Sheridan, The Downfall

Tommy Sheridan was imprisoned for three years today.  After a series of legal skirmishes spanning half a decade, he has finally been defeated by the Forces of Darkness arrayed against him. Or, at least in his head, he has. To many, it is the logical conclusion of one little lie that tumbles wildly out of control.

Did he do it? The evidence that he was “flinging it aboot”, as the Glasgow parlance goes, is substantial. However, if he had confessed as soon as the story broke, his political career would have survived intact. Many political careers don’t when faced with cocaine-fuelled swinging orgy accusations, but by dint of Sheridan’s own larger-than-itself life he would have survived.

If he had admitted to his wrongdoing he might have salvaged his career. One humble and vaguely genuine apology and he would seem like a true flawed hero to the working classes. However, he threw away any remaining shred of credibility by turning his private life into a running battle with Rupert Murdoch’s media empire.  The deeper in he got, the more enemies seemed to spring up – MI5, the police, insurgents within the SSP.

Sheridan and his dye-in-the-wool followers will forever claim he was “singled out” by the Justice system, to “make an example”, “hounded by the State” and other Orwellian clichés. The fact is, he chose to be litigious when he was already dancing on the evidential razor’s edge. The system he attempted to win libel money with backfired dramatically.

Sheridan turned the legal proceedings into a media farce, perhaps as a form of subversion. Turning the justice system into a deliberate parody of itself. Even the judiciary realised they were fighting a losing battle to maintain the sanctity of the Courtroom when they allowed journalists to Tweet during the case. The use of “celebrity” judges like Donald Findlay and Aamer Anwar only served to heighten the ridiculousness of Sheridan’s position. Especially when said judges went on to argue what was in essence the ‘Chewbacca Defence’.

So what happens now for socialism? To make the entire movement a Man, then to have him fall from grace so drastically, means that the far-left will only slip quietly into the night. Sheridan could, in theory, reform himself in those long nights in Barlinnie Prison. Perhaps he might write a leftist version of Mein Kampf. Political redemption, however, is unlikely. As the extensive legal battle has proven, it ceased to be about the politics a long time ago for Tommy.

For those who decry the fact that the far-left has lost it’s hero, don’t worry. There is another...