Sunday 16 December 2007

Solidarity with Tommy Sheridan against the Establishment

Tommy Sheridan, the founder of the left-wing Solidarity party in Scotland, has been arrested on charges of Perjury (BBC News: Sheridan charged in perjury probe). These charges date back to August 2006, when he successfully sued Murdoch's News Of The World newspaper (hardly a bastion of the truth!) for libel.

This won't be the first time the Establishment have launched a vindictive campaign against someone who has opposed them and exposed their lies. A similar campaign was launched against George Galloway, the founder of Respect; the capitalist Establishment tried time and time again to frame him on allegations that he was in support of, and even took money from, Saddam Hussein's regime. However disappointed I am with the split within Respect, I remain certain that Galloway was not involved in any corruption to do with Saddam Hussein or Iraqi oil.

It also seems a bit too coincidental that Sheridan has been arrested now of all times. Just as the government are in deep $#!t over missing CDs, dodgy donations, the return of fuel protests, and a number of strikes and protests. Surely they wouldn't be trying to recover support among Scottish workers by discrediting the left-wing opposition, could they ?!?

1 comment:

Will said...

Why would the Police want to co-operate with the Labour UK Government at this time?

And in particular, why would a Scottish Constabulary, that has to deal with an SNP Scottish Government - that has given them their full pay rise, remember - want to follow directions from a Labour UK Government - that has not given their English colleagues their full pay rise and is not responsible for most policing or justice matters in Scotland?

As to the main subject, Sheridan's evidence directly contradicted claims made by his former allies in the SSP, so either Solidarity or the SSP has perjurers in its ranks: both versions of events cannot be true. And Sheridan's decision to form his own breakaway party damaged the Scottish left to the extent that neither Solidarity nor the SSP were left with a single MSP. In fact, the reason they ended up with a combined total of zero was the split: their combined votes in Glasgow would have secured one MSP, at the expense of a Green. It would not have been the six MSPs of 2003, but it would have been continued representation.

I suspect that Sheridan will pull something out of the bag - he did when he was the claimant, after all - but the left-wing in Scotland has already discredited itself so much that most of its former supporters at the ballot box either voted for someone else in May, or simply didn't turn out at all. It strikes me that they don't need anyone else's help in that regard.