Tommy Sheridan's defamation case against News of the World
Jul 14 2006 10:26
I sent the folowing message out on Monday:
The Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) has probably received more media coverage in the past week than in the previous seven and a half years of its existence. There has been a steady stream of lurid allegations about the sex life of former Convenor Tommy Sheridan in his defamation case against the News of the World.
The tide seems to be finally turning in Tommy's favour. The Murdoch rag's journalist Anvar Khan, who claimed to have visited a swingers' club in Manchester with Tommy, is proven to be extremely unreliable. In her book, she claimed that the man she went to the club with was black with a shaven head, certainly not a description of Tommy. She has admitted in court to embellishing her stories and it has been revealed that she settled a previous defamation case out of court.
The jury are being asked to decide which SSP Executive Committee (EC) members they believe - those who claim Tommy told their meeting that he had twice visited a swingers' club and those who claim that he did not.
If Tommy really had the exotic love life the rag claims and he did make that admission to the EC meeting, then it is ludicrous to suggest that he would have expected to get away with it. He surely would have been aware that there were people plotting against him and the working class generally within the SSP. Indeed, he had already received some of my leaflets on issues including infiltration.
We are left with two possibilities. Either Tommy launched his defamation case to destroy the party he did so much to build over the years or there really is a 'cabal' (as Tommy put it) of infiltrators out to destroy him and the party.
The two sides have coalesced into two platforms - the SSP Majority supporting Tommy and the SSP United Left opposing him. Note that even if one of the platforms is dominated by infiltrators on the side of big business, others will be double agents trying to turn developments in a positive direction.
Jul 19 2006 14:26
#2
sheridan case update
Quote:
Sheridan in swingers 'admission'
Tommy Sheridan confessed at a Scottish Socialist Party meeting to twice visiting swingers clubs, a jury heard.
Allan Green, the SSP's national secretary, told the Court of Session the Glasgow MSP had described his behaviour as "reckless" and apologised.
He said Mr Sheridan told the emergency meeting he wanted to deny the story, printed in the News Of The World.
The former SSP leader has launched a £200,000 defamation action over claims made about his sex life by a newspaper.
The emergency party meeting was held on 9 November, 2004, days after the newspaper published claims about an unnamed Holyrood politician.
Mr Green, 48, said: "Tommy referred to the News Of The World newspaper article.
For you to turn round and accuse me of monstrous frame-ups it is shameful Tommy, it is shameful
Allan Green
SSP national secretary
"He said that he had visited a swingers club on two occasions, I think, in 1996 and 2002.
"He said he accepted his behaviour was reckless and he apologised to the executive committee for it."
Michael Jones QC, representing the newspaper, asked what the reaction was to the revelation.
Mr Green said: "Everyone was absolutely shocked."
The secondary school teacher said problems arose as to how the matter would be handled.
He said Mr Sheridan had accepted the claims were true but "he wanted to prove the story was false".
'Course of action'
Mr Green said everyone was acutely aware of the damage the story would do to the party, which in the eyes of the media and the public was firmly associated with Mr Sheridan.
He added: "Nobody at the meeting favoured Tommy's course of action."
Mr Green said Mr Sheridan was a tremendous ambassador and any blow to the leader would be a huge setback to the party.
Under cross examination, he accused the Socialist MSP of betraying his party.
Mr Green was shown minutes of the executive committee meeting where, he said, the admissions were made.
Mr Sheridan said: "I put it to you the so-called minute is as genuine as a 10 bob note, isn't it?"
"No Tommy, you know it is true," said Mr Green.
The jury heard the SSP tried to keep the minutes confidential but had to surrender them after one of their leaders, Alan McCombes, was jailed for defying a court order to hand over the document.
'A shameful thing'
Mr Green said: "For you to turn round and accuse the likes of myself of monstrous frame-ups, for any other socialist, never mind one of your standing, it is an appalling thing to do.
"I can hardly believe you are doing this.
"You know that like yourself I have spent a lifetime - my entire adult life - to build up the socialist movement.
"I always carried out to the best of my ability what the party has asked me to do."
He added: "You can lie, accuse me of monstrous frame-ups, none of it the truth. For you to turn round and accuse me of monstrous frame-ups it is shameful Tommy, it is shameful."
Mr Sheridan told him the trial was used to histrionics.
He said: "It does not cut as much ice as you think."
Mr Green claimed that at a meeting of the SSP's national council on 28 May this year - while Mr McCombes was in Edinburgh's Saughton jail - Mr Sheridan urged the handover of the minutes.
He said the claim that the minutes were not a true record of what happened on 9 November, 2004 followed.
"You took the shameful step to smear good comrades like myself that had done nothing more than carry out the wishes of the party and, up to then, your wishes as well," he said.
He added Mr Sheridan had done "a shameful thing" to pursue his court case, in spite of pleas from other party members to drop it.
The trial continues.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/5194588.stm
Jul 21 2006 07:48
#3
socialiststeve wrote:
We are left with two possibilities. Either Tommy launched his defamation case to destroy the party he did so much to build over the years or there really is a 'cabal' (as Tommy put it) of infiltrators out to destroy him and the party.
We are left with another possibility; Tommy told his wife he didn't do it, and this is all an attempt to back that up. Possibly he didn't expect all the witnesses. Or maybe his ego told him he'd win.
I mean, why would Katrine Trolle say she'd been involved in group sex with Tommy? Why would Tommy's best man, Keith Baldassara, say Tommy had made admissions to him? Surely they had more to lose.
I think what Colin Fox said is instructive: that Tommy didn't want to go public, but prefered to keep denying the story. Others warned him what would happen to the party as a result, but Tommy pressed ahead with his course of action, and in the process lost the respect and trust of a lot of executive members.
It really shouldn't matter what Tommy does for recreation (beyond his conscience regarding his wife, and the alleged possible use of prostitutes) and the News of the World is hypocritical, reactionary scum for making stories like this matter. But Tommy, it seems, has only made it worse for himself by not saying "It was me, I made a fool of myself, and my wife and I are working through it now".
And if it turns out he'd rather have smeared his colleagues as trying to falsely paint him as a swinger than come clean, then he obviously isn't to be trusted.
Jul 22 2006 11:47
#4
I think you just hit the nail on the head.
...but the more this farce goes on, the less convinced I am that a fuck up on this scale could come about without some active planning on the part of somebody somewhere.
Many truths to be faced up to and many lessons to be learned, just as soon as this hideous car crash of a trial is over.
Aye Tommy definately aint black he always looked kinda orange to me
and besides isn't plotting against the working class and stabbing one another in the back what groups like the SSP/SWP do best any way?