“Arthur Scarghill is a

“Arthur Scarghill is a genuinly nice bloke.” I have never met him so i will take your word for it. He gracefully accepted a copy of Socialism Or Your Money Back when we gave it to him at an Edinburgh May-day rally. Whether he read it or not, i have no inkling.  I once got a pint from Mick McGahey, he is a nice guy too but i have never liked his son. And Tommy Sheridan has cracked a few jokes in his speeches that i have heartily laughed at.  I will also accept what many witnesses have said that Adolph Hitler was a great host and great company too, a vegetarian and animal lover to boot. Personal attributes of an individual are irrelevant. It is a person’s politics that matters to the Party. Some members may not like me and i may not like some of them but we are political comrades. I can live with that and so can they. And yes we do accept that a leopard can change its spots and that a persons political views can change over the years.  I simply said that we would require confirmation of that from certain people who’s political position is well known and previously at odds with our own.  He might be a nice guy as a person but Scargill is the undemocratic leader and i will emphasise that – the UNDEMOCRATIC LEADER – of the SLP, controlling it by the affiliation of the NUM pensions branch, full of dead men’s votes. He  shares very little of our idea of socialism or how to achieve it. I would however gladly welcome a change of politics by him, Galloway and Tariq Ali just as i would from a ordinary member of the BNP or EDL.