Here is a story from BBC Scotland
I HAVE DISABLED THE COMMENTS FUNCTION ON THIS POST. There’s a first time for everything.
Sheridan held over perjury probe
Former socialist MSP Tommy Sheridan has been detained in connection with a police inquiry into perjury allegations.
The claims surfaced following Mr Sheridan’s libel case against the News of the World.
A spokesman for Lothian and Border Police confirmed a 43-year-old man had been detained in Edinburgh.
They said he was being interviewed in respect of an ongoing investigation into allegations of perjury.
The former Scottish Socialist Party leader won his case against the News of the World newspaper in August 2006 after a four-week hearing at the Court of Session in Edinburgh.
The Sunday tabloid was ordered to pay Mr Sheridan £200,000 damages.
Following the verdict, the News of the World described the jury’s decision as “perverse”.
It had accused the Glasgow MSP of cheating on his wife and taking part in orgies.
After the proceedings, prosecutors ordered police to carry out a criminal investigation into allegations of perjury during the defamation case.
The Procurator Fiscal at Edinburgh instructed Lothian and Borders Police to begin criminal investigations in October.
Officers detained Mr Sheridan in the car park of an Edinburgh radio station on Sunday afternoon.
Mr Sheridan had been the leader of the Scottish Socialist Party in the Scottish Parliament but the party then split during the bitter libel case.
He went on to lead the Solidarity party but neither he nor his former colleagues were returned to Holyrood in the May 2007 elections.
Here is an article we carried in Socialist Resistance last November in which Frances Curran discussed the events..
Liam redux 
33 responses to “Tommy Sheridan questioned by police”
My thoughts here
http://another-green-world.blogspot.com/2007/12/tommy-sheridan-arrested.html
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Update – Sheridan has been charged
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7146907.stm
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How do you get away with it Liam. You post this here, and get two good tempered comments.
I posted the same story, went away for half an hour and came back to find 68 comments and a flame war.
I have turned comments off now becasue of the problem with the discussion being sub judice.
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What are you talking about, Andy? Liam got two comments. What comments? One link advertising the blog of one of the Green Party’s two leaders (or maybe that is no longer the case), and a four word update. Tommy is innocent. The perjurers are McCombes, Leckie, Baldassarra, Scott, Green, Grant, etc, etc, etc.
Andy, you might be interested to note that your friend in Solidarity (Ian Drummond) has submitted his personal support for Tommy on our internal internet forum. He would appear to take it for granted that ALL supporters of Respect Renewal will agree with him on this. Maybe when he discovers that there is virtually 100% support within Respect Renewal for McCombes and the rest of Murdoch’s perjurers, Ian might come back to his senses. Alas, I am not holding my breath.
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As for “flame war”, Andy, you fanned the flames in the first place, courtesy of your flame thrower, fueled by Rupert Murdoch’s inflamatory lies.
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Tom
I did point out to Ian at the RR conference the irony that he is now in the organisatioon that contains amost all off the SSP’s supporters in England.
I think it is a strength of Respect renewal that we can hold different views.
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Tom,
I actually reproduced verbatim and without comment an article from the daily Telegrph, which is not even part of the Murdoch empire, so i have no idea what you are referring to when you say:
Unless my evil powers have now extended to the point where I can telepathicly influence daily Tegraph journos.
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Here is Solidarity’s statement on the arrest and trumped up charges. I would, of course, have posted it to your aptly-named ‘SUN’ blog. However, having spread your muck far and wide, you ran away. How typical. Why not prove me wrong, Andy? Why not invite Ian Drummond to put the case for Respect Renewal members expressing their one hundred percent solidarity with Tommy?
Solidarity statement
*********************
Solidarity tonight declared its 100% support for our convenor Tommy
Sheridan who has been charged with perjury by Lothian and Borders Police.
We have consistently stated that Tommy Sheridan has been the victim of
a collossal vendetta by the Rupert Murdoch media empire. A vendetta
that is rooted in Tommy Sheridan’s role as a leader of the anti-poll
tax movement that destroyed the career of Margaret Thatcher. As well
as his uncomprinsing stand against racism, poverty, injustice and as a
fighter for ordinary people against the billionaires that Murdoch and
his press defends. This vendetta has increased in intensity and
desperation following the defamation victory that Tommy Sheridan
scored against Murdoch’s paper the News of the World in 2006. The now
possibility of a perjury trial is a continuation of this witch-hunt by
the Murdoch empire.
Solidarity has and will continue to condemn the unprecedented and
scandalous squandering of public money – running to hundreds of
thousands of pounds – in pursuit of this police inquiry over the
outcome of a civil defamation case. This inquiry has now culminated in
nine police officers descending on Tommy and Gail Sheridan’s home
where Gail and their daughter were subject to an unacceptable eight
hour ordeal.
Solidarity will continue to defend Tommy Sheridan and stand
shoulder-to-shoulder with all those fighting injustce, inequality and
for the rights of ordinary working people. All those who want to see a
new world free from poverty, war, discrimination and exploitation
should support Tommy Sheridan.
Who is Pulling the Strings?
Tommy Sheridan’s victory in his defamation case against the News of
the World (NotW) in July 2006 sent shock waves throughout the entire
Scottish legal establishment, the media, and society in general.
Rupert Murdoch himself was reported to have been enraged by the
outcome of the case, in which a jury decided that Sheridan had been a
victim of libellous and fabricated stories over his personal life that
were carried in the NotW in 2004 and 2005. The jury awarded £200,000
in damages – a record amount for a civil defamation case in Scotland.
In a meeting with News International executives following the verdict
Mr Murdoch apparently declared that no matter what it cost he wanted
that “commie bastard” brought down. Not only had Sheridan taken on the
might of News International, a corporation with almost unlimited
resources at its disposal, he did so while representing himself in
court, having dispensed with the services of his legal team midway
through the trial.
But perhaps Sheridan’s victory should not have come as a surprise at
all. For what was also held up to public scrutiny and examination
during the trial was the right wing propaganda machine that is News
International, and, wider, the malign influence of the tabloid press
in general.
Iain McWhirter, writing in the Sunday Herald, summed up the
significance of the result: “It was a rebuke to an industry that preys
on human misery and disclosure; that uses chequebook journalism, spin,
sensation, distortion. This has been a long time coming”.
An appeal by the NotW against the outcome was, of course, to be
expected. They claimed that the jury’s verdict was “perverse” and
immediately called for a re-trial, preferably this time without the
inconvenience of a jury as arbiter. In effect what they were and are
seeking is a re-run with the same evidence being presented hoping for
a different result in front of a Judge instead of a jury.
But in the aftermath of Sheridan’s victory, rather than wait for the
result of their appeal, the NotW immediately began a vicious campaign
designed to by turns ridicule, impugn and traduce not only Tommy
Sheridan but also his wife, family, and various political allies and
associates. It is a campaign that has been aided and abetted by the
leadership of the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP), many of whom gave
evidence on behalf of the NotW during the original trial. News
International, through the NotW and The Sun in Scotland, provided a
platform for these prominent SSP members to denounce Sheridan and
demand a police investigation in the immediate aftermath, accusing
their former Party Convenor of committing perjury. They demanded that
he resign as an MSP in advance of the Scottish elections earlier this
year, and even went so far as to organise the sale of a videotape,
taken by an SSP member, to the NotW in return for a reported £20,000.
Since then a slow drip of news stories regarding the progress of the
perjury investigation has appeared on an almost weekly basis in the
pages of the Sunday Herald, stories authored by the newspaper’s
political editor, Paul Hutcheon. In his weekly reports, Mr Hutcheon
has been able to produce facts pertaining to the ongoing investigation
which suggest that he is being provided with information from sources
that are close to or involved in the investigation itself. He has
sought to reduce what is supposed to be an investigation into the
original case in its entirety, and the role that all the witnesses
played, to an investigation solely of Tommy Sheridan. This is a clear
and wilful distortion, one which reveals Mr Hutcheon’s bias. Further,
Mr Hutcheon’s former colleague, Tom Gordon, reported on the original
court case for the Sunday Herald’s sister paper, The Herald. During
the course of the trial in 2006, Mr Gordon supplemented his daily
reports in The Herald with almost nightly TV appearances on Newsnight
Scotland. The tenor of Mr Gordon’s reports, both in print and on
television, were hostile to Tommy Sheridan. This alone would be of
little interest; however, after the trial, Tom Gordon left The Herald
and now writes for The Sunday Times, another newspaper owned by
Murdoch’s News International
As already stated, the NotW’s vendetta is no surprise. We expect the
NotW to continue to wage a campaign against Tommy Sheridan, against
his friends, family and his supporters from now to eternity. That is
to be expected. They embody all that Tommy Sheridan as a socialist is
committed to opposing. What is disturbing, however, is the possibility
that the NotW’s vendetta against Sheridan is being assisted by
sections of the Scottish legal establishment and the police.
For more than a year now Lothian and Borders Police have been
conducting one of the most expensive and intensive perjury
investigations ever conducted in Scotland. And this over the outcome
of a civil defamation case – not even a criminal trial. Thousands of
hours have been spent interviewing people the length and breadth of
the UK. In June this year the Sunday Herald reported that the
investigation had already cost the taxpayer £500,000, quoting
estimates of £20,000 per day running costs. Recently the same paper
also quoted a Crown Office source saying that, despite the rising cost
to the taxpayer, there was still “no end in sight”.
By comparison, the recent police investigation into `cash for
peerages’ allegations made against the Blair government, a case
involving the serious issue of corruption at the very heart of our
political system, cost the taxpayer £750,000. It is certain that the
police investigation into possible perjury in the Tommy Sheridan
defamation case will now exceed this amount. Surely this is a
phenomenal waste of resources, a claim which gains added weight when
you consider the shocking figures that were released recently which
reveal that last year Lothian and Borders Police only managed to
successfully prosecute a derisory 1.4% of all rape cases brought to them.
Moreover, in the weeks leading up to the Scottish elections in May of
this year a bugging device was found planted in Sheridan’s car. This
was reported to the police but as yet they have failed to ascertain
either its provenance or those responsible for putting it there. It is
worth pointing out that at the time of the discovery of his listening
device in Tommy Sheridan’s car, he was a sitting MSP, a fact which
surely elevates the importance of such an investigation beyond the
everyday.
With all of the aforementioned taken into consideration, there are a
number of questions that need to be answered. Why was there a decision
to launch a police investigation into this case in the first place and
how was that decision arrived at? It is extremely unusual for perjury
investigations to be ordered in Scotland following a criminal trial,
never mind a civil case.
Alistair Bonnington, BBC Scotland’s solicitor, commented following the
trial: “Traditionally, we have very few perjury persecutions in
Scotland, despite the fact that an application of elementary logic
tells you that perjury must be committed every day in almost every
court in Scotland in criminal trials. So, setting all special factors
aside, it is highly unlikely that there will be a perjury prosecution
following on the civil jury trial in the Court of Session.”
In a very telling point made in light of the decision by the Crown to
launch a perjury investigation, Bonnington also said: “The prospect of
a lengthy, complicated and inevitably useless investigation into the
possibility of perjury having been committed in the Sheridan case
should fill the Scottish taxpayer with horror. Why should precious
resources be wasted on such a stupid exercise?”
Good question. Why indeed? Bonnington, interviewed on Newsnight
Scotland, went on to give this explanation: “The Faculty of Advocates
was severely embarrassed by the fact that its two leading QCs in
Scotland were involved in this case. Tommy Sheridan sacked one and
beat the other. There is something very odd about this.”
It is almost without precedent for such an inquiry to be launched
after a civil defamation case. There are almost never perjury cases
into criminal trials even where a Sheriff or a judge openly says he
does not believe a witness or the accused. So why has this
unprecedented action been taken?
We believe, in this case, that there exists the strong possibility of
collusion involving sections of the Scottish legal establishment and
Lothian and Borders Police, responding to pressure being exerted by
News International, a multinational news and media corporation owned
by a man who hardly pays a penny of UK income tax but who exerts,
though his various newspapers, an inordinate and corrupting influence
over the body politic of this country. The sole aim of News
International in all of this from the very beginning has been to
destroy the reputation of a prominent socialist and political figure
in Scotland because of his political convictions and, more, his
effectiveness in communicating those convictions. Tommy Sheridan’s
only crime, the real reason that the NotW have gone after him, is that
he has spent his entire adult life speaking truth to power, in so
doing threatening their own interest in maintaining a status quo of
inequality, racism, poverty, and a weak and fractured trade union
movement. Some may claim that in this we are delving into the realms
of conspiracy theory. Yet it is indisputable that the massive
resources exerted on this investigation, with at least £500,000 of
public money having already been spent at time of writing, married to
the way in which the police have conducted their inquiries thus far,
points to a strenuous effort being made to target Tommy Sheridan.
As such, we demand:
1. An end to vast amounts of public money being used to bankroll a
private vendetta by News International against Tommy Sheridan .
2. A public inquiry into how and why an unprecedented decision to
launch a police inquiry was taken.
3. An inquiry into the possibility of collusion between the police,
the Scottish legal establishment and News International.
Make no mistake we fully understand the serious nature of the claims
made in this statement. We have not made them lightly. However, as a
political party formed to fight inequality, injustice, poverty, war,
racism and exploitation in our society, we will not stand by and allow
Tommy Sheridan, an outstanding socialist and class fighter, to be
crucified by the establishment and a right wing news corporation.
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Tom.
Having accused me of fanning the flames when all i did was reproduce a neutral piece of reportage from the Daily Telegraph, Tom then atacks me for turning comments off.
This prevented him from posting this Solidarity statement, well pardon me if I don’t take that too seriously as someone already posted it at 5:02 this afternoon.
http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=1329#comment-26358
And secondly Tom attacks me for turning the comment off. BUt he should note that I went through all the comments and deleted any references that might tilt towards Sheridan being guilty.
I turned the comments off becasue it is sub judice.
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Andy,
Tom has got a point though, you wrote an attack on jin denham and the awl and then turned comments off completely so that no-one could respond. It does seem like you are turning comments off and on to stifle debate so that you blog comments present a one-sided view of any argument.
Still I suppose anyone who writes: “The AWL are a cancer in the labour movement” is not going to want to defend such stupidity in any sort of debate.
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Sheridan…..### as hell! Stupid arrogant egotistical git………taking the ‘witchhunt’ opt out excuse for sympathy approach to politics of the poor abused and much maligned SWP.Which way will they swing this time?
It will all end in tears.You can see the lies in his eyes.Poor sod! Divorce, exposure and prison and of course unrepentant and in complete denial till the end.
My only hope is that the SSP is able to regain some lost ground once it becomes all too clear how much of a dick head Sheridan really is and has been.
Funny how Derek Hatton, Tommy ‘dick head’ Sheridan and George Galloway all end up with radio shows.
Which way will Galloway jump on the Sheridan issue?Having previously insanely supported him and then crazily threatened to stand RESPECT (old) candidates in Scotland
Why is the Left so infected with such ego’s?
Isnt it TIME it got it’s self together before it completely crumbles and dies and becomes any more of an irrelevance than it already is?
One sure way would be to sort out this RESPECT name nonsense once and for all. Two respects? A complete madness guaranteed to send the electorate in the opposite direction for a generation or two.
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http://organizedrage.blogspot.com/2007/12/tommy-sheridan-perjury-and-odious.html
In his blog, Mick Hall introduces his latest post thus:
“As the Scottish socialist Tommy Sheridan has been charged with perjury I am unable to write about the case in question, but since Sheridan has been such a prominent figure in the socialist movement within Scotland and the United Kingdom, I thought I would add my thoughts on this matter. Myself I have always thought Sheridan was a bit of a prick, but no more so than his nemesis Rupert Murdoch, who traded his wife of 25 years for a younger model who would be more advantages for his business interests in the far east.”
I note you don’t think Tommy Sheridan is any more of a prick than Rupert Murdoch. I, on the other hand, am less even-handed. On the one hand we have the most reactionary billionaire on the planet. On the other, the individual who was the figurehead of the anti-poll tax movement that ended the most regressive tax for half a millenia, toppling the Iron Lady along with her flagship policy. The balance of class forces shifted as a result of this movement. The state had a go at Scargill and Galloway for their key roles in, respectively, the year long titanic Great Miners’ Strike, and the two million strong march against the war on Iraq. However, the state attempted to make these two individuals pay for struggles that cost it dear, but which they actually won. The state has come for Tommy because he was the figurehead of the only one of these three struggle where the state actually lost.
As plain clothed police officers prepared to arrest Tommy, he was broadcasting via the internet, thanks to his Talk107 Radio Show, to interview a police officer who explained why the police should have the right to strike. If Tommy had abandoned politcs, like Derek Hatton, the state would drop the charges. They are pursuing him because he continues to be a thorn in the side of the state. Rank and file police officers no doubt agree with Solidarity that this year long investigation is a waste of money, an abuse of resources. But these are the same individuals who are threatening to follow Tommy’s advice to take back their human right to withdraw their labour. Those who took the decision to arrest and charge Tommy are those who won’t go on strike, but will throw the leaders of any police strike in jail. My only quibble about Solidarity’s statement is that it places too great a role on Murdoch’ part. Robert Maxwell played a role in the smear campaign against Scargill, but it was MI5 who were eventually found to be behind this. If the state takes Tommy to court, the state will be found to be the prime force behind this. And that is why I am convinced they will cut and run before their role is exposed in court.
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Liam, you might want to think twice about the article you have just posted from Frances Curran. The sub judice rule has been used by Andy Newman and others as their excuse for calling a halt on their years-long Murdoch-supportive vendetta against Tommy Sheridan and Solidarity. All the bloggers are likely to discover that their blogs break the sub judice rule by all the libel that pollutes their archives. When the state runs for cover before taking this to court, and when Murdoch’s appeal similarly fails, some of you might want to get your cheque books ready. Unless Tommy is feeling particularly forgiving. More so than I would be in his shoes.
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Tom I have never supported the Murdoch press, i have supported socialists putting the party and the movement before their own personal interests.
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Martin Ohr
I closed the thread after the AWL hiajcked a discussion about sexism, a discussion that was remarkable for the way the few women on the thread were abused or ignored.
And then the AWL tried to hijack the thread and confuse the real issue of bullying of women with the utterly fictitious alleged verbal bullying of Jim Denham.
You should be ashamed of yoursleves.
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Tom
Liam’s post by Frances Curran is over a year old.
I am taking the view that to post new material about the issue now that Sheridan has been charged would be problematic, but it would be wrong to remove historical material.
After all the comrdea deserve to consider how we got into this mess.
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These seem like good demands to me, although they probably don’t go far enough. The immunity of the Police and Security services to the requirements of disclosure under the Data Protection Act also need to be challenged. Otherwise we’ll have to wait for 50 years before the truth on this case and others like it are put in some grubby filing cabinet in Colindale.
Given the precedent on corruption set in the trial of Conrad Black, I’d have thought we should also demand 6-10 year jail sentences for the perpetrators of the whole charade.
“1. An end to vast amounts of public money being used to bankroll a private vendetta by News International against Tommy Sheridan .
2. A public inquiry into how and why an unprecedented decision to launch a police inquiry was taken.
3. An inquiry into the possibility of collusion between the police, the Scottish legal establishment and News International.”
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Interesting to see how RR will get on with Ian Drummond on board. He is completely intorelent of those of have a different view from him. He was particular virtolic to those who supported the current SSP against Sheridan’s rantsa and lies.
I for one have no sympathy for Sheridan he was warned what his stretegy would lead to. He was quite happy to vilify old friends and comrades and worst of all women in the capitalist courts. Claim a famous victory. Use the capitalist media to denegrate comrades and sell his exclusive story to the New Labour Daily Reord. It was obvious to most observesers that Sheridan’s story was full of holes and contracdistions. Most of what was alleged about him was atually coroborated by inepnedent witnisses and other evidence. There is strong evidence of forgery and witness intimadation. You really are deluded if believe there is a conspiracy. At some point independents in the Solidarity camp will break ranks and spiil the beans. It’s the start of the end game in what has been a disastorous episode in socialist politics in Scotland. Sheridan and the SWP are finished for ever in Sotland. The consequences will reverbarate round the world with the reputation of the SWP and their intertaionally tendency damaged beyond repair. C’est la vie!
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“I closed the thread after the AWL hiajcked a discussion about sexism,” how many people in the awl does it take to hijack a thread?
Andy come on who did what, when? I’ve checked our latest internal bulletin and there is no record of a decision to hijack a thread, are you sure it was the actions of the AWL as an organisation?
Or are you talking ### ### like always?
(IF YOU USE COMMENTS FOR ABUSIVE RHETORICAL QUESTIONS EXPECT TO HAVE THEM EDITED – LIAM)
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Raphie, Ian Drummond is just one person. Imagine if there was a whole organisation of Martin Ohr’s in Respect….
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Martin
Ok – it wasn’t the whole AWL, but it was Jim Denham and his gang.
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Raphie
I think we should referain from making those sort of arguments until any trial is over, and once we know who else will be charged.
All of us have made our positions completely clear over the last year or so, but quite apart from any legal difficultaies of commenting on Sheridan’s guilt or innocecne while the case is sub judice, there is a more political question that it is going to raise the temperature unbeleievably.
My feeling is there shoud be minimal public comment until after the verdict.
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The SSP project was based from day one on an attempted con job on the
working class- the claim by the left nationalists that an independent
capitalist Scotland would be a step forwards towards socialism. In
fact the “fight” for an independent capitalist Scotland is part of the
neo liberal offensive against the working class. Is it any wonder that
the left nationalists have produced a “leadership” of charlatans and
anti working class chancers. What a bunch of knaves and fools. They
have turned the concept of socialist organisation into a laughing
stock or worse in the popular mind. I am sure most workers now view
both groups with disdain and aversion. Rather than promote working
class solidarity the leadership of both groups have promoted careerist
back stabbing and mendacity . A sorry sight. There is no way forward
for either wing of left nationalism in scotland. A rejection of the
nationalist politics of manipulation and populist dishonesty is
necessary before anything can be saved from the whole debacle. The
need for a british wide wide socialist party which fights all forms of
nationalism and is based on a marxist programme should be obvious
sandy
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But what if we decide in England that we don’t want the Union?
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Andy: “Martin Ok – it wasn’t the whole AWL, but it was Jim Denham and his gang.”
so just one member of the awl then, can I describe Respect Renewal has supporting Tommy Sheriden and opposing abortion rights on the basis of just what george gallowya says?
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The call for English independence is even more reactionary than the call for Scottish independence. Any movement calling for English independence will be anti working class to its core.
For class not nation
sandy
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Andy
I think you are right. And I note you closing off the TS blogs on SU.
I apoligise for my comments but I’m so insensed by TS actions in wrecking the best left project in the developed world and the SWP’s role in the whole thing. But’s it’s also, the the fact that activists on either side where treated like balls in a roulette game. The actions and judgement of the SWP is the most dispecable I’ve seen in over 30 years of following politics. They were of course instrumental in pushing the Revolution in my mother’s homeland, Portugal, away from a socialist democracy to capitlaist democracy. I was unfortunately caught in the crossfire of an ultra-left coup that backfired!
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There is also the question raphie that even though we may be political opponents of Sheridan, I would not want to see him sent to gaol.
And yes i changed my mind, and removed all past posts relevent to the case from public view as well.
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There may be a legal point in the fact that because the PF has not yet decided if the case is going to trial it would not be breaking the law to comment on the charge against TS.
I could not care less what happes to Sheridan afte the way he has treated former comrades, friends and women. I feel sorry for his wife with what she has had to put up and she may face charge as well. The SWP knew what they were doing they made cold calculated decisions but showed a complete lack of judgement. Those SWP members who face chages had a choice. You can argue that they are weak individuals or brainwashed. The laterte is partly true, the SWP show all the signs of being a sect, though not as extreme as some such as the moonies. But when it came to crunch many of the WRP loyalists stood up against Healy and admitted to their past mistakes and deeds.
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Is Liam allowing the posts to continue to try and grab some of SU readers?
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Finally, I believe that all TS’s close supporters including ### ### know exactly the truth and what actually went on which is why their cover story is even more despicable. They are firmly in the Stalinist school of falsification. Although some of them including ###, having had a few discussions with him, would take that as a compliment!
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Is it not a bit late to take down all the pro-Murdoch propaganda, Andy? After all, the Lothians and Borders Police have spent the last year collecting “evidence.” The idea that it never occured to these detectives to scour blogs and yahoogroups that were incessantly spouting libellous material against Tommy Sheridan and his witnesses on a daily basis is proposterous. The police and the procurator fiscal will have all the title tattle that passes in their fevered imagination for evidence. And they will produce it in hard-copy at the trial, if this case gets to trial, which I doubt. All those who have claimed to have any knowledge of Tommy’s guilt can expect to be summoned to say what they know under oath, with the threat of prosecution if they don’t repeat what they said previously, and the threat of libel from Tommy if they then admit they made it up in the first place. Caught between a rock and a hard place, some will no doubt lie in court, because they won’t want to accept their reputations as poisonous shit-stirrers. Others will ‘fess up that they were boasting about things they knew nothing about. Murdoch’s witnesses on the SSP executive claimed they had to tell the “truth.” What none of their supporters in Respect Renewal seems to wonder about is why they all insisted on drawing up a dossier on Tommy Sheridan’s alleged private sex life, discuss it in detail, make detailed notes of this alleged meeting, and hold on to it, knowing full well that it would be used to “force” them all to repeat these allegations about Tommy Sheridan. And all these people swore on oath that they were never involved in any conspiracy against Tommy! There is no sane interpretation of their actions that can go by any name other than a malicious conspiracy to bankrupt and imprison the then convenor of their party. That is why the jurors decided that these people all committed perjury. If this goes to trial (and I don’t expect it to), all these people will be asked why they collected so much information, knowing that Tommy was going to court to commit perjury and conspire to defraud the NOTW. Their insistance that they were all reluctant witnesses for Murdoch also means that had they gotten their way, Tommy would have succeeded in his criminal activities! And that begs a further set of questions: why was such a criminal allowed to remain an MSP, why was he allowed to stand for the executive, and then for one of the party co-chair positions (trouncing Murdoch’s witnesses in these elections), and why did Murdoch’s witnesses never tell any of the subsequent one hundred-plus national councils that Tommy was intent on committing these serious crimes. The jury will dismiss the testimony next time as they did last. And that is because their testimony is contradictory, they are producing “evidence” that they swore on oath did not exist at the first trial, their own testimony would prove them to be involved in a conspiracy to assist Tommy in an attempt to pervert the course of justice (were it not for subpoenas), their claim never to have engaged in a conspiracy against Tommy does not stand up to a moment’s scrutiny. As the BBC’s solicitor advocate, Alister Bonnington, said in his Newsnight Scotland interview last night, their is something extremely bizarre about why the police have expended so much time and effort to bring this case to trial when every guilty and not guilty verdict tends to suggest that the jury deemed one set of witnesses, the accused and/or police officers to have bent the truth. Bonnington came very close to suggesting this stinks to high heaven of a political witch hunt against Tommy Sheridan. If the state does bring Tommy to court, then Tommy and his lawyer are going to place the state in the dock, in exactly the same way that John MacLean once did.
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Tom
I suggest that you back off. It is not in Tommy Sheridan’s interest to start a huge row.
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