Liam redux

That joker isn't funny anymore

When he was looking to get elected George Galloway put in a lot of hours speaking at meetings in the constituency. He did a couple on this estate and he was terrific. If things work out he won’t be doing any of those for a while. He has got himself a TV show on Rupert…

Liam
1–2 minutes
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When he was looking to get elected George Galloway put in a lot of hours speaking at meetings in the constituency. He did a couple on this estate and he was terrific. If things work out he won’t be doing any of those for a while. He has got himself a TV show on Rupert Murdoch’s SKY 187 from Monday to Thursday. Respect is encouraging its members to support the venture.

There is a meeting on my estate this evening to start organising a campaign to stop it being transferred to an Arm’s Length Management Organisation (ALMO). Once upon a time inviting the MP to get involved would have been an obvious next step. I don’t think I’ll suggest that tonight.

Anyone who dares suggest that he is subverting Murdoch’s “platform” and helping construct an ideological counter-hegemony can f*ck off back to the academy for sycophants. This is self serving pension planning.

Here are the details of the programme along with a reminder of an earlier triumph.

TONIGHT ON THE REAL DEAL

Tune in to The Real Deal with George Galloway this evening at 6pm on Sky 187 where he will be covering the crisis in Lebanon , Margaret Hodge’s BNP ploy and a host of other issues.


George Galloway’s weekday television show – The Real Deal – launched on Monday 21st May on Channel 187 on the Sky platform.

From Monday to Thursday between 6pm and 7pm George will be live on air, giving his opinions on news and current affairs, taking calls from viewers as well as talking to studio guests.

You can leave a text or voice message to be read out or played on the air. For text key in rd (space) then the message (less than 170 characters) and send to 84383. For the voice message the number is 0906 7390400 (if your mobile operator doesn’t allow, then send from your landline). Texts and calls cost £1 plus normal sending charges.

Help us make it the best talk show on TV

11 responses to “That joker isn't funny anymore”

  1. Korakious Avatar
    Korakious

    Can I ask what Galloway’s official post is in RESPECT?

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  2. Dave Avatar
    Dave

    Have you ever listened to his radio show? its like a party political broadcast for Respect. Ironically many Respect activists dont listen to it but ive come across bus drivers and pub landlords who do. If your interested in a social experiment then go out into the street and ask a passer by if they can name a member of the campaign group, or even if they know what it is. From your post you would think that getting socialist ideas across on mass media platforms was a bad idea.This is the man who spent three years solid doing public meeting after meeting and your criticising him for not going to one meeting and foolishly addressing an audience of tens of thousands instead! Labour were foolish to expel Galloway, they have provided a bridge for the left into the mainstream debate. Its crazy that you are getting caught up the the small picture and fixating on the Media/Labour counter attack. BB was just a gameshow, it was mildly embarasing down the pub a year ago. Clearly it hasnt altered the trajectory of the Respect vote. Is socialist campaigning some kind of protracted hovis advert for you?

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  3. Phil Avatar
    Phil

    Dave – whatever he’s doing, he’s not doing it as the elected representative of the people of Bethnal Green and Bow. (Or as a mandated delegate of RESPECT, come to that.) You can’t use celebrity culture to build support for socialism – the two are antithetical.BB was just a gameshow, it was mildly embarasing down the pub a year ago. Clearly it hasnt altered the trajectory of the Respect vote.RESPECT had 20 councillors across England in April; it now has 18.

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  4. Liam Mac Uaid Avatar
    Liam Mac Uaid

    Dave I’d have replied earlier but the whippets were trapped in the pigeon loft and it took ages to get them out.Any branch of the media is useful for getting the message across. Olivier Besancenot is fairly often on French chat shows talking about politics and that’s helped him become a national political figure.The “Hovis” style political campaigning that you refer to was precisely the thing that built Respect in Tower Hamlets. If half of what I read is true, Michael Lavallette does a fair bit of it as well. At the time he was looking to win the seat Galloway did a superhuman amount of it himself, showing a good understanding of how important it is. So did dozens and of other people. It involved speaking to working class community groups, union branches, anti-war meetings getting the message over that this was a political alternative to war and neo-liberalism. And people voted for him to be their MP on this basis.If he is doing four nights a week in a TV studio he is not going to have the time to do that anymore. This is a career choice.In a way this ties into some of the discussions on the posts about the Labour leadership. Do you build an organisation by individually influencing people in their living rooms and in ones and twos or do you engage with the groups, parties, campaigns that already exist? I will return to this theme in a couple of days but for now I’m off to a ferret fight.

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  5. AN Avatar
    AN

    Whippets are lovely dogs, you shouldn’t make fun of them liam.The not very hidden subtext of Dave’s argument is that socialist organistaion can be built by leaping over the heads of the established activists, and appealing direct to the electorate.Using this argument, then democratic structures become at best a distraction, and at worst an obstacle. Indeed the existing established activists become a conservative block.It all sounds very New Labour actually!And BB was not just mildly embarrassing. It had last impact.Last Novemeber a left palestinian activist in Beit Sahoour siad to me: “Galloway is still useful to us internationally, we know he is an arsehole in the Uk, but he still gets publicity for us”Two Iraqis i know here in swinodn are now embarassed that they sent photos of themsellves with galloway back to their family.

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  6. Dave Avatar
    Dave

    I am not suggesting we drop local bread and butter campaigning, incimentalism you can call it. But I am questioning whether the best use of Galloways time is either to sit parliament waiting for the improbable situation of having a casting vote on an issue or spending his time attending every local meeting (cos he does a lot around the country doesnt he?) when other Respect activists can take up that role. His strength is comunication, so I think he is right to focus on that. By doing so he opens doors for campaigners like us, and the incrementalism magically speeds up.By my count there are 19 Respect councillors but I could be wrong. The drop reflects defectors not holding seats rather than a drop in the Respect vote which otherwise spread and improved. They were nearly all elected after BB.As for conservative blocks, well you said it. Respect is certainly an unfinished fluid experiment, which could go either way, personally I like that about it. As for local democracy it functions just fine as far as I can see, with the added bonus that some of the more excentric individuals who used to be around the SA are now giving the SP a hard time, for which they have my wholeheated and genuine sympathy.As for Galloways cache, ok he is flawed. I wish the Labour Party had expelled some kind of left wing everyman with superhuman qualities. The simple fact is Galloway opens some doors and closes others, we should be focusing on walking through the open ones not endlessly debating the closed ones.

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  7. Derek Wall Avatar
    Derek Wall

    It is important to use the mass media if you can but at the risk of sounding too liberal ‘on the one hand and on the other’ 4 nights a week smacks more of building a career after politics than building socialismI only get on Radio 4 once every 6 weeks, so who am I to comment!

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  8. Phil Avatar
    Phil

    The 18 I know about are 11 in Tower Hamlets, 3 in Newham, two in Birmingham and one each in Preston and Bolsover. And yes, one defector stood down, but two others stood and lost. This isn’t a party that’s making any headway on a local level, let alone a ‘breakthrough’.Galloway was elected as an MP to represent the interests of his constituents and vote the RESPECT line. As far as I can see he’s doing neither. He may be a great communicator (for those who like their socialist messages delivered with bluster and hyperbole), but the way he’s spending his time is still an abuse of his position as an MP. And it’s not helping the cause, as far as I can tell – cheering on a radical celebrity has nothing to do with socialism.

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  9. Dave Avatar
    Dave

    Phil your trying a bit hard with the vote thing. None of the candidates got less than they did last time did they, in terms of Respect vote? I thought some Labour guy had defected to Respect in Tower Hamlets but could be wrong.I’m not sure when Galloway has voted against Respect positions? As for representing constituents, when he was in BB the Guardian ran a front cover pretending to be a constituent phoning up the MP’s office with a leaky roof, only that same day the Respect local office was in fact open and dealing with just those kind of housing issues. There is nothing magical about casework and phoning up local council services to help process problems. Yes sometimes having an MP behind it makes a difference but I’ll tell you for sure most MP’s dont spend there time on the phone to the local council trying to fix leaky roofs. They spend there time on side projects or as lobby fodder (or opening chip shops).Respect has generally done a good job extending surgery services and has also done a good job with traditional bread and butter campaigning. Whatever Galloways ultimate trajectory at the moment he is still putting himself about like a one man party which as far as i’m concerned goes some way to rectifying the BB error of judgement.

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  10. Phil Avatar
    Phil

    None of the candidates got less than they did last time did they, in terms of Respect vote?Why do you make that assumption? I know that the Manchester Rusholme candidate got fewer votes and a lower percentage of the vote this time round as compared to 2006. But I don’t know how many of the other 47 candidates had stood before – do you?I’m not sure when Galloway has voted against Respect positions?I’m not sure when he’s voted for them – or voted against anti-socialist measures, which would give him plenty of work to do.I’ll tell you for sure most MP’s dont spend there time on the phone to the local council trying to fix leaky roofs. They spend there time on side projects or as lobby fodder (or opening chip shops).Most MPs, when you look at how they spend their time, aren’t very good MPs. When you look at how he spends his time, Galloway is a lousy MP.

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  11. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Can I ask if anyone knows where this TV show is filmed? It looks to me as if Raj TV is based in Birmingham, a long way from Mr Galloway’s constituancy. If it is filmed there then how much time is he spending working for us down here?

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