Brian Monteith: Shed no tears for Sheridans

Tommy's been a naughty boy, but I forgive him." That's all Gail Sheridan needed to say in public and the whole sordid affair that has brought Tommy Sheridan's temple crashing down on top of him and his comrades could have been avoided.

Such was the adulation amongst so many of Scotland's professional classes for the rebel with a cause (and a suntan) that he would have been forgiven his trysts with swingers so long as it had Gail's seal of approval.

'Fessin' up was the right course of action for Tommy to take. Had he done so, I have no doubt he would have remained an MSP and a few of his comrades would have still been in Holyrood with him.

It would have given him and his gang a position of great leverage with Alex Salmond's minority government. He would have been able to bargain for some of his favourite hobbyhorses, such as more free school meals, in return for supporting the SNP.

Shown to have a human failing like the rest of us, the teetotal holier-than-thou demagogue could have turned the sexual revelations to his advantage and enhanced his man-of-the-people status rather than sullied it.

Facing an election in May as an MSP critical of other parties bringing in the cuts, his old-school, old-Labour political values would now be more attractive than ever.

Compared with the complacency of Labour's "if we do nothing and just wait four years we'll be returned to power" approach - and the earnest but dull leadership of Iain Gray - Sheridan would now be on the cusp of leading Scotland's fourth party with more MSPs than the Lib Dems.

Gail would have been Scotland's own Hillary Clinton and stood by her man, saving his reputation in a way only a wife can. Instead, he chose to be Jeffrey Archer and she to be Mary Archer, the fragrant one turning heads in court. Unlike the Archers there is, however, no remorse, no repentance, no contrition - just yet more bravado about fighting the establishment and the injustice of it all.

Sheridan could have portrayed himself as Scotland's last great hope of defending its supposed socialist culture - an antidote to New Labour, valueless materialism and individual avarice.

Sheridan is none of these things - instead he has been branded a liar and a cheat by a jury of his own peers in Glasgow.

Nor can he claim he has been done down by a biased or mendacious justice system. It was Scottish justice that he put his faith in when he sought a jury to award him damages and it was Scottish justice that found him to have lied to win his case.

Concerns about being split from his family and his child are nothing other than shallow attempts to manipulate the public's emotions. Sheridan could have pleaded guilty at any stage in the trial, the earlier the better, in return for a deal that would have reduced his time away from his family.

Self-deluded that his word was more trustworthy than so many witnesses of less financial means than he, Sheridan chose the course that risked him being separated from his daughter.

Rather than considering an appeal, Sheridan should count himself lucky that the sentence is only three years. Had it been four years he would not be liable for automatic early release and so would have had to serve at least two years, probably more.

With his surprisingly light sentence he can expect to be released under licence with a tag in the autumn, defiantly demonstrating his innocence yet again. Some will believe him but, unless the conviction is quashed, he is now branded a liar and a criminal for life.

There has been some rubbish written by those that condone or even support Sheridan's decision to lie under oath. It is said the prosecution should never have been brought, that lying in a civil defamation case did not warrant a criminal investigation and the resulting prosecution.

Sheridan's lies were, however, no mere playground fibs, no forgivable white lies to protect someone's feelings. They were a carefully constructed series of fabrications that sought to cause the equivalent of a fraud worth 200,000 - and ruin the reputations of former colleagues who would henceforth be framed as lying conspirators.

Do the likes of Sheridan's defenders say Jeffrey Archer should not have been prosecuted for perjuring himself in a civil action? Of course not. They rejoiced when the Tory Lord was put behind bars and they were outraged when he sought to find rehabilitation once released.

Nor was Sheridan some innocent abroad, caught up in a maelstrom not of his making. He was a member of a new legislature in which the people put its trust.

If we consider Scotland to be a democracy worthy of respect, our lawmakers cannot be lawbreakers.

If there was injustice, it was that done to people such as Colin Fox and other honest socialists who once thought the world of Sheridan but when asked to lie for him warned him that it was the wrong judgement to make.

By his own hubris Tommy Sheridan sent himself to prison and we should not shed a tear for him or his wife.