spe mp uh George Galloway um you were
expelled from the labor party he of
course never was some said that he made
the party unelectable in the 70s and'
80s but how inspirational a figure was
he for you in fact he was my character
witness at my expulsion uh Kangaroo
Court uh along with Michael foot and the
leader of the biggest Union Affiliated
to the labor party but it didn't take
them long to disregard these star
Witnesses and the threw me out uh he was
as you've just I think in a wonderful uh
package there showed uh a really quite
Majestic uh Figure Head and Shoulders
above uh so many of those uh who bit at
his heels at the time he was absolutely
inspirational to millions of people but
there's one thing I think you've got
wrong and the media commentary has got
wrong today the point that's being made
over and over again is that most people
disagreed with Mr Ben but they admired
him and so on but actually on the issues
that he stood for most people agreed
with him then and now from his attempts
to bring oil into public ownership in
1974 as the Energy Secretary right
through to the war on Iraq and attitudes
to nuclear weapons in the European Union
and so on the majority of British people
supported Mr Ben's view uh on these
things and I think that that's important
because we mustn't allow uh if you'll
forgive me saying so uh Mr Ben to be put
in a museum now in a in a glass case so
that we can look upon him and wonder at
what used to be in fact his point of
view is still alive and kicking and uh
he wasn't the last of the mikans there's
plenty of mikans left uh well and
presumably you'd like to count yourself
as one of those but when you say that
most when most people agreed with him I
mean how can that be the case I mean
this was the man who led to the
formation of the sdp this was a man
whose political views uh not only
divided his party but never attracted
the sort of support that would have ever
elected him to power well I I'd like you
to tell me a single one of his uh
trademark uh policies that is not
supported by the majority of British
people he supported the public ownership
of gas and electricity and Railways he
opposed a new generation of nuclear
weapons he opposed the war in Iraq and
so on and on all of these things he was
right he opposed the undemocratic
character of the European Union uh on
that he has overwhelming uh support in
Britain it's the people making these
points which are entirely Wrong by the
way and I was there it was I mean you
said that he split the Party by standing
against Dennis Healey we could just as
equally reverse that and say Dennis
Healey split the Party by standing
against Tony Ben there was a vacancy
there was an election two men stood for
it one didn't split the Party by
standing the other one didn't not split
hairs over his over the the party and
the labor party but what about him as a
man so Ian so he stood for you as a as a
character reference what was it about
him as a as an individual as a character
a man who obviously had I huge
conviction even if you didn't agree with
his political views he was a prince uh
amongst men he wasn't actually an
aristocrat his father's VI County was
given to him uh as a purage by the
Liberal Party who he had served so he
doesn't he he didn't have blue blood Mr
uh Ben but he did of course come from a
wealthy background and a very
distinguished one uh but he was a prince
amongst men he was the gentlest most
honorable most filled with Integrity of
any of the political figures of this age
I mean he put up with all of this
backbiting and media demonization which
you'd have to have been there at the
time think Scargill Crow uh uh
Livingston wrapped together double Tre
and that's how bad it was but he he
endured it all uh with a smile without a
bad word uh he was a far more sanguin
about it than I would or could have been
he was a gentleman through all of that
and in the swilling moras uh that
British politics has uh become he really
stood Head and Shoulders out and above
it all yeah I'm that's going to ask you
about you know your own sort of career
compared to his because I mean he never
resorted didy to any sort of gimmickry
or or you know sort of self- publicity
uh which perhaps much well I mean in
terms of you know Big Brother
appearances and things like that because
he didn't need to did he he was very
Innovative you see this is a point uh he
he didn't you're right uh do that but I
don't think he would have ruled it out
he was the man who pioneered so many
things in the 1960s post codes posted
stamps that didn't just have the Queen's
head on them tsr2 Concord nuclear power
he he recorded his own interviews with
the BBC and others in the 1960s because
he didn't trust you to Faithfully report
what he said no one had ever done any of
these things before he was a really
Progressive Innovative man he summed up
Mr Wilson's promise of this white hot
heat of the technological Revolution
that labor tried to bring about in the
in the 1960s so I I don't think that you
should rule out that Mr Ben wouldn't
have tried a trick or two
to get a wider message uh across uh but
he was uh I think this is common
currency he never had a bad word to say
personally about anyone uh even uh Tony
Blair uh when I asked him if he'd appear
in my forthcoming documentary the
killings of Tony Blair he declined on
the basis that it all sounded rather too
personal uh so that's the kind of man he
was uh but his principal was iron CL bad
no one would ever be able to accuse him
a man who grew more leftwing as he Grew
Older which is the opposite of course of
most labor politicians uh he never
compromised on principle he was Ironclad
on that to the end yeah and Harold
Wilson uh as we heard in that report by
Ben Wright describing him as a man who
immatured with age uh in ter in terms of
his in terms of his radicalism is that
what he was getting at do you think well
uh uh Mr Wilson started out a very great
hope uh for labor people uh but he gave
up prematurely having himself rather
over matured with age so I think uh we'd
put that rather nasty comment by Mr
Wilson down to his premature maturity
George Gallow thanks very much indeed
for thank you