Ousted Labour MP to 'personally welcome' Bush on UK state visit

[emad]

From BBC News:

Expelled Labour MP George Galloway has revealed that the slogan of his new anti-war coalition will be "Blair out, Bush out". The member for Glasgow Kelvin told BBC Scotland that he and fellow supporters would be "shouting it on the streets of London" in November when US President George W Bush makes a state visit.

Mr Galloway has already confirmed he will not be resigning his own seat to create an early by-election after being thrown out of the Labour party He will instead lead an anti-war coalition in next year's European elections before standing as an independent for a Glasgow seat in the next Westminster general election.

Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland, he said: "Reports of my political demise are greatly exaggerated. I will definitely be standing for election in Glasgow, and I am confident I will win. I'm the same person that I was when I was elected two years ago, and not one single person that I've met has asked me to resign and create a by-election. I'm doing better than that - I taking the fight to New Labour all over England and Wales, and I think you might get a surprise when you see the results."

The MP said he decided against creating a by-election because it would have forced his local supporters in the Labour party to choose between turning their back on him or being expelled from the party for supporting him. "Constituents that I have met and spoken to over the weekend, every single one of them without exception asked my to stay on," he said. Mr Galloway predicted wide support for the "unity coalition" that he intends to lead in the European elections. "There are a lot of people that have been associated with the anti-war movement that I predict will come on board this unity coalition, even to lend us their support for just one day on those elections to send a message to Tony Blair that we are not going to put up with this any more." Mr Galloway was expelled from the party by Labour's national constitutional committee last week, after comments in a television interview. He maintained he was expelled for his anti-war views but Labour has insisted the expulsion was for conduct likely to damage the party.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/3226775.stm

[absolutezero]

1. If only we had more politicians like this in the US

[realFedUp]

2. right on brother.

[Spazito]

3. I love this guy!

He's the kind of "no-holds-barred" kind of politician I would like to see more of.

[T_i_B]

4. From today's Guardian

An article by Galloway declaring his intention to stand against "new" labour.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1073786,00.html

New Labour's hallmark policies are now war and privatisation. Its leaders have stained Britain's name and endangered our citizens with its bloody aggression against Iraq. The faction in control of the party has repeatedly demonstrated its growing intolerance of internal dissent and debate.

I will now seek to challenge New Labour at the polls. In the European elections next June, I will be part of a list - in a proportional representation contest - which will seek to unify the red, green, anti-war, Muslim and other social constituencies radicalised by the war, in a referendum on Tony Blair.

We will not be a political party, but a coalition around which we hope many will rally - some perhaps only for the day, merely lending us their votes - to show the true colours of the British people. Who knows, maybe the results will be cathartic within the Labour party itself, and help to spark the long-heralded -and much to be hoped for - "reclaiming" of the party by those with Labour's best interests and traditions at heart, notably the trade unions, who must play a central role. In the elections to the Greater London Authority, we plan to support that other Labour exile, Ken Livingstone, for mayor and run a full slate of candidates ourselves. There may be other electoral firefights - in my own Glasgow constituency or in other byelections.

But we will choose the time and place of any challenges to New Labour. It will be a war of movement rather than position. But on its eventual outcome much will turn. I said before he set out on the calamitous invasion of Iraq that it would be the political death of Tony Blair. His attack on the rights of MPs to speak freely and honestly is likely to be another nail in his prime ministerial coffin. "Blair out, Bush out": these will not only be the slogans around the country during a November to remember, the bonfire of their vanities. They may just be the political reality by the end of next year.