Fishes and Bicycles (06/05/11)
So George Galloway has failed to win a seat in the Scottish Parliament elections.
Now this comes as no great surprise - here's what I said about the relevance of his campaign for a list seat in the Glasgow region.
Seems like the voters in Glasgow agreed with me - that the former Respect MP had little to offer Holyrood.
Which chimes with my own views - because I didn't vote for him either.
George Galloway is to politics what Jose Mourinho is to football - though without the evident talent and smouldering good looks.
'Gorgeous' George is a tired old pussycat these days both vain and vainglorious in equal measure whose current claim to fame is that he writes a regular column, wait for it - for the Daily Record.
The other day George was rude and condescending about Christopher Hitchens saying that he would 'pray' for the avowed atheist who is terminally ill with throat cancer.
George also boasted, as is his won't, about his public debates with Hitchens in 2005 suggesting that these had been a great success and that he had come out on top.
So I watched these recordings and other interviews on You Tube and it seemed to me that, as on many other issues, the former MP is simply deluding himself.
The two men clearly detest each other which makes for great theatre and sparky TV.
Yet for me Hitchens had the measure of his opponent whom he would probably characterise as a populist demagogue.
Apparently George is interested in standing for the Scottish Parliament in next year's elections and his penchant for flowery words and phrases would certainly bring some colour to its debates.
But as his political interests have always been dominated by foreign affairs Holyrood needs George about as much as a fish needs a bicycle.
