both of Britain's main political parties
supported the war in Iraq neither
Advocates an immediate pull out of
Coalition forces as a result much of the
anger generated by the war has been
harnessed by my guest today the founder
of the respect party he's been described
as a man who glories in his ability to
rub people up the wrong way faster than
anyone else but what really motivates
George
Galloway
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George Galloway Welcome to Hard talk
thank you very much you had more than 30
years inside the labor party sitting on
your own in the House of Commons for the
respect party that's not really where
you want to be is it no that's why I'm
mainly on the streets uh I'm mainly
traveling around Britain making theater
appearances meeting appearances leading
demonstrations uh and I have uh National
radio show three nights a week and I do
as much television as I can because
frankly the parliament of poodles and
pagers that we have now is very rarely
worth being in I will be there this week
uh in the debate on Iraq but for the
most part I'm required to either vote
for the prime minister's motion or David
Cameron Amendment and I seldom wish to
votee for either but I suppose my bigger
point was that you you took your career
very seriously you wanted to achieve
things in politics and you presumably
wanted to reach a position of power and
now that's completely Beyond you sure uh
but I'm now speaking for the majority in
the country and that's uh an unusual
position for someone that's arguable but
but the point is you are isolated and
you're nowhere near power in fact you're
very isolated but not many people would
argue that the majority in Britain are
not in my place uh saying that the war
on Iraq was both a crime and a blunder
saying that we ought to get out of here
as quickly as we can this is uh
consensus now in the country and of
course around the world it's
overwhelmingly so uh but you're right uh
if you're asking me would I rather have
been sitting in Downing Street than uh
than sitting on the other side uh as a
oneman parliamentary party of course the
answer to that is yes I'm not
necessarily asking you that but I am
asking you whether you regret getting
thrown out chucked out of the labor
party well in a sense the alienation had
begun much longer ago than that really
dating back to the election of uh Tony
Blair which I predict predicted in
1994 after the death of John Smith would
end in tears and Heaven Knows that's
another of my predictions that's turned
out to be accurate uh Mr Blair is
leaving the leadership of the labor
party if he's not in tears most of the
members of the labor party that remain
are in tears um but uh it's true I spent
36 years in fact in the labor party it
was like a stab to the heart to be
expelled but I picked myself up dusted
myself down and got back on the road
that's the only thing I can do uh you
set up this party respect 2004 you
founded it your website calls it a
radical alternative to the right
rightward March of new labor that will
speak for Millions isn't there a problem
when that sort of rhetoric comes up
against harsh reality and there appears
to be such a mismatch no I think we are
speaking for uh Millions we are the
fastest gr you've got one MP and what
just over a dozen counselors in the
entire country actually we've got 20
counselors which is a bit more than just
over a dozen and we've got one MP and no
party to the left of Labor has had an MP
for 60 years we've got a higher vote
than any left-wing party in Britain's
history including the Communist party at
the height of it power if you like after
the second World War uh we have the
fastest growing student organization
we've got the busiest website in Britain
and so on so we are speaking for
millions in this sense that we are the
ghost of Labor's past we say the things
labor used to say stand for the people
labor used to represent and therefore we
are haunting them now it's true there's
not a majority in Britain for old labor
politics but there's millions in favor
of old labor politics and we're seeing
to represent them without getting too
far into Old labor politics generally
let's stick with Iraq for the time being
because there is no denying you you
struck a cord and you brought out
hundreds of thousands I believe your own
party says well over a million people
onto the streets in in 2003 to protest
the war but the problem for you is that
two years after that there was a general
election and 2third or more of the
British public chose either the labor
party or the conservative party both of
which support the war and want to see
troops continue in one form or another
to play a role in Iraq so democracy has
worked people have spoken and in the end
again I come back to this same point
you're isolated no actually the majority
of people either didn't vote or voted
for other than the two main parties uh
the growth of small parties and above
all the growth of the noneof the above
party uh has left Mr Blair in Downing
Street with the positive support of the
smallest number of people in British
history 21% of the electorate voted for
Mr Blair and he's lost half his members
he lost half his parliamentary majority
and he's leaving three and a half years
early Under Fire so it's true we didn't
stop the war it's true we didn't knock
the government out in the general
election but the prime minister's been
knocked out the mainstream political
parties and their system is pretty
discredit crited nobody believes a word
the government says uh and nobody
actually is terribly excited about the
official opposition either your of the
same back side what is your position on
Iraq now because in the end your party
is defined first and foremost by Iraq so
what's your position if it is first and
foremost would with that would I kind of
would but if it is uh we're we're not
going out of business anytime soon
because the war in Iraq and the broader
war that it has spread the conflagration
which it has spread in the world isn't
going out anytime uh soon but but in
Iraq are you pushing for troops out now
of course yesterday the only thing the
Iraqi people need now from Mr Bush and
Mr Blair is the sight of the back of the
heads of the Armed Forces they sent in
there on a pack of Lies taller than the
Tower of Babel itself the idea that the
people who caused this disaster have
some role to play in sorting it out is
discredited every day yesterday was the
third heaviest rate of Allied casualties
since the War Began this problem's
getting worse now better well over 3,000
Iraqis are dying every month and many
people on the ground who have no uh
Alliance to British or American policy
believe that when those troops pull out
the killing of Iraqis by Iraqis will get
much much worse well it's not true that
many people believe that more than 90%
of the people of Iraq according to the
opinion polls taken under the noses of
the occupation say that they want the
occupation to end the puppet regime
inside the green zone which is the group
that most journalists talk to and most
ministers talk to uh they definitely
want the troops to stay because they
will hang from the lamposts as soon as
the uh occupation forces leave uh so the
reality on the ground is that as major
uh General Sir Richard danut told