Mr Galloway do we like him?

[Wilf]

Don't like George Galloway and don't like cats

 

[tim]

As a person no, as a public figure he is amusing.

 

[darren redparty]

The major problem with galloway, IMO, is that he is a stalinist.
this is not simply a term of abuse, but the reality.
galloway views the world, and its problems, as being controlled by 'important' men. Thus when american imperialism attacks iraq, it is BUSH attacking Iraq, and if one wants to oppose that attack one must side with the iraqi important man,saddam.
Similarly defending the cuban people against us imperialism means defending FIDEL.
Galloway or course includes himself in this group of important men.
(yes I know. AS far as I can see there are never any IMPORTANT WOMEN in GG world)

 

[chilango]

He´s a profesional politician and C List celeb.

Is he of the "left"?, well sorta, but not enough for me to really care.

 

[darren redparty]

also I dislike the SWP far more for promoting him as THE anti war MP- thus identifying GG with the anti war movement.
GG has always been like this- its not as if nobody knew what he was like

 

[cockneyrebel]

Whatever my criticisms of Galloway, I hate the liberal and right-wing attacks on him. Totally hypocritical. You really see the smug, middle class nature of papers like the Guardian and Independent with stuff like this.

 

[bluestreak]

I defend him when he's slagged off, on here or in the media. In neither place is there any actual proportion to the attacks or any particular interest in whether given allegations are true or not. I don't have any time for this stuff. I also think it's bad practice to distance yourself from people who are attacked by powerful people because they're perceived to be a threat.

That said, while I think he's a good thing in some ways - personally brave and willing to speak truth to power - I think he's an egomaniac and a loose cannon of the most unreliable sort. I had a poor experience with him personally. I also think he's too willing to make rhetorical speeches in front of Arab leaders and he has a long history of being, shall we say, lax with his accounts. He also has some dubius friends, as some businessmen are wont to do. I do not however think that he's a crook and I think efforts to claim otherwise are precisely the sort of thing that, being designed to smear a leading anti-war figure, should be strenuously opposed. I have little time for people who join in with smear campaigns.

I think a proportionate view would be that he is one of a long time of rogues of whom the labour and radical movements have always had their share: Leigh Hunt, Edward Aveling, Derek Hatton, you know the sort. Not remotely to be trusted but at the same time sincere in their beliefs and prepared to stand up for them. You can't always choose your leading figures and nor should you try too hard to do so, because there are only a limited number of saints around and if you try too hard you end up with nobody at all.

pertty much my take on it all.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

Whatever my criticisms of Galloway, I hate the liberal and right-wing attacks on him. Totally hypocritical. You really see the smug, middle class nature of papers like the Guardian and Independent with stuff like this.

You do, it's very telling how they're absolutely on-message.

 

[tollbar]

I dislike Galloway for many of the same reasons stated by Pilchardman. If you have followed Galloways career right through, from the Dundee Labour Party to Respect, Its all ultimately been about George and some very blatent profiteering from his position. You dont need to have a crystal ball to see that his latest incarnation as CBB contestant is George preparing to go into a media career and when that happens Respect will join the list of his abandoned positions along with the Dundee Labour party, War on Want and Kelvin constituency. I would also agree with Darren about his stalinism.

The mark of the failure of the anti war movement is that in the three years of its existence it has not thrown up any nationally known spokespersons from its own ranks and still has to depend on an old labour figure like Galloway.

 

[HarrisonSlade]

I feel a certain warmth when it comes to Galloway, just as much as I feel when I see Steve Norris. But I also feel that both are self serving non politicians who don't care about the people they supposedly represent. I would like to see both of them in the entertainment media.

As I have said previously, I would like to see Galloway host Blankety Blank, but not represent constituencys for his own personal gain.

 

[pilchardman]

Which "wrecked" the movement so signally that it subsequently produced the largest protest march in all British history. Which would count for something in many eyes.

Subsequently? I think you mean previously.

 

[i_hate_beckham]

Wow i started a decent thread.

A lot of stuff has been posted about him that i didnt know, which has certainly been eye opening. He was being slagged off in both the gaurdian and independant today and thought it was a bit unfair what they were saying especially as he isnt in a position to answer back or know what they are saying.

 

[sihhi]

Wow i started a decent thread.

A lot of stuff has been posted about him that i didnt know, which has certainly been eye opening. He was being slagged off in both the gaurdian and independant today and thought it was a bit unfair what they were saying especially as he isnt in a position to answer back or know what they are saying.

It's politics I'm afraid that's what happens he of all people knew that when he decided to participate.

 

[WasGeri]

I note that many who slagg him for showboating don't slagg off the warmongers in charge.

Well, you must be fucking blind, then.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

Many who slag him for showboating are New Labour MPs and columnists, and certainly don't slag off the warmongers in charge (except in a minor, pathetic way, occasionally). I'd say that was fair.

 

[WasGeri]

I was referring to people in the real world.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

What, not on the internet or on the telly?

I've heard someone say he was a tosser based on his appearance on CBB... I've not heard that person say anything about warmongers, but he may have at some point, he's a bit of a leftie. My flatmate reckons GG is the second coming so she's not going to say anything against him. Out of that selection of two people making any active commentary recently, I'm a bit lost.

I don't know anyone else who's expressed an opinion on their own.

 

[exosculate]

I liked it when he had a go at the senators, bravura performance, and he's pretty much the only vocal anti-war MP; not on the basis of party politics and not on the basis of "well it would have been fine if only we'd been winning". When he's not locked in a house full of tossers he can be relied on to appear on TV and give a good rhetorical kicking to odious pro-war pundits. On that basis I'd rather have him around than not.

I don't care about RESPECT and I don't care about SWP links, I don't think either make any significant difference to anything I'm bothered about. I don't really have any more interest in his constituency performance than I do any other MP; that's a matter for his constituents, and I don't actually know the details beyond the smears. I don't care what he thinks about abortion or whether he fancies Rula Lenska. I certainly don't think that he's not behaving "properly" by going on CBB, not "acting like an MP" - fuck's sake.

What I'm finding particularly annoying at the moment is the blatant New Labour PR campaign against him while he can't answer back and the willingness of others to unquestioningly repeat it. Talking point after talking point, fake protests, it's like being in the US again.

I agree with this.

But i don't like him.

Yet still glad he beat Oona.

Because I'm still glad he has vocalised things I agree with and I will defend him to the end against the clear and ideological smearing onslaught.

 

[pilchardman]

Many who slag him for showboating are New Labour MPs and columnists,

Sure, and their criticisms are insincere and carry little weight, especially when you consider Tony's excursions onto Top of the Pops, Richard and Judy, the Simpsons etc. New Labour people moaning about GG can fuck the fuck off.

And they're late to the game anyway; I've been hating GG for feckin ages. They only kicked him out of their disgusting party fairly recently.

 

[tobyjug]

I don't know anyone else who's expressed an opinion on their own.

Pardon, I hate the fucker without the need for outside influences. As far as I am concerned he is a traitor condemned out of his own mouth.

 

[Dissident Junk]

Humm . . . I decided about a year ago to live in a bit of a bubble world, where people like George Galloway didn't really exist.

I know why I dislike him. I dislike him because I wish he was a good, honest guy - because maybe I believe personal actions are political. And somehow I cannot accept, even though he may say things that I agree with, his words mean anything at all. A killer may speak the truth, but does that mean we have to like him or accept him or his ideas because of it?

I feel that at the heart of my dislike of Galloway is the whole 'death of the author' argument, and since Paul de Man came up with that one, I am still in a quandary.

 

[X-77]

A killer may speak the truth, but does that mean we have to like him or accept him or his ideas because of it?

but what has that got to do with liking or not liking Galloway?

 

[Dissident Junk]

but what has that got to do with liking or not liking Galloway?

Because I dislike Galloway's behaviour: past and present. Just because he speaks some truth at times, I cannot automatically overcome my distaste with him as an individual and this affects how I process whatever comes out of his mouth.

Mibbe

 

[X-77]

Because I dislike Galloway's behaviour: past and present. Just because he speaks some truth at times, I cannot automatically overcome my distaste with him as an individual and this affects how I process whatever comes out of his mouth.

Mibbe

oh, fair dos.

 

[X-77]

take, for instance, Martin Luther King's affairs. If they'd been in the papers at the time (and to be honest, I'm not sure why they weren't, because the FBI must have known about them) King would have been destroyed.

I remember hearing that the FBI told the papers but they refused to run the story, even though they had concrete evidence (they bugged his hotel rooms apparently). Will google and try to find out more on that..