Behind Galloway’s grin

George Galloway has tragically demonstrated that sectarian politics are now alive and well in Britain.  The other week Ken Livingstone appeared at a London mosque and promised to make London a ‘beacon of Islam’ and last week went on to dismiss Jews as unlikely to vote Labour because they are ‘rich’. Now we see Galloway flying in to one of the country’s most divided areas to sweep the Labour party aside in what he has termed ‘a Bradford spring.’

Much can — and should — be said about this depressing, and predictable, turn of events.  But for now I’d just like to make two quick observations.

The first regards the ‘Bradford spring’ phrase.  This cannot be allowed to go uncommented upon. Of course Galloway is the type of politician — like Livingstone — who can get away with anything. But even for him that phrase gives chutzpah a bad name.

Whatever the final results across the Middle East and North Africa, during the ‘Arab Spring’ the peoples of the region have risen up in popular moments to overthrow the dictators who have held power over them. The snag is that Galloway has invariably been on the side of the dictators rather than the people who are trying to overthrow them.

In Iraq he famously told Saddam Hussein, ‘Sir, I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability.’ Saddam Hussein killed more Muslims than any other leader in modern times.

In 2005 he turned up in Damascus to praise the insurgency in Iraq, met Bashar al-Assad and told the Syrian people afterwards, ‘I was very, very impressed. … Syria is lucky to have Bashar al-Assad as her President.’ The citizens of Homs and other Syrian cities may well feel otherwise.