bundled out of Straw speech (zero-tolerance on dissent)

[sabra]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1802018,00.html

Anti-war hecklers bundled out of Straw speech

Labour displayed a zero-tolerance policy on dissent today when an elderly delegate at the party conference was thrown out of the hall for heckling Jack Straw during a speech on Iraq and a second was bundled out for complaining to security stewards about the eviction of his comrade.

As the issue of the Iraq war raised its head at the Brighton conference for the first time, the Foreign Secretary had to listen to a podium speech from a union leader who won loud cheers when he demanded that UK troops be withdrawn from Iraq "now and quickly".

...

Mr Straw continued "We are in Iraq for one reason - to help the elected Iraqi Government build a secure, democratic and stable nation - and we can and will only remain with their consent. "

At that point, a delegate at the back of the hall jumped up and shouted "That is a lie!" The man was quickly bundled out of the hall by security guards to shouts of "shame" from other delegates. Another delegate sitting nearby, later identified as Steve Forrest, chairman of the Erith and Thamesmead constituency party, shouted at stewards: "You must be joking." He too was bundled out and is thought to have had his conference accreditation confiscated.

http://images.thetimes.co.uk/TGD/picture/0,,231705,00.jpg
Security guards bundle the elderly delegate out of the conference hall (BBC)

[saigon68]

1. Sounds like a CCCP Stalinist Party Meeting --- CA: 1949

[Kelvin Mace]

2. Australia and Britain

Are sliding quickly into American facism.

[Dhalgren]

3. It is a slippery slope, but then blood has always been hard to

wade through...