DexterTCN said:
You are the Murdoch empire mate, just a smaller version but still as nasty.
And you are so blinded by leader love, that you can't see the wood for the trees. Follow the big man, right or wrong. Worship at the altar of personality cult. That's exactly how the SSP got into the mess in was in when people were secretly taping each other.
In case you have forgotten - I am not a member of the SSP, or or Solidarity, or of any party. Precisely because of that kind of travesty.
But the facts are these:
1. Sheridan was known to have had an energetic and varied sex life, and on occasion when details reached them, his comrades had sought assurance it would ever become public and compromise the work of the party. He said no chance, there was never going to be any evidence.
2. When the anonymous story came out, it was immediately clear to those who knew him that this was Sheridan. It was also clear that one of his partners over the years was a journalist, well-known in Scotland since her days on broadsheets, and now writing as a "Sexpert" for the NotW. So his assurances had been false, and he knew it, since carrying on with a journalist was hardly discrete.
3. The meeting was called before Sheridan was named by the paper. It was called because a strategy was needed on how to deal with the story. It was only a matter of time before his name was made public. Any organisation would seek a strategy to deal with a publicity threat. That has been painted as being something of evil intent by posters, but ignoring the issue would not have been sensible.
4. Sheridan didn't want to come clean in public, he thought he could face down the NotW. He was warned that doing so might destroy the SSP. That warning was correct.
Had he said "Yes, that was me." the majority of his electoral support might have said "so what?" and some might even have said "good; there's more to him than we imagined".
5. Sheridan's determination to deny a true story meant doing public damage to innocent people. People like Katrine Trolle, her only 'crime' being to get sexually involved with Sheridan. It meant dragging her in front of the courts, humiliating her, and then calling her a liar. It meant putting her job at risk, and hoping she would be seen as a perjurer.
It also meant lying about a plot against him, a plot to falsely smear him, to falsely pin the NotW story on him when it hadn't been him. This lie deliberately destroyed the SSP, the most successful parliamentary socialist party since the ILP. And I notice none of Sheridan's supporters here are prepared to say they believe that lie. Again.
6. In that atmosphere is it surprising that minutes were taken? If I were Sheridan I'd have
wanted minutes at that EC meeting: an accurate minute protects both sides. The minutes were kept only by one EC member, and the party fought the courts to protect the confidentiality of those minutes. To the extent of Alan McCombs going to prison.
7. But in the atmosphere of distrust sweeping the party, is it surprising others also wanted evidence? Certainly secretly taping a friend and comrade is a bizarre and unusual thing to do. I've never felt I had to do it. But it does show how paranoid things had got. But that is a direct consequence of Sheridan's course of action.
8. They tape was only made public after Sheridan had trashed the party, called his comrades liars and plotters and scabs (all false accusations, better suited to himself). It had been intended as a private measure between a few people. But now the names of good socialists had to be cleared.
Of course Sheridan fans think that the names, lives, and reputations of as many good socialists as necessary can be trashed as long as the Great Leader wins his personal battles. That anything the people he turns on do to complain is 'disloyal' and 'evil'. That they have no right to fight back, because all that matters is that the Great Leader doesn't have to admit the truth.
And the pathetic truth is only a sex scandal. If he'd had any guts he'd have owned up. Sex doesn't matter, it isn't an issue to most people. Who cares? Sheridan cared, and he cared so much he trashed friends, lovers, and comrades and wrecked the party he helped to build.
But if people don't care about sex, they do care about liars. And Sheridan has been exposed.
