From: Paul Cockshott (wpc@DCS.GLA.AC.UK)
Date: Sat May 05 2007 - 15:22:58 EDT
The SSP split at the end of last year into the SSP and Solidarity, the latter headed by Sherridan. The reasons was a court case which had the whole nation gripped for a month in which Tommy defended himself against libels put out in Maxwells papers to the effect that he was a drinker, drug user, and frequenter of Swingers clubs. He conducted his own defence, won the case and was awarded £100,000 damages against Maxwells papers, but several SSP members of parliament appeared as witnesses for the papers and against Tommy. After his victory in the court case this caused so much bad blood between the MPs that they split. It also polarised the membership between those who believed him, and those who believed the allegations against him in the press. Prior to the court case some of the MSPs had been spreading even more lurid tales to blacken his name : that he dealt in drugs, that he was involved in smuggling Ukranian prostitutes into the country etc. From what I know of him as a leader of struggles going back years, these allegations seem unlikely - he makes a point of being a non-smoker, non-drinker etc. Prior to the split there did not appear to be any pressing ideological issues at stake. I put it down to personal rivalries among the new MSPs agravated by interference by the yellow press and perhaps agent provocateurs. Bugs were found in Tommy's car, secret tapes of his discussions with executive members were released to the TV etc. Paul Cockshott www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~wpc -----Original Message----- From: OPE-L on behalf of Dogan Goecmen Sent: Sat 5/5/2007 7:31 PM To: OPE-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU Subject: Re: [OPE-L] Scottish election "1. The socialists had split into two parties competing for the same votes" Paul, who were these two socialist parties and what was the reason that they had split? Dogan ________________________________________________________________________ Kostenlos: AOL eMail 2 GB Speicherplatz sowie erstklassiger Spam- und eMail Virenschutz. Sichern Sie sich Ihre persönliche eMail Adresse noch heute!
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