Not So Gorgeous Now (24/11/15)

I've written about George Galloway's chequered political career on and off over the years and on one occasion I said that if George were "made of chocolate, he would eat himself". 

Now I suspect that's widely held view, but in this hilarious interview for The Sunday Times  the once 'Gorgeous George' seems to have made a terrible impression on Camilla Long who as well as being a journalist appears regularly on the BBC's Have I Got News For You. 

http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/Magazine/article1636355.ece



With friends like these…

George Galloway charmed Castro and became hugger-mugger with Saddam. Now he wants all of London to embrace him as he runs for mayor. Camilla Long finds out what’s really going on beneath his trademark fedora

By Camilla Long

Galloway at home in west London (Andrew Whitton)

Now that I am home and collapsed and no longer panting, I can safely say that nothing, not even a whole week’s spooning with Tom Cruise, could have prepared me for exactly how small George Galloway is. He is not just small, but Hollywood tiny, possessing a defiant sub-Amis weaselishness that radiates from every inch of his proud, obstinate little body. 

What's New Pussycats? (17/10/15)

Regular readers will be unsurprised to learn that the country's best known political 'carpetbagger', George Galloway, has thrown his hat in the ring to become London Mayor. 

Not literally, of course, because George keeps his hat on just about everywhere these days including indoors or inside TV studios when being interviewed about his latest plans.

A peculiar affectation, don't you think, especially for a man of George's age?

In any event, I doubt it will do him much good as I suspect that the citizens of London will follow the example of the good people of Glasgow who shunned Galloway in 2011 when he stood for election to the Scottish Parliament.

Now Glasgow's loss became Bradford's gain for a few years after a spectacular by-election success in a formerly safe Labour seat in 2012, but the voters of Bradford West deserted George at the2015 general election.

Hence George's interest in standing for election in London which, of course, had a mayor named Dick Whittington who according to English fokelore was famously associated with a pussycat.

Just like George from his days on Big Brother.

Chocolate Gorge (03/04/12)

My other favourite comment on the Bradford West by-election came from Andrew Rawnsley - writing in The Observer - where he took a stick to the vainglorious claims of Britain's most famous political narcissist.

A good word that - narcissist - which means that if Gorgeous George was made of chocolate - he'd eat himself - which I think he probably would.

But then again he's not gorgeous according to Andrew Rawnsley - and clearly the voters in Glasgow don't find him very attractive.

So perhaps we'll never know.

"More grotesquely, ungorgeous George proclaims himself to be the herald of a "Bradford Spring". It is a very advanced form of narcissism to view a by-election upset in a parliamentary democracy as the equivalent of the moral courage displayed by those who have risked their lives in uprisings against entrenched tyrannies. This bilge is especially nauseating when it flows from the same lips which once offered their owner's warm salutations to Saddam Hussein."

Fishes and Bicycles (6 May 2011)

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.

Fishes and Bicycles (2 December 2010)

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 wont - 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.