Tommy Sheridan jailed for three years

[ed miliband]

Not a very detailed article but it was either this or the Daily Mail:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/disgraced-tommy-sheridan-jailed-for-three-years-2194651.html

[Hit The North]

Apparently, the ruling class have a bad opinion of socialists suing bourgeois newspapers.

[Magdalen]

And the working class have a bad opinion of lying self-obsessed shysters.

[Dr Mindbender]

Does Tommy Sheridan carry any political currency among the left or the general public at large anyway?

[ed miliband]

Does Tony Sheridan carry any political currency among the left or the general public at large anyway?


Apparently he does in Scotland...

[ed miliband]

Or did.

[Magdalen]

Apparently he does in Scotland...

Certainly not now. I think if anything, Tommy Sheridan has become something of a national joke. Though I'm normally loathed to use electoral politics as a barometer of popularity, the fact that Tommy won 27.9% of the vote in Glasgow Pollok in the 2003 Scottish Parliamentary elections, but only 2.9% in the equivalent Westminster constituency in 2010 has got to tell you something.

[ed miliband]

I'm not a Sheridan fan either, but he doesn't deserve three years in jail.

[Crux]

Certainly not now. I think if anything, Tommy Sheridan has become something of a national joke. Though I'm normally loathed to use electoral politics as a barometer of popularity, the fact that Tommy won 27.9% of the vote in Glasgow Pollok in the 2003 Scottish Parliamentary elections, but only 2.9% in the equivalent Westminster constituency in 2010 has got to tell you something.
About momentum rather than personal character, I believe. But maybe that's just me.

[Magdalen]

About momentum rather than personal character, I believe. But maybe that's just me.

I was just using that as an example. The vast majority of the working class people I know who supported Sheridan in the past believe him to be guilty as sin, and have returned to Labour and the SNP, often citing Tommy's misdeamenours as a main reason for doing so.

[Q]

The more I learn about the matter, the sadder I am in this state of affairs.

"Scabs and vengeance" (http://cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1004221) is an interesting read to the background story. Particularly this:


There are many lessons that we can draw from this disaster. The left must end its obsession with chasing charismatic figures and instead use the talented, charismatic individuals within our ranks in a disciplined, effective way. Obviously, Sheridan himself should be held responsible. Not for his sexual activities (that is his own private matter), but for taking legal action to protect a façade, and for forcing others into that unenviable courtroom situation. But nothing could excuse the contemptible way in which some of them deliberately tried to put him behind bars in response to his “scabs” taunt.

While I don't agree with burning the man down as the personification of Satan himself, bend on destroying the Scottish working class movement, I also don't agree to defend him. Clearly he made some huge errors, trying to maintain his image of the "perfect family man". The SSP in turn put major insult to injury and failed to contain the matter when it could, instead it choose to escalate things massively.

Well people, the SSP is destroyed and splitted. I hope you're all very happy now that everyone got his share of the petty revenge. I hold hope that we learn from this to leave the "great leader" politics behind us, but I expect a long way needed to go with this.

[Jolly Red Giant]

I agree 'Q' -

The SSP offered significant opportunities for the building of the left in Scotland. However, I am reminded of the debate that took place within the CWI at the time of the split with Scottish Militant Labour in the late 1990's and the main concern raised with those who were intent on leaving the CWI and liquidating the SML as a revolutionary organisation. The leadership of the SML were warned of the potential that they would seccumb to opportunist pressures if they continued on the path they had embarked on. It is unfortunate that the warning was not heeded and that the SSP went the way it did (if not necessarily in the way expected).

[Hit The North]

Can I make the simple point that as revolutionaries it is not charismatic or not-charismatic socialists who are our enemy here, but the bourgeois courts which will always enforce the interests of capital. Cheers.


I agree 'Q' -

The SSP offered significant opportunities for the building of the left in Scotland.

Opportunities built on sand, if the organisation can collapse over the discrediting of one man's sexual antics.

[Sam_b]

Well people, the SSP is destroyed and splitted. I hope you're all very happy now that everyone got his share of the petty revenge. I hold hope that we learn from this to leave the "great leader" politics behind us, but I expect a long way needed to go with this.

Except it wasn't merely on the Tommy Sheridan case. This was merely a catalyst for the split which brought all disagreements to a head, including important questions on the united front and how platforms operated within the party. Our platform realised this and so did, to their credit, the CWI.

[RebelDog]

I'm no fan of Tommy Sheridan, but when you put his 3 years for lying in court beside the situation where Tony Blair lies to this country and the world, kills a million people and walks about scot-free with pockets full of cash and a job promoting peace in the region he set ablaze, then you can be sure that Sheridan's conviction was politically motivated and justice is simply about power.

[Cencus]

What did he expect? He took on newscorp in the courts on a case where he was lying through his teeth.

He's made the left in Scotland a joke, when all he had to do was stick his hand up n go "erm yeah I like shagging". Very few people really care that much what people do as long as they aint lied to. That feels to much like more of the same politics we have come to expect from mainstream political parties.

The sentence was harsh, but anyone with the slightest common sense would not have put themselves in that position, it's not as if Newscorp doesn't have the facilities to have a journalist or two onto his tail.

[Hit The North]

What did he expect? He took on newscorp in the courts on a case where he was lying through his teeth.


If he was so obviously lying through his teeth, how come he won the original case?

[Sam_b]

Solidarity Statement:

"Scottish justice has notched up another political miscarriage of justice alongside that of Al Megrahi and Muir of Huntershill”
Ian Hamilton QC
Solidarity condemns as barbaric and draconian the sentence imposed today on Tommy Sheridan.

We believe the lengthy jail term imposed by the judge is vindictive. It will reinforce the widespread view that this is the culmination of a brutal vendetta carried out by the rich and powerful against Scotland’s most prominent socialist—a socialist who has earned their hatred for his uncompromising defence of working class people for the last 25 years.

As such this sentence will be met with anger by tens of thousands of working class people across Scotland and beyond. Solidarity shares that anger.

At a time when Britain’s rich bankers are raking in billions in bonuses while working class communities and trade unionists are facing the most savage attacks in generations, the millions of pounds spent on the persecution of Tommy Sheridan is a disgrace.

Solidarity regards as outrageous the continued cover-up of News International and the News of the World’s illegal activities by the police and the legal establishment. What a contrast to the lengths that Lothian and Borders police and the Scottish Crown have been prepared to go to try to ruin a working class socialist.

They will not succeed. Solidarity appeals to all those angered today by this action to join us today and help us build a socialist party worthy of the name.

Solidarity will continue to give our full support and backing to Tommy and in particular to Gail Sheridan and the family at this difficult time.
We also send out this guarantee today. Neither Tommy Sheridan nor Solidarity will be broken. We will continue to build our party, offering a real alternative to the despair and brutality offered up by the Con-Dem government and the other parties of the rich and big business.

We stand, as always, in Solidarity.

[Q]

If he was so obviously lying through his teeth, how come he won the original case?

If my understanding is correct, that was before his "best man" George McNeilage sold a video containing incriminating footage proving he was lying. From the article I linked to in my previous post:


The perjury trial was a more difficult case to win than the 2006 defamation case. Comrade Sheridan had sacked his legal team then too, playing the ‘one man against the system’ card, relying on his oratorical skill, the lack of tangible evidence and his wife’s testimony. This time, not so lucky. While a jury might persuade itself that all 16 of the former SSP comrades who testified that he admitted to visiting a swingers club at the infamous executive meeting of November 9 2004 had been lying, it must have been much more difficult to dismiss the evidence of their own ears provided by the so-called McNeilage tape. This, of course, was the video secretly recorded by the self-serving former friend and comrade of Sheridan’s, George McNeilage, which the latter had despicably sold to the News of the World for £200,000 and was instrumental in the instigation of the perjury case in the first place. No, this time it was always going to be harder.

...

The anger and frustration stirred up by the events have taken their toll on comrades both sides of the divide and there remains a good deal of acrimony between former comrades. On winning his defamation case, Sheridan labelled six of his former comrades “scabs” in the Daily Record. In doing so, understandably, he upset a lot of people - one of which was his old friend and best man, George McNeilage.

McNeilage’s actions were surely the worst of any in this whole affair - demanding £250,000 for helping News International to nail Sheridan. Again, the SSP failed to take action. McNeilage should have been expelled for his blatant crossing of class lines (the significant financial gain making the whole thing even slimier), but the leadership refused to take any action because it was “not in their culture”.[5] Commenting on the verdict the SSP claims: “we have no desire for vengeance” (December 12 2010). But they were by now out to get Sheridan and in effect condoned McNeilage.