Tommy Sheridan, Scotland's best known left-wing firebrand, does not give up easily. He has only recently come out of prison after serving one year of a three-year sentence for perjury but was back in court yesterday, still battling against the Murdoch empire. The issue at yesterday's hearing was the £200,000 he was awarded after he successfully sued the News of the World for libel in 2006.
News Group, owners of the now defunct Sunday newspaper, has not
paid and does not think it should have to, since Sheridan was
convicted of lying during the libel trial. It has submitted an
appeal to have the libel case reopened, but the appeal was frozen
while Sheridan was facing a criminal trial. Yesterday, the
company's solicitors asked three Scottish judges to allow it to go
ahead.
But Sheridan's legal team argued that the appeal – or sist, to
give it its legal name – should stay frozen awaiting the outcome of
the police investigation into phone hacking, which is almost as big
in Scotland as in London. The Court of Session agreed. The judge,
Lord Clarke, ruled: "The appropriate course is to refuse the motion
to recall the sist."
Tommy Sheridan's solicitor, Aamer Anwar, sounded pleased
afterwards. He said: "It appears that the shoe is on the other
foot. We were successful in requesting that proceedings remain
sisted pending the outcome of criminal inquiries. The court's
verdict was a kick in the face for News Group. If it was a boxing
match, it would be Round 1 to us."
Fig leaves won't cover their blushes
It is the sort of problem that makes the Commons authorities
wish for a fig leaf to cover their embarrassment. A Freedom of
Information request has teased out new figures for the cost of the
weeping fig trees of Portcullis House.
Portcullis is the large, glass-covered building across the road
from Big Ben that looks like a giant radiator and cost an estimated
£235m to build. When it opened 12 years ago, there was a minor
scandal as it emerged that the 12 fig trees that adorned the
central atrium did not belong to Parliament, but had been hired for
five years at a cost of £150,000. The point of hiring, rather than
buying was to spare the Commons authorities the responsibility of
nursing the trees.
Yesterday, the London Evening Standard reported that their
current rent is £32,500 a year, which means that they have cost at
least £370,000 so far – more than £400,000 if VAT is added.
Not for nothing is it said that Portcullis House is Britain's
most expensive office block.
Double meaning from the real Bard
The French Prime Minister, François Fillon, has twisted the
dagger after that famous gaffe by François Hollande, Socialist
contender for the presidency, who claimed to be quoting William
Shakespeare when actually he was quoting the Bard's distant, living
relative Nicholas. Briefed, possibly by his Welsh wife, Penny,
Fillon told a rally in Paris: "Screw your courage to the sticking
place, and we'll not fail" adding, to general guffaws – "and that's
the real Shakespeare!"
Although one journalist observed: "It's a phrase used by Lady
Macbeth when she's contemplating killing the king – so perhaps
there's a message there for 'King' Sarko too."
A privatised send-off for Lady Thatcher?
The number of signatures on a petition on the Downing Street
website to deny Margaret Thatcher a state funeral has just crept
past the 30,000 mark.
It has nearly 70,000 to go if it is even to be considered as a
suitable topic for a Commons debate, and somehow I don't think it
would get on to the agenda even then, though there is a nice ironic
touch to the petitioner's suggestion that privatising the funeral
would be "an ideal way to cut government expense and further prove
the merits of liberalised economics Baroness Thatcher
spearheaded".
But that is nothing compared with the rapid progress of an
e-petition to "Drop the Health Bill", which by late yesterday had
easily surpassed the 100,000 needed to be a suitable subject for a
Commons debate, having attracted almost 50,000 extra signatures in
a little over a day.
It was launched by Dr Kailash Chand, who was a GP for 25 years.
GPs are supposed to be the main beneficiaries of the Bill, because
they will take over the commissioning budgets previously held by
primary-care trusts. But Dr Chand argues: "GPs are not experienced
in commissioning, many do not want to do it, and also it will take
those very experienced GPs who do take the role away from providing
patient care."
Beauty of a role for Emma
Emma Watson, the 21-year-old star of the Harry Potter films, is
in "final negotiations" for a role in Guillermo del Toro's new
production of Beauty and the Beast. As Beauty, of course, not the
Beast.
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