For the first time in living memory the prime minister’s key note speech at party conference was interrupted, by GR activist Hector Christie.

Hector joined the Labour Party a month ago with the sole intent of making a splash at this year’s conference. And incredibly he managed to get into the conference. Hector lives in north Devon and there the Labour Party outfit is even more shambolic than many other regions. With the membership of the party plummeting they were only too glad to welcome Hector into the fold. Shame they didn’t check him out. Hector has been active with Globalise Resistance and with environmental groups and farmer groups for quite some time.

During the foot & mouth crisis Hector barricaded his farm and refused to let the Ministry of Agriculture Food and Fisheries (MAFF) in to slaughter his herd of Highland cattle. During the crisis he came to the GR-organised Jos?© Bov?© book launch in London, reading out a furious poem about the hardship faced by farming folks. Next came Genoa, where Hector was on the Globalise Resistance express to the anti-G8 protests. He’s travelled to both the European Social Forums and been on most of the major anti-war demos, eight coaches ran from Tapeley where he lives to the massive anti-war protest on 15 February last year. In Devon he’s led a blockade of Sainsburys over Farm gate prices and GM crops. He’s organised and collected names of people ready and willing to slash GM crops if trialled again in the UK. At the end of August this year (around the time he joined Labour) he hosted an “Our World is not for Sale” festival on his land, raising funds and awareness for GR, Corporate Watch and various direct action initiatives.

How could the Labour Party let that one slip through the net? It smacks of a desperate outfit to us.

Hector was refused entry to the Labour Conference on Sunday, but got an apology and was allowed in on the day of Blair’s speech. Making a complete mockery of the security there.

Thankfully he managed to make his protest, rather than let the fox killers have a monopoly of the dissent going on in Brighton. After being bundled out by the stewards, Hector was handcuffed and taken to Brighton nick, held for a few hours and released.

Blair should now be coming to terms with the fact that where ever he goes, and no matter how hard he tries to bury it, the issue of the war on Iraq will not lie down and die. As Hector let him know “You’ve got Blood on your hands, Blair”.
Nice one, Hec.