Oh God...
Don't put me on the same side in any debate as George Galloway. It makes me feel unclean :(
A trio of politicians are challenging the government in a rare public hearing at the Investigatory Powers Tribunal today, alleging that British authorities ignored a ban on the tapping of MPs' and peers' telephones under a system of "blanket surveillance". The government and spooks are being dragged to the tribunal by the …
I rather enjoyed seeing him rip into the US Senate over Iraq. They basically tried to character assassinate this vocal critic by summoning him to answer charges of taking bribes from Iraq and it turned into one of the all the great political backfires of the decade. He pretty much tore down their case for the invasion of Iraq in meticulous detail and the lovely thing is, he backs everything up with references. Got a LOT of coverage of the flaws in the case for war. And possibly the only person I have ever seen successfully shoot down Fox News's Bill O'Reilly in his own show, no less.
He also stands up for his principles. He's been badly beaten up twice by people with your attitude in the past couple of years. Once by a Zionist fanatic because of his criticisms of the Israeli government and I don't recall the other's reasons. But it seems to me he has a lot more courage and clear beliefs than a lot of MPs. He fought tooth and nail against the invasion of Iraq whilst most of the Labour and Tory politicians kowtowed to their political masters and only came out against the war much later when there was no political cost in doing so. Whilst Galloway is endlessly politically marginalized for positions that are actually pretty justifiable.
So no, you don't get to speak for "basically everyone in the country", in fact, as the pretty much equal downvotes to your post show.
This seems quite normal for our overlords
"Why are people complaining about this blanket surveillance I mean its only to keep them safe and even if there is a bit of prying into there affairs its of no concern to them that we know that Joe Bloggs of 56 Bakers Street thinks the government is a load of crap, because hes busy shagging his nanny so we can use that to keep him quiet! Well that's that settled wheres my whisky.. hang on a sec this says that we are also part of this and so we will be monitored?
Oh nononono that's not right can't have that this will have to stop right now its really bad and wrong, They might find out about the money I have stashed in the .. i better watch my words"
I could just about put up with whatever dragnet they want to impose if parliamentarians and peers were exclusively included. I'm sure they'd pay a lot more attention to what they're voting for then and debate it properly.
Anonymous coward, obviously, parliamentary privilege.
You could say the same thing about Obama, as long as he has a speech writer and teleprompter. Hitler may have actually been better than Obama in that regard. Both used the same political techniques.
He also doesn't give a toss about anything except his "legacy".
>>"I don't believe he gives a toss about this subject, he just wants the publicity"
Any particular reason you would know the inner mind if George Galloway? He's been pretty badly beaten up twice by people for his criticisms of various powerful factions. He could have had a cushy and successful career in the Labour party but clashed with the whips repeatedly over points of principle and was eventually expelled from the Labour party for advocating that people refuse to go to war. This may come as a shock to you but you don't generally achieve political success by annoying the most powerful people in government. It actually tends to lead to political marginalization, severe curtailment if your political career and advancement. Oh, and character assassination. There has been a truly exceptional amount of that over the years in Galloway's case. Usually followed by people having to settle for libel, incidentally.
So given how often he has set back his political career by sticking to his principles or pursuing human rights (he was an early supporter if same-sex marriage and I seem to recall him getting flack for voting to normalize the age of consent for homosexuality with heterosexuality), or been hospitalized for criticism of Israeli policy or put up with some pretty vicious attempts to end his career with various libels, I'm going to return to my original question. How is it you know that despite all the cost sticking to his principles has brought him, that you know that what he's really motivated by is the pursuit of fame?
>>"Well I guess he must have something to inspire such an impassioned defence"
More that I just dislike cheap attacks and pretending to speak for the country.
Anyway, given I posted facts and your posts go "are you his mum", I think this is pretty much done. As another poster said, if sponsors of mass surveillance just try to tar opponents of it by association, your sort of mindset is exactly the one that tactic works on. What matters is that they're trying to get away with dragnet style surveillance, not that you get upset about George Galloway.
He has a very good track record of highlighting government wrongs. You should watch that link of him laying into the US case for war with Iraq. That got a lot of press and his arguing style is to back everything up with references as he goes, which is a lot better than most people's style of word play and veiled ad hominems, imho.
No.
The real issue as that I find Galloway to be odious, oily, smug and self-centred.
A massive contrast to another leftwing politician, Tony Benn, who also stuck to his principles no matter what (for instance, rejecting his peerage to remain an MP, staying firmly against nuclear weapons and the iraq war), and who, despite having very opposite policits to mine, I admired a lot.
The Daily Mail? Seriously? Hardly a balanced reporting tool. And isn't there some unwritten rule about quoting the Wail on here?
The Mail. A rag in which whenever there is a piece about something I know of, it turns out to be either WRONG or a complete distortion of the truth.
I wouldnt even sully my chips with the Daily Mail.
>>"The real issue as that I find Galloway to be odious, oily, smug and self-centred. A massive contrast to another leftwing politician, Tony Benn, who also stuck to his principles no matter what
So basically you think that he should leave the country because you don't like his manner whereas another politician you did so they can stay.
Got it.