Tommy Sheridan (born 7 March 1964, Glasgow) is a Scottish socialist politician. He has had various prominent roles within the socialist movement in Scotland and is currently one of two co-convenors of the left-wing Scottish political party Solidarity.

Sheridan was active as a Militant tendency entryist in the Labour Party, before leaving Labour as a member of Scottish Militant Labour (SML). He was a prominent campaigner against the poll tax in Scotland, and was jailed for six months for attending a warrant sale after Glasgow Sheriff Court had served a court order on him banning his presence. Sheridan has twice been jailed in connection with campaigning against the presence of the nuclear fleet at Faslane Naval Base - a presence which continues.

In 2006 in the case of Sheridan v News International he won an action for defamation against the News of the World and was awarded £200,000 damages. The following year, he was charged with perjury, for having told lies to the court in the defamation case. In the following weeks, six of his relations and colleagues were also charged. In October 2010, he appeared together with his wife Gail at a trial for perjury. While the charges against his wife were withdrawn, on 23 December 2010, Sheridan was convicted of perjury, and on 26 January he was sentenced to three years imprisonment. In the light of the News of the World phone hacking affair, the Crown Office has been ordered to reassess the case. He was released from prison on 30 January 2012, one year into his sentence.

George Galloway (born 16 August 1954) is a British politician, author, journalist, and broadcaster, and the Respect Member of Parliament (MP) for Bradford West. He was previously an MP for the Labour Party, for Glasgow Hillhead and then its successor constituency Glasgow Kelvin from 1987 until 2005. He was expelled from the Labour Party in October 2003 because of his strident public opposition to the Iraq War. He subsequently became a founding member of the left-wing Respect Party, and was elected as the MP for Bethnal Green and Bow in 2005. In 2010, Galloway unsuccessfully contested the seat of Poplar and Limehouse, and in 2011 he unsuccessfully contested the Glasgow list for the Scottish Parliament, before being elected as an MP in the Bradford West by-election, 2012.

Galloway is well known for his campaigns in support of the Palestinians in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. In the late-1980s Hansard records him delivering a ferocious assault on the Ba'ath regime, and Galloway opposed Saddam's regime until the United States-led Gulf War in 1991. Galloway is known for a visit to Iraq where he met Saddam Hussein, and delivered a speech, which ended in English with the statement "Sir, I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability." He has always stated that he was addressing the Iraqi people in the speech. Galloway testified to the United States Senate in 2005 over alleged illicit payments from the United Nations' Oil for Food Programme.

Des McLean is a Scottish stand-up comedian, Actor, TV & Radio presenter from Glasgow, cited by Billy Connolly as his favourite comedian. He started comedy in 1999 and was a finalist in the BBC New Comedy Awards, in that year he was also a finalist in the Channel 4 programme So You Think You’re Funny.

In 2002 Des made his debut at the Edinburgh Fringe with his one-man show "Des McLean 5 Stars" and appeared on the BBC series "The Live Floor Show". The following year he performed at the Glasgow International and New York comedy festivals.

In 2005 McLean was sought by Radio Clyde to provide sketches for the Bowie at Breakfast programme on Clyde 1. He soon became the co-host on the breakfast show with George Bowie, with the pair winning Sony Radio Academy Awards in the Best Breakfast and Entertainment Categories. McLean recorded a series of wind-up telephone calls for the programme that became the most talked about feature on the radio station, fooling stars that included Sean Connery, Rod Stewart and Joan Rivers; The daily calls soon became a series of 4 top selling CD releases, "The Best of The 8.10 Sketches". At one time all 4 were in the HMV Top 10 chart in the same week. McLean went on to host his own comedy sketch shows "Friday Night Comedy" and "Des McLean's Sunday Sketch".

Bob Bird is the former editor of the Scottish edition of the defunct News of the World tabloid.

He is best known for the widespread media coverage over his role in two trials involving former Scottish MSP Tommy Sheridan: the 2006 Sheridan v News Group Newspapers defamation case and the 2010 HM Advocate v Sheridan and Sheridan perjury case.

In the original trial in 2006, Sheridan sued News International, publishers of the Sunday newspaper the News of the World, for defamation, after it published stories making allegations that the married MSP had been indulging extramarital affairs. During the trial, Bob Bird, as editor of the newspaper, testified that he had authorized the payment of £14,000 to two women in return for their story. Sheridan won the case, and was awarded £200,000 in damages. The News of the World launched an immediate appeal against the verdict.

The Scottish News of the World subsequently claimed to have 'irrefutable proof' that Sheridan had lied on the stand during his libel case; Bob Bird claimed that he had paid personally obtained the information from an informant, having had to strip to his underpants in the process in order to reassure his source that he was not wearing a wire. Bird paid £200,000 for the secret video footage, which his newspaper claimed showed Sheridan admitting to his extramarital affairs. The allegations eventually led to a police investigation and a court case, with Sheridan standing trial for perjury in 2010. During this trial, Bob Bird denied allegations from Sheridan that Bird had authorized the use of illegal phone taps and bugs to obtain information on the MSP. Sheridan was found guilty of perjury and was subsequently jailed for three years.