Full panel:
Lord Falconer
Theresa May MP
Clare Short MP,
George Galloway MP,
Mad Mel.
Should be explosive !
Question Time !
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pirtybirdy
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here's the download link - CLICK - 365mb avi
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If you're going to download this, please make sure you're using a download manager such as flashget or downthemall. If you don't it's much slower and other people will have to wait for a slot. And please don't post this link elsewhere or I'll have to make it private.
Having just watch it, yes it was a bit of an anti-climax, but GG got a few good sound bites in, and both he & Short seemed to have the audience on their side.
I was struck that Lord Falconer was on again with GG, as I think I'm right in saying that this is now the at least the third consecutive time they have been on together, surely no coincidence, and more likely an indication that nobody else from New Labour is willing to take GG on !
I was struck that Lord Falconer was on again with GG, as I think I'm right in saying that this is now the at least the third consecutive time they have been on together, surely no coincidence, and more likely an indication that nobody else from New Labour is willing to take GG on !
Comment on Q/T
GALLOWAY ON QUESTION TIME
It is a perverse compliment to George Galloway MP that some people seem disappointed that on last night’s BBC Question Time he was only very good indeed, whereas he has raised the bar of expectation that his political performances can be electrifying.
But the programme revealed the establishment strategy for containing the political fallout from the war. Firstly, the BBC had achieved the very hard task of assembling a panel where a majority still endorse the original decision to go to war as having been correct; and secondly the question that they allowed to be put to the panel was the narrowest and most technical one, of whether the cabinet had been misled, which inevitably shifted the focus away from Tony Blair and the circumstances that led to the war, and instead turned the spot-light on Clare Short, and her personal credibility.
The programme sought to delegitimize all politicians through starting with a discussion of the expenses scandal, including a misleading and gratuitous barb from David Dimbelby towards George Galloway, a man who is in fact among the very lowest claimers of expenses in the Palace of Westminster. There were two implications in this; firstly that there is no moral difference between inflated expense claims and waging an illegal aggressive war that result in hundreds of thousands dead; and also that even those politicians who oppose the war are themselves grubby and untrustworthy.
This anti-politics card played by the BBC was complimented perfectly by the venal populism of Melanie Phillips, someone who has no moral problem with defenceless women and children in Gaza being slaughtered by a modern, mechanised army; and who has no problem with tabloid intrusion and prurient gossip wrecking the lives of people in the public eye; and yet who says that all politicians are crooked. Of course in Melanie Phillip’s world there is no need for politicians, because tabloid editors are perfectly capable of creating government policy, and what sells newspapers is an adequate measure of their democratic legitimacy.
The other aspect of the programme was that these were tired and stale arguments, surely Mel Phillip’s irrational slanders about George Galloway’s utterly fictitious support for Saddam Hussein have been heard and refuted so many times that no one has the energy to dance that particular jig again. For the record, George Galloway was almost alone in highlighting the oppression of Kurds by Saddam Hussein back so long ago that the Tory government were still selling arms to Baghdad, and Saddam Hussein was still on the Foreign Office’s Christmas card list.
It is a great achievement that one of the most extraordinary crimes ever committed by a British citizen: the wanton and deliberate manufacturing of a false case for aggressive war to secure the illegal objective of regime change in another sovereign state; has been made boring by the smug, complacent languor of the patrician class. The judgement was made before any evidence was heard: Blair is sadly a bit of bounder, but it would be terribly bad form to criticise him for it in front of the lower classes. The inevitable decision of the Chilcot inquiry that Tony Blair should be exonerated was won long ago on the playing fields of Eton.
He only destroyed the lives of a million people; it is not as if he committed an unforgiveable blunder, like wearing brown shoes with a blue suit, or using the wrong spoon for his soup.
Lord Falconer revealed the utter futility of the whole affair by saying that even if the Chilcot Inquiry finds that the war was illegal, then the government did not act illegally, because they had a lawyer’s letter to say they were acting in good faith.
This shocking scandal was picked up on by George Galloway in his finest moment of the night, but David Dimbelby hurried the conversation along. Nothing to see here, just a government steeped in blood and imperial hubris evading responsibility for unleashing all the horrors of hell onto the people of another country. Obviously the law should not concern itself with such triviality.
58 Comments »
https://www.socialistunity.com/?p=5232#comments
There's a few obnoxious comments from a creep called John Meredith, a regular from Harry's Place, asking for proof of GG opposition to Saddam, which was exactly the challenge that Oliver Kamm once put to me, and then blocked my Post (& me from ever posting there again!) that contained many examples & documented quotes that did prove this. I remember that it took me absolutely ages to find all the material, especial as the Hansard Record don't go back far enough, but I did find ample evidence. The problem is that because I didn't expect Kamm to block the Post (it was the first time that I came across Kamm, and didn't know then what a real low-life loser that cunt is), so I didn't keep a copy. Perhaps if I get some time later I will try to find all the stuff again.
It is a perverse compliment to George Galloway MP that some people seem disappointed that on last night’s BBC Question Time he was only very good indeed, whereas he has raised the bar of expectation that his political performances can be electrifying.
But the programme revealed the establishment strategy for containing the political fallout from the war. Firstly, the BBC had achieved the very hard task of assembling a panel where a majority still endorse the original decision to go to war as having been correct; and secondly the question that they allowed to be put to the panel was the narrowest and most technical one, of whether the cabinet had been misled, which inevitably shifted the focus away from Tony Blair and the circumstances that led to the war, and instead turned the spot-light on Clare Short, and her personal credibility.
The programme sought to delegitimize all politicians through starting with a discussion of the expenses scandal, including a misleading and gratuitous barb from David Dimbelby towards George Galloway, a man who is in fact among the very lowest claimers of expenses in the Palace of Westminster. There were two implications in this; firstly that there is no moral difference between inflated expense claims and waging an illegal aggressive war that result in hundreds of thousands dead; and also that even those politicians who oppose the war are themselves grubby and untrustworthy.
This anti-politics card played by the BBC was complimented perfectly by the venal populism of Melanie Phillips, someone who has no moral problem with defenceless women and children in Gaza being slaughtered by a modern, mechanised army; and who has no problem with tabloid intrusion and prurient gossip wrecking the lives of people in the public eye; and yet who says that all politicians are crooked. Of course in Melanie Phillip’s world there is no need for politicians, because tabloid editors are perfectly capable of creating government policy, and what sells newspapers is an adequate measure of their democratic legitimacy.
The other aspect of the programme was that these were tired and stale arguments, surely Mel Phillip’s irrational slanders about George Galloway’s utterly fictitious support for Saddam Hussein have been heard and refuted so many times that no one has the energy to dance that particular jig again. For the record, George Galloway was almost alone in highlighting the oppression of Kurds by Saddam Hussein back so long ago that the Tory government were still selling arms to Baghdad, and Saddam Hussein was still on the Foreign Office’s Christmas card list.
It is a great achievement that one of the most extraordinary crimes ever committed by a British citizen: the wanton and deliberate manufacturing of a false case for aggressive war to secure the illegal objective of regime change in another sovereign state; has been made boring by the smug, complacent languor of the patrician class. The judgement was made before any evidence was heard: Blair is sadly a bit of bounder, but it would be terribly bad form to criticise him for it in front of the lower classes. The inevitable decision of the Chilcot inquiry that Tony Blair should be exonerated was won long ago on the playing fields of Eton.
He only destroyed the lives of a million people; it is not as if he committed an unforgiveable blunder, like wearing brown shoes with a blue suit, or using the wrong spoon for his soup.
Lord Falconer revealed the utter futility of the whole affair by saying that even if the Chilcot Inquiry finds that the war was illegal, then the government did not act illegally, because they had a lawyer’s letter to say they were acting in good faith.
This shocking scandal was picked up on by George Galloway in his finest moment of the night, but David Dimbelby hurried the conversation along. Nothing to see here, just a government steeped in blood and imperial hubris evading responsibility for unleashing all the horrors of hell onto the people of another country. Obviously the law should not concern itself with such triviality.
58 Comments »
https://www.socialistunity.com/?p=5232#comments
There's a few obnoxious comments from a creep called John Meredith, a regular from Harry's Place, asking for proof of GG opposition to Saddam, which was exactly the challenge that Oliver Kamm once put to me, and then blocked my Post (& me from ever posting there again!) that contained many examples & documented quotes that did prove this. I remember that it took me absolutely ages to find all the material, especial as the Hansard Record don't go back far enough, but I did find ample evidence. The problem is that because I didn't expect Kamm to block the Post (it was the first time that I came across Kamm, and didn't know then what a real low-life loser that cunt is), so I didn't keep a copy. Perhaps if I get some time later I will try to find all the stuff again.
Lucky enough I've just found a thread, where a Poster called bounce has listed some Hansard references, (in fact she/he does a very good job on that Thread).
https://forum.richarddawkins.net/viewtop ... 4&start=40
So I posted back on the Socialist Unity thread a reply using her quotes.
I also came across this little strange GG fan site:
https://georgegalloway.net/pictures.html?photo=5
https://forum.richarddawkins.net/viewtop ... 4&start=40
So I posted back on the Socialist Unity thread a reply using her quotes.
I also came across this little strange GG fan site:
https://georgegalloway.net/pictures.html?photo=5