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with me is respect MP for Bradford West
George Galloway George welcome to Going
Underground The Argument goes as we know
it so well we elect a prime minister he
and his cabinet decide on war it's not
up to Big parliamentary votes because
he's elected for the interest of the
state well of course we don't elect the
Prime Minister we elect members of
parliament who amongst themselves choose
the Prime Minister and can dispose of
him without any further recourse to the
electorate at all that's why we don't
have a presidential system if you had
one if you had a written constitution in
which these Powers were clearly
delineated that would be one thing but
we have a Constitution which is
Unwritten and which evolves and it has
already evolved in the last two Wars one
of which we said yes to and one of which
we said no to that the parliament itself
will be the final Arbiter on whether or
not the country goes to war in fact
hither to the Prime Minister was
exercising what's known as the Royal
prerogative you see theoretically only
the queen can make war she over the
course of centuries or he when it was a
king gave that power to the prime
minister in his or herstead but Mr Blair
changed the unwritten British
constitution he still went to bingan
Palace presumably for the IRA War but
but if the British Parliament had stood
up and been counted in the way that they
now wish they had there would have been
no British participation in the Iraq War
and thus David Cameron when he wanted to
take us to war with Syria made it clear
that the parliament would have to make
the final decision and when it voted
against British involvement the Prime
Minister was very clear he came to the
dispatch box somewhat to my surprise I
wasn't 10 ft from his face when he said
it he said that's it the parliament has
spoken Britain will not be involved in
any military action against Syria and I
must tell you my heart was never so
filled with joy on any parliamentary
occasion so I don't think Parliament
having now got this power is going to
willingly or easily give it up you know
the old American song how you going to
keep them down on the farm after they've
seen Pari well we've seen Pari we've had
the power we're not going to give it
away in that instance do you think David
Cameron as he was standing there thought
right there's a legal requirement that
Parliament votes because of course as
you said it's an Unwritten Constitution
there is no legal requirement there was
no requirement to have a vote and there
was no requirement to accept the vote
but the political realities and the
Parliamentary realities were that he
could do no other you see in that debate
on the Syria War one could almost feel
the house moving and turning he lost the
debate comprehensively from the first
kick of the ball and right up until the
final whistle and it would have been
political suicide for him inside his own
party inside the Parliament and most
especially inside the country because
the country's public opinion there was
only 11% supporting a war on Syria that
means 89% of the people were were not in
favor of a war you can't have a war with
only the 11 11% support David Cameron
signaled that he would try and get some
kind of act some Bill through about the
need for a vote and now he's saying no I
think a signal in politics doesn't
always really mean an intention
certainly in British parliamentary
politics he's playing to the Backwoods
of the right-wing conservative party
differentiating himself from the liberal
Democrat Coalition partners and
preparing a set of cards with which to
go to the electorate not very long
distant from now this is a government
running out of time running out of
popular support and Riven with internal
conflicts not just on this but on Europe
and many other things so I think it was
just a bit of uh play acting by him
we'll see if I'm wrong but I I must tell
you if if the British Parliament votes
to give up the power to decide whether
Britain goes to war or not it's not a
parliament worthy of the name in in that
case uh the whole idea of democracy
itself you're saying is going to be
unless we are going to have and I've
long campaigned for it a written
Constitution a Bill of Rights and
abolish the monarchy and have a
president with executive Authority I
would prefer that and then you could
have one man making the decision for a
limited period of time like President
Obama has to go to war or not uh but if
you don't have that you can't have a
prime minister who isn't elected by the
whole country it's only elected by
75,000 people in Oxfordshire that's the
only mandate he actually has but then
why is Cameron now signaling as it were
I I mean it's too much of a conspiracy
the Washington are going to him and
going we really didn't like this vote on
Syria it's about time you actually
enshrine the idea that the Prime
Minister can take the country to war to
the contrary that the United States was
mightily relieved the administration was
mightily relieved that the British
Parliament voted the way that it do that
it did and was mly relieved at Russian
diplomacy uh opening a door to a
peaceful resolution of what looked like
the brink of a catastrophic War
throughout the region I just arrived
back today from from Lebanon uh I
wouldn't have been able to go to Lebanon
no one would be able to go anywhere in
the Levant or father of field because
we'd now be in the middle of a full
scale raging catastrophic War that's
obviously not what the intelligence told
the Prime Minister when he set forward
that motion in I wonder I wonder we
often we' found out now over Iraq and
you'll see when the chilcott inquiry
reports when will it report well that's
a very good question uh I hope I'm still
around to see it report but when it
reports I can give you this insight into
it it will show that British diplomatic
and intelligence information to the
Prime Minister was very different to
that which the Prime Minister was
repackaging and presenting before the
public and the I'm never one to speak up
for intelligence services but they have
a right to be sore about how they were
sorely misused by Tony Blair I mean when
a liberal Democrat pair says things like
uh introducing a legal Dimension to the
idea of the country going to war would
create an area of morass rather than
certainty which is why you shouldn't
require parliament in order to have wars
you immediately think well maybe the
security services got to him or to uh
you know other laws if the it's not the
security services in other words well I
wouldn't have thought so because they
seem to have rather more sense than the
government does as do the American
intelligence Services seem to have
rather more sense than their government
does and I never thought I'd find myself
s saying either of those two things
actually the real clear and present
danger to Britain is its government the
clear and present danger to the United
States people is its government and uh
the people that we employ to be experts
in this field we later find we're giving
the right advice to the politicians who
weren't taking it no I mean I I'm very
clear about this if we're going to have
an Unwritten Constitution then one of
the few arguments in favor of it is that
it gives flexibility to the parliament
to get a government off the hook that's
what we did in the vote on Syria people
know that every war we've fought since
the second world war has been wrong has
done more harm than good has cost blood
and treasure we can't afford and has in
the case of recent Middle East Wars
cascaded fanaticism and extremism around
the world which explodes Even in our own
country on our own underground trains
and on our buses and uh people know that
instinctively somehow the British and
American people have seen through the
fog of War propaganda Fox News Sky News
all of that they've seen through it and
they're not going to go back on that
they realize that when British and
American politicians tell them they need
to go to war they better pinch
themselves and think not twice but 10
and twice before going along with such a
proposition because the wars were a
blunder you know the French uh uh
Minister Talon when told of the death of
a political opponent bismar said uh it's
a crime but it's worse than a crime it's
a blunder the Iraq War the Afghan war
the proposed Syrian War would have been
crimes were crimes but they were worse
than crimes they were a blunder but the
Defenders of any policy to reduce the
sovereignty of parliament or kill off
the sovereignty of parliament when it
comes to war say if you do that you're
aiding the enemy because you're giving
them time to regroup for the fight
against British soldiers well Wars waged
and haste are uh the worst wars of all
uh there's an ancient Chinese proverb in
the Forbidden City uh it was the motto
of one of the great Emperors and it was
do nothing often times it's best to
leave events to develop before making a
judgment as rash as plunging into a war
because Wars are very easy to start and
very difficult to finish the afan War
has now lasted longer than the first and
second world wars put together and
frankly it's a long long way from being
finished so that's hardly an argument
for giving the Prime Minister unlimited
untrammeled power to take the country to
war that we can do it more quickly after
all if that's what we've done over Syria
we'd be in the middle of a war that
demonstrably we didn't need to be in
because diplomacy is now fixing the
problem that we were told we needed War
they say the threat of the war made that
happen well I just don't accept that uh
isn't that what President Obama says and
David Cameron says even if that were
true that's an argument for threatening
War it's not an argument for actually
waging one thank you George Galloway for
Going Underground always
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