People losing their damn minds #16

Commenting on Tommy Sheridan's open letter to the SSP, Dave Part writes, "If I lived in Scotland, I would be a member of the Scottish Socialist Party."

Hmmm, if he lived in Scotland, he'd probably change his mind because there is no doubt that at least one of them, and probably several of them, have done gone and lost their damn minds.

First up is Sheridan himself. Now, I know we've all got a soft spot for our Tommy. He was good on the poll tax, good also on warrant sales, and he always sports a fetching tan, even at Christmas. But dammit all people, he's losing his mind.

You can't tell me he hasn't - I saw him doing it on telly last night.

On being asked why he was washing SSP undies in public, Tommy said in effect that the membership had the right to know that the leadership had lost their damn minds. Specifically he elaborated on his earlier remark about the SSP becoming a "gender-obsessed discussion group." He cited the example of the Cumnock branch of the party who were not allowed to send a delegation to the party conference because SSP rules state that these have to be 50:50 gender-balanced. Cumnock didn't have any female delegates to send.

Now, I assume this is true - in which case the SSP has obviously lost its collective damn mind.

But surely going on national TV and telling the world that the party is basically being run by a cabal of deranged harpies is in itself a bit mental? Perhaps he's working on the principle that there's no such thing as bad publicity but I've a feeling the next Scottish Parliament elections will tell a different story.

Who to believe? If Tommy has been completely honest about everything, we have it on the very best authority that the SSP has misplaced its communal marble collection - and this includes him, if he thinks having a public bun-fight is a sensible way to deal with this situation.

Yet without passing on hearsay, and certainly not wanting to pretend that I know more than I do, I think some of Tommy's starstruck groupies might want to consider the possibility that Sheridan has perhaps been a little economical with the truth? Or maybe exaggerating a little?

I don't know if he has been but surely to goodness this is at least possible and certainly more plausible than the notion that Tommy's been nobbled because half a dozen trot MSPs represented some kind of "threat to the British state"? It's a collective damn mind losing incident, I tell you.

Sheridan and party convener Colin Fox: Unable to agree on the damn mind losing incident.