There's a spectre haunting Alan McCombes: the spectre of Iago. Alas, I am that man.

Iago is not a name I chose for myself. Nor does it appear anywhere on my birth certificate; I would have very much resented my parents if it did. This unfortunate pen-name was selected for me by the policy coordinator of the Scottish Socialist Party. Although it was intended as the crudest of insults, it is a name I have chosen to accept.

It was during an interview with BBC Scotland's Glenn Campbell, a few days after he chaired a press conference of our MSPs, that McCombes first spoke darkly of an Iago lurking in the shadows of our party, a creep disseminating malicious gossip, bringing our party into disrepute. Although comrade McCombes promised that he would shortly name this malicious individual, a full thirteen months have passed and still we are all kept waiting.

Comrade McCombes and his supporters on the party's executive drew a sketch of this 'so-called 'Iago' at the secret national council meeting that confirmed that Tommy Sheridan remained a valued member of the party and of our MSP group. While McCombes and his close supporters have lacked the guts to name me, or to put me before a kangaroo court, they have summoned sufficient courage to blacken my name by innuendo, without giving me an opportunity to challenge any of their smears.

This blog is going to be my principle means of clearing my name. But it is going to be much more than that. I intend to use it to reach out to as many of the party's members, affiliated trade unionists and voters as I can. I will use it to repeat everything I argued publicly in the immediate aftermath of Tommy's resignation, everything that lead to McCombes' anger with me in the first place. I will add more details. I will supply additional information that all three thousand SSP members need to know about McCombes and his closest supporters. And I will argue why the majority of them need to be purged from the SSP's executive in next month's elections. Delegates to the party's conference need to agree to draw up a series of recommended slates that will eliminate from the executive anyone unwilling to publicly support Tommy Sheridan against Rupert Murdoch in this July's libel action against the News of the World. Probably over fifty percent of the present executive fall into that category, including fifty percent of our MSPs.

For their unforgivable role in dragging the party into crisis, Frances Curran and Carolyn Leckie need to be kicked off the party's executive. Both then need to be democraticly removed from top place in their respective regional lists. Rosie Kane has yet to back Tommy against Murdoch. And she associated herself one hundred percent with McCombes' thoroughly discreditable campaign against Colin Fox. However, as far as I am aware, her actions were due to her allowing herself to be dragged along by Curran, Leckie, McCombes and others. Unless and until I discover otherwise, I will be giving her the benefit of the doubt. Her crime is one of incompetence, not maliciousness. While it is far too late to redeem the souls of her two companions, if Rosie took a long overdue decision to stand alongside Tommy against Murdoch, then she could yet merit a place on the executive. And her being reselected as top woman on our Glasgow regional list for Holyrood. Will she declare herself to be a Spartacus, like Colin and Rosemary? Or would she rather have the thirty pieces of silver? Like Curran and Leckie? I live in hope.