Defensive posture on sucking up to Saddam
[When you are supposed to be a lefty in the UK and you have even the Guardian kicking you down, you are good as toast imho -pb]
guardian.co.uk
Simon Hoggart's diary
Saturday April 26, 2003
The Guardian
· Obviously I don't know the outcome of George Galloway's libel case against the Daily Telegraph, which has accused him of receiving £375,000 a year from the Iraqi government. But I do know that in the past he has been, ahem, slightly parsimonious with the truth. Just over a year ago he denounced me from a public platform - and when George Galloway denounces you, you stay denounced - for accusing him of "sucking up" to Saddam Hussein.
So at the time I went back to the original text, a broadcast on Iraqi television in which Galloway could be seen addressing Saddam. It was picked up by the BBC monitoring service. "Sir, we salute you, your courage, your strength, your indefatigability! I would like you to know that we are with you to nasir [victory]."
He later explained that he hadn't been sucking up to Saddam as such but to the sturdy Iraqi people. However, since English doesn't have a plural form of the second person pronoun, it's hard for an honest tyrant to tell the difference.
For what it's worth, I rather hope that he has been taking money. If he spent all this time fawning to Saddam because he meant it, that would be demeaning to one of our great parliamentary orators. Indeed, the occasion on which he denounced me was when he was receiving an award from the Spectator for his parliamentary performances, of which I was one of the judges. I may not invade the privacy of the judging process, but I'm pleased to say I didn't vote for him.
[wow, the cats claws are really out -g- pb] |
