political commentator * author * publisher * bookseller * radio presenter * blogger * Conservative candidate * former lobbyist * Jack Russell owner * West Ham United fanatic * Email iain AT iaindale DOT com
Friday, November 10, 2006
EXCLUSIVE: Galloway Uses F Word With Students
Last Tuesday Hugo Rifkind wrote about George Galloway's F word tirade against some Oxford students. Some kind soul has sent me the tape. Here's what Hugo wrote...
Uproar in gowns, after a visit to the Oxford Union from George Galloway. Students claim that, angry at being booed for his championing of Cuba's "different type of democracy”, Galloway accused his critics of being "hunting, shooting, fishing types". Later, three (former state-school) students cornered him, angry at being tarred with a posh brush. "You are confusing me for somebody who gives a f*** what you think," the Respect MP explained, as a furious squabble erupted. Respect, indeed.
So 'fucking' what ? Gorgeous George isn't everyone's cup of tea, but he certainly can debate.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that American students queued around the block for his head to head debate with Christopher Hitchens just shows that he is good box office.
I don't agree with much that he says, but he can mix it with the best of them, and I can forgive someone almost anything if they are not guilty of the cardinal sin of being dull & uninteresting.
GG may make you bloody annoyed and cross when you watch him, but at least he doesn't have the droning, somnolent, verbose platitudes which characterise 18 Doughty St.
Perhaps you should invite him on ? You would soon eat your words if it would boost your ratings.
anonymous 10:52 - I'm developing a taste for Doughty Street and enjoy it, except female students with very long hair that they keep having to lift off their faces should be asked to pin their hair back for the duration. The habit is very distracting. Most of us don't want to feel we've come into a students' common room.
ReplyDeleteTo Galloway, I agree that the man can debate and he's certainly much quicker on his feet that most politicians on either side of the House. I thought he did a stand-up job when appearing before the US Senate. They were truly dumbfounded by him. They kept making ponderous lunges, but they couldn't catch him. (I don't like him, either, everyone, but he certainly is good value as a debater.)
You know he's launching his own web tv channel? I'm drunk so sorry fpr any spelling errors. Love you iian!
ReplyDeleteDrunk Anonymous 11:25 - I bet it will be a good deal livelier than the emollient Dave's.
ReplyDeleteWhy do I think Dave and Tony should be on the showroom floor selling Jaguars in LA?
If he doesn't give a f*** what they think, why did he go there to speak at all?
ReplyDeleteGG certainly is a good pantomime dame.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, he's supposed to be an MP.
Odious demagogue.
rog - "demagogue"? Are you mad?
ReplyDeleteI am confused how a link to youtube can be an exclusive - please explain.
ReplyDeleteGalloway should be put up against a wall and shot. Quite simple.
ReplyDeleteThere was a college ball here last weekend where the rap artist at half three in the morning was telling most of Oxford (I live a mile awy and could hear it clear as a bell) that we were all "muthufuckas". It seems de rigeur to hire such verbal torturers at Oxford.
ReplyDeleteI disagree that Galloway is in any way a good debator. He is a good gobsh/te (sorry to be coarse, but it is the most apt expression), good at shooting his mouth off at short notice. A good debator would have some sense, some reasoned argument, come out when he did so. Galloway does not, just empty rhetoric and weasel words, often without any real meaning at all, or with inherent contradiction.
ReplyDeleteAt his best he gives populist rants, he is good at saying what a certain audience wants to hear, but that is the antithesis of good debate.
Where is the great debator in a man who, challenged on his view, simply claims the challengers are simply snobs*? Even without pointing out the ad hominem fallacy and the fact that he is in fact completely wrong (not something unusual for Galloway), that is quite obviously simply unpleasant character, not good debate. In fact it is intensely irritating in any discussion.
Then he gives a rant, part of which you've heard, that is demeaning and full of obscenities. Nice.
* The recording was made after a debate during which this is said to have occured. There is a url for blog with more details in my comment on the previous item about the revolting Galloway loosing his temper.
Um, actually no he can't debate all that well. He doesn't interact with the other sides particularly well and if he's getting beaten or gets annoyed at not being centre of attention, he prances off or starts suggesting the matter should be settled in court - would any sort of debater really have such a contempt for the notion of debate?
ReplyDeleteIf you have ever watched him, or spoken against him, you realise that he is a powerful speaker who normally results to sophistry, casuistry and name calling.
Having watched his debate with Hitchens, it was a joke - both were disgraces to the word debate. The fact that he can string a few flowery sentences together and outwit some Yanks does not make him a wonderful debater. The fact that he is better than most MPs is hardly a ringing endorsement.
I couldn't give two flying rubber duckies if he's sworn at Oxford students, in all likelihood neither do they, the simple fact of the matter is he is simply a walking hypocritical ego - a man who will attack Bush for not being democratically elected but would publicly fellate Castro if given the chance. His moral ambiguity and reverse relativism are something to behold.
GG is just an angry inch, I too found his performance in front of the US Senate to be good watching.
ReplyDeleteI also think he is a good Mass Debator rather than a good debator
Talking of the'cool cat' galloway that other 'mangy moggie' Guido is on holiday this weekend.
ReplyDeleteSo shouldn't the mice be playing while Mr Dale has an open goal to shoot at ? He could even try and get a scoop for a change !
Galloway is a dick.
ReplyDeleteHardly news.
OH MY GOD! Someone said the "F" word! That's soooo naughty! I would NEVER say that.
ReplyDeleteActually, good for Galloway! I have always admired him. He has been proved right on everything. The fact that he swears doesn't change a thing.
Galloway hasn't been proved right on anything (has he been proved right in his praise of Saddam Hussein?) and I am unimpressed by people who resort to name calling and bullying and insults in order to make a point!
ReplyDeleteI forgive George Galloway everything because he told the truth about Iraq. That the US and Britain fell upon the country like 'a pack of wolves'.
ReplyDeleteBlair deliberately misled the electorate, and the Opposition didn't behave like an opposition.
Parliament has besmirched themselves, and no wriggling can disguise it.
Andrew
"You are confusing me with someone who gives a f*** what you think"
ReplyDeleteObvious, really.
He's a politician.
If GG wasn't around doing his party tricks, the younger generation would't know what a rabid, swivel-eyed leftie actually sounds like.
ReplyDeleteexpat at 2.14 - because I had the tape and uploaded it on Youtube.
ReplyDeleteBrilliant!
ReplyDeleteThanks for that Iain.
I don't think Galloway has been proved right on everything - I wish he wasn't a socialist, if only because we could do with some free market politicians with such balls - but I agree with the rest of what Jenny said.
ReplyDeleteGalloway used the F word in a conversation - big deal.
The man has not one shred of credibility. That's all. Full stop.
ReplyDeleteI'd heard that due to dumbing down Oxford students aren't what they were but I hadn't realised they had such closed minds they were incapable of listening to a debate that contained views other than their own. It must be boring as hell to study in an atmosphere of such pitiable fundamentalism.
ReplyDeleteanonymous 9:28 - Then you obviously didn't watch the US hearings. The man can move like greased lightning. He had riposte's to their sentences before they were out of the senators' mouths. No, he doesn't follow the classical Greek formula for debate, but he certainly does make mincemeat of his opponents - and usually does it very entertainingly.
ReplyDeleteI don't like his politics either, being to the right of Genghis Khan, but the man has a very lively mind, he listens to what his opponents are saying and then slices,dices and juliennes them before they realise they've been cut. I think he's most entertaining - although an absolutely vile politician. I wish he were on our side.
*Sings* I see your true colours shining through...
ReplyDeleteGalloway is a dick.
Hardly news.
Gallas is less of a dick and more of a harlot's rectum!
c4 said: "Gallas is less of a dick and more of a harlot's rectum!" We will respect your expertise in this area.
ReplyDeleteYou obviously feel you've made a killer point as you punctuated it with an exclamation mark. !!!! People who trudge panting to a laboured point that wasn't worth making in the first place always add an exclamation mark - to emphasise the bon mot nature of their remark. Yawn. Or perhaps I should write yawn!
Verity, when you said: "I don't like his politics either, being to the right of Genghis Khan .. " can I assume you mean GG is to the right of Genghis - not you are to the right of Genghis. I only ask because I don't know you and for all I know you may be to the right of ... .
ReplyDeleteAnd when you say, "I wish he were on our side." - What side is that?
Wasn't there myself, but know people who were - he was mad the whole evening.
ReplyDeleteJenny - The subject was 'I'. I write grammatical English and you can safely assume that the logic of the sentence holds. I'm sorry you weren't able to follow it.
ReplyDeleteAnd when you say, "I wish he were on our side." - What side is that?
I assume you're aware that our host formerly worked in Derek Davis's office, that he is on the Conservative 'A' list and is the chief presenter and one of the major movers behind 18 Doughty Street? Therefore, it's logical to assume that most people who frequent, and post on, this blog are on the political right. There are some lefties wittering forlornly, of course, but most of us are on politically conservative.
Verity - your grammar is of course perfick. However,I never "safely assume" anything on the internet.
ReplyDeleteAre you male or female, by the way?
Desperate Dan
ReplyDeleteIf you actually checked what happened, you would see that it was Galloway, not the Oxford students who refuse to listen to opposing views. I will rarely be heard to say anything good about Oxford University students, but I cannot see how you can possibly find fault with them here.
Ian Dale - 12:30pm
ReplyDeleteNot an unreasonable explanation I have to accept. I am worried that your tendency to answer a straight question with a straight answer disqualifies you from any future career in politics and in particular journalism.
Richard Dale: (it was Galloway, not the Oxford students who refuse to listen to opposing .. )
ReplyDeleteYou can say this from listening to the wee snippet of conversation on YouTube?
Or have you somehow listened to the whole of the conversation from beginning to end?
Jenny
ReplyDeleteAs you well know there is a description of the whole event available of Drink-soaked Trotskyist. The very clear description said that as soon as anyone disagreed with Galloway he threw his toys out of the pram, and said that they must be public-school snobs and huntsmen, assuming no-one else could possibly disagree (and that those have no right to an opinion). He is said to have behaved like a petulant child, with some of the poorest debating I have ever heard about. That is the basis of my comment.
You didn't believe that because the recording someone talked about hadn't come to light. Now it has come to light. They show that he has the poor character to say what is alleged. What is the basis on which you now disbelieve that description?