A birthday vigil for Neda Soltani

Today would have been the 27th birthday of Neda Soltani so at 4pm vigil outside the offices of the Iranian government agency owned Press TV at Westgate Building, Hanger Lane, Ealing, London, W5 1YY.

To reinforce the message that Neda Soltani was murdered by an agent of the iranian state when she was just 27, there will be 27 pictures of Neda with 27 roses (her favourite flower) and 27 candles laid outside Press TV reception. If you attend the vigil you will be able to leave a message in a memorial book which will later be sent to Neda's family.

Come one, come all and demonstrate in favour of freedom of speech.



Oh and if you happen to meet George Galloway remind him of his Daily Record article in which he wrote:

"There are grounds for being surprised at the result of the Iranian election.

Even grounds for being disappointed.

But there are absolutely no grounds for the cats' chorus of criticism and allegations now emanating from some quarters after the cookie crumbled the wrong way.

I have been more closely interested than normal in this poll.

I present two weekly shows for Iranian-owned Press TV.

As such, I know that, uniquely for a developing country, the Iranian broadcast media went to extraordinary lengths to be fair to all four presidential candidates.

More than 85 per cent of the electors turned out to vote - compared with 35 per cent in our own elections recently. That's nearly 40million Xs on ballot papers.

This massive exercise took place without trouble of any kind - the polling stations were kept open longer than required to facilitate the huge lines of people outside.

Indeed, that's one of the reasons I discount the opposition complaints.

When a candidate is reduced to protesting that too MANY people were allowed to vote, you know he's in trouble.

The counting, too, was awesome. And, by the way, there were observers from all four camps present throughout these stages.

Although the western media largely did the usual thing - not straying far from their five-star hotels, talking to those who would happily talk to them and especially if they spoke English - it's clear they mistook the plusher parts of the capital for the country at large. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad commands the loyalty of the poor, the working class and the rural voters whose development he has championed.

He lives like them, looks like them - he's never worn a suit since becoming president - and there's more of them than the English speaking more liberal elites now on the streets demonstrating.

It will soon fizzle out.

This election almost mirrors the class composition of the recent polls in Venezuela. President Hugo Chavez has exactly the same friends in his country. And the same enemies.

I've said many times that Ahmadinejad's comments about the Holocaust are a disgrace. His rhetoric can be ugly and he does not play well in Peoria, the mid-west weather vane here in the US where I am at present.

But he is the president of an important country and we'll just have to accept it."