Stop the War!

8.20.15am BST (GMT +0100) Wed 4th May 2005

Sue Stebbing at the hustings

The final public meeting of Swindon's election campaign was held at the Steam Museum, on 3 May.

The focus of the meeting was the Iraq war. Sue Stebbing told the audience that she had been so angry over the illegal invasion of Iraq that she had decided to stand for election to Westminster. She had also taken part in the London anti-war march in February 2003 and had joined her daughter on a later demonstration in Exeter.

During wide-ranging discussions on international relations, civil liberties, the arms trade, nuclear disarmament and voter engagement, Sue commented that this government appeared to have forgotten that they were supposed to be fighting terrorism in order to protect our democracy and civil liberties. Instead, she said, Labour had used the fear of terrorism to erode our civil liberties by introducing measures such as house arrest without trial, dispersal orders (which even Michael Wills, Labour, admitted were 'draconian') and ID cards.