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I voted for the George Galloway and ...I voted for the George Galloway and the Respect Party, largely because I am sick of the filthy sheen of media language and politician-speak that coats everything we are told, on the television and in the press, about the war and about other social issues. I saw George Galloway on Question Time with Margaret Hodge a few weeks ago - she was saying that being tough on crime meant cracking down on (& in fact imprisoning)shoplifting single mothers - a flippant, empty and smug statement designed to give her the last word in an argument with (the very earnest and lovely) Lembit Opik of the Lib Dems. GG interrupted her with 'Shame on you!' and proceeded to pick apart what she'd said, until she was marvellously speechless. In a country of spectacle and spectacular election campaigns that comprise nothing but empty slogans and manipulative, alienating words, it is frankly a relief by way of a change to have a politician cutting through this and trying to talk in some measure about what is -actually- going on, rather than allowing the undercurrent to go unsaid. We certainly don't want to end up in a society such as that of America where their election campaigns are no more than million-$$$, patronising, Disney-esque extravaganzas of stupidity, contests between equally abysmal presidential candidates, one of whom (besides being a murderer) literally passes laws forcing children to be taught in school that God 'might have' created the world, we can't fully rule it out. ETC. gah!
Slight tangent there. But there are certain values that need to be upheld, values of communication and the need and ability to speak out against injustice - this does not and should not need to be something that only the 'Left' are supposed/expected to do. It is just basic human kindness and intelligence.
GG is currently being attacked in the press because his approach is dangerous in the eyes of those who hold power, who wield the rubbery controls of power and spectacle. I am sick of people complaining about how he is a self-interested careerist - that certainly isn't all he is, if he is even partly that to begin with. And if it were partly true - well, is our PM not a self-interested careerist? Aren't all MPs biologically designed as such?......Do people with careers want to further their careers? Is that self-interested? Etc.
Another important thing is that the Muslim community deserve to have a speakerphone voice to defend them from what was certainly an attempt at stirring racial prejudice against Muslims. The imprisonments at Belmarsh and Guantanamo alone were obviously designed in order to fill the minds of the public with subliminal anti-Muslim messages. It is truly horrific, and GG has constantly pointed out that it is truly horrific, and he is right to do so.
as for what I would expect from him as an MP in terms of sitting in the Commons, I would hope he would vocally oppose Labour ideas such as ID cards (preposterous) and anything else put forward that threatens civil liberties (ie anything borne out of terror hysteria, i suspect). My greatest expectations of GG are that he will use his voice and his public profile to alert people to the truths of e.g. the situations I have mentioned above, and to defend ordinary people, people who have financial struggles, who work in jobs they hate, who feel that their voices are useless and that politicians will never, ever see things from their point of view, etc, from those who care for nothing other than their own power.
Go George.
