George Galloway perard such TSH Mr
Speaker This House of Commons continued
its
adversarial bare pit unarmed political
combat throughout the darkest days of
the second world
war Mr Churchill didn't ask for
Parliament to be
silenced for confrontations across the
house to be
forbidden when our soldiers were being
laid waste in the Norway debate the
House of Commons
Rose perhaps to its
finest 20th century moment nobody said
our armed forces have suffered a
disaster the House of Commons cannot
meet The Clash of ideas cannot be heard
we must muffle the drums and silence
ourselves at dunck the house clashed
without pause
was real war leaders like Mr Churchill
understood that the whole point of us
being here the whole point of democracy
the whole point of Elections is that we
do not
suspend normal political activity we
honorable gentlemen give way happily I
have a lot to say and I may take some
time to say it I'm very grateful to The
Honorable Gent he's missed the rather
important point that between 1939 and
1945 general elections were suspended so
democracy was suspended during the war
and his history is
faulty actually there were many
by-elections some of them producing
spectacular results as spectacular as
the one in Bradford West just over a
year ago but in any case is anyone
suggesting that an iron Bavon did didn't
stand on these benches
lacerating real war leaders about their
conduct of the
war The Honorable gentleman is a scholar
and a gentleman he knows very well the
words of Mr Amory from his side at that
Darkest Hour in the Norway debate which
brought about the
defenestration of the Prime Minister and
the coming to office of Mr Churchill
about whom more much more later we did
not suspend our democracy in our Darkest
Hours why are we suspending it
no it was said from one of the
Ironclad consensus on the front benches
that this was a national funeral
I'm sorry but it is not a national
funeral you can only have a national
funeral where there is a national
consensus about the person being buried
and that consensus does not
exist in relation to Mrs thata and no
matter how
oft people from the front benches fa
upon her poor honeyed words upon her
even outside of this house of course
tell lies about her and her
record that won't
change and the British establishment is
making a profound misjudgment here in a
and the opposition parties in particular
are making a profound misjudgment if
they imagine that there are not tens of
millions of people in the country all of
whom have votes who are very angry about
a whole range of issues that have
Arisen and I hope to adumbrate some of
them in relation to this motion this
evening Mr Speaker with your permission
if I was to speak shortly it would be
that great New York phrase enough
already we've had enough of this it's
gone on too long and it's gone too far
and this put the tin hat on it the idea
that we should suspend a vital part of
our Democratic process for a party
political and private funeral don't get
me wrong I won't be demonstrating at the
funeral tomorrow I believe it's wrong to
demonstrate at someone's
funeral but I will not agree to suspend
our democracy so that some of the
friends of the deceased have to make a
choice between attending prime
minister's question time or going to the
funeral and that's a choice that's up to
them to make and of course it's very
clear that they could do both though
they would have tender sensibilities
though they may have to come into the
Bear Pit immediately on their return to
the house but then that's what they're
here for that's what they were elected
to be here
for Harold
Wilson who won four general
elections and didn't receive a
cintilla of the treatment which the
British establishment has rolled out for
the deceased on this occasion said that
our week was a long time in politics and
this week has been a very long
time we were told at the beginning of
the
week that
it was disrespectful to speak of someone
so recently
dead I was told on the BBC yesterday I
should hold my peace until Thursday how
much National
morning without consensus and without
justification are we supposed to
observe you
know Mr Speaker how much personal
respect I have for you
and so I hope you will accept from me
that I mean nothing personal in this
point at all but the decision to muffle
Big
Ben just after the BBC had muffled ding
dong summed the whole thing up it has
become
FAL there is no National consensus
around the deceased there was no
justification for muffling
Big Ben because that puts the deceased
On a par with Mr Churchill a very
divisive
politician my
grandparents helped overturn his car
after the count in Dandee in the
1930s when he was thrown out of
parliament in the
city he vote I will I
will I wish to correct gentlemen Winston
Churchill uh then a liberal MP was
ejected from Dundee in 1922 he served
from 1908 to
1922
well it's a very it's a very important
qualification he was can I just say
because I didn't wish The Honorable
gentleman to be led away from the path
of virtue that the point may be of
interest to Scholars but it is at best
tangental to the sittings of the house
motion Mr George Galloway as would have
been what I was going to say about nedy
scrimger the great Temperance MP a man
who's who was Mr Churchill's partner in
the two constituency a two member
constituency at that time how we could
do with some Temperance in the house
today some prohibition uh in the house
today at least so far as the honorable
gentleman for Fook is
concerned the I do ask the honorable
gentleman I know he's developing his
argument if he would be good enough to
withdraw the reference to an honorable
member who's not present and to continue
with his main speech I happily uh
withdraw it it was unworthy but I do
have some history with the honorable
gentlemen and uh hope you'll forgive me
and the house will forgive me for the
Unworthy Det tour down Dandy way uh but
my point is that Mr Churchill was a
deeply divisive figure man who changed
uh sides ratted
ratted a man who was in Parliament out
of it back
again a man whose conduct of public
affairs was very very controversial and
divisive but by the time he
died a tiny percentage of the population
were childish enough to imagine that
such a man should not be given the full
21 gun treatment the full gun Carriage
treatment because virtually everybody in
this country knows that if it were not
for Mr
Churchill either this Parliament would
not exist or it might be speaking in
German the very existence of the country
I argue was saved by by Mr chill that
makes him worthy of a national funeral
that's what made him whatever one's
point of view about his domestic
politics deserving of the muffling of
the Chimes of Big Ben deserving of the
cranes being Lord on the tent no such
consensus exists you must know this Mr
Speaker about the deceased in this case
in vast
tracks of this land the North
Scotland the
Midlands South
Wales the industrial areas of this
country that were reduced to distressed
areas in Mrs ther's term of office have
never forgiven her but they're being
asked to pay for this funeral in fact
they're not being asked they're being
told that they must pay for this funeral
now the deceased was a great proponent
of private Enterprise and the great
enemy of public expenditure and the role
of the state which she wished to shrink
you were once a devotee of these things
yourself Mr Speaker but I think uh age
has brought wisdom in some respects to
all of
us but it is an it it is it is an irony
is it not it is an I mean as Ken l the
great film director put it surely we
should have put this funeral out to
Tender to the private sector and invited
companies to sponsor it it's what she
would have wanted surely it's what she
would have wanted at that time when our
pensioners are shivering to death
literally in a Long Winter that
stretched now into the spring at a time
where we're virtually nationally
bankrupt is it right that the public
should be told not asked but told that
they must pay for a party political
funeral I believe not and the public
have not been consulted about any of
this and if my post bag has any
relationship to anyone else's it must be
obvious that a lot of people are very
unhappy about the and of course they did
have one
chance Mr Speaker I alluded to a moment
or two go they could download ding- dong
the song from The Wizard of Oz and they
did in very large numbers and the state
broadcaster which has led the
phoning actually
censored the music that the public with
their money in a decision a private
economic decision that they made Mrs sta
was a big fan of those private economic
decision that they made to buy a single
was then sens
by the state broadcaster order I was
just awaiting the conclusion of the
honorable gentleman's sentence but I
struggle to see how what he has just
said relates to the terms of the motion
the sittings of the house motion to
which I know it was his intention and is
now his intention immediately to return
Mr George Got Away indeed sir of course
the the backdrop to this cannot be
separated from it there are many people
watching this on the parliament Channel
who know what the backdrop to this well
well honorable gentlemen May honorable
gentlemen May honorable gentlemen May
laugh but that's because they're not
used to being watched on the parliament
Channel let me let me let me assure
them let let Perhaps Perhaps just as
well perhap they they can't silence me
Mr Speaker some some members are not for
turning and I am one of them and better
men than those have tried to do so I'm
going to
be I'm going to be
cognizant but when I'm here people
listen unlike unlike unlike some well I
I have a lot of tweets about the
speeches that proceeded preceded this
one Mr Speaker they're not at all
complimentary uh let me assure you you
my point is this that the backdrop the
backdrop the backdrop to this is clear
and it's been one thing after another as
Mr McMillan said it's not one damn thing
it's one damn thing after
another it's the state mour that was
effectively declared by the state
broadcaster it's the decision that the
government made I understand and the pr
it's even speculated that
your office was not wild about the idea
to recall Parliament at a vast public
expense offering members of parliament
up to
£3,700 to fly back from their holidays
to attend what was in effect a state
eulogy for a party political figure then
fly back at public expense to their
holidays and I hope that ipsa will be
releasing the figures of who claimed and
what they claimed this was a grotesque
decision totally unnecessary Monday was
the day when Parliament returned Monday
was the day when people could have made
their tributes and paid their tributes
and made the points that they wish to
make that was the second problem the
state M the first the recall unnecessary
recall fantastically expensive recall of
parliament was the second
the muffling of the Chimes of Big Ben
was the third the Banning of dingdong
was the fourth and now we have this now
we have this the shadow leader of the
House rather politely as is her want
made the point that there's every belief
in this house that this prime minister
likes to avoid prime minister's question
time if he avoids it tomorrow he will
avoided it for four weeks four
consecutive weeks no I I'm at every
prime minister's question
so the The Honorable gentlemen I must
call them opposite I caution them again
people are listening to this debate and
cackling like
hyenas this sturite
chorus over there would be better would
be better to show Just a Touch of
sensitivity to the fact that there are
millions of people in this country hate
Margaret Thatcher and those who followed
her and the Prime Minister if he Dodges
prime minister's questions tomorrow will
have dodged them for four consecutive
weeks now as Mr Wilson said a week's a
long time in politics four weeks is a
long time to miss prime minister's
question the only Mass audience I'd much
prefer to give way to The Honorable
gentleman than for him to
cackle and wobble his ample G from a
sedentary position I'd much prefer to
give way to him point of order point of
order M Jacob Reese MOG if you would
rule whether such terms of phrase are
Parliamentary the short answer to the
honorable gentleman is that what has
just been said was distasteful but it
was not disorderly it does not seem to
have evoked any great display of misery
on the part of the honorable gentleman
but I know that the honorable member for
Bradford West when he comes to speak
will do so with a degree of calm and
measurement of words for which I know in
future years he will want of course to
be Ned Mr Alex
shellbrook thank you very much Mr
Speaker and there was I under the
impression that The Honorable gentleman
was a great aitor I'm sure the honorable
gentleman in re in context to his last
comments will agree and and congratulate
this prime minister for making sure that
Parliament isn't gone for four months
and indeed bringing the house back in
September so that he can do those two
sessions of primary's questions which up
until recently um just didn't
happen that's that's actually the best
point that The Honorable gentleman has
made all evening it just goes to show
that points that points made from one's
feet are usually better than points made
from a sedentary indeed relaxed
position it is a fair point that
Parliament does not retire for the
summer for as long as it did in our long
period together Mr Speaker in the House
of Commons but facts are CHS that WI a
ding as we say in Scotland every
Wednesday the Prime Minister should
stand at the dispatch box and face the
music of everything that's happened in
the previous week and for four weeks it
will have been the case that the Prime
Minister has not done so at a time when
the British economy is in Desperate
trouble the Prime Minister has not been
able to be questioned about it at a time
when a budget has come and gone which
has been near
universally
regarded welcomed my goodness I don't
know where it was welcomed certainly not
by the financial commentators certainly
not by the markets certainly not by the
public certainly not by the opinion
polls but the Prime Minister has not
been able to be questioned about it the
Prime Minister has not been able to be
questioned about anything for four
weeks neither domestic nor International
and our country is involved in very many
and you'll be very happy that I don't
seek to dilate upon them Mr Speaker but
the country is involved in some very
serious matters overseas also and the
Prime Minister has not been able to be
questioned about them and I just feel
and I think that the attendance here
this evening indicates that there are
many who feel whether they're on the
official opposition or not there are
many who feel that this has all gone too
far that an attempt at
canonization of a person around whom
there is I see the speaker is frowning I
speakers a religious man I'm not against
canonization where it's Justified but
there has to be a con ensus before one
can be canonized and no such
canonization is
possible from the back benches which I
think is rather unseemly and members
can't both Cav at what's being said and
then make a rockus noise themselves I
simply say to The Honorable gentleman M
of Bradford West that I wasn't frowning
at him I was listening attentively to
him Mr George Galloway thank you sir the
point
is that beatification cannot
ization is something that can only
happen when there is a
consensus there is no such consensus
about the former prime minister yet
people are acting the state is acting
and the state broadcaster and now the
Parliamentary authorities are asking us
to
accept things which are too close to
Royal you see Mrs thater famously had a
slightly fraught relationship
with the palace and I can understand
why Mrs tcher me to many of The
Honorable gentlemen opposite have been
great but she was not to up to 60% of
the electorate when she was alive and
according to the polls more than 50% of
the people now being pulled are against
her were strongly against her feel that
she did bad things here and abroad and
it brings to
discredit this kind of funeral this kind
of state occasion if it's awarded in a
way which many people in the country
feel is unjustified and feel is being
rammed down their throats for partisan
reasons and ideological reasons and for
which they're being asked to pay and I
caution through you Mr Speaker the
establishment of which I suspect your
are not fully regarded as a member
though you ought to be because your
office is one of the great offices in
the land but I I say through you to this
establishment that that that that you've
gone too far they have gone too far
there's been too much of this it's too
expensive it's too elaborate it's too
Regal and many many people in the
country are unhappy about it
and I just feel that
to compound all that I've tried to
say to compound it with effectively
cancelling a vital part of British
political life would be to compound to
add insult to the injury already
suffered my last
Point
gentlemen and
ladies although the the Mis the
misbehavior is coming exclusively from I
think they're called gentlemen uh
opposite my my point is
this Mr Speaker this funeral did not
have to be organized so that it would
Clash with prime minister's question
time it could have been held today it
could have been held on Thursday it
could have been held later on Tuesday
the state was vitally involved in the
organization of this funeral we know
that because we're paying for
it the state was vitally involved in the
organization of it and it was them who
organized a clash with prime minister's
question so why should the House of
Commons be asked to accept the
abrogation of its proper role tomorrow
when the government is responsible for
bringing about any Clash in so far as
there is
one but it's too late now to change the
time of the funeral it's not too late
for the house to refuse to abandon its
responsibilities at Prime Minister's
questions and I hope if the house
divides it the end of the evening on
this as I hope it will that a decent
number of members of parliament will
reflect the feelings of if not their own
constituents then the tens of millions
of constituents of many of us here and
some of them there who feel that the
Adoration of the Maggi has gone far
enough