This has been an astonishing week for anyone who has been following the fortunes of the Scottish Socialist Party. Tommy Sheridan the former SSP leader is suing the News of the World newspaper alleging that they printed untrue stories about him, specifically allegations of infidelity.
There are undoubtedly many who will wish Mr Sheridan well in his case. Once again, a major newspaper has printed scandalous allegations about a leading political figure. The truth or otherwise of those allegations will presumably be determined by the ongoing court case.
A fascinating aspect of this case is that a senior SSP official, Alan McCoombes has been jailed by the judge in the libel case who had demanded he hand over minutes of an SSP meeting which was in the final days of Tommy Sheridan's leadership. Mr McCoombes refused but following the intervention of Tommy Sheridan, these papers have now been handed to the judge and Mr McCombes has been released.
Tommy Sheridan has claimed in an open letter to SSP members that "senior SSP figures" have been spreading malicious rumours about him, including that he was a drug dealer and that he was involved in the trafficking of women.
Mr Sheridan's letter stated "Today, there exists an unsavoury cabal of comrades at the core of the leadership, their hands on the apparatus, who are more interested in pursuing personal vendettas, through vile lies and slander, than conducting the class struggle." and he referred to his treatment as "a political witch-hunt" reminiscent of the "dark days of Stalinism".
Dark days of Stalinism maybe but also dark days ahead for the SSP as their bitter splits have been dragged into the full glare of the media spotlight. Should Tommy Sheridan prevail over the News of the World in the courts, he may find that the party he led has disintegrated as the infighting intensifies and talk of bankruptcy emerges over doubts about their ability to pay their legal fees. In the meantime there will continue to be vile headlines in the gutter press regarding his personal life and no matter your political beliefs, nobody deserves that kind of treatment.
Twitter / scottishpolitic
Monday, May 29, 2006
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I don't think I'm allowed to post a fresh item, so if I may, I'll just post this here even though it's not related to the Sheridan story;
With 60 people a week dying in Iraq. After Gordon Brown’s backfire intervention in the Dunfermline East by-election, and as the right wing press attacked the government hard in recent weeks. Particularly over Prescott’s affair, his croquet lifestyle. The release and crimes of foreign criminals and lack of information thereof to the Scottish Executive, etc. It all became apparent to Scottish Labour a couple of weeks back, that the attacks by the London press on Blair’s government were at last having an effect. Scottish Labour’s own internal polls suggested the damage was being reflected North of the Border, and that on current trends, Labour was likely to lose up to ten seats in the Scottish Parliament at its next election. Something had to be done it was widely murmured, McConnel had to somehow distance himself from London Labour,
London full stop maybe, so the pundits said.
What was required however, was not some complex communiqué for the intellectual or political elite. Instead, what was really needed was some simple, proletarian, gut-level soundbite, something the red-top readers could relate to.
So it was fortuitous, that Jack McConnel found himself on prime-time tabloid nationwide flagship news platform ‘Reporting Scotland’, it couldn’t be better.
At any other time, in any other context, a serious political journalist asking an apparently off-the-cuff question of the First Minister about football, would not just be bizarre, not just ‘left-field’, it would be considered ridiculous. The question was not innocently open-ended however, such as ‘who will you be supporting?’. Instead, the question was beautifully formed, and perfectly timed; “Will you be supporting England in the World Cup?”
Jack McConnel is far too long in the political tooth to believe that politics is not related to sport, and the smile on his face was almost as if he knew the question was coming.
What was most curious about the whole exercise was that his answer was thereafter trumpeted as a headline on Radio Scotland news bulletins for the following
twelve hours, thereby ensuring maximum dissemination, National news coverage, and indeed the story was picked up by other news agencies.
Call me a cynic if you wish…
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