SOMEBODY'S GOING TO EMERGENCY, SOMEBODY'S GOING TO JAIL

I could not resist using this title from a very good West Wing episode, as it transpires that whilst I was out leafleting in Old Craigton, just a mile down the road, the police were searching Tommy Sheridan's home, whilst Tommy was being charged with perjury.

From my point of view, and knowing many figures within the Trade union movement who were members of the SSP, and now split into more factions than Monty Python's Life of Brian, it is clear that one side is lying, and one side isn't. Whether Tommy is the victim of an elaborate witch hunt, from an unholy alliance of Trots and the establishment remains to be seen, but no doubt Tommy's supporters will see him as a modern day Harry Perkins.

What is undisputed, it that the voters warmed to Solidarity more than the remaining SSP, indeed as the SNP candidate for Pollok earlier this year, Tommy lost out by a very close margin, because too many voters had marked Solidarity and Alex Salmond for First Minister on the same side of the ballot paper and left the other side blank. It is why Glasgow Pollok SNP believe the Constituency result was closer than the official record. If Tommy had been elected, would the Police have reacted sooner? This will be one of the questions that the electors in Pollok and elsewhere will be asking.

All in all, a very unedifying affair which has consigned the hard left to no parliamentary representation for a generation.

However, the rest of our opponents in Scotland are also in a mess. New Labour led by Wendy, allegedly a descendant of Ebenezer Scrooge, has nothing positive to say, and is still presiding over a basket case at Holyrood, where the word sleaze and New Labour are commonly stated in the same sentence. Its only a matter of time before Mr.Sheridan's house guests make there way over to Paisley. Perhaps they will also stop off at the home of a Renfrewshire Councillor along the way.

The Lib Dems meanwhile have the tactical nous of Berti Vogts, i.e. tactics are a peppermint!, and the reaction of the press in the North East apparently make awful reading for them. Not content with cuddlying up to Wendy and were noticeable by their silence when Donorgate hit the headlines, they have made an incredible fuss over Donald Trump's application to build a golf complex in Aberdeenshire, and made some rather silly comments along the way. To suggest that Alex Salmond as a Constituency MSP should not have attended a meeting with Trump's representatives would have been a failure of duty for any Parliamentarian given that this proposal is the most important one affecting the Gordon constituency for many years. They must be really bitter at their gubbing in the elections in May, and with Nicol Stephen holding a marginal constituency his attacks look like the desperate actions of a desperate man.

Surely Mr.Trump himself has the best message for Nicol, and one that will be delivered in due course - YOU'RE FIRED!