Scotsman.com News - Politics - Poster ban slapped on offices at Holyrood
MSPs 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.
