TOM BROWN: What a spanker, Tommy

TOMMY Sheridan and I have always had a friendly understanding. He knew I thought his politics were potty, but we respected each other.

In fact, I helped him break into journalism as a newspaper columnist. I knew that meant I was helping the finances of the Scottish Socialist Party - but what the hell. Tommy had that rare thing in politics, conviction (or convictions if you count his visits to jail).

Amid the numpties and nondescripts who are the majority in the Scottish Parliament, Citizen Tommy brought magnetism and popular appeal. Even the sunbed tan brightened a dull day.

So I am disappointed by Tommy's tactical retreat to the backbenches amid lurid sex slurs.

A tacky woman journalist has dropped heavy hints about a married MSP with very bad breath (surely that's a tell-tale detail, for or against) who liked to visit swingers clubs and enjoyed being spanked.

Tommy denies all but says his wife Gail, expecting their baby, had a bit of a tantrum. I'll bet.

He says he has resigned as party leader to be a "good Socialist dad" who comes home every night and doesn't stray far from Glasgow.

Sorry, Tommy, it's too much of a coincidence. True or not, this episode has tarnished you. Any politician who exposes himself in public with boak-making statements like "I was always sexually active and slept with a lot of women (before marriage, of course)" and "I know that I'm attractive to some women" is asking for it.

Meanwhile, it's a spanking good story...

Copyright 2004 MGN LTD
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.