‘From member for Baghdad Central to MP for Gaza’?
George Galloway, a firebrand politician with a penchant for banging the drum on “Muslim” and anti-imperialism issues, has returned to the British parliament from the Rochdale constituency in northwestern England. The political chattering class promptly branded it a switch from Mr Galloway’s former service as the alleged “member for Baghdad Central” to “MP for Gaza”.
Mr Galloway was dubbed “member for Baghdad Central” for making a heavily criticised trip to Iraq and meeting the country’s president Saddam Hussein in the 1990s. It was one of many such visits to Iraq and part of Mr Galloway’s long-claimed struggle against US-led Western imperialism.
The ‘MP for Gaza’ moniker comes from Mr Galloway’s combative election campaign in Rochdale on the issue of Gaza’s suffering at the hands of Israel. He promised voters that if they returned him to parliament “I will shake the walls for Gaza”. After his emphatic win in Rochdale — with nearly 40 per cent of the vote, ie more than the Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat candidates combined — Mr Galloway told a journalist he would speak up in parliament for the “millions of people who feel that they’re not being heard” about the suffering in Gaza.
So far, so normal. This was, after all, the quintessential George Galloway. It’s what he does. The issues he’s campaigned on throughout his political life have been controversial. In 2003, he was expelled from the Labour Party for railing at the US-UK invasion of Iraq and for describing Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair’s government as a “lie machine”. Ever since, he has represented various political parties and parliamentary constituencies (Glasgow Hillhead, Glasgow Kelvin, Bethnal Green & Bow and Bradford West). In 2019, he founded the Workers Party of Britain on a 10-point manifesto that includes building “a new working class politics in Britain”, ending “imperialist wars”, withdrawing from Nato, rebuilding British industry and “decent, cheap, secure housing for all”.
In Rochdale, it could be argued that George Galloway was just being George Galloway.
So why would the return to parliament of a fiery 69-year-old with his best political life behind him, albeit with excellent oratorical and retail political skills, cause such heartburn in the British establishment? It has alternately resulted in a frantic scouring of the archives and an equally energetic peering into the crystal ball.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said it was “beyond alarming” that Mr Galloway won and a sign that “our democracy itself is a target”.
The Labour Party dismissed Mr Galloway and his election triumph, saying Rochdale voted as it did because there was no official Labour candidate.
Some British commentators colourfully noted the triumphant return to parliament of a “political maverick”, with Politico describing him as a “walking Molotov cocktail”.
It was left to more sober analysts to acknowledge that the Rochdale election result may demonstrate something else. The Financial Times said it showed not just “the anger felt by many Muslims over Labour’s position on Israel” but pointed “to a deepening frustration with Britain’s political establishment ahead of this year’s general election”.
This is probably the nub of the whole Rochdale saga.
The bloody military operation underway in the Middle East is leaving its mark on British domestic politics with the two main parties — Conservative and Labour — unable to offer anything approaching a humane or just position on the bitter conflict.
More than 30,000 people have been killed according to Palestinian health officials and at this point of time, ordinary British people probably sense the lack of moral clarity in the stance taken by those who seek their vote. It stands to reason that many may be thinking: today, it’s about not caring to speak out against further human tragedies in faraway Gaza; tomorrow, it may be much, much closer to home.
Originally published at https://www.rashmee.com
