Life in a Glass Box. posted by Richard Seymour

Inevitable thought it was, I have to salute the resourcefulness and - oh yes, indefatigability - of the Labour Party and the press in turning the spectacle of Galloway munching toast in a night gown on a celebrity charity reality teevee bash into an opportunity for some pretty obvious smears. They're only jealous because Galloway is more hip and with it than they are (although probably not quite as cool as your truly). And although it risks inflating a quite marginal issue to unwarranted import, something has to be said - preferrably by someone like me.

Item: Ireland Online, followed by a few other news outlets, claims that Galloway "voters" have mounted a protest demanding their MP back. Upon reading the story, of course, you realise that they refer to a dozen people standing about outside the surgery, none of whom are actually Galloway 'voters'. In fact, the bulk of them appear to be Labour Party members. To put it another way, New Labour raised up a bit of a publicity stunt because they're bitter whining fucks who can't handle that their slavering pro-war thick as shit MP lost to Respect.

Item: The Telegraph tries to reflate old, discredited claims about the Palestinian charity Interpal, because Galloway has chosen to direct his share of the money to them. Interpal is accused of links with 'terrorism'. It has been investigated twice by the Charities Commission and exonerated both times. The Board of Deputies was recently humiliated on account of making such claims. I love the idea, though: Celebrity Big Brother subsidising the Palestinian armed struggle would have to make my giggle-of-the-week.

Item: The Guardian instructs a few hacks to sit at their desks and make a few phone calls in between munching their pasties so as to 'discover' - aha! - that Respect ain't around for their constituents. They called here, they called there, they even used Google! Truly, journalism broke the surly bonds of earth in this spectacular. Or perhaps not:

George Galloway's office was dealing with constituents' problems on Friday just as we do every day of the week, including Christmas and New Year. Our office was, to my knowledge, unable to respond to only two calls from people saying they wanted to raise constituency problems - one who did not leave a phone number to return their call on and one where it was not possible, despite repeated attempts, to hear the number left. And this despite the fact that we were bombarded with dozens of fatuous calls from journalists like Dodd and that BT, unfortunately, failed to install the phones in our new office which was due to open on Friday.

Most MPs did not hold surgeries on Friday because of the parliamentary recess. But we did. A dozen constituents came to the surgery which we hold every Friday from 4pm to 7pm. The issues were predominantly the same as they always are - appalling housing conditions resulting from the year's of neglect and lack of investment by the New Labour government in Whitehall and the New Labour Council in Tower Hamlets, and immigration and asylum problems arising from this government's iniquitous, racist immigration and asylum legislation.

It was New Labour's propaganda before last May's election that George would not represent his constituency properly and it has remained so ever since. And yet not only has George held surgeries almost every week since his election and taken up and vigorously pursued hundreds of constituents' problems, he has spoken at more public meetings on campaigning issues around the constituency than his New Labour predecessor did in all the eight anonymous years of her incumbency. He has combined this with taking the Respect message around the country speaking to thousands and playing a very significant role building the international anti-war movement.

Rob Hoveman, Assistant to George Galloway MP

There has also been a string of Labour peers, MPs and sub-luminaries (like Helen Mirren, who apparently campaigned for Oona King, ho ho ho) issuing statements about Galloway's appearance in the glass box. It's all like, "he's in it for self-interest", or even better "he just wants publicity"! The wonder is that such folks ever appear on television, or stand in elections or do anything to further their own careers, such is their aversion to "self-interest" and "publicity". All those politicians who maintain businesses or extra-parliamentary vocations of any kind had better shrivel up into a spineless ball on the backbenches than risk the attention of these worldly asceitics!

Anyway, let's turn on E4, see what's going down: ah, Dennis Rodman's pumping iron. Disgusting.

Update: Galloway spoke with his mouth full! What a gaffe! Spread the word! This is the kind of despicable manners that the unwitting residents of Bethnal Green & Bow have voted for!