A principled stand

"No taxation without representation." It is an old saying coming, I believe from the US war of independence. It was bollocks then and of course it's bollocks now. I was paying tax at 16 and serving in the forces but I couldn't vote. I could die for my country but not vote for its government. I should have poured tea into the Thames.

How about a new motto? What about "No taxation without accountability"? Mrs Pat Blackburn will be our inspiration.

Blair asks to be excused court appearance

Press Association
Tuesday June 21, 2005

The prime minister, Tony Blair, is today expected to make an application to avoid a court appearance after he was summonsed by the mother-in-law of a sergeant killed in Iraq, as part of an anti-war protest. Pat Blackburn called on Mr Blair to be a witness in her case of income tax evasion after she withheld payments in protest at the war. Mrs Blackburn has said that she has given the outstanding £15,000 she owes to "an independent stakeholder" but is refusing to hand over the money to the Inland Revenue until Mr Blair resigns or shows her evidence of Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.

Her son-in-law, Sergeant Les Hehir, 34, of the Royal Artillery, was killed when the US Sea Knight helicopter he was aboard crashed south of the Kuwait border on March 21 2003. Sgt Hehir, from Poole, Dorset, had a wife and two young sons. The case is due to be heard at Weymouth County Court at 2pm today. Mr Blair is not expected to attend. A spokeswoman for the court said a summons had been sent to Downing Street requesting Mr Blair's attendance but added that an application is to be heard requesting permission for his absence prior to today's hearing.

Mrs Blackburn said she had written numerous letters to Mr Blair, including one dated May 3 2003, which reads: "The unlawful and unsanctioned war in Iraq was privately authorised by yourself and President Bush to boost both of your political egos and ambitions. Now, Mr Blair, go rot in hell." She said that Mr Blair had sent a hand-written reply dated May 15 2003, saying: "The removal of Saddam Hussein will make Iraq, the region and the wider world a safer and better place. In the next few months, we will present the evidence of both the hundreds of thousands of innocent people killed by him in Iraq and of his weapons programme." It continued: "I do not think your son-in-law died in vain but in a cause that in future times the world will be grateful for."

Mrs Blackburn, from Dorchester in Dorset, said today: "We are still waiting for a reply from Tony Blair regarding the weapons of mass destruction."

She added: "I got a summons to say they want my tax. There were two little boxes. The question was 'Does this contravene your human rights?'. They were pre-printed, it was ticked NO, so I ticked Yes and actually sent one of these folders with all the letters in. I also sent my correspondence to and from Bournemouth tax office and also a covering letter saying I have no intention at all of paying this bill until Mr Blair replied to me or resigned. In a couple of days I got another letter saying it had been referred to Weymouth County Court and it had a column for witnesses so I just put his name down and his Downing Street address and sent it back."

Mrs Blackburn said she would represent herself in court and added: "I don't want to go to jail. This money has been held by a stakeholder. It's not that I can't pay, it's that I'm not going to pay."