George Galloway the patriot.

I don't normally agree with George Galloway, but his interview on Sky News yesterday was spot on.  When Galloway spoke on Saddam Hussein he lost most people's respect by appearing to show a measure of sympathy for the tyrant, but speaking about Gadaffi he took a different view.



His argument is simple: the Arab states are predominantly ruled by dictators, of which Gadaffi is one, the King of Bahrain another, and President Ali Abdullah Saleh, the ruler of Yemen, a third.  All are currently killing their people, so why has the West become so exercised about Gadaffi?  Galloway's answer was 'a dirty little three-letter word, O-I-L'.  Bahrain, of course also has oil, but it also has its US naval base and is a vital land link into Saudi Arabia.  When the presenter tried to mock Galloway by saying that Libya only represented 2% of the world's oil, he looked incredulous, and said that was still a lot of oil - as BP's $15B dollar investment in Libya showed.

The Sky presenter, Anna Botting - goodness knows where they find these people - tried her best to put the counter argument but she was well out of her depth.  She said that the Arab League had supported the no-fly zone, and Galloway laughed - didn't she know that the Arab League was comprised of the representatives of dictators?  Suddenly Sky was putting the case for the tyrants, and Galloway was the democrat! 

He then went further.  What credible threat to British interests does Libya pose?   His answer was chilling: none at all, until we take military action.  Then, he went on, Gadaffi would revert to type and sponsor terrorism as he has done in the past.  Botting leapt on that - was Galloway saying that we should expect terrorist attacks as a direct result of military action?  The answer was a simple 'Yes'.

By then Galloway was well ahead on points, but he then delivered the knock-out blow.  You see, George said, he is a patriot, and he declared that if any country posed a real and credible threat to the UK, he'd be the first in the queue at the recruitment office, signing up to defend the nation!

As the seconds rushed in to revive Botting, Galloway smiled - it was a job well done.

Compelling viewing, in much the same way that a car crash is - I knew I shouldn't watch Botting being taken apart, but I couldn't take my eyes off it.  Mind you, what can you expect from a channel that believes that Eamonn Holmes has the necessary gravitas to present their breakfast news show?