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Former head of Scottish Socialists to stand trial for perjury

by mtammas | January 27, 2009 at 10:46 pm

114 views | 24 Recommendations | 10 comments

Tommy Sheridan, the flamboyant former head of the Scottish Socialist Party, and his wife, Gail, will stand trial for allegedly committing perjury in their 2006 defamation lawsuit against the Sunday tabloid, News of the World. Sheridan is also charged with attempting to persuade another witness to commit perjury.

News of the World had run a story alleging that Sheridan indulged in alcohol- and drug-infused orgies and visited swingers' clubs. Sheridan denied this and the couple sued.

While many expected the Sheridans to lose the case, the jury found News of the World guilty. Shortly after the verdict, stories of possible perjury began to surface.

The high-profile libel case rocked the Scottish political world and fatally fractured the Scottish Socialist Party. At the time, the SSP had six sitting Members of the Scottish Parliament. All lost their seats in the country's May 2007 election.

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generaldecay

at 23:07 on January 27th, 2009

It's fun seeing that photo - I was in that building just the other week. :)

mtammas, do you know about our highlight tool?

mtammas

at 23:13 on January 27th, 2009

I do know about the highlight tool but have had great difficulty getting it to work. I gave up a couple of weeks ago after some chats with NP folks. Do you think it's time to try it again? And thanks for your comment on the picture. I was lucky enough to have an MSP-guided tour when I was in Edinburgh in 2005 and love the building!

generaldecay

at 23:18 on January 27th, 2009

Ah, sorry about that mtammas. The HL tool can be a strange friend! I don't actually know if you would be able to get it to work any better now. I will ask Jordan about that.

Sanjay Jha

at 23:22 on January 27th, 2009

Hi, Thanks for your post and i am sorry to hear about your woes. Please send me a PM to let me know about your exact problem.

generaldecay

at 23:32 on January 27th, 2009

Ah, I shall not PM Jordan and leave it with Sanjay then.

Sanjay Jha

at 23:20 on January 27th, 2009

Good Post.

aelusive

at 23:34 on January 27th, 2009

Those socialists sure don't seem to value morality too much.

mudricky

at 00:10 on January 28th, 2009

Growing up and taking a personal interest in Scottish politics I respected Tommy a lot.

These days it's scandal after scandal, it makes me sad and angry to see someone I admired so much fall in this way.

The news of the world is the sort of newspaper where you will find the scandals, but at the end of the day, they are owned by News Group Newspapers, the folk know what they are doing and they wouldn't just print anything without researching it etc, makes me think they has to be truth there somewhere.

I first found out about Tommy when he got jailed for campaigning against the poll tax in Scotland, and was jailed for six months.

The poll tax was brought in by Margaret Thatcher, tried out in Scotland first.

It was unfair and the poorest ended up in most occasions paying more than the rich and better off, as it was based on the amount of people living in a house. They were 5 of us so it affected my family badly.