Former SSP MSP Tommy Sheridan and his wife Gail will stand trial for perjury with proceedings commencing next Thursday (27th March) in the Edinburgh Sheriff Court.
Sheridan famously won last year a £200 000 libel settlement from the News of The World "newspaper" over allegations that he had visited a swingers club in Manchester. Subsequent investigations by Lothian & Borders Constabulary have seen 7 people, all of whom testified on Sheridan's side, arrested and charged with perjury. The News of the World is awaiting the outcome of the perjury trial before launching it's appeal against last year's verdict. Interestingly there is no maximum sentence in Scotland, technically someone found guilty could be sentenced to Life Imprisonment!
Sheridan's wife Gail has also been arrested and charged with the theft of miniature bottles of alcohol from her employer British Airways.
The impact of the original trial on the SSP was drastic as a large number of members and one other then MSP left with Sheridan to establish Solidarity. All SSP & Solidarity MSPs lost their seats in the 2007 Scottish Parliament elections. In the recent Cambuslang East council by-election Solidarity could not stand a candidate and the SSP polled a derisory 32 1st preference votes out of 2594 cast.
Showing posts with label SSP. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SSP. Show all posts
Wednesday, 19 March 2008
Friday, 23 March 2007
Solidarity/SSP
I got home from the office last night to discover a 4 page colour tabloid from Solidarity, which had been delivered by the Post Office. I know that this has also been delivered around Glasgow.
Quite frankly, it's not inspiring reading and I'm sure that they could have targeted their niche market more effectively. I do understand that it's part of the attempt by Rosemary Byrne to save her South of Scotland list seat. When she was elected in '03 it was by a small margin and a reduction in the vote of less than 1% would have cost her the seat. With a split-left ticket and polls showing a melt-down in their votes, re-election looks like a forlorn hope.
The SSP/Solidarity schism has been an interesting spectator sport over the last few months but I suspect that between them they'll be lucky to have 1 MSP after the election on May 3rd. It will also be quite interesting to see where their voters transfer their political alleigance.
Quite frankly, it's not inspiring reading and I'm sure that they could have targeted their niche market more effectively. I do understand that it's part of the attempt by Rosemary Byrne to save her South of Scotland list seat. When she was elected in '03 it was by a small margin and a reduction in the vote of less than 1% would have cost her the seat. With a split-left ticket and polls showing a melt-down in their votes, re-election looks like a forlorn hope.
The SSP/Solidarity schism has been an interesting spectator sport over the last few months but I suspect that between them they'll be lucky to have 1 MSP after the election on May 3rd. It will also be quite interesting to see where their voters transfer their political alleigance.
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