Iraq demo at Labour

SEVERAL thousand anti-war protesters marched on the Scottish Labour Party Conference yesterday to voice their anger at the Iraq conflict.

The group trouped through the streets of Inverness before massing outside the conference venue, Eden Court Theatre, where they rattled the security gates and jeered at arriving delegates and politicians.

As First Minister Jack McConnell delivered his keynote speech to the delegates, the noise being made by the drums, horns and loudspeakers of the protesters could be heard.

One of the protesters, rebel Labour MSP Elaine Smith, called on her party members to rise up against "pre- emptive imperialist wars".

The Coatbridge & Chryston MSP said: "We were told the war was for democracy and freedom but now we see a world that is more unstable.

"It's not the kind of world that the Labour Party should be striving for."

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