Speaking of,here's some background >>>>>>>Profile: George Galloway
George Galloway has always appeared to inspire a quite remarkable mix of emotions. But whether you admire him, loathe him or lampoon him - never, ever underestimate him.
Perhaps it is the holiday home in the Algarve, perhaps it is the fondness for Cuban cigars. But, no half measures, George Galloway seems to get right up the nose of those who count themselves among his critics.
Equally, though, he can command an audience with his oratory. And, scattered throughout political life in Scotland, now London's East End and at Westminster, there are those who have been his acolytes. There's always been something about George.
Born in 1954 in Dundee, George Galloway was educated at the city's Harris Academy.
After a spell working at the Michelin tyre plant in Dundee, he turned his amateur, youthful passion for Labour politics into a professional career as a party organiser, again in Dundee.
It was classic Galloway. Confronting controversy with impetuous vigour
His reputation steadily grew - for oratory, for activism and for high-profile controversial campaigns such as the move to twin Dundee with Nablus on the Palestinian West Bank.
At the age of 26, he became chair of Labour in Scotland. Six years later, he was in the House of Commons.
To get there, he had to beat no less a figure than Roy Jenkins in Glasgow Hillhead - a seat which had previously been Tory for generations.
Charity finances
But always, always the questions. In that same year, 1987, he faced inquiries over his financial stewardship at the charity War on Want, where he had been general secretary for four years.
He was exonerated - after volunteering to repay some contested expenses: beyond, he stressed, the repayment required by auditors.
He has sought attention. He has sought success for his political initiatives. But he has scarcely channelled his career towards office.
As he noted in one newspaper interview, marching alongside Gerry Adams to campaign against British policy in Ireland did not exactly endear him to the Labour hierarchy.
A maverick, a rebel, a dissident. All descriptions which George Galloway detests and disdains. He says such terms imply a "flibbertigibbet" approach to politics, a gadfly attitude to policy.
Praise for Saddam
A smile comes easily to Galloway's lips. He can be both charming and affable. But it is occasionally a smile of superiority.
George Galloway is talented and he knows it. He has a command of language which provokes envy among more stilted and struggling orators.
But always, always the questions. In January 1994, he was shown on television apparently praising Saddam Hussein for his courage, strength and indefatigability.
Mr Galloway insisted he was lauding the people of Iraq - not their leader. Few critics were prepared to make the distinction.
Then in 1998, he brought little Mariam Hamza to Glasgow for the leukaemia treatment which sanctions prevented in her native Iraq.
Supporters said it was an act of charity, bolstered by a political desire to expose the damage done by sanctions. Critics said it was a cynical PR stunt.
'Like wolves'
He was expelled from the Labour Party in October 2003 in the wake of his outspoken comments on the Iraq war - comments which Labour chairman Ian McCartney said "incited foreign forces to rise up against British troops".
Labour acted against him following a TV interview in which he accused Tony Blair and President Bush of acting "like wolves" in invading Iraq.
Mr Galloway responded to his expulsion by saying: "This was a politically-motivated kangaroo court whose verdict had been written in advance in the best tradition of political show trials."
Attacking Blair
In the wake of his expulsion he has been the figurehead for the anti-war party Respect.
In December 2004, Mr Galloway was awarded £150,000 in libel damages from the Daily Telegraph over articles published in April 2003 claiming he received money from Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq.
He denied seeking or receiving money from Saddam Hussein's government, saying he had long opposed it.
If Labour hoped that the 2005 General Election would see his departure from frontline politics, they were to be disappointed.
Instead, he ousted the incumbent Labour MP in Bethnal Green and Bow, Oona King, in what was one of the most remarkable results in modern British electoral history.
He polled 15,801 votes, giving him a majority of 823 over King, overturning her previous majority of 10,000.
Galloway fought the election on an anti-war ticket, attacking Tony Blair in his acceptance speech.
As is so often the case with Galloway, the contest was anything but low key.
His defeated opponent described it as "one of the dirtiest campaigns we have ever seen in British politics" while he himself described the handling of the election as "a shambles".
And his fractious exchanges with Jeremy Paxman in the small hours of election night provided one of the most memorable television moments of the election campaign.
Now, even before he takes up his place as the new MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, he is back in the headlines again - and once again it is all about Iraq.
Story from BBC NEWS:
news.bbc.co.uk
Published: 2005/05/12 08:40:34 GMT |
