BBC NEWSA Scottish Socialist Party call to pull all troops out of Iraq by Christmas has been defeated in parliament.
The SSP's Frances Curran urged Scottish politicians to back the party's motion during a debate on Thursday.
She also attacked MSPs for refusing to oppose last year's invasion, which she labelled a 'humanitarian disaster'.
Instead, they passed a Labour motion by 65 votes to 32 supporting those working for peace in Iraq and offering sympathy to those killed while serving there.
During her speech, Ms Curran said: 'Those who supported the war did so on the basis of lies and deceit.
'There are no weapons of mass destruction, there are no links with al Qaeda - at least there wasn't before the invasion.
'Those who supported this war, those who put their hands up in this chamber - you voted to drop bombs on the playgrounds, the schools and the homes of those children.'
She added that coalition troops were not liberators but an occupying army who had broken international law by invading Iraq."
Scotsman.com News - Politics - Poster ban slapped on offices at HolyroodMSPs have been banned from putting up posters in the windows of their offices at the new Holyrood parliament.
The cross-party corporate body has ruled politicians must not display any items in any of the windows in the MSP block - including those facing into the corridors - in case they cause offence.
The move was prompted by complaints from Labour researchers in the parliament about posters in the window of the Scottish Socialist Party research room which mock President George Bush and highlight the human toll of the war in Iraq.
But today Lothians SSP MSP Colin Fox condemned the ban as censorship and vowed to defy it.
"We do not intend to comply," he said.
"There’s no intention of causing offence, but the members of the public who voted for us want to see the SSP wear its colours on its sleeve.
"This is our corridor. This is where the SSP is to be found and if people are made aware of that, it’s no bad thing.
"We’re not going to hide our light under a bushel just because Labour researchers don’t like the fact we remind them our country is involved in an illegal occupation of a foreign land."
The SSP’s offending material includes a mock front page of a newspaper poking fun at President Bush over his alleged difficulty with language.
Nearby, another sign carries images of victims in the war in Iraq.
It reads: "Collateral damage - the casualties of ‘precision bombing’ in Fallujah," and has photographs copied from the internet.
The SSP room opens on to the parliament’s garden lobby. Tourists and members of the public pass by on their conducted tours of the building.
And on the day of the official opening, when the Queen was being shown round, her route took her past Mr Fox’s office whose windows were decorated with flyers for the alternative republican rally on Calton Hill and a poster bearing the message "No Foxhunters".
An insider said that when Presiding Officer George Reid was showing some of the royal staff around in preparation for the visit, one official requested they should "go a bit quicker" when the Queen came to that stretch of corridor.
A Labour source confirmed party staff had complained to parliament chief executive Paul Grice about the SSP posters after visitors had commented on them.
But he said others working in the building were also unhappy about the posters. "The garden lobby is like an open street and people don’t want to see this stuff every morning when they come in. It’s just juvenile politics.
"People come in here who think what we are doing in Iraq is necessary. We know it’s a sad and unpleasant situation. We don’t need to be constantly reminded of it. This is a parliament, not a university bar.
Scotsman.com News - Politics - SNP moves to expel left-wing republicans: "SCOTTISH Nationalists are set to reopen old divisions by expelling left-wing republicans from the party...
...Mr Middleton - who was threatened with disciplinary action last year after advocating republicanism in an article in the Evening News - said the party’s new stance sent out the wrong message.
"It’s telling people you can be a republican and a socialist in the SNP if you want, but you’re not supposed to shout about it. It’s going to annoy a lot of people. Do they want people to go and join the SSP?"
The Scottish Socialist Party today angrily condemned George Galloway for coming to the aid of New Labour with a threat to split the left vote in Scotland. In an article in The Mail on Sunday George Galloway raises the prospect of Tommy Sheridan standing as a Respect Unity Coalition candidate at the next Scottish Parliament elections.
Today Tommy Sheridan categorically ruled out any such move. Tommy said; "I don't know why George is raising this idea. "I am absolutely committed to the Scottish Socialist Party and expect to be a leading candidate for the party in the 2007 Holyrood election. "Respect is doing a good job in England of campaigning against the Iraq war and raising basic socialist policies but there is already a socialist party in Scotland, it is called the SSP. "I have no plans to be anything other than a representative of the Scottish Socialist Party and if George wants to stand for the same list as me he will have to join the SSP before the next Scottish Parliament elections."
An SSP spokesperson condemned George Galloway's comments outright and accused him of coming to the aid of New Labour by threatening to split the left vote in Scotland.
The spokesperson said; "We are disappointed that George Galloway has launched this astonishing attack on the SSP, based on ignorance and misinformation. We are angry that George Galloway has launched this attack in a right wing newspaper with a tawdry track record of promoting racism and virulent anti-trade unionism. "George Galloway has made no attempt to contact any member of the SSP executive to clarify the facts behind Tommy Sheridan's resignation. "The Scottish Socialist Party has assisted and supported the development of the Respect Coalition in England. Unfortunately, it appears that George is prepared to cynically exploit the short term difficulties faced by the SSP to further his own parliamentary ambitions. "The SSP has united the left in Scotland and was campaigning for peace and socialism years before George Galloway finally broke with New Labour. "The only people who could benefit from a divided left in Scotland would be the British establishment and New Labour on both sides of the border. "The Scottish Socialist Party will be writing to the Respect Unity Coalition in England to call upon the party to dissociate from George Galloway's divisive outburst."
