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now bye george galloway um first of all

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you've beaten the daily telegraph um who

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else are you going to sue for repeating

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the libel given the other papers and

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lead ministers criticized you

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well uh let me get this one over first

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it's been quite a grueling affair i had

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to risk a total ruin to bring this case

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if i had lost it i would have been

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homeless jobless

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and penniless

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and bankrupt and out of public office

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for good as a bankrupt

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so it's not a small undertaking such a

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battle as this

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but the victory has been as your report

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has just said

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very comprehensive but

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i have now collected

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although i've not yet got the cash a

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quarter of a million pounds in libel

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damages in six months

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from the times the sunday times the

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christian science monitor so if you're

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in a row you might as well go on well i

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may well uh but i'll if you don't mind

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take my legal counsel uh on that rather

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than discuss it on news night um

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you are the only person that's actually

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claimed the documents were forgeries

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do you know who forged them have you an

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idea who follows them

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well i've claimed throughout that the

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documents in the daily telegraph case

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were fake i'm not able to establish that

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there are forgeries we are talking about

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a photocopy of a document illegibly

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signed

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citing a report from an unnamed

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intelligence officer

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found miraculously in a burning building

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in baghdad

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baghdad is under the control of the

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daily telegraph's friends the puppet

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regime

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i'm not able to go there i'm not able

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properly to investigate it but i do know

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that the other documents in the other

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cases

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uh were

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found to be forgeries and i have no

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doubt that this document is a fake so

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why

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would anyone forge this exactly well

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you know you can say why but you know

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for a fact because in the very same

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courtroom court 13 in the strand at the

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high court

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one of the world's great newspapers the

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christian science monitor was forced to

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pay me substantial damages and make an

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apology of the most groveling kind for

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publishing on its front page in 93

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countries the allegation that i had

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taken

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with this would you blame the ownership

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would you pay the editorial staff of the

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telegraph well i think the

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uh provenance of the document

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is highly contentious

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i will be seeking parliamentary

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opportunities to discuss that matter

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further in the next days and weeks one

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day we'll know who produced this fake

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document but a very good test on these

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occasions is to ask who benefits who

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benefited from

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the attempt to destroy one of the

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leading figures in the british anti-war

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movement and when you ask that question

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certain answers flash up in your mind

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and i think the intelligent viewers of

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newsnight can work that out for

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themselves so what are you going to do

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with the money

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well i haven't got it yet because the

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telegraph

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have asked for

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leave to appeal against the judge's

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refusal to allow them leave to appeal

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uh it'll be some time before uh that's

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all worked out but there is a general

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election coming up i will be standing so

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it's your coffer in the uh bethnal green

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ball constituency and it'll it'll buy

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quite a few election leaflets you will

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see it time and again that 1994 film and

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so people are still unclear about your

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attitude towards the regime

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just can you nail this now

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is it better for iraq that saddam has

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gone well people shouldn't be unclear

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they

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some of them are willfully unclear this

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was made clear in the court case with a

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volume and i mean a volume

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of

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denunciations from me going back to the

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1970s is it better for iraq he's gone

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iraq is definitely not better off today

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than it was before the war

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anyone who watches television knows that

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but is it better

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all countries are better off without

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their dictators but the price of getting

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rid of this dictator has been an ocean

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of blood galloway is here very good

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morning to you

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how are you good it's been three years

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of

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facing total ruin bankruptcy if i'd lost

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this case i would have been homeless

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jobless

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uh without a bank account and uh and

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bankrupt and out of public life for good

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so it was a very high stakes

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three years is a long battle

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but i'm obviously very pleased now to

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have finally won it

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i mean do you feel in a way that the the

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the telegraph is almost trying to put

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that financial pressure on you

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well you know one of the problems of

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trying to clear your name from that kind

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of assault by

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multi-billionaire owners of newspapers

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is that if they dig in and go all the

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way then you have to risk absolutely

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everything in the libel courts most

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people would have balked at that i

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didn't feel that i was able to i had to

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write there are those that say that you

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put yourself up for that sort of thing

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then well you don't put yourself up for

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being lied about and that's what libel

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is it's somebody publishing lies about

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you and

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i don't think anyone puts themselves up

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for that

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no the

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saddam regime never gave me any money

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but the newspapers that alleged that he

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did have had to give me plenty and had

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to pay out plenty now millions of pounds

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because of course 150 000 to me 1.6

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million in costs and there are several

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other newspapers in the same frame can

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you draw a line under this now i want to

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ask you about moving on but um robert

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mckay in scotland asks if the u.s senate

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committee invites you back to answer

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more allegations would you go and why

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give them the time

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uh well i demanded that they uh have me

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back

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because i think i did quite well the

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last time and i think it two-car

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anti-war anti-bush campaign

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forward and and most even critics uh

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agreed with that so

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that's probably the reason why they

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won't ask me back but when senator

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coleman the chairman of the committee

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faces election next november i'll be

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there in minnesota

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how do you move on now

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well i'm fighting the local elections

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which are now 80 days exactly away

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we're fighting all over the country we

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hope to make a breakthrough perhaps

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particularly in east london but all the

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publicity over big brother we we have to

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talk about that i mean you you were

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pretty largely pilloried by most

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sections of the community you must have

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felt under pressure

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you don't think that's bad that's

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completely untrue i was i was pillared

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by more sections of the media the same

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media that have been labeling me for 20

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years but far from being pilloried by

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the community

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uh there are more people attending my

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public meetings more people buying my

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books more people back is that just the

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element of you being controversial you

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don't regret that no partly you're right

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i mean just because you're famous

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doesn't mean people agree with your

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politics but it's not a bad start when

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people come up and ask you if they can

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take their picture with you what about

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the question then that people will put

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or and have put that why do you do what

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you do is it for you george galloway or

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is it for the politics are they

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justified in asking that question no

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life would be very much easier if i just

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acted like other mps and sat in the

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house of commons bar and picked up my

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check at the end of the month and it

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wasn't even a legend in the house next

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door never mind be asked into the big

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brother house but i

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don't have unlimited time left to me in

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this life no one does of course but i

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think that in the next 15 20 years i

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want to spend my time out there in the

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public fighting for my ideas my policies

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after all your news bulletin's been

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dominated today by the very issues with

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which i'm most associated iraq the

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middle east the bush blair alliance and

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so on these are the biggest issues of

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the day but isn't that the very point i

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mean those are the issues that that you

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want to highlight but because you're on

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big brother that is what in fact

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dominates not what you're trying to say

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do you feel that in a way you weren't

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done over in a way by the big brother

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experience did you realize it was going

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to come out like if you're if you'll

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forgive the pun i don't believe in

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crying over spilt milk

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i i i'm making use of did you regret

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that

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well i was amazed i was amazed at how

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that went down i didn't think that would

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even make the cut would even make the

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progress i was right honestly it shows

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you how how naive i am but uh you know i

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was dressed in a lab coat i was asked to

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do something foolish for charity we made

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more than half a million pounds for

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charity by the way that's double what we

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made last year uh and i was asked to ask

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to behave like a cat could you do it

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again well if the cause was right and

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the uh and the cause was going to

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benefit well enough that then i would i

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see ruler lens has now signed up as a

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cat food

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so no wind that blows nobody any good i

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doubt it's the last we'll be hearing

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from you