Political prisoner
September 2, 2003 11:34 PM Subscribe
The prison diary of Scottish Parliament MP (and successful self-publicist) Tommy Sheridan, jailed for seven days (not for the first time) for refusing to pay a fine imposed after he was found guilty of a breach of the peace while demonstrating at Faslane against nuclear weapons.
Sheridan pisses me off to be honest. I'm (generally) very much in favour of the causes he stands for, but I think he completely undermines them. Hearing him speak at the Edinburgh antiwar marches earlier this year was actually painful.
posted by bwerdmuller at 2:44 AM on September 3, 2003
posted by bwerdmuller at 2:44 AM on September 3, 2003
why was it painful ? did he drop his aitches ?
posted by sgt.serenity at 4:43 AM on September 3, 2003
posted by sgt.serenity at 4:43 AM on September 3, 2003
anyway, i've got a lot of admiration for tommy sheridan , despite the fact that he has a working class scottish accent.
posted by sgt.serenity at 4:47 AM on September 3, 2003
posted by sgt.serenity at 4:47 AM on September 3, 2003
Because his speeches were full of absolute bile and contained very little actual content. He also seemed to be turning it into let's-all-hate-the-US* rather than let's-protest-the-war, which is what we were there for.
* In a really racist kind of way, rather than criticising US foreign policy or cultural imperialism. I found it really distasteful, and that kind of vitriol really derails any meaningful discussion or protest in my opinion.
posted by bwerdmuller at 4:50 AM on September 3, 2003
* In a really racist kind of way, rather than criticising US foreign policy or cultural imperialism. I found it really distasteful, and that kind of vitriol really derails any meaningful discussion or protest in my opinion.
posted by bwerdmuller at 4:50 AM on September 3, 2003
i cant say i've seen him do any of that stuff myself, i've had enough of well behaved liars and he is a welcome antidote as well as the new batch of msps he brought into parliament with him , it's just a pity catriona grant wasnt one of them .
I'm all for politicians who only take half of their 40,000 a year salary like tommy.
posted by sgt.serenity at 5:02 AM on September 3, 2003
I'm all for politicians who only take half of their 40,000 a year salary like tommy.
posted by sgt.serenity at 5:02 AM on September 3, 2003
bwerdmuller - which marches were you on?
Admittedly he was high on bile, low on content at all the Glasgow ones (which is fair enough at a rally) but I really don't recall any anti-American sentiment directed at the American people. Not from Tommy anyway - there was indeed too much brainless Yank-bashing going on from other quarters, not to mention hijacking by militant pro-Palestinians (oh, the irony of chanting 'Intifada' on a peace march) and SNP gobshites - '2, 4, 6, 8, We don't want no British state' not being strictly relevant to the matter at hand.
I must admit I'm a sucker for Mr. Sheridan's charm (smarm?) - I'm sure that's what helps me forget the more unwholesome platforms within the SSP (including the occasionally dotty CPGB/some pretty die-hard anti-reformist Militant folk - splitters!) and their rather ill-conceived post-independence economics when voting for them. Easy, too, to brush those things off in the context of actually having a left-wing party to vote for, a luxury I didn't have when I lived in England.
Oh people may be interested to know: to the best of my knowledge, the SSP are the only party in Scotland to keep a weblog...
posted by jack_mo at 5:10 AM on September 3, 2003
Admittedly he was high on bile, low on content at all the Glasgow ones (which is fair enough at a rally) but I really don't recall any anti-American sentiment directed at the American people. Not from Tommy anyway - there was indeed too much brainless Yank-bashing going on from other quarters, not to mention hijacking by militant pro-Palestinians (oh, the irony of chanting 'Intifada' on a peace march) and SNP gobshites - '2, 4, 6, 8, We don't want no British state' not being strictly relevant to the matter at hand.
I must admit I'm a sucker for Mr. Sheridan's charm (smarm?) - I'm sure that's what helps me forget the more unwholesome platforms within the SSP (including the occasionally dotty CPGB/some pretty die-hard anti-reformist Militant folk - splitters!) and their rather ill-conceived post-independence economics when voting for them. Easy, too, to brush those things off in the context of actually having a left-wing party to vote for, a luxury I didn't have when I lived in England.
Oh people may be interested to know: to the best of my knowledge, the SSP are the only party in Scotland to keep a weblog...
posted by jack_mo at 5:10 AM on September 3, 2003
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Preach on, Tommy....and think about a sabbatical to come work and teach in America. We need it more than any.
posted by fold_and_mutilate at 12:54 AM on September 3, 2003