BY NORM DIXON
There was uproar in the Scottish Parliament on November 20 when "George Bush", who was in the public gallery, jumped up and shouted: "God bless my fellow war criminals in the Scottish Parliament. God bless my fellow mass murderers. If it wasn't for you, we would never have been able to kill those people in Iraq and Afghanistan."
Two police officers escorted "Bush" — who was in reality Kevin Williamson, Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) drugs spokesperson, wearing a rubber Bush mask — from the parliament. He waved a US flag as he left.
The interruption came near the end of a parliamentary debate on "world peace", which had been initiated by the SSP's six MPs to condemn the visit of US President George Bush to Britain. The SSP members moved a resolution calling for Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair and the US president to be tried for war crimes. Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs used their numbers to defeat the SSP motion.
Presiding officer George Reid complained that the SSP MPs had clapped during Williamson's protest and he had been signed in by an SSP MP. Reid threatened to suspend SSP MPs if they continued to stage protests in the chamber. "I cannot think of anything being more disorderly than members of this house encouraging disorder in the public gallery", Reid spluttered. "I shall not on any future occasion hesitate to apply the sanction and members know what that means."
From Green Left Weekly, November 26, 2003.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.