George Galloway has been introduced into the House of Commons, supported by the Father of the House, Sir Peter Tapsell, and by Gerry Sutcliffe, Labour MP for Bradford South.
Sir Peter is the living parliamentary link to the Toryism of old: Keynesian, pro-Commonwealth, opposed to everything that has come to be neoconservatism, accordingly anti-Thatcher, and on all of those grounds a stalwart defender of British sovereignty from the very start of the Eurofederalist project. Never mind Iraq. From the outset, he has opposed the war in Afghanistan.
And Mr Sutcliffe is a pro-life Catholic who embodies mainstream Labour, neither Bennite nor Blairite, neither Trotskyite nor Thatcherite.
Analyse those two positions, and see exactly how much difference that you can spot. The first can be more socially liberal than the second, and Gerry Sutcliffe has been constrained by office when it came to wars and the EU. But they form a broad stream, the mainstream of British politics.
Today, George Galloway identified himself with that. And it identified itself with him.
Galloway has offered Respect membership to Lord Ahmed.
ReplyDeletePresumably the two peers who endorsed your book would be your supporters if you were introduced into the Lords. But who would they be if you were introduced into the Commons?
What an extraordinary question. Well, Sir Peter Tapsell and George Galloway, I suppose. But what on earth could have lead you to ask that?
ReplyDeleteI doubt that Galloway was entirely serious in his offer the Ahmed. In any case, he is not the Leader, Salma Yaqoob is. And membership applications do presumably have to be approved.
Why did he affirm, rather than swear the Oath?
ReplyDeletePerhaps they could not find a Catholic Bible, with the full Canon of the Old Testament?
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