SCOTLAND: Socialists expelled from parliament for G8 protest

Alex Miller

On June 30, four of the Scottish Socialist Party's parliamentarians (MSPs) were expelled from the Scottish Parliament after a protest about the Scottish Executive's failure to uphold a previous resolution securing the right of anti-G8 activists to demonstrate at the G8 summit.

The BBC News Online reported on June 30: "Four Scottish Socialist MSPs have been banned from parliament for the month of September for disrupting business with a protest over the G8 summit. They marched to the front of the chamber brandishing placards reading Defend Democracy, demanding the right to protest at Gleneagles. Presiding Officer George Reid suspended the sitting and the group who took part in the protest. The MSPs will also lose their salaries and allowances during their exclusion." The Greens supported the ban.

Those involved were SSP leader Colin Fox, Frances Curran, Rosie Kane and Carolyn Leckie. BBC News continued: "The protest began after Ms Leckie raised a point of order, claiming that parliament had failed to uphold a motion supporting the right to protest during the G8, passed during a debate several months ago. After raising placards behind the first minister, the female Socialist MSPs refused to leave the chamber."

Taking issue with Reid's patronising lecture that the SSP MSPs "cannot hope to be simultaneously on the barricades and on the benches of this parliament", Kane told protesters at the July 2 march: "Aye, we can."

From Green Left Weekly, July 13, 2005.

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From GLW issue 633