[Music]
David Cameron has allegedly stopped Nick
cleg from appearing in a head-to-head TV
election debate with Ed millerand as he
doesn't want to be the only one who's
absent while Ed millerand is still
calling for Cameron to take him on one
party has not been invited to discuss
its views in the runup to the election
respect joining me now as its MP and
leader George
Galloway George welcome to Going
Underground welcome back now you have a
show on RT so let's keep this as
impartial ofcom impartial as as possible
what exactly is respect offering that's
different to some of the other parties
Tusk and left Unity the greens well uh
apart from in the latter case very much
higher profile and track record of
winning elections if I'm reelected in
Bradford that will be the third respect
victory over labor in a parliamentary
poll no one in the whole history of the
left in Britain has ever done that or
even done it twice so uh our profile our
standing our ability to win elections
and to use the spaces and platforms that
we thereby secure uh to good effect uh I
don't think even my worst enemy would
say that I haven't made good use of the
time that I get of the platforms that I
get as a result of winning elections so
that's why we are in the Democratic race
why we fought hard right up to the point
of judicial review to get on the prime
ministerial debates you mentioned the
green party they have one MP so do we
she's been in 5 years I've been in
almost 30 years so if the green party
could get on the prime ministerial
debates we figured that we should uh to
being you're not you're not on the
debate then no because we can't afford
the judicial review it's uh would be
tens of thousands of pounds but we
fought it right up to that point and
credibly uh with the support of uh uh
big fig in the broadcasting field
because the logic was unassailable but
it didn't work okay well on on the
success argument you you have been
successful then isn't it that very
success that damages Progressive forces
in constituencies up and down the
country because you'll be splitting the
progressive vote George Momo left
respect as far as I understand it
because you were standing candidates
against the greens well we tried
actually to get uh an electoral
agreement with the greens at that very
time wasn't us that turned it down but
them uh so of course uh we're ready
where someone has a better chance than
us to uh step aside but that doesn't
happen often mean you mentioned Tusk the
Elvis loves pets party defeated Tusk
into bottom place in a recent uh local
Authority byelection sure but they
themselves they would defend themselves
by saying CA was around at the same kind
of level four years ago before it
defeated the labor party I'm not
sure I'm not sure the Elvis love pets
party would ever have defeated CA but
anyway each to their own uh we have
different uh political uh ideas from
these other organizations and above all
we have a different approach okay but
then uh we know the parties of the left
uh are a bit like the Elis party history
a legacy of splits and division right
across the decades uh in this country
you have had huge splits going on in
respect councilors
resigning how can uh voters think that
when they're voting respect there's not
going to be a mass of splits and
division well of course the as uh as
we're on Russian television one can
quote Lenin uh who talked about the
narcissism of the small difference it's
true that on the left small differences
are
magnified uh to the point of division
and that's a historical trait being on
the left is a
fissiparous uh business you uh
everything every Nuance every Dot and
comma matters to you people on the left
tend not to be broad brush uh political
uh figures but we have one uh more than
25 I think it's 27 in fact uh local
government elections I've been elected
to Parliament as a respect candidate
twice and I'm confident that I will be
in just a few weeks time so as I say
there's absolutely no one can touch that
or even come remotely close to it
another history of the uh the the left
is covert monitoring by institutions we
know the green party has been
infiltrated by agent security services
how do you at respect make sure that the
same thing isn't going to happen to your
party must be a boring job monitoring
the green party that would certainly be
the equivalent of being well actually it
was quite serious
casor and the and the famous power
station in Siberia uh I I think uh all
Progressive organizations have been
infiltrated at one time or another
including I have no doubt us and some of
the splits and divisions that you refer
to uh may be connected to that but uh
the only thing you can do to quote Bob
Dylan is keep on keeping on you might
think that me I thought that was the
Redskins no that was afterwards okay
well look the media uh very much sees
you as personifying the respect party
they don't appear to like you that much
they maybe they don't need infiltration
is it impossible for a fourth party with
genuine Progressive views to get their
message across in the media in this
gener uh in the media as was of course
we have a a new media now and we're
sitting on it and it's attracting uh
viewers by the million from the old
media uh I myself present no less than
three television programs a week okay
but Their audience figures are not like
question it's not pman telling you to be
ashamed of your victory in Bradford or
dimbleby getting a bunch of it's true
but the balance is changing your
position on Scotland do you think uh
north of the Border respect will have
been damaged by the fact that you
supported the Tories and the labor party
uh well I wouldn't put it quite that way
I if if by that you mean I took the same
side as most Scottish people uh I'm not
sure that it follows uh logically uh the
Tories are uh a part of Scotland a very
small part I didn't share any platforms
with them said that I wouldn't but I
make no apology for being with labor I
was with labor for almost 40 years
before I was expelled I'm still a labor
man uh at heart uh and labor represents
the workingclass idea that it's class
rather than nationality that matters
what are relations like between Ed
Miller man's labor party and you and the
respect party I've heard it's getting
pretty uh Angry in Bradford with some
labor campaigners campaigning for
respect yes there are a lot of Divisions
and because we haunt labor as a ghost of
what they used to be standing for what
they used to stand for and standing for
the people they have abandoned in many
respects then that's a recipe for uh
bitterness back to this narcissism of
the small difference we are the real
labor party that's what we say we're the
labor party as was before Tony Blair and
Peter mandelson and Gordon Brown and
alist Campbell hijacked it and flew it
to destruction as a labor party it was
still able to win elections and so on
but not as a labor party so that's what
happens there are bitter fights people
defect to us just had a very prominent
labor figure in Bradford defect to us uh
and uh this uh process will continue
after the election if Ed Milan gets in
and he's in want of one vote as a
majority and I'm that one vote well I'm
praying nightly that he requires one
vote I'm that vote and I'm open to a
negotiation every night at 700 p.m. and
I have a long list of foreign National
and uh uh domestic uh local matters that
I'm prepared to trade in return for my
one but will you trade I mean presumably
red lines maybe Parliament moving to
leads which I think is a respect policy
he'll be easy with that but on uh
Trident and on finally the economy uh
the economy is respects the the city of
London having to be completely
transformed of a respect party was in
Coalition well we will stand in the
London miral elections in 2016 and that
will be the first uh of our policy
platforms to change the the way that the
city of London operates within London uh
as a whole now of course there are big
differences between me and Ed Mand on
the economy on things like Russia things
like Israel Palestine Trident and many
many things but you can only have the
best government of those that are
available and any labor government is
going to be better than any Tor
government for the overwhelmingly poor
and workingclass people that I represent
George Galloway thank you pleasure