So if I can make sense of the above, the bourgeois courts were acting on behalf of the socialist future when Archer and Aitken went down. Interesting theory.
I've known shop stewards who would happily defend their mates but would grass up co-workers they didn't like. Never thought much of that mentality myself, I've always liked the "injury to one is an injury to all" slogan. If Sheridan is worth defending then so were Archer and Aitken. Tory bastards have rights too.
Is anybody in the Sheridan camp going to come up with an even half principled opposition to the perjury laws? Or is it that they think that Tommy is a socialist version of the queen and should be exempt from the laws of the land? Or do they think he's innocent? What is the basis for defending Tommy?
Aitken and Archer really couldn't avoid ending up in court for their blatent actions being found out, but by gum both have some chequered history, that eclipses Sheridan's minor infraction by a more than a country mile. Please excuse the C&P odyssey, but the comparisons need to be seen for what they are.
Archer has had a dodgy past setting up charity fundraising organisations some alleging financial discrepancies. Also involved in an alleged fraudulent investment scheme.
During his tenure as deputy chairman, Archer was responsible for a number of embarrassing moments, including his statement, made during a live radio interview, that many young, unemployed people were simply unwilling to find work. At the time of Archer's comment, unemployment in the UK stood at a record 3.4 million. Archer was later forced to apologise for the remark, suggesting that his words had been "taken out of context".
Then came the libel case with the Daily Star alleging that Archer had slept with Coghlan. Archer responded by suing the Daily Star. The case came to court in July 1987. Explaining the payment to Coghlan as the action of a philanthropist rather than that of a guilty man, Archer won the case and was awarded £500,000 damages. Archer stated he would donate the money to charity? The judge said of Jeffrey Archer, "Is he in need of cold, unloving, rubber-insulated sex in a seedy hotel round about quarter to one on a Tuesday morning after an evening at the Caprice?"
Then anther libel case with accusations in Archers book: Twist in the Tale, portraying Major General James Oluleye to be a thief. He lost that one.
In May 1991, Archer then organised a charity pop concert, to raise money for the Kurds, starring Rod Stewart, Paul Simon, Sting and Gloria Estefan, who all performed for free. Archer claimed that his charity had raised £57,042,000, though it was later revealed that only £3 million came from the Simple Truth concert and appeal, the rest from aid projects sponsored by the British and other governments, with significant amounts pledged before the concert. The charity would later result in further controversy.
Then was allegations of insider dealing surrounding the takeover of Anglia Television. Archer sold shares on behalf of his friend for a profit of £77,219.
Then on 21 November 1999, the News of the World published allegations that he had committed perjury in his 1987 libel case. Archer withdrew his candidacy for London Mayor the following day.
The basis of the allegations originated with Ted Francis, a friend who claimed Archer owed him money, and Angela Peppiatt, Archer's former personal assistant. They stated that Archer had fabricated an alibi in the 1987 trial and were concerned that Archer was unsuitable to stand as Mayor of London. On 19 July 2001, Archer was found guilty of perjury and perverting the course of justice at the 1987 trial. He was sentenced to four years' imprisonment. During his "imprisonment" Archer was let out to work at the Theatre Royal in Lincoln, England, and was allowed occasional home visits. Media reports claimed he had been abusing this privilege by attending lunches with friends, including former Education Secretary Gillian Shephard. On 21 July 2003, Archer was released on licence, after serving half of his sentence.
In July 2001, shortly after being jailed for perjury, Archer's name was again shrouded in controversy, when Scotland Yard began investigating allegations that millions of pounds had disappeared from Archer's Kurdish charity.
In 1991, Archer had claimed to have raised £57,042,000. In 1992, the Kurdish Disaster Fund had written to Archer, complaining: "You must be concerned that the Kurdish refugees have seen hardly any of the huge sums raised in the west in their name." Kurdish groups claimed little more than £250,000 had been received by groups in Iraq. Archer then had gone to Iraq on a fact-finding mission, where his chant of "Long Live Kurdistan" was mis-translated as "Bastard, Devilish Kurdistan."
In 2004, the government of Equatorial Guinea alleged that Archer was one of the financiers of the failed 2004 coup d'état attempt against them, citing bank details and telephone records as evidence.
The satirical magazine Private Eye refers to Archer as 'Jeffrey Archole' or 'Lord Archole' and characterises him as a liar and fantasist. On occasion it has published spoofs of Archer's fiction, describing a thinly-veiled heroic version of himself called 'Jeremy Bowman'.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Archer
Then we have Jonathan William Patrick Aitken. He was convicted of perjury in 1999 and received an 18-month prison sentence, of which he served seven months.
In 1970 Aitken was acquitted at the Old Bailey for breaching section 2 of the Official Secrets Act 1911 when he photocopied a report about the British government's supply of arms to Nigeria, and sent a copy to The Sunday Telegraph and to Hugh Fraser, a pro-Biafran Tory MP. As a result of the case he was dropped as a candidate for the Thirsk and Malton parliamentary constituency.
He was later accused of violating ministerial rules by allowing an Arab businessman to pay for his stay in the Paris Ritz, perjured himself and was jailed. Aitken had previously been a director of BMARC, an arms exporter from 1988 to 1990.
In 1995 a commons motion showed that he had signed a controversial Public Interest Immunity Certificate (PIIC) in September 1992 relating to the Matrix Churchill trial; and that the 'gagged' documents included ones relating to the supply of arms to Iraq by BMARC for a period when he was a director of the company.
He became Chief Secretary to the Treasury in 1994, a Cabinet position, but resigned in 1995 following the allegations that he had violated ministerial rules.
When Aitken was defeated in the 1997 election. Within a year he was appointed as a representative for the arms company GEC-Marconi.
On 10 April 1995, The Guardian carried a front-page report on Aitken's dealings with leading Saudis. The story was the result of a long investigation carried out by journalists from the newspaper and from Granada TV's World In Action programme. Aitken's response was these memorable words:
"If it falls to me to start a fight to cut out the cancer of bent and twisted journalism in our country with the simple sword of truth and the trusty shield of British fair play, so be it. I am ready for the fight. The fight against falsehood and those who peddle it. My fight begins today. Thank you and good afternoon."
The World In Action film, Jonathan of Arabia, went ahead and Aitken carried out his threat to sue. The action collapsed in June 1997 (a month after he had lost his seat in the 1997 General Election) when the Guardian and Granada produced, via their counsel George Carman QC, evidence countering his claim that his wife, Lolicia Aitken, paid for the hotel stay.
The evidence consisted of airline vouchers and other documents showing that his wife had, in fact, been in Switzerland at the time when she had allegedly been at the Ritz in Paris.
The joint Guardian/Granada investigation indicated an arms deal scam involving Aitken's friend and business partner, the Lebanese businessman Mohammed Said Ayas, a close associate of Prince Mohammed of Saudi Arabia.
It was alleged that Aitken had been prepared to have his teenage daughter Victoria lie under oath to support his version of events had the case continued.
A few days after the libel case collapsed, World In Action broadcast a special edition, which echoed Aitken's "sword of truth" speech. It was entitled The Dagger of Deceit.
During this time it emerged that Aitken was chairman of a right wing think-tank Le Cercle when he was being encouraged to resign. The secretive group apparently received funding from the CIA.
Aitken was charged with perjury and perverting the course of justice, and in 1999 was jailed for 18 months, of which he served seven.
After serving his prison sentence, Aitken appeared on an episode of the BBC satirical quiz show Have I Got News for You. During this appearance, Ian Hislop produced a letter confirming Aitken's bankruptcy and announced that Aitken still owed Hislop's magazine (Private Eye) £13,702, several years after the bankruptcy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Aitken
Don't let me stop you, go ahead and keep defending the rights of these "Tory bastards", serial liars and duplicitous scum.
