prayer breakfast which met each month when the Parliament convened in Strasbourg. He met separately with the Northern Irish politician and cleric Ian Paisley regularly at a time when this was seen to be politically risky. In July 1996 Hallam flew to Belfast to discuss the Drumcree conflict with Ian Paisley in a bid to avert serious bloodshed. Controversy Clause IV David Hallam was one of many Labour Party members who opposed Labour leader Tony Blair's re-writing of the common ownership Clause IV in the Labour Party constitution. He set out his views in a paper that was widely circulated within the Labour Party entitled Common Ownership and Social Justice which drew heavily on Hallam's Christian Socialist beliefs. He clashed with Tony Blair himself when Blair met the European Parliamentary Labour Party. Introduction of the regional list system for electing British MEPs In 1998 the Labour government introduced the "regional list" system for electing MEPs. In an affirmative ballot 95% of Labour Party members in his constituency endorsed Hallam's selection. However, there is significant independent academic evidence that Labour's selection procedure for the final list was heavily weighted specifically against those MEPs who had opposed the re-writing of Clause IV. Hallam was placed in fifth place on Labour's list for the West Midlands but the party was only allocated three seats following the 1999 European Parliamentary Elections. Hallam, together with colleague Christine Oddy, was effectively replaced by actor Michael Cashman and housing director Neena Gill. Labour Party members in the West Midlands were angry that Hallam and Oddy had been pushed aside. Harold Williams Shortly after his election Hallam took up the case of Harold "Ginger" Williams who had been convicted of the murder of Dorothy Margaret Davies in her house on Whitern Way, Hereford in January 1977. Williams was convicted the following November and had been in prison ever since, refusing the terms of parole that would have meant him acknowledging his guilt. Hallam's staff reviewed the available evidence and submitted a dossier to the Criminal Law Review Commission who then referred the case to the Court of Appeal. Williams however died just weeks before the case was due to be heard. At the time Hallam commented "He was my first constituency case. He was also my last. I continued with it even after I had lost my seat. This has really broken our hearts .It’s terrible after more