Leading Socialist thinker George Galloway has called for something we might dub “affirmative reality”. According to the Socialist Unity blog, Mr Galloway has called the trial and conviction of Tommy Sheridan for perjury a “politicised and unnecessary prosecution”.
Does this mean that the requirement to tell the truth under oath in court should be negotiable, depending one one’s political affiliations, ‘class’ loyalty or who you perceive your friends and enemies to be? Perhaps the truth should be weighed accordingly and skewed in a compensatory way.
Perhaps Mr Galloway is suggesting that it is necessary to accommodate different investments in the truth because he believes no Socialist can get a fair hearing in a Capitalist court? He asks us to accept that the prosecution of socialist liars will invariable amount to “politicised” persecution!
Perhaps he merely thinks that it is “unnecessary” for the courts to punish those who lie under oath, because, after all, what is a lie? Really, what is a lie? Who can say for sure? Truth, we must suppose, is a capitalist construct, and as such no Socialist should abide with the law in the first place.
But, let us not forget that the only reason Mr Sheridan is where he is today is because he went to such a court in the first place. Here he succeeded for a short time in persuading a jury that the News of the World’s truth was false and his lies were truth.
It was his undoing.
