Galloway, Gormley and the Greens

Big Brother star George Galloway is squandering his talents by remaining on the Channel 4 "freak show" and must get out now, the Green Party here said yesterday.  The Green's chairman John Gormley seems quite distressed about this and says that the Respect MP is "demeaning himself and discrediting the anti-war movement with his on-screen behaviour".  Describing Galloway as a "brilliant orator and campaigner" and someone who has "contributed enormously to the anti-war movement", Gormley predicts that the MP "will regret his decision to participate in this awful programme". 

I suspect Gormley is right and I fervently hope that one of the most opportunistic blackguards ever to take a seat in the House of Commons never recovers his reputation and is tossed out by the electors of Bethnal Green and Bow at the next election.  Galloway, once a convinced Stalinist, has inserted himself in a political formation made up of Trotskyists from the Socialist Workers' Party and the Muslim Association of Britain, an Islamist organisation closely linked to the Muslim Brotherhood.  This bizarre alliance is justified because it is anti-imperialist.  Large sections of the radical left in Britain now embrace something that would seek to establish repressive and theocratic regimes.  But that's alright because they would oppose the United States.  For more on this see Harry's Place and Normblog passim.

Meanwhile what should we make of Gormley' s lump-in-the-throat, tears-in-the-eyes distress, as Irish Eagle puts it?  Gormley is the obvious leader in waiting should the Greens finally get fed up with the lacklustre Trevor Sargent.  Does he really want to associate himself with a political scoundrel?  Furthermore, at what point will the radical anti-Americanism of most Green activists cut against the grain of the more moderate views of the party's potential electorate?  The Greens are capable of adopting positions that could set limits to the potential support they can attract.  If I was a Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael spinmeister that is something I'd want to exploit.