Fullyplumped
in a personal capacity
In case people had forgotten about this - The Scotsman reports that the perjury trial of former SSP leader Tommy Sheridan and his wife Gail opens on Monday 4th October at the High Court in Glasgow.
Sheridan perjury trial opens on Monday
- Thread starter Fullyplumped
- Start date
Fullyplumped
in a personal capacity
I see that someone's set up a blog - http://sheridantrial.blogspot.com/ - which will be posting live updates and analysis from the perjury trial of Tommy and Gail Sheridan from the 4th October 2010.
They've started by setting out the full indictment against Tommy and Gail Sheridan.
Other blogs which look like taking an informed interest include Lallands Peat Worrier and Love & Garbage.
They've started by setting out the full indictment against Tommy and Gail Sheridan.
Other blogs which look like taking an informed interest include Lallands Peat Worrier and Love & Garbage.
JHE
.
Sheridan is a vain, selfish, lying, treacherous man, who wrecked the SSP and slandered his comrades.
For his perjury, he deserves the same fate as Jonathan Aitken and Jeffrey Archer, but I won’t be cheering when he goes down (as some cheered when Archer and Aitken went down). The trial is bound to reinvigorate enmities between Squalidarity and the remnants of the SSP and I just wish the whole wretched business could be over and done with sooner.
For his perjury, he deserves the same fate as Jonathan Aitken and Jeffrey Archer, but I won’t be cheering when he goes down (as some cheered when Archer and Aitken went down). The trial is bound to reinvigorate enmities between Squalidarity and the remnants of the SSP and I just wish the whole wretched business could be over and done with sooner.
dynamicbaddog
run for your life
Just thought I'd share...
Streathamite
ideological dogmatist
Fedayn
Well-Known Member
It's gonna get 'worse'. 1 witness was heard today, there's 181 witnesses on the list. I'd hazard a guess that a quarter are (hostile) SSP witnesses. It's well past an internecine dispute.
Streathamite
ideological dogmatist
oh holy bloody christ - what an awful mess.
and how fucking unfair on all those people who'd done so much unsung hard work to build a socialist movement inb Scotland, to see it dragged through the mire due to one man's vanity
Proper Tidy
Arsed
oh holy bloody christ - what an awful mess.
and how fucking unfair on all those people who'd done so much unsung hard work to build a socialist movement inb Scotland, to see it dragged through the mire due to one man's vanity
I don't want to stick my oar in, and it is indeed a shame all round, but I'm not sure it can all be attributed to 'one man's vanity'. Always two sides and all that.
Fedayn
Well-Known Member
Oh how quaint.....
I think thre's a few people who should look at themselves. But it's pretty obvious that if one man didn't take the monumentously indeed staggeringly stupid decision of launching a defamation action against the NotW then none of this would have happened. After all, even those people who might not be too proud of themselves over this would have been irrelevant as nothing would be therr to get involved in.
Proper Tidy
Arsed
I'm not disputing that at all. I'm just saying the shit state of scottish socialism is down to more than just Sheridan's (alleged) perjury.
Anyway, you're far better placed than me to make a judgement. I have no desire to get embroiled in it all. But, however it has turned out, Sheridan's political career has not lacked merit throughout. Shame that all this had to be conducted so bitterly and publicly, and I'm sceptical that it can all be attributed to one fella. Basically, it's a fucking shame all round.
Fedayn
Well-Known Member
I am not necessarily better placed simply because of my geography I know that much.
Of course his political activity has had merit, massive amounts of it. That however doesn't detract from his monumental stupidity nor that fundamentally he and only he started and could have stopped this. It's more than a tragedy it's a fucking disgrace, no doubt some on ehre will agree but with differnt targets, however the idiocy of that decision has got us to where we are.....
Proper Tidy
Arsed
I mean because you are in the SSP not because you are in Scotland.
He hasn't been found guilty yet has he? I'm also far from convinced that the comfy relationship between some people and Murdoch can really be justified under any circumstances. A lot of people come out of this looking like cunts, not just Sheridan.
Fedayn
Well-Known Member
I'm not in the SSP, haven't been for over 2 years, always good to be up-to-date I find. Hmmmm.... 'comfy relationship'? They were cited as witnesses by Sheridan you know. Comfy is a rather CWI-esque remark frankly.... And not nearly as comfy as Sheridans paid relationship with the Daily Record.
I, like hundreds of current and former SSP members, haven't been comfy with any of this, not nearly as comfy with all too many who egged Tommy on and who relished, indeed argued for, and welcomed the split.
Streathamite
ideological dogmatist
true - but you can apply the same reasoning to Jimmy Reed - and look what a wanker he turned into
dynamicbaddog
run for your life
I've read lots about this over the years but I still don't quite get what it's all about 
What is the SSP? Is that the Scottish version of the Socialist Party? And are they anti or pro Sheridan?
What is the SSP? Is that the Scottish version of the Socialist Party? And are they anti or pro Sheridan?
Proper Tidy
Arsed
Fair enough, I was just going off somebody elses post above.
Well, you and I both know the arguments on either side, so probably not much point going over them again. However, I resent the implication that I'm trotting out some text book CWI line. I'm hardly a party fucking hack. You can read my posts, stating the party line isn't really my bag. I just think that neither the SSP nor Solidarity, nor most of the individuals involved, come out of this looking good. Ego masquerading as politics all round imo.
JHE
.
I've read lots about this over the years but I still don't quite get what it's all about
In Scotland, Scottish Militant Labour (as I think they were called at the time, having given up on trying to remain in the Labour Party) were at the centre of putting together an alliance of the far left and the Scottish Socialist Alliance (as i think it was called) was formed. It included various Trot and Trottish factions, though early on it did not include the Social Workers Party. The factions in the SSA got on well enough and the Alliance solidified into a party, the SSP. The new party had factions of course, and the Social Workers, not wanting to miss out on the action, joined. In the process of fusing into a party, the Militant Labourites agreed to give up their 'democratic centralist' grouping. The Miltant Labourites in England and the international grouping to which they belong, the CWI, disapproved of this 'liquidationism' and told off the Scots. Scottish Militant Labour (or whatever they were called at the time) then split, with the smaller faction remaining loyal to the CWI and the larger faction leaving. The ex-Millies - including Big Tommy - were the most important faction in the SSP, I believe, and the SSP became more Scots nationalist than the Millies had been.
In the later dispute about Tommy's defamation action and so on, the CWI people (Socialist Party in England and Wales) and the Social Workers sided with Sheridan and as far as I know they still pretend, albeit rather half-heartedly, that Big Tommy is right and that the socialists he shat all over are scabs in the pay of Murdoch.
Fedayn
Well-Known Member
I left because I don't agree with their direction. Funnily enough I prefer the CWI position on union disputes like Lindsay and the national Question-than I do the SSP.
Walks like a duck, quacks like a duck....
Fundamenntally whether folk look good or bad the tragedy, and farce that flows from this is there to see.... A gigantic ego, deeming itself more important than pro-working class politics, not caring for the disastrous consequences and then trousering money from a paper, the Daily Record, that made a far more dishonest and downright lie of a claim against him just a few years before....
And by the way, Sadly Tommy made the ermark that his win in 2006, was the equivalent of Gretna beating Real madrid on penaltioes. That season Real (sadly) won the primera Liga and Gretna went out of business a few seasons later....
Proper Tidy
Arsed
A fairly prophetic analogy then
Fedayn
Well-Known Member
Perhaps perhaps not.
Let's not forget Tommy won (I imagine) because people hate the News of the World and still remember the poll tax/warrant sale stuff he was involved in and those in the jury thought 'Fuck it.' It was obvious it was going to end with one side or the other in the dock as someone had to be lying through their teeth.
Fedayn
Well-Known Member
I think it undoubted that there was an element of that in the defamation trial. This is a different kettle of fish though. Given the number of witnesses it's gone way beyond what was an essentially internecine 'war' within the Left up here. That's long past, we're into different territory with way more witnesses, alleged tapes etc etc....
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