BBC NEWS: Defiant MSP ordered from chamber

The Scottish Socialist, Carolyn Leckie, has become the first MSP to be expelled from the parliament's debating chamber.

She was shown the door for "disorderly behaviour", after a row with Presiding Officer George Reid.

Just before the start of First Minister's Questions, Ms Leckie tried to raise a point of order about the nursery nurses' strike.

When Mr Reid told her to make her point of order later, she protested and was ultimately told to leave the chamber...

Ms Leckie left with fellow Scottish Socialist Party MSPs Tommy Sheridan, Colin Fox, Rosie Kane and Frances Curran.

When they emerged from parliament which is meeting in its temporary home at The Hub in Castlehill, they were greeted with loud applause by more than 50 striking nursery nurses demonstrating outside.

Ms Leckie said: "I think it is a disgrace that I make a point of order and I am told to wait until the end of first minister's questions to make the point.

"I am not prepared to wait and I have been chucked out of parliament for that.

"I think the shame is on them (MSPs) for not being prepared to discuss the cause of these women in that parliament."

She went on: "I regret that parliamentary procedures are being used to silence the voices of nursery nurses who have been outside conducting a very dignified campaign."

BBC News Online: Socialists urge anti-war vote
The Scottish Socialist Party has unveiled its European manifesto with a call for voters to use the ballot as a referendum on the war in Iraq.
The party is also promising disobedience if one of its candidates becomes an MEP.
The socialists claim they are the true anti-war party and are demanding troops be withdrawn from Iraq.
The Herald: Sheridan plans ‘Trojan horse’ attack on EU institutions
SOCIALISTS yesterday said they would send a "Trojan horse" to Europe if Scots voted to make one of their members an MEP.
In contrast to those who want closer integration or those who want to leave the EU, the SSP has said it will fight the system from within and make common cause with others on the radical left from around Europe.
The Scotsman: SSP vows to challenge EU bureaucrats
THE Scottish Socialists launched their European election manifesto yesterday with a pledge to challenge the "top-down and bureaucratic" European Union.
The SSP will take a defiantly Euro-sceptic line into the election, promising to mount a "campaign of disobedience" inside the parliament, if elected.
The Socialists are demanding the closure of the European Central Bank and calling for opposition to the euro and the Common Fisheries Policy.

Press and Journal: MATERNITY UNIT CAMPAIGNERS GATHER TO DELIVER PROTEST

Campaigners fighting the threatened downgrading of the maternity unit at Wick held a public demonstration in Inverness at the weekend.

About 60 protesters with placards gathered outside Raigmore Hospital to voice their opposition to any downgrading of the 11-bed unit.

Among them were members of the People Before Profits group, led by the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP), which is campaigning against the sale of Raigmore Hospital's publicly owned magnetic-resonance imaging (MRI) scanner to a private company...

SSP spokesman Steve Arnott, who has been campaigning against Raigmore's decision to sell the MRI scanner to a private company and then lease it back again, said it was important that the two issues were fought simultaneously.

Speaking at Saturday's protest, he said: "It is important that we unite on these two campaigns. We are hoping the message gets across that people are not happy about some of the decisions."

NHS Highland intends to sell the £1.3million magnetic resonance-imaging scanner and a sterilisation unit as part of radical moves to balance its books - before leasing it back to counter a £400,000 budget shortfall.

The SSP claims leasing it back will actually increase the cost to the health board by several thousand pounds a year.