Mayor Galloway? Perish the thought

Few political figures can be more revolting than George Galloway.

The former Bradford MP today announced he would stand for Mayor of London 2016, a frightening prospect indeed. Fortunately, it is a prospect that’s as improbable as terrifying.
Mr Galloway does not know how to spell loyalty. He cuts a charismatic figure: self-taught, and lacking the privileged upbringing and university education of many a fellow politician, he never the less articulates graceful arguments, majestically delivered in his still strong, rather charming Dundee accent. To this day, I still have absolutely no idea what ‘indefatigability’ means.

But be under no illusion: Mr Galloway is a nasty, ignorant man. He pompously makes much of his Teetotalism and abstinence from gambling, with platitudes to everyone from Marxists to Catholics and, it is rumoured, Muslims, with some even suggesting he has cynically converted to Islam to win votes.

When an old Jewish man was beaten up by thugs claiming to act in the name of Respect Party some years ago, we heard nothing from Galloway, who loudly and vigorously denies his anti-Semitic credentials.

Perhaps that’s because he was too busy vociferously defending the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, who had expressed the view that Israel should be “Wiped off the face of the map.” It was all a dreadful mistranslation, apparently, in a conspiracy which, presumably, must have involved rather a lot of people.

Then again, Galloway likes conspiracies, despite insisting that, “If it walks like a duck, looks like a duck, it probably is a duck.”

In the intervening years, Twitter came to our attention, and yesterday brought us a classic from Galloway: the US is assisting the advance of Islamic state. Yep, you heard me right.

Allegations and woeful misdeeds have followed Galloway for decades, from accusations of financial abuse whilst undertaking charity work, part of which was carried out in Greece where he admitted to “knowing some of the women carnally,” to his involvement with Sadam Hussein.

That’s not to mention the long-standing accusations of anti-Semitism, not helped by his stance that he does not “debate with Israeli citizens.”

The police are currently investigating improper use of parliamentary expenses and his conduct at the 2015 election, whose result in Bradford, being a fan of conspiracies, he now disputes.

I guess he wouldn’t have done if he’d won, but his view of his own self-importance is now so distorted from reality that I wonder if he can distinguish fact from fiction anymore, let alone countenance the possibility that people don’t like him very much.

When I heard him a couple of years back on Irish radio, admit that he believes himself to be a global revolutionary and world leader, he spoke with what I can only describe as a psychopathic mania in his voice.

Mr Galloway really does believe every one of his crazy conspiracies. He thinks everyone’s out to silence him. He thinks Islamic State are being aided by the USA.

He thinks the election was stolen from him, like his presence in the Commons matters one jot to the establishment when compared even to the 56 Scottish National Party MPs, to say nothing of the victors.

He thinks the BBC is biased against the political left, when all the allegations are that the corporation favours the left too much, which, incidentally, I disagree with.

In short, if he had any power, Mr Galloway is a man to be feared. As it is, the man who stated “Tramp down the dirt” upon Margaret Thatcher’s death, deserves his place as a figure worthy of mockery and ridicule.

The only shame is that, now he’s thrown his hat in to the ring, we’re going to have to hear a lot more from George Galloway over the next year. That really is a shame.