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[Applause]

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with me is respect MP for Bradford West

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George Galloway George welcome to Going

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Underground The Argument goes as we know

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it so well we elect a prime minister he

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and his cabinet decide on war it's not

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up to Big parliamentary votes because

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he's elected for the interest of the

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state well of course we don't elect the

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Prime Minister we elect members of

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parliament who amongst themselves choose

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the Prime Minister and can dispose of

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him without any further recourse to the

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electorate at all that's why we don't

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have a presidential system if you had

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one if you had a written constitution in

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which these Powers were clearly

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delineated that would be one thing but

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we have a Constitution which is

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Unwritten and which evolves and it has

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already evolved in the last two Wars one

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of which we said yes to and one of which

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we said no to that the parliament itself

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will be the final Arbiter on whether or

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not the country goes to war in fact

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hither to the Prime Minister was

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exercising what's known as the Royal

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prerogative you see theoretically only

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the queen can make war she over the

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course of centuries or he when it was a

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king gave that power to the prime

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minister in his or herstead but Mr Blair

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changed the unwritten British

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constitution he still went to bingan

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Palace presumably for the IRA War but

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but if the British Parliament had stood

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up and been counted in the way that they

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now wish they had there would have been

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no British participation in the Iraq War

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and thus David Cameron when he wanted to

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take us to war with Syria made it clear

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that the parliament would have to make

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the final decision and when it voted

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against British involvement the Prime

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Minister was very clear he came to the

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dispatch box somewhat to my surprise I

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wasn't 10 ft from his face when he said

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it he said that's it the parliament has

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spoken Britain will not be involved in

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any military action against Syria and I

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must tell you my heart was never so

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filled with joy on any parliamentary

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occasion so I don't think Parliament

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having now got this power is going to

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willingly or easily give it up you know

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the old American song how you going to

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keep them down on the farm after they've

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seen Pari well we've seen Pari we've had

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the power we're not going to give it

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away in that instance do you think David

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Cameron as he was standing there thought

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right there's a legal requirement that

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Parliament votes because of course as

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you said it's an Unwritten Constitution

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there is no legal requirement there was

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no requirement to have a vote and there

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was no requirement to accept the vote

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but the political realities and the

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Parliamentary realities were that he

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could do no other you see in that debate

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on the Syria War one could almost feel

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the house moving and turning he lost the

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debate comprehensively from the first

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kick of the ball and right up until the

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final whistle and it would have been

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political suicide for him inside his own

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party inside the Parliament and most

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especially inside the country because

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the country's public opinion there was

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only 11% supporting a war on Syria that

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means 89% of the people were were not in

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favor of a war you can't have a war with

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only the 11 11% support David Cameron

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signaled that he would try and get some

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kind of act some Bill through about the

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need for a vote and now he's saying no I

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think a signal in politics doesn't

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always really mean an intention

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certainly in British parliamentary

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politics he's playing to the Backwoods

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of the right-wing conservative party

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differentiating himself from the liberal

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Democrat Coalition partners and

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preparing a set of cards with which to

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go to the electorate not very long

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distant from now this is a government

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running out of time running out of

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popular support and Riven with internal

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conflicts not just on this but on Europe

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and many other things so I think it was

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just a bit of uh play acting by him

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we'll see if I'm wrong but I I must tell

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you if if the British Parliament votes

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to give up the power to decide whether

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Britain goes to war or not it's not a

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parliament worthy of the name in in that

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case uh the whole idea of democracy

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itself you're saying is going to be

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unless we are going to have and I've

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long campaigned for it a written

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Constitution a Bill of Rights and

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abolish the monarchy and have a

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president with executive Authority I

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would prefer that and then you could

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have one man making the decision for a

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limited period of time like President

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Obama has to go to war or not uh but if

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you don't have that you can't have a

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prime minister who isn't elected by the

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whole country it's only elected by

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75,000 people in Oxfordshire that's the

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only mandate he actually has but then

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why is Cameron now signaling as it were

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I I mean it's too much of a conspiracy

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the Washington are going to him and

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going we really didn't like this vote on

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Syria it's about time you actually

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enshrine the idea that the Prime

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Minister can take the country to war to

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the contrary that the United States was

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mightily relieved the administration was

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mightily relieved that the British

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Parliament voted the way that it do that

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it did and was mly relieved at Russian

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diplomacy uh opening a door to a

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peaceful resolution of what looked like

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the brink of a catastrophic War

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throughout the region I just arrived

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back today from from Lebanon uh I

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wouldn't have been able to go to Lebanon

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no one would be able to go anywhere in

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the Levant or father of field because

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we'd now be in the middle of a full

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scale raging catastrophic War that's

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obviously not what the intelligence told

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the Prime Minister when he set forward

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that motion in I wonder I wonder we

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often we' found out now over Iraq and

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you'll see when the chilcott inquiry

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reports when will it report well that's

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a very good question uh I hope I'm still

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around to see it report but when it

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reports I can give you this insight into

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it it will show that British diplomatic

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and intelligence information to the

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Prime Minister was very different to

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that which the Prime Minister was

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repackaging and presenting before the

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public and the I'm never one to speak up

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for intelligence services but they have

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a right to be sore about how they were

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sorely misused by Tony Blair I mean when

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a liberal Democrat pair says things like

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uh introducing a legal Dimension to the

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idea of the country going to war would

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create an area of morass rather than

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certainty which is why you shouldn't

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require parliament in order to have wars

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you immediately think well maybe the

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security services got to him or to uh

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you know other laws if the it's not the

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security services in other words well I

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wouldn't have thought so because they

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seem to have rather more sense than the

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government does as do the American

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intelligence Services seem to have

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rather more sense than their government

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does and I never thought I'd find myself

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s saying either of those two things

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actually the real clear and present

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danger to Britain is its government the

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clear and present danger to the United

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States people is its government and uh

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the people that we employ to be experts

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in this field we later find we're giving

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the right advice to the politicians who

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weren't taking it no I mean I I'm very

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clear about this if we're going to have

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an Unwritten Constitution then one of

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the few arguments in favor of it is that

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it gives flexibility to the parliament

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to get a government off the hook that's

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what we did in the vote on Syria people

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know that every war we've fought since

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the second world war has been wrong has

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done more harm than good has cost blood

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and treasure we can't afford and has in

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the case of recent Middle East Wars

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cascaded fanaticism and extremism around

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the world which explodes Even in our own

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country on our own underground trains

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and on our buses and uh people know that

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instinctively somehow the British and

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American people have seen through the

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fog of War propaganda Fox News Sky News

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all of that they've seen through it and

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they're not going to go back on that

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they realize that when British and

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American politicians tell them they need

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to go to war they better pinch

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themselves and think not twice but 10

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and twice before going along with such a

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proposition because the wars were a

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blunder you know the French uh uh

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Minister Talon when told of the death of

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a political opponent bismar said uh it's

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a crime but it's worse than a crime it's

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a blunder the Iraq War the Afghan war

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the proposed Syrian War would have been

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crimes were crimes but they were worse

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than crimes they were a blunder but the

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Defenders of any policy to reduce the

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sovereignty of parliament or kill off

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the sovereignty of parliament when it

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comes to war say if you do that you're

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aiding the enemy because you're giving

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them time to regroup for the fight

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against British soldiers well Wars waged

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and haste are uh the worst wars of all

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uh there's an ancient Chinese proverb in

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the Forbidden City uh it was the motto

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of one of the great Emperors and it was

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do nothing often times it's best to

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leave events to develop before making a

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judgment as rash as plunging into a war

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because Wars are very easy to start and

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very difficult to finish the afan War

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has now lasted longer than the first and

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second world wars put together and

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frankly it's a long long way from being

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finished so that's hardly an argument

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for giving the Prime Minister unlimited

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untrammeled power to take the country to

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war that we can do it more quickly after

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all if that's what we've done over Syria

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we'd be in the middle of a war that

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demonstrably we didn't need to be in

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because diplomacy is now fixing the

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problem that we were told we needed War

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they say the threat of the war made that

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happen well I just don't accept that uh

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isn't that what President Obama says and

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David Cameron says even if that were

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true that's an argument for threatening

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War it's not an argument for actually

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waging one thank you George Galloway for

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Going Underground always

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[Applause]