Interview in The Guardian - Sep 6th

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George Galloway smoking a cigar on September 4 2007. Photograph: Graeme Robertson.
Question time
Respect MP George Galloway on why he's glad he went on Big Brother, why the establishment attacks him, and his feelings on Saddam
Hannah Pool
Thursday September 6, 2007
The Guardian

When you were elected to Bethnal Green and Bow in 2005 you said you would serve only one term, but you are standing again. What changed your mind?

What I said from the beginning was that I might stand somewhere else and I might stand for something else, or I might just leave elected politics altogether. This time I am standing in Poplar and Limehouse.

In 2005 I was living in your constituency and voted for you instead of Oona King because of your stance on the war. It was hard for me to vote against one of only two black women in parliament - but then you went on Big Brother and I felt let down.

I'm sorry to hear that. I stood against Oona King not because of what colour she was or what gender she was but what politics she had, and that was entirely right. I would never in a million years have stood against Diane Abbott because she is, with one or two hiccups, a champion of people, against war and for equality.

But other people had King's politics - why didn't you stand against them?

Not in an area where we could win.

Did you ever feel guilt about booting her out?

None whatsoever, and I didn't boot her out - the electorate did. I understand your feelings about Big Brother, but it was a success from Respect's point of view. You have to understand that as a small party, with no money, no corporate backing, no seats in the House of Lords to sell in exchange for donations and without the support of any of the press, including the Guardian, we have to think and act outside the box. We have to do unusual things to keep our profile in existence.

Do you get tired of people making fun of you, or the establishment taking a pop at you?

They only do it because what I am doing is working. If I was a woolly-jumpered, open-toe-sandalled utopian caricature of a leftist, they wouldn't bother attacking me.

Doesn't it exhaust you?

No. By the grace of God, I am inexhaustible. Indefatigable, you might say.

Don't you think that if you toned down your rhetoric by 10 or 20%, more people would listen to you?

Millions of people already support me. The tweedledee-tweedledum two-cheeks-of-the-same-arse space that the mainstream parties occupy is not supported by the majority of people. I'll give you an example: more than 80% believe the privatised utilities should be taken back into public ownership, but no party stands for that. I could express myself more flexibly, more moderately, maybe, but I'm me and I can't be somebody else. If you want radical-lite, you should probably choose that guy with the jumper and open-toed sandals.

Have you been absent as a constituency MP?

I live there, I work there, my office is there, I am there every day, definitely not absent. Despite all the huffing and puffing in the press, you would be hard pushed to produce a constituent who would complain about the service that they have had from us.

What about your attendance record at the House of Commons?

I am in the Commons every day, apart from when I was banned. What I don't do is vote in the Commons and the reason for that is really quite banal. Almost every vote there is a yes or no vote, for either the prime minister's motion or the opposition leader's amendment. I almost never wish to vote for either, and there is no provision for abstention.

Do you deliberately seek to rile people?

No. If everybody agreed with me, I'd be the happiest man in the world.

Do you regret being friendly with Saddam Hussein?

I regret using words that, with scissors and paste, could be endlessly used by my enemies. I was never a friend of Saddam's. I was an opponent of Saddam's when Britain and America were his best friends and I used to demonstrate outside the embassy in London when businessmen and ministers were going in and out selling him weapons. But I just believe it is immoral to kill people's children because you don't like their dictator, especially when you helped put that dictator in power in the first place.

Are you a showman?

Yes. The enemy of understanding is boredom. The important thing is to present your case in as attractive a way as possible, and that means making people laugh, exciting them. I have a lot of techniques to make people remember what I have said.

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