Police attempts to remove them were frustrated when the protesters repeatedly resumed their horizontal vigil

Police attempts to remove them were frustrated when the protesters repeatedly resumed their horizontal vigil.Most of the activists were arrested by Thames Valley Police for obstruction of the highway. The rest were detained by Ministry of Defence police for alleged criminal damage after a perimeter fence was cut.Among those taken to police stations across Thames Valley was Daniel Conquer, election agent for Darren Williams, the Socialist Alliance candidate for Reading East.Mr Conquer said: “The police have yet again used excessive force to break up a completely peaceful protest against illegal nuclear weapons.”A spokesman for Trident Ploughshares also accused Thames Valley Police of being heavy-handed.Superintendent Frank Sullivan responded: “Thames Valley Police is committed to ensuring people are able to exercise their right to engage in peaceful and lawful protest … We are also bound to protect the right of Aldermaston employees to carry out their work unimpeded …”He added: “We are disappointed by the poor level of co-operation we have received today from the organisers of the protest … If they had been more co-operative, we would not have had to make so many arrests.”The blockade was the final act of the “disarmament camp” organised by Trident Plough-shares, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the Reading Socialist Alliance.The three-year-old Trident Ploughshares campaign pledges “to disarm the UK Trident nuclear weapons system in a non-violent, open, peaceful, safe and fully accountable manner”.. At about 5.50am on 18 January 1981, as an all-night party was drawing to a close, a flame, probably from a match or a lighter, was held against the back of an armchair. The blaze in the foam-filled chair, next to a window on the ground floor of a two-storey house in New Cross Road, Deptford, south-east London, quickly engulfed the building Fourteen black teenagers died, trapped in the fire Others scrambled out or jumped from upper floors. At about 5.50am on 18 January 1981, as an all-night party was drawing to a close, a flame, probably from a match or a lighter, was held against the back of an armchair.

The blaze in the foam-filled chair, next to a window on the ground floor of a two-storey house in New Cross Road, Deptford, south-east London, quickly engulfed the building Fourteen black teenagers died, trapped in the fire. Others scrambled out or jumped from upper floors.More than 20 years after the notorious tragedy, a fresh police inquiry has concluded the fire was probably arson. Two suspects have been identified from statements given by witnesses at the birthday party, although the elderly couple named have told police they were not at the celebration.Now a second inquest could be held or a public inquiry set up. Relatives of the dead, who want a new inquest, were briefed about the findings on Sunday. Selena Lynch, the coroner for south London, began reviewing the new material yesterday and will make a recommendation to the Attorney General and the Home Secretary, Jack Straw, who will take the final decision.The New Cross fire, originally thought to have been started by racists throwing a petrol bomb, was a defining moment in British race relations, prompting a protest march on central London by up to 20,000 people, and acting as a catalyst for the Brixton riots a month later.But police, guided by the latest computer and forensic techniques to pinpoint the source of the fire, and combined with interviews with about 70 people who attended the party, have ruled out a racist attack.Instead the Metropolitan Police’s race and violent crime task force believe a naked flame, not a cigarette, was placed next to an armchair to start the fire.

In the opinion of the forensic scientists, “the fire was most probably started deliberately”.Police have interviewed 60 to 80 of the 200 people who visited the birthday party over the course of the night. Two black people, who were then in their 50s, were named by several witnesses as possible suspects, but they told detectives they were not at the house.If a public inquiry is ordered by the Home Secretary the suspects would be forced to attend and give evidence under oath.The first inquest, which was held only three months after the fire, recorded an open verdict. Derek Bines, the coroner’s officer who dealt with the original inquest and is helping advise on the new review, said yesterday: “One of the questions is whether a new inquest would serve any purpose, whether there is sufficient new evidence to come to a different conclusion. The coroner also has to consider whether it would be better to have a public inquiry, although it would be up to the Home Secretary to make the final decision.”The families of the 14 who died said they felt “great relief” after investigating detectives announced they believed there was “grounds to support” a second inquest. George Francis, chairman of the New Cross fire parents’ committee, said: “It is a great relief for us because it has been going on for two decades and the answer we have now means there is a new light at the end of the tunnel for us.”Mr Francis, 72, and his wife Velvetina, 75, from south-east London, lost their 17-year-old son Gerry, who was a DJ at the party. “We feel a little bit happier than we did 20 years ago,” Mr Francis added “We and the committee will never stop. We want an answer about why our children died that night.”Detective Chief Superintendent Mike Parkes, who is leading the investigation, said: “The science of rebuilding how a fire starts has advanced to such a stage that we are now able to say that the fire …