David Walsh
in person
curious
george Words & Photograph
David Walsh
Famed for his antics on Celebrity Big Brother, out spoken and oftencontroversial politician George Galloway talks candidly to Buzz about the man behind the orator and his Holyrood ambitions
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George Galloway. The latter would certainly not sit well with the would-be msp. His political pursuits have been spent defending those in turmoil or oppressed both abroad and at home. In exile from Glaswegian politics for the last five years, Galloway is back in his native Scotland in the midst of his latest political comeback. On the familiar streets of Glasgow, he is currently orchestrating his campaign to represent the city in the Scottish Parliament. Although the former Labour and Respect mp has spent more than 20 years as a parliamentarian in London, Galloway’s politics were never confined to the corridors of Westminster or his former constituents in Glasgow. In more recent years, he was perhaps the most enraged and outspoken critic of Blair’s decision to invade Iraq. In more recent months, he has voiced his support for the peoples of North Africa in throwing off their shackles of autocracy. One only need look at his heroes to understand what stokes
Photography: Andrew Cowan/Scottish Parliament © Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body - 2011
T
he old maxim warns that you should never judge a book by its cover, regardless of whether or not it is mauled and mottled around the edges. Prejudgement is often unavoidable, particularly when meeting someone whose reputation precedes them, and my host is by no means an exception to the rule. Collected on the corner of Glasgow’s Waterloo St and whisked off to a luxury pad hugging the River Clyde, the similarity to a rendezvous with a mafia kingpin was yet to lose its lustre in my imagination. The figure that greets me at the top of the stairs though, does so with a frank smile and a firm handshake, and although he may hold himself with formidable posture, he holds no illusions of regal self-importance. He has been called many things throughout his career, but mobster and self-important are not traits traditionally attributed to Summer 2011
190311_George.indd 22
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Photography: © David Walsh
i think it is important to have heroes... a leader would be nothing without the led
the fiery temperament of this infamous Scot. “I think it is important to have heroes, important to realise the importance of heroic leadership figures, but of course a leader would be nothing without the led. You wouldn’t be a leader if no one followed you and Guevara was one of the greatest men of the twentieth century no doubt about that.” As many of us do in paying homage to the idols of our youth, Galloway imitated the style of the folkloric figure of the Cuban revolution, Che Guevara, by growing out a moustache. He has also amassed a unique collection of original photographs of the revolutionary leader, and during his brief time living in the Cuba’s capital Havana, he was the neighbour of Guevara’s son Camillo. ‘El Che’ is someone who has arguably impacted on his political outlook. “Guevara, through his internationalism, was a great inspiration for me. As I say in speeches, he was not a Cuban but he was ready to give his life for the Cuban revolution. He was not an African but he went to the Congo to fight alongside Patrice Lumumba. And he was not Bolivian but he gave his life in Bolivia. He did not recognise national boundaries. He fought, and really fought – not just rhetorically fought – for freedom in different continents, different countries none of which was his own.” In much the same way, Galloway flexed his muscles getting involved in campaigns outside the borders of his home country. One of the first campaigns that he became involved in supported those touched by the effects of the Vietnam War. In the 1980s, he was one of the first Britons to travel to apartheid South Africa. Working underground as an agent of the African National Congress, he travelled undercover across the country distributing
funds and information to undermine the regime of the then-segregated nation. Unlike his hero Guevara, Galloway is of more lowly stock. Nevertheless, politics too coursed through his family’s veins and set the trajectory for the young would-be politician’s life. Born in Dundee, the infant George was raised in a very political household by his factory worker and trade unionist father and his Irish immigrant mother. His political career began in earnest as an Election Day activist, distributing Labour Party leaflets to prospective voters outside the polling station as a six-year old child. The importance of being a parent himself is something that is visibly etched on his fatigued features. The demands of a long political career beginning to toll; time with family is a precious commodity which is felt no less so in political households. “You have to make time. It would be easy not to but I do. Although I’m missing a family gettogether this day with my daughter and her children and my own son and I’m feeling a little painful about that but my son sent me a voice package on here of some of the chatter – a sort of message from him.” He gestures toward his iPhone lying on the table in front of him as he laments being elsewhere for the occasion. The tone and tempo of his speech slows and falters as he tries to sound his words, a rare glimpse of the man usually masked behind polished and impassioned oratory. “I think that people who can’t find it within themselves to spend time with their families are probably people best avoided.” He evidently holds his own parents in high esteem, encouragement from whom would one day see him become the darling of the Labour Party. Such was his meteoric buzzmag.org
190311_George.indd 23
23
23/3/11 15:33:33
»»Perhaps in his most notorious television appearance, Galloway went on Celebrity Big Brother in 2006 where he infamously pretended to be Rula Lenska’s pet feline. “Would you like me to be the cat?” he purred. Meow.
»»Having won the seat of Bethnal Green and Bow from Labour incumbent Oona King in 2005, Galloway walked off a live interview with Jeremy Paxman after he persistently asked the victor whether he was happy to have gotten rid of one of the only black female MPs in parliament.
»»While MP for Glasgow Kelvin, Galloway was arrested in 2001 along with jailed perjurer Tommy Sheridan at the Faslane naval base on the River Clyde while protesting against Trident nuclear weapons.
24
rise that Galloway was the youngest to hold many of the prestigious offices of the party. “I was always the youngest ever this or that; I was the youngest ever constituency secretary, the youngest ever constituency chairman, the youngest ever full-time organiser of the Labour Party. I was the youngest chairman of the Labour Party in Scotland and sadly I’m not now the youngest ever anything.” He perhaps always looked mature for his age. This goes some way to explain how as a dynamic teenager, he was able to enter the political fray at just 13, succeeding in joining the Labour Party two years before he was of age. And so began a lifelong love affair with Labour until their acrimonious parting of company with his expulsion from the party in 2003. Given his infamous career thus far, having been summoned before the US Senate and berated Prime Ministers across the floor of the House of Commons, does he ever feel exposed being a lone wolf? “No I don’t feel vulnerable. First of all, I’m not physically afraid of anything and secondly, I don’t want anything from the powerful. And thirdly, I don’t have anything that is of any importance to me that they can take away from me, so that leaves me as an independent man. Or as Burns would put it, ‘A man of independent mind looks and laughs at all that,’ and that’s what I do.” As an independent man, Galloway certainly holds no high regard for people’s opinions of him. His appearance on Celebrity Big Brother was testament to that sentiment. Up close and personal as actress Rula Lenska’s pet feline or frolicking in a skin-tight red leotard with housemate Pete Burns, Galloway has generated a multi-faceted public image. Can he be taken seriously by the Glasgow electorate as a candidate? “The people of Glasgow will know that they’ve got somebody in parliament representing them if they vote for me. I can’t say that they can really say that now. Glasgow has lost out badly in the era of the Scottish parliament. Despite Labour being in power
Images: YouTube
memorable
youtube moments
Summer 2011
190311_George.indd 24
23/3/11 15:33:35
Photography: Adam Elder/Scottish Parliament © Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body - 2011
for most of the time and despite Glasgow to hold Alex Salmond properly to account. being loyal to Labour for the best part of Alex Salmond is head and shoulders above a hundred years, Glasgow has achieved the others in the Scottish parliament, but virtually nothing out of the devolution era. he’s not that great. He only looks great Edinburgh has done very well.” because the rest of them are so small and if I The view over the Clyde from our get in, I’ll be able to go toe-to-toe with him vantage point is dominated by new developin a more meaningful way I think.” ments of office and apartment blocks, none I get the feeling that sparring with the too dissimilar to the one we are sat in. The First Minister will be more of a challenge in old and antiquated industrial landscape has terms of time restraints than having fodder been reclaimed to to fire at him. His hareplace the docks and bitual brute and incenshipyards of a by-gone diary self-confidence era with steel and glass comes to the fore as he structures of the future relishes the prospect like many cities in of turning both barthe uk. To Galloway, rels on Salmond. He this modern urban points out some of the scene is tantamount self-imposed rules the to neglect, referring to Scottish parliament the river as a muhas imposed on itself, seum rather than the including limiting bustling hub of empire three-minute speeches. it once was; “the worki think more people would be on the “If they try to impose shop of the workshop stairs listening to me than remaining that on me, I’ll be in of the world.” in the chamber to listen to the others difficulty. I shall have “I can’t say I’ll get to speak for three or anybody a job or get four minutes in the a pothole filled or get chamber and then a school built, but I can definitely promise continue on the stairs outside. But if I did, I that I’ll fight as hard as I possibly can for all think more people would be on the stairs listhose things and I think people know that if tening to me than remaining in the chamber I’m fighting for something, everybody knows to listen to the others.” about it.” Black cab drivers are renowned for being As former Labour mp for both Glasgow chirpy and the driver who brought me back Hillhead and Glasgow Kelvin, Galloway was to Queen Street station was no exception. a protagonist in putting forward the case for On asking where I had just come from, his Scottish devolution at Westminster. But he reply on hearing I had interviewed Galloway is quick to voice his disappointment with was: “He’s a nice guy. I’ve had him in my the end product in our interview. He is not motor a couple of times.” “Will you be votonly scathing about the calibre of politicians ing for him?” I asked. “Ha! No. I’m not really elected to Holyrood but also the key policies a voting man.” It seems George may have to of the Scottish Labour Party; the banning of rely on his usual fervour and energy to win Buckfast, mandatory jail terms for carrying over the hearts and minds of Glaswegians. knives, to name a few. Time obviously is not Then again, it sounds like he is game for the the great healer it purports to be. challenge. When asked what his epitaph “I am standing to put a bit of steel in the would be, his response is crisp and pithy: Labour ranks, to add a bit of speech-making “Indefatigable.” class to the deliberations of Holyrood and buzzmag.org
190311_George.indd 25
25
23/3/11 15:33:35
curious
george Words & Photograph
David Walsh
Famed for his antics on Celebrity Big Brother, out spoken and oftencontroversial politician George Galloway talks candidly to Buzz about the man behind the orator and his Holyrood ambitions
190311_George.indd 20
23/3/11 15:33:30
190311_George.indd 21
23/3/11 15:33:31
22
George Galloway. The latter would certainly not sit well with the would-be msp. His political pursuits have been spent defending those in turmoil or oppressed both abroad and at home. In exile from Glaswegian politics for the last five years, Galloway is back in his native Scotland in the midst of his latest political comeback. On the familiar streets of Glasgow, he is currently orchestrating his campaign to represent the city in the Scottish Parliament. Although the former Labour and Respect mp has spent more than 20 years as a parliamentarian in London, Galloway’s politics were never confined to the corridors of Westminster or his former constituents in Glasgow. In more recent years, he was perhaps the most enraged and outspoken critic of Blair’s decision to invade Iraq. In more recent months, he has voiced his support for the peoples of North Africa in throwing off their shackles of autocracy. One only need look at his heroes to understand what stokes
Photography: Andrew Cowan/Scottish Parliament © Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body - 2011
T
he old maxim warns that you should never judge a book by its cover, regardless of whether or not it is mauled and mottled around the edges. Prejudgement is often unavoidable, particularly when meeting someone whose reputation precedes them, and my host is by no means an exception to the rule. Collected on the corner of Glasgow’s Waterloo St and whisked off to a luxury pad hugging the River Clyde, the similarity to a rendezvous with a mafia kingpin was yet to lose its lustre in my imagination. The figure that greets me at the top of the stairs though, does so with a frank smile and a firm handshake, and although he may hold himself with formidable posture, he holds no illusions of regal self-importance. He has been called many things throughout his career, but mobster and self-important are not traits traditionally attributed to Summer 2011
190311_George.indd 22
23/3/11 15:33:32
Photography: © David Walsh
i think it is important to have heroes... a leader would be nothing without the led
the fiery temperament of this infamous Scot. “I think it is important to have heroes, important to realise the importance of heroic leadership figures, but of course a leader would be nothing without the led. You wouldn’t be a leader if no one followed you and Guevara was one of the greatest men of the twentieth century no doubt about that.” As many of us do in paying homage to the idols of our youth, Galloway imitated the style of the folkloric figure of the Cuban revolution, Che Guevara, by growing out a moustache. He has also amassed a unique collection of original photographs of the revolutionary leader, and during his brief time living in the Cuba’s capital Havana, he was the neighbour of Guevara’s son Camillo. ‘El Che’ is someone who has arguably impacted on his political outlook. “Guevara, through his internationalism, was a great inspiration for me. As I say in speeches, he was not a Cuban but he was ready to give his life for the Cuban revolution. He was not an African but he went to the Congo to fight alongside Patrice Lumumba. And he was not Bolivian but he gave his life in Bolivia. He did not recognise national boundaries. He fought, and really fought – not just rhetorically fought – for freedom in different continents, different countries none of which was his own.” In much the same way, Galloway flexed his muscles getting involved in campaigns outside the borders of his home country. One of the first campaigns that he became involved in supported those touched by the effects of the Vietnam War. In the 1980s, he was one of the first Britons to travel to apartheid South Africa. Working underground as an agent of the African National Congress, he travelled undercover across the country distributing
funds and information to undermine the regime of the then-segregated nation. Unlike his hero Guevara, Galloway is of more lowly stock. Nevertheless, politics too coursed through his family’s veins and set the trajectory for the young would-be politician’s life. Born in Dundee, the infant George was raised in a very political household by his factory worker and trade unionist father and his Irish immigrant mother. His political career began in earnest as an Election Day activist, distributing Labour Party leaflets to prospective voters outside the polling station as a six-year old child. The importance of being a parent himself is something that is visibly etched on his fatigued features. The demands of a long political career beginning to toll; time with family is a precious commodity which is felt no less so in political households. “You have to make time. It would be easy not to but I do. Although I’m missing a family gettogether this day with my daughter and her children and my own son and I’m feeling a little painful about that but my son sent me a voice package on here of some of the chatter – a sort of message from him.” He gestures toward his iPhone lying on the table in front of him as he laments being elsewhere for the occasion. The tone and tempo of his speech slows and falters as he tries to sound his words, a rare glimpse of the man usually masked behind polished and impassioned oratory. “I think that people who can’t find it within themselves to spend time with their families are probably people best avoided.” He evidently holds his own parents in high esteem, encouragement from whom would one day see him become the darling of the Labour Party. Such was his meteoric buzzmag.org
190311_George.indd 23
23
23/3/11 15:33:33
»»Perhaps in his most notorious television appearance, Galloway went on Celebrity Big Brother in 2006 where he infamously pretended to be Rula Lenska’s pet feline. “Would you like me to be the cat?” he purred. Meow.
»»Having won the seat of Bethnal Green and Bow from Labour incumbent Oona King in 2005, Galloway walked off a live interview with Jeremy Paxman after he persistently asked the victor whether he was happy to have gotten rid of one of the only black female MPs in parliament.
»»While MP for Glasgow Kelvin, Galloway was arrested in 2001 along with jailed perjurer Tommy Sheridan at the Faslane naval base on the River Clyde while protesting against Trident nuclear weapons.
24
rise that Galloway was the youngest to hold many of the prestigious offices of the party. “I was always the youngest ever this or that; I was the youngest ever constituency secretary, the youngest ever constituency chairman, the youngest ever full-time organiser of the Labour Party. I was the youngest chairman of the Labour Party in Scotland and sadly I’m not now the youngest ever anything.” He perhaps always looked mature for his age. This goes some way to explain how as a dynamic teenager, he was able to enter the political fray at just 13, succeeding in joining the Labour Party two years before he was of age. And so began a lifelong love affair with Labour until their acrimonious parting of company with his expulsion from the party in 2003. Given his infamous career thus far, having been summoned before the US Senate and berated Prime Ministers across the floor of the House of Commons, does he ever feel exposed being a lone wolf? “No I don’t feel vulnerable. First of all, I’m not physically afraid of anything and secondly, I don’t want anything from the powerful. And thirdly, I don’t have anything that is of any importance to me that they can take away from me, so that leaves me as an independent man. Or as Burns would put it, ‘A man of independent mind looks and laughs at all that,’ and that’s what I do.” As an independent man, Galloway certainly holds no high regard for people’s opinions of him. His appearance on Celebrity Big Brother was testament to that sentiment. Up close and personal as actress Rula Lenska’s pet feline or frolicking in a skin-tight red leotard with housemate Pete Burns, Galloway has generated a multi-faceted public image. Can he be taken seriously by the Glasgow electorate as a candidate? “The people of Glasgow will know that they’ve got somebody in parliament representing them if they vote for me. I can’t say that they can really say that now. Glasgow has lost out badly in the era of the Scottish parliament. Despite Labour being in power
Images: YouTube
memorable
youtube moments
Summer 2011
190311_George.indd 24
23/3/11 15:33:35
Photography: Adam Elder/Scottish Parliament © Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body - 2011
for most of the time and despite Glasgow to hold Alex Salmond properly to account. being loyal to Labour for the best part of Alex Salmond is head and shoulders above a hundred years, Glasgow has achieved the others in the Scottish parliament, but virtually nothing out of the devolution era. he’s not that great. He only looks great Edinburgh has done very well.” because the rest of them are so small and if I The view over the Clyde from our get in, I’ll be able to go toe-to-toe with him vantage point is dominated by new developin a more meaningful way I think.” ments of office and apartment blocks, none I get the feeling that sparring with the too dissimilar to the one we are sat in. The First Minister will be more of a challenge in old and antiquated industrial landscape has terms of time restraints than having fodder been reclaimed to to fire at him. His hareplace the docks and bitual brute and incenshipyards of a by-gone diary self-confidence era with steel and glass comes to the fore as he structures of the future relishes the prospect like many cities in of turning both barthe uk. To Galloway, rels on Salmond. He this modern urban points out some of the scene is tantamount self-imposed rules the to neglect, referring to Scottish parliament the river as a muhas imposed on itself, seum rather than the including limiting bustling hub of empire three-minute speeches. it once was; “the worki think more people would be on the “If they try to impose shop of the workshop stairs listening to me than remaining that on me, I’ll be in of the world.” in the chamber to listen to the others difficulty. I shall have “I can’t say I’ll get to speak for three or anybody a job or get four minutes in the a pothole filled or get chamber and then a school built, but I can definitely promise continue on the stairs outside. But if I did, I that I’ll fight as hard as I possibly can for all think more people would be on the stairs listhose things and I think people know that if tening to me than remaining in the chamber I’m fighting for something, everybody knows to listen to the others.” about it.” Black cab drivers are renowned for being As former Labour mp for both Glasgow chirpy and the driver who brought me back Hillhead and Glasgow Kelvin, Galloway was to Queen Street station was no exception. a protagonist in putting forward the case for On asking where I had just come from, his Scottish devolution at Westminster. But he reply on hearing I had interviewed Galloway is quick to voice his disappointment with was: “He’s a nice guy. I’ve had him in my the end product in our interview. He is not motor a couple of times.” “Will you be votonly scathing about the calibre of politicians ing for him?” I asked. “Ha! No. I’m not really elected to Holyrood but also the key policies a voting man.” It seems George may have to of the Scottish Labour Party; the banning of rely on his usual fervour and energy to win Buckfast, mandatory jail terms for carrying over the hearts and minds of Glaswegians. knives, to name a few. Time obviously is not Then again, it sounds like he is game for the the great healer it purports to be. challenge. When asked what his epitaph “I am standing to put a bit of steel in the would be, his response is crisp and pithy: Labour ranks, to add a bit of speech-making “Indefatigable.” class to the deliberations of Holyrood and buzzmag.org
190311_George.indd 25
25
23/3/11 15:33:35
