Comrades demand Sheridan apology

azzuri · Comrades demand Sheridan apology

Comrades demand Sheridan apology

LOUISE GRAY AND STEPHEN MCGINTY

THE Scottish Socialist Party hierarchy came out fighting against Tommy Sheridan yesterday, demanding a public apology from their former leader for "a monstrous political and personal defamation" of 11 of his colleagues.

With Mr Sheridan manoeuvring to retake the leadership and his supporters demanding a purge of all those who testified against him, the party's executive committee vowed to hold on to the reins of power after the Glasgow MSP's defamation victory over the News of the World.

At a meeting in Glasgow City Chambers, the executive also agreed to send out minutes of the disputed party meeting which state that Mr Sheridan had admitted twice going to a swingers' club.

Colin Fox, the party leader, who faces a challenge from Mr Sheridan at the SSP conference in October, said: "I believe he has damaged the party. We have had our party dragged through the mud, our reputations dragged through the mud, and it does not do socialism any good."

Mr Sheridan, who appeared with his wife in a series of newspapers yesterday, clad in dressing gowns to tell "their story", was unavailable for comment. Neither he nor any of his supporters were at the meeting.

The civil war within the SSP exploded into the public domain in the wake of Mr Sheridan's court victory.

He won £200,000 after a sensational five-week defamation action against the News of the World over its claims he took part in sex orgies, cheated on his wife and went to a swingers' club.

The newspaper yesterday confirmed it would lodge an appeal against the jury's decision. It said: "Our appeal will argue that any reasonable jury looking at all the evidence could not possibly have reached the verdict they did."

During the case, members of the SSP were forced to give evidence about an emergency meeting of the party's executive in November 2004.

Mr Fox, Carolyn Leckie and Rosie Kane took to the witness box to claim Mr Sheridan had admitted going to a swingers' club during that meeting.

In court, Mr Sheridan said he had been the victim of the "mother of all stitch-ups".

He said as many as ten people from the SSP had given perjured evidence because of a civil war within the party - and vowed that, although he might be hurt, politically he would never be destroyed.

Supporters of Mr Sheridan yesterday called on those who had "sided with the News of the World" to leave the party.

But a statement released by the executive committee supported the 11 members who claim Mr Sheridan did admit to going to a swingers' club.

It said: "This meeting notes that the last executive committee meeting called on SSP witnesses cited to give evidence at the Court of Session to neither lie or commit contempt of court.

"In the event, a number of SSP members were dragged before the court against their will by both the News of the World and Tommy Sheridan, under threat of imprisonment.

"This EC [executive committee] gives 100 per cent backing to those SSP members who implemented the decision of the last EC."

It went on: "We utterly reject those witch hunters who have called for disciplinary action and deplore the petulant insults that have been directed against these individuals.

"We believe that those 11 SSP members who publicly defended the honesty and integrity of the party should be commended and supported rather than vilified.

"We believe that the false accusations that the party is guilty of the 'mother of all frame-ups' is a monstrous political and personal defamation and should be withdrawn completely with an apology."

The committee also agreed to send to every party member the minutes of the meeting that claim Mr Sheridan admitted visiting a swingers' club on two occasions. Mr Fox said: "We will be releasing the minutes of the meeting in November 2004 to all the party members. They have already been in the newspapers. It seems only fair the majority of the party get to see them."

Supporters of Mr Sheridan plan to put him forward for the party leadership at the national conference in October.

But Mr Fox yesterday vowed to hold on to his position. He said: "I'm told that Tommy Sheridan will be standing against me, as is his right. However, I am proud of my role and I will be asking everybody to support me. If you ask me if I am looking forward to the campaign, then yes. My record is clear. I have given my best and always put the best interests of the party first.

"The party will have two or three months to decide: they will decide - this is a democracy."

Rosie Kane, the SSP MSP, who shares an office at Holyrood with Mr Sheridan but is refusing to work with him because of recent events, is demanding an apology and "the truth".

"Whatever happens, I cannot work with Tommy again, and I am not alone," she said.

However, if there are any plans to have Mr Sheridan expelled from the SSP, that decision would have to be taken by the whole party at a national conference.

Mr Sheridan is believed to be staying in a hotel while the situation blows over. Yesterday, it was revealed he put his £200,000 home into his wife's name before the trial in case he lost. It is understood he plans to put part of the £200,000 damages in a trust for their 14-month-old daughter, Gabrielle.
Sunday tabloid publishes grounds for appeal

THE next battle in the Tommy Sheridan libel saga kicked off yesterday when the News of the World printed the grounds upon which it would base its appeal against Friday's judgment.

But experts warned that the case was unlikely to come to court for at least a year and would be a tough one to prove. Any appeal is a painstakingly slow process.

The Sunday tabloid will have to enrol a motion for a new trial at the Court of Session, the formal process to lodge an appeal.

Within a month it will be expected to lodge written grounds of appeal, which will transfer the case to the Inner House of the Court of Session.

Three judges chosen from the Inner House, Scotland's eight most senior judges, will then be assigned the case and a date chosen for a hearing.

But Roddy Dunlop, an advocate at the Scottish bar specialising in defamation, said the case would take at least a year because both the court diary and the diary of Michael Jones, QC, who is likely to represent the News of the World, were so busy.

Mr Dunlop said the paper would have to prove the decision of the jury was perverse by proving their own evidence was so reliable. "The grounds of appeal they are going for is that only a perverse jury could have found in favour of Mr Sheridan: ie the verdict was contrary to the evidence."

Yesterday, the News of the World argued that any reasonable jury looking at the evidence could not have reached the verdict it did. In particular, the newspaper pointed out the minutes of the disputed SSP meeting and the evidence of Katrine Trolle that she had an affair with Mr Sheridan.

A strongly worded editorial, said: "We cannot believe all 18 vital witnesses committed perjury in the witness box."

In a separate legal matter, Lothian and Borders Police have received a complaint that witnesses in the recent trial lied under oath. The complaint has been passed on to the Crown Office, but again it is likely to take at least six months to come to court if any evidence is found.

LOUISE GRAY

see - http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=1141902006

happychappy

i think it is Tommy who should be getting an apolgy from them. those behind this, in particular the '3 witches-kane,leckie and curran' will be history in 1 year. i hope TS goes from strenght to strenght.

SLG

I think that's what most folk think. But the 3 witches will try and do as much damage as they can to the party on the way out.

happychappy

aye, they are right good socialists, 'common good' and all that. their mask has slipped good style.

neil8r

If Rosie Kane can no longer work with Tommy Sheridan at all on a political level and he stays within the party surely that means she should resign from the party. The question then that arises for me is if a List MSP resigns from their party do they then have to resign as an MSP?

SLG

No. Monteith resigned from the Tories and he is now a list MSP. There were a lot of complaints from the Tories on this though.

neil8r

IF Convenor

Campbell Martin is another who is no longer in the party he stood for on the list but has kept his list seat.

Blackadder

Politicians are into politics first for themselves, then for their family and freinds, then for the party and last of all for the country.

Once you whittle down all the "loyalty" aspects, you find out as long as they're getting their piece of the pie, they'll hold on for as long as they can, bereft of party, etc. even up till they're holding on by the fingernails.

This is why you should all give the power to run the country back to the Monarch (who's trained to rule from birth) and the aristocrats, who don't really look down on the working class ... we look down on everybody! We know how to look after our peasants better than anyone! We've done it longer than anyone else!

Let's make Britain proud and vote in Charles III when Her Maj pops her Royal clogs! And when William becomes King and rules the country ... you'll have a King with Hollywood appeal.

Don't you see this is the ONLY way forward?

October1974

it's getting nastier with reports of accusations of lying under oath being reported to the Police. The fat lady hasn't sung yet. The Sun's page suggesting Sheridan is Scotland's Jeffrey Archer was thought provoking. I think they are goading him to take action against them. The minutes online from the infamous SSP meeting would appear to have backed the NOTW and not Sheridan but then that was only one bit of the evidence.

Rinty · r

Ther is no chance of a perjury charge and the NotW appeal will be pointless as well.

Its getting nastier yes, from people who are pretty nasty already.

I spoke with Colin Fox and Tommy Sheridan today and I remain upbeat that the party isnt over Cool

SLG

Did you see that statement from Fox though? The statement in response to Ms Drummond's radio appearance this morning. It wasn't very reconciliatory.

azzuri

I saw the statement as well but it all seems about egos and hurt pride at the moment. Once it all blows over and they are given time to come to terms with everything, hopefully the party can put it behind them and move forward.

Blackadder

How can you have a party where they all have the knives out for each other?? Rather reminds me of the old Whigs and Tories.

Anthropos

October1974

Blackadder

The SSP are rather interesting at the moment. Can anyone say, Social Democrats?

Yeah .... AND keep a straight face????

Reluctant Hero

Saw the BBC Programme on Tommy Sheridan last night. Thought it was a pretty rubbish, disjointed programme, but one comment on it was that TS said that he could not ever forgive Kane et al. In that case, would he ever be able to work with them again?

Then I flicked over to Newsnight and Iain McWhirter was saying that there is no way this can be reconciled. He said Sheridan would get re-elected but the others were unlikely to.

Blackadder

Look look!!! The Incredible Shrinking Scottish Socialist Party!!!!

SLG

If they can get rid of some of these folk, I'd expect the SSP to continue to grow, not shrink.

Blackadder

Prey, remove your Rosie Kane-tinted spectacles ... we have just witnessed a party implosion.

SLG

A scene from Embra:

IF Convenor

Either way they're damaged. Everybody now knows there is a large section of the SSP which is quite prepared to lie under oath for its own ends. It doesn't matter which group actually lied, all that matters is that one of the factions must have lied.

To a large extent, people vote for who they trust. It's going to be very hard to trust known liars.

SLG

If they survive, they are going to have to go backwards to go forwards. That will most likely mean losing all their MSPs other than Tommy. Although they may still win a few council seats with the PR vote this time round. Candidates who are well known locally might escape the tag given to some others in the party. In 2011 there would be a new generation of candidates and recent events could be all but forgotten.

Blackadder

Nope ... I think the Sheridan Socialist Party is already dead in the water. I'm thinking of sending Baldrick round to collect all the dead ducks!

Gung-ho

The Pro-unionist sections of the SSP are the main supporters oF Mr Sheridan and we have to ask ourselves what will be the price of that support a lessening of the SSP's support for independence.

However I find hard to believe that any party which is so divide will be able to muster or even plan a coherant campaign in 2007 at anything more than a local level.

Mr Sheridan will in all possibility be the only SSP MSP left next year and I predict a Schism within the SSP leading to a new Socalist party fighting next years elections.

Blackadder

Isn't "Socialist" a dirty word these days anyway?