# Gorgeous George has done it agan



## Divus (Mar 31, 2012)

British politics are mostly  a boring affair made up from  the antics of  a firmly entrenched political class.    In theory Britain has one of the oldest democracies in the world  and ‘democracy,’ remember, is a word bandied about as being the most fair and representative political system yet devised by civilisation.     The elected politicos are supposed to represent the will of the people but in truth that is a pretty difficult thing to do - almost virtually impossible.        As a mere voter, one suspects  that the real rulers of Britain are the unelected  career professional civil servants  who sit, or rather hide, behind the elected but temporary politicians.   

In the US there is a two party system, whereas in Britain one could say there is a four party system :-  the Tories, Labour, the LibDems (who can influence a majority)  and The Others,  namely small one off parties formed by personalities or Special Interest Groups who sit on the fringe of the parliamentary  system.      George Galloway, 57 years old, represents the tiny Respect Party.     What are the policies of this party?    Well perhaps it is an anti war group which did actively oppose Britain’s role in the most recent two part war against Iraq and which now opposes Britain’s unwelcome presence in Afghanistan.        However, in truth, Respect doesn’t really need policies for it is never going to come into power.    The party exists to rock the politician’s  boat.   Leading the party from up front  is George.      He is indeed a ‘bete noir’ ie an intelligent man, with a quick wit and an orator’s presence.   Importantly  unlike most politicians he is not inhibited from being controversial.    He follows his instincts as to what the populace will support.   He catches the mood of the common man.    

In 2003 when a Scottish Labour  MP, he was  highly criticised by the Labour Party for seemingly being too close to Saddam Hussein and so he was expelled.    The party faithful saw him as a liability.   He was uncontrollable.  He did not obey the rules of the Party.     Indeed he has made some gaffs in the past but he has a remarkable eye for publicity.   However the general public usually smiles and forgives him.    After being expelled  partly because he criticised on TV the Labour leadership for invading Iraq,  he moved down to East London and  in 2005 took  by vote the Parliamentary seat for Respect  away from a favoured Labour candidate.    This was itself a remarkable result in a parliamentary system which usually favours the main parties.        

This week  the big journalists in the media  yet again did not spot the seeds of his latest remarkable coup.     True, they would  not have thought to be embedded with the likes of George.   They would have probably chosen to   follow the local Asian  Labour candidate who they thought would win easily.    After  George’s  demeaning performance in ‘Little Brother’, they had classed him as ’yesterday’s man’.      Anyway at the time they were following other political events down Westminster way  and they were not in place to catch the earth shattering  result of this by-election up North in far away Yorkshire.  

To the surprise of all, the other day George thrashed his previous Labour  colleagues by ejecting them from what should have been a long held safe Labour seat.     Not only did he win  with almost 56% of the vote under the first past the post electoral system with an absolute  majority of 10,140 votes  but he also knocked back the Labour party into second place despite their holding previously  an overall  majority of 5743 votes.      Only 50% of the eligible voters bothered to go to the polls and  those who bothered did not in the majority vote for the three key parties who are presently in power either as Government or Opposition.     The turn out figures show there is presently little support in this constituency for the ruling parties.    Prime Minister  Cameron’s Conservatives polled only 2746 (say 8.37%) of the votes.    The amazing thing for outsiders to notice is that Bradford is a multi cultural city with virtually half of its population having roots in the Indian sub continent.      George is by birth a Scotsman and in producing this result he has crossed over any racial divide.      Neither has he any roots in Yorkshire but there again as a Scotsman born neither did he speak with  a cockney accent  down in East London in the 2005 election. 

He is a man to watch performing.    He speaks publicly very well.     He has a forceful  quick witted character.  He is undoubtedly a one off maverick.   He has his own ideas of what is right and what is wrong.   Often he takes an opposite view to the Establishment  and sometimes it is easy to disagree with his point of view.    His somewhat demeaning performance in ‘Big Brother’ led to some raising of the eye brows but being George he took part and played the game, for that is what the TV show is.  In many things George is a player.

Arguably Bradford, a Northern city in urgent need of   redevelopment  and of some fresh capital injection, is too small a base for him  to operate in.   He deserves a wider audience.   He missed out in the 2010 election but this new seat in Parliament will give him a platform from which to speak and probably a place in the history books.        It is a pity he has not considered  southern Britain.  Hereabouts we could do with him poking his nose into local politics.     Too long have the  British national parties felt secure in being either in power or in the shadows of opposition.        The three leaders of Britain’s major parties will have been gob smacked  by this result.    And so they should be.       

“Well done George.    Here is  a toast to your success.     Please keep rocking the boat“.


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## Bloggsworth (Mar 31, 2012)

Actually, democracy is the least bad of the alternatives. George Galloway is a buffoon who, however, knows the pulse of the Moslems in the Bradford area and shamelessly pandered to their imaginings. Remember, he was a wholehearted supporter of Saddam Hussain, Col. Gaddafi, Kim Jong-Il and Hosni Mubarak; in fact, he made a lot of money out of one of them. George Galloway's prime interest is George Galloway, and entertaining though he may be, he is not to be taken seriously, he just looks good beside the ersatz plastic politicians who currently occupy the front seats in the House of Commons.


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## Divus (Mar 31, 2012)

I pondered over Bloggsworth's comment.

I know now that George is  the MP for Bradford (or one of them).

I asked myself who is the local MP for my area  - indeed, furthermore, is it a him or a her and  does he or she  wear a blue or red tie?

Perhaps I should be ashamed to say that I don't know the answer. 

PS.  Neither does my wife know the answer.      

.


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## Kevin (Mar 31, 2012)

I wish we had four parties over here, because our political scene is just plain boring. About the only entertainment is at the state level, where cronyism/corruption is rampant, and, they keep getting caught. Even in a lilly-livered state such as my own, the people tend to resent it when it gets too blatant. I wonder: Did the Romans used to throw currupt politicians to the lions? Now that, I would watch.


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## bazz cargo (Apr 7, 2012)

Mr Galloway is in an enviable position. He has no sense of responsibility so he can promise the moon. And the three main parties are a/out of touch with reality and b/responsible for most of the mess we are in. Right time, right place, he went for it. His success was probably as much a surprise to himself as it was to everyone else. 

If nothing else he will generate loads of newspaper hogwash and provide comedians with a career boost.


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## Bloggsworth (Apr 8, 2012)

GG has just married his 4th wife 3 months after the third wife, who he did not bother to divorce, has had a baby - He is also under investigation for tax evasion - Yep, truly a shining example to us all...


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## Divus (Apr 8, 2012)

Well fellas, if what some of you  say about George is true, then his election as an MP, by a massive majority says a lot about the state of British politics.

At the beginning of May down where I live, we have local council elections coming up.     I haven't seen sight nor sound of any candidate as yet.


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## jeffrey c mcmahan (May 18, 2012)

Dv:

"However, in truth, Respect doesn’t really need policies for it is never going to come into power." Sublime

I may ponder this sentence, I feel a muse coming on. Perhaps an essay on the sentence, a little pointed satire. Dv your write up gave me some insight into England's social order. I know little about parliament, except how it arose in feudalism, became consolidated through baronies; then came some oneupmanship processes, then a monarchy; which culminated in the  Magna Carta; which introduced the birth pangs of modern democracy; viva la Queen. 

 Here in the states I don't see much democracy. President Obama has been an example of the peoples man; but he is having a rough go of it at present. No, our government is a republic more than anything else. And if Romney wins the Whitehouse, there will be hell to pay. Those Tea Party loonies are fundamentally conservative Christians; Romney is in a Christian cult. And may have a vision of creating a Theocracy sans Muslims. The Tea Party; my vision is of; _patriots_ dressed up as Indians--the American type--and throwing tea into the harbor. Take that you Brit's, wait a second, weren't some of us British at some point? But, I digress; I have no hope in stability; I have a nice double edged blade, if it comes to it, I'll procure a rifle; and if the fun comes it will be funtastic. But at the moment I live in a small port town, away from the mainland on a peninsula here in the pacific northwest, and life is good. Even though the future looks bleak.

Well thank you for letting me entertain you for this brief moment, and will now bid you au revoir;

Best Regards

Jeffrey


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## Divus (May 18, 2012)

The great thing about a democracy such as the UK with no written constitution is that the Constitution can mean all things to all men (or women).

The Queen, who was born into the job, has one key role: she is head of everything so that nobody else can be. 

However, it is very noticeable that in times of great stress, the Prime Minister, whoever that might be at the time, can grab the reins of Government and tell the Sovereign later.


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## Roman (May 19, 2012)

I attended a talk by Galloway about 2 years ago. I originally went to hear Tony Benn speak, but he was ill and we ended up with George instead. He can certainly whip an audience up into a frenzy when he speaks/shouts. And like any good debater or politician, he has his arguments all perfectly worked out, but he is very much the egotist. A large portion of his talk was about himself and revelling in his own self importance -- it was meant to be a talk about Palestine. He told us how he suspected he was under the surveillance of the secret service, and that they were probably in the room with us "right now." He stayed behind afterwards signing copies of his book and getting his photo taken with elderly "groupies". I have the feeling Galloway would have made a classic Tin-Pot Dictator, which probably explains why he spent so much time schmoozing with them.

There's an interesting debate between him and Christopher Hitchens on Youtube which is worth checking out. One of the few debates where you will actually see Hitchens look a little shaky at times. Unfortunately it descends into mudslinging towards the end, rather than intellectual debate. It gets a little personal too -- which is a shame because it could have been great.


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