Tommy Sheridan guilty of perjury.

[Johnboy]

Finally got his come-uppance today, and is now facing a substantial custodial sentence for the pack of lies he told denying the News of the World story that he had on several occasions visited a sex/swingers club in Manchester.

I was surprised to note the jury consisted of 12 women and just two men. If I'd been in the dock facing the kind of allegations that he has, I'd have preferred 14 men and two women. Does anyone know how a jury for a case like this is selected?

Where's Kingsmills when you need him?

He's now bleating away to anyone who cares to listen that this whole case has been a total conspiracy. Typical Tim!!

[Yngwie]

I was surprised to note the jury consisted of 12 women and just two men.

It's because all the other men in Glasgow had apparently travelled with Tommy to Cupids.

[tm4tj]

Good to see he has been sorted.

In his position he needed to show some integrity, I doubt he ever had any and thoroughly deserved his prize.

[12th Man]

I think if he was up to mischeif once and once only he may have got away with it, as it seems to be more of a hobby than a one off mistake Im supprised he even wanted to take on the NOTW in the first place, not only will he be going to jail he will probably be made bankrupt too by the paper wanting their money back, but the paper will probably make more money from their story.

[Thorfinn]

Hmmmm. "Political maverick taken out of play by the legal system". So now he can no longer be an irritant to the complacent and affluent Scottish political elite. Funny how charges were brought just when he was being effective.

Julian Assange, anybody?

[starchief]

The Scottish Socialist Party must be very proud of helping Rupert Murdoch out of a sticky situation. They remind me of the 'splitters' in Life of Brian. So busy fighting amongst themselves, they've forgotten who the real enemy is. Rupert Murdoch will be richer, he'll be grinding the socialists bones in the dust - no matter which side they were on, making them completely unelectable. And all the SSP will do is proudly proclaim they stood against their leader in battling the NotW over some stupid sex story. Pathetic!

[Yngwie]

With jail beckoning, Tommy might have to brace himself for a new form of group sex.

[CaleyD]

Sheridan has been played like a cheap fiddle throughout the whole thing, whether that is part of any conspiracy that goes beyond the NotW hanging him out to dry or not is up for debate.

Not saying he is innocent, but he's done himself no favours by allowing others to orchestrate this whole circus by reacting every time someone pressed one of his buttons....and boy did they know how to press his buttons.

[+DoofersDad]

Starchief, what are the other members of the SSP supposed to do? Stay loyal to Sheridan by perjuring themselves and telling lies in the hope that Sheridan gets off? Assuming Sheridan is telling porkies then it is he and he alone who is responsible for the demise of the SSP and the rest can only try and maintain their personal integrity by telling the truth.

Even if the NOTW was telling the most outrageous lies about Sheridan, his best course of action would have been simply to ignore it and stick to fighting for the political issues he claims to believe in. There would have been some initial publicity and then it would have simply died down. Win or lose, sueing the NOTW was always going to create a lot of publicity and bring out detail Sheridan would want hidden. And win or lose, a high profile court case was always going to take him away from the the polictical fight and destroy the credibility of the SSP.

Sheridan simply saw the opportunity to screw some money out of the NOTW and by persuing it he totally betrayed his party and left wing politics in general. Colin Fox, Rosie Kane and the others are the victims here because Sheridan's greed and his arogance in thinking he could get away with it have destroyed their political careers and the political movement they believe in. It is Sheridan who is Murdoch's little helper and every time Sheridan vents his spleen against Murdoch, all Murdoch will see is dollar signs.

[Charles Bannerman]

First we had Citizen Smith on the TV back in the 80s - then the SSP came along and we realised that Wolfie Smith was more real and much less a satirical caricature than we thought. These lefties really do behave like that. The SSP was pure pantomime with the nasty side that you always get in extreme politics where there is bitter infighting. This occurs at both extremes of the political spectrum - for instance there was the intense rivalry between Stalin and Trotsky on the far left and the Night of the Long Knives with Hitler and Roehm on the extreme right. This seems to be a feature of groups which hold extreme beliefs - look also at the amount of splitting and disrupting the Free Church has undergone.

Similarly we saw the infighting within the SSP played out in the court room over recent weeks and that is the one thing that slightly worries me about this verdict. Those who were opposed to Bru'ur Toammy gave one definite kind of testimony and others who have turned against him like Sistur Rosy and Coamrade Foaxy gave quite the opposite.

However the jury, and also importantly the judge, will hopefully have weighed that up and come to a considered opinion.

My own view of Mr Sheridan is that he is an incorrigible attention seeker with an irrepressible ego who thinks nothing of lying to achieve his ends.

In retrospect you can only wonder at the extent to which the Scottish electorate espoused such a bunch of lying chancers, returning no fewer than SIX SSP MSPs at one point. And such thoughts also help you to understand how Germany managed to elect Hitler as Chancellor in 1933.

What rather depressed me during this entire trial was the "lose - lose" situation which it created. Because if Bru'ur Toammy was goanny get done for telling porkies, then the down side of that was that there would be a victory for Murdoch's News of the Screws.

But yet, David Cameron is content to have a former Screws Scottish editor, who was in post there during episodes of phone tapping, as his right hand communications man.

Then there's poor old Vince Cable who speaks out of turn and whose jacket goes on to a shoogly peg because he has said something which I think a large precentage of the population would applaud - that he was out to stop Murdoch.

The UK is meant to have one of the cleaner political systems but throughout we find it riddled with rot.

On which subject, to move on to Signor Berlusconi....

Edited December 24, 2010 by Charles Bannerman

[Johnboy]

My own view of Mr Sheridan is that he is an incorrigible attention seeker with an irrepressible ego who thinks nothing of lying to achieve his ends.

[Charles Bannerman]

My own view of Mr Sheridan is that he is an incorrigible attention seeker with an irrepressible ego who thinks nothing of lying to achieve his ends.

Yup... and the outcome of this trial is the suggestion that Bru'ur Toammy seems to have "achieved his ends" rather more often and with rather more people than he was letting on in the original defamation action!

Edited December 24, 2010 by Charles Bannerman

[starchief]

Starchief, what are the other members of the SSP supposed to do?

It's not so much this trial as the last.

First of all, a best man, at least, shouldn't sell out your mate down the the river to his worst enemy, Rupert Murdoch, knowing what an effect that would have. There hadn't even been a falling out for him to do that. Just pound signs.

For the SSP - know your enemy. Murdoch always has, and always will, be a bigger enemy to socialists than whether Sheridan has had 3-in-a-bed sessions. They don't need to lie, but when the NotW's solicitors come calling, as the Yanks say, take the Fifth (or as Manuel would say 'I know nothing'), i.e. no comment. Just as David Cameron or Murdoch would do with Andy Coulson.

Apart from that, I pretty much agree with DoofersDad. All Tommy had to do was say:

"3-in-a-bed sex sessions? Is this the best the NotW can come up with? Your mind may be in the gutter, Mr Murdoch, but mine's with the Scottish people's drive to get rid of this gutter press"

(cheers all round - all hail Tommy for sticking it to Rupert - the SSP continues to gain seats)

For the record, I'm sad that the SSP has taken a dive. Although my own views aren't that extreme, I do approve of a small band of these working in parliament, almost as a pressure group, fighting for the poorest in society. It's be a disaster to have them as the government but a timely reminder to have them as a voice.

I also find this whole trial a bit ridiculous. Sheridan and the NotW presented their evidence at the libel case. The jury believed Sheridan. Surely, that means the NotW and the people that spoke AGAINST Sheridan should be on trial for perjury (or not as it should be case closed)? As far as the court should be concerned, Sheridan was jury-proven to be truthful. By my reckoning, he should then be exempt from being examined again on that basis. How can one jury be considered more important than the other? It's double jeapordy under another name.

[Johnboy]

Starchief, what are the other members of the SSP supposed to do?

It's not so much this trial as the last.

First of all, a best man, at least, shouldn't sell out your mate down the the river to his worst enemy, Rupert Murdoch, knowing what an effect that would have. There hadn't even been a falling out for him to do that. Just pound signs.

For the SSP - know your enemy. Murdoch always has, and always will, be a bigger enemy to socialists than whether Sheridan has had 3-in-a-bed sessions. They don't need to lie, but when the NotW's solicitors come calling, as the Yanks say, take the Fifth (or as Manuel would say 'I know nothing'), i.e. no comment. Just as David Cameron or Murdoch would do with Andy Coulson.

Apart from that, I pretty much agree with DoofersDad. All Tommy had to do was say:

"3-in-a-bed sex sessions? Is this the best the NotW can come up with? Your mind may be in the gutter, Mr Murdoch, but mine's with the Scottish people's drive to get rid of this gutter press"

(cheers all round - all hail Tommy for sticking it to Rupert - the SSP continues to gain seats)

For the record, I'm sad that the SSP has taken a dive. Although my own views aren't that extreme, I do approve of a small band of these working in parliament, almost as a pressure group, fighting for the poorest in society. It's be a disaster to have them as the government but a timely reminder to have them as a voice.

I also find this whole trial a bit ridiculous. Sheridan and the NotW presented their evidence at the libel case. The jury believed Sheridan. Surely, that means the NotW and the people that spoke AGAINST Sheridan should be on trial for perjury (or not as it should be case closed)? As far as the court should be concerned, Sheridan was jury-proven to be truthful. By my reckoning, he should then be exempt from being examined again on that basis. How can one jury be considered more important than the other? It's double jeapordy under another name.

Excellent post!

Totally agree with the highlighted paragraph.

Legal beagles across the length and breadth of the nation will be arguing about the legal course of events surrounding TS for years to come. I agree that those who spoke against Sheridan in the first trial could be charged with perjury, but then that could mean perjury trials could follow any case where a jury has indicated which version of events they prefer.

Also came across this gem in the Herald....

A READER had a hint of Tommy Sheridan?s guilty verdict when he met a member of his then-dismissed defence team at the Celtic Aberdeen game when Celtic won 9-0. When our reader asked how Tommy?s case was going, the lawyer told him: ?Aberdeen have a better defence than Tommy.?

[Ronaldo]

IMO taking on the NOTW was an insanse decision

Perhaps he took some bad advice?

[CaleyHE]

This is deffo worth a watch if you missed it, only available till the 30th Dec i think it is..

Sheridan made a mockery of the party, i know who i believe, and its the 16, not the 4..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00xp4ps/The_Rise_and_Lies_of_Tommy_Sheridan/

[Alex MacLeod]

The one thing Sheridan is guilty of is having a very big ego. So he visits swingers clubs. Fine. If thats his thing then so be it. Does anyone actually give a f**k about that. Had Tommy just ignored the NoW story when it ran it would all be forgotten about now and he'd still be involved in politics. But no!! Tommy is bigger than that. Tommy can take the whole world. Tommy's a Glasgow hardman and nobody can bring him down. Well Tommy.....lets see how hard you are in the Bar-L