George Galloway
George Galloway (born August 16, 1954 in Dundee ) is a British politician. From 2005 to May 2010, he represented the 2004 newly founded Respect The Unity Coalition in the House of Commons as a member of parliament for the constituency “Bethnal Green & Bow” in east London . He had previously been a member of the Labor Party and represented the constituencies of Glasgow Hillhead (later Glasgow Kelvin ) from 1987 to 2005 . In October 2003 , after 36 years, Galloway was expelled from the Labor Party for anti-party behavior.
Galloway appears regularly for the Iranian and Russian state broadcaster, which made him the MP with the third highest additional income in 2014. His broadcasts on the English-language Iranian state television were terminated by the independent British media regulator because of partiality.
Life
Galloway attended the "Harris Academy" in Dundee, Scotland, and after graduating from school, he worked in a garden center and in tire production at Michelin . In 1977 he became the organizer of the Labor Party. Galloway was elected to the Scottish regional government and in 1980, at the age of 26, became one of the youngest chairmen in the history of the Scottish Labor Party.
In October 2003 , after 36 years, Galloway was expelled from the Labor Party for anti-party behavior. As an opponent of British involvement in the Iraq war , he had called on British soldiers to refuse to obey and Arab armies to fight against the British military.
On May 5, 2005, he narrowly won his constituency in east London (828 votes ahead) against Oona King (Labor), a supporter of Tony Blair's war participation course, and then delivered a speech accusing Tony Blair of " having the blood." of 100,000 people on his hands ”.
January 5, 2006 until his "de-select" on January 25, Galloway took part in the reality TV telecast Celebrity Big Brother in part.
In the 2010 general election, Galloway failed in another constituency. "Respect - The Unity Coalition" lost its only seat in the lower house. On March 29, 2012, Galloway won the by-election in the Bradford-West constituency by a clear margin and thus returned to Parliament in Westminster.
On the afternoon of August 29, 2014, Galloway was attacked by a man in the street. He suffered a broken rib and bruises on his head and face. The alleged attacker was arrested.
Press TV and Russia Today
Galloway ran two weekly talk shows on Press TV , the English-language state broadcaster of the Islamic Republic of Iran . For violating the British press code, the program was discontinued by the British independent media regulator after several complaints alleging the spread of Iranian state propaganda and unilateral incitement to Israel.
Since 2013 Galloway has hosted a weekly program on the Russian state broadcaster Russia Today under the title Sputnik, Orbiting the world with George Galloway . In 2018, this program came into the focus of media supervision as part of an investigation into a total of 11 programs by the station due to partiality.
Due to his many pro-Iranian and pro-Russian television appearances, Galloway received the third highest additional income of any British MP in 2014, declaring a total of 293,450 pounds direct payments as well as almost 70,000 pounds in hotel and travel expenses. From the Islamic Republic of Iran he received around 79,000 pounds (about 105,000 euros) for his shipments, the payments from Russia Today amounted to 75,200 pounds (about 100,000 euros) from November 2013 to October 2014. In addition, around 95,000 euros came from the Arab broadcaster Al Mayadeen , which has represented the views of the Islamist terrorist organization Hezbollah , Iran and the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad since it was founded in 2012 .
Controversies and political positions
George Galloway is controversial in parts of the British left. While the Socialist Workers Party and well-known personalities such as Ken Loach and the union leader Mark Serwottka work closely with Galloway and are part of RESPECT, other representatives of the political left distance themselves strictly from him. The most common allegations made against Galloway are:
- Galloway neglects his work in parliament (low attendance, non-attendance at votes and debates on anti-terrorism laws), constituency and party and instead uses well-paid events and programs such as Celebrity Big Brother in the media and is not subject to any control by his party. Parliamentary statistics support this allegation.
Galloway counteracts this by leading his large number of speeches in public. He states that his appearance in Celebrity Big Brother was only made to reach normally unreachable groups of voters. However, all of Galloway's political statements were overlaid with the twittering of birds, which Galloway knew nothing about. He donated his MP diet for this period.
- Galloway refuses, as is customary in parts of the British left, to transfer the part of the MP's diets that go beyond a skilled worker wage to the organization or charitable projects.
- Although Galloway is a staunch opponent of the war, he does not take progressive positions on many other issues, such as abortion and homosexuality, and did not belong to the Campaign Group , the association of socialist MPs and their supporters, within the Labor Party until he was expelled .
Galloway, however, joined demands for equal rights for homosexuals and also supported laws in this direction, for example the adoption of children by gays and unmarried people and the equalization of the age of consent of homosexuals to heterosexuals.
- During his time as general secretary at the left-wing charity War on Want, George Galloway operated mismanagement from 1983-87 and was jointly responsible for its subsequent bankruptcy.
Galloway resigned from this office because of irregularities, but an examination by the state Charity Commission revealed only minor irregularities for which no one in particular could be held responsible. There is no evidence that funds were not used in accordance with the statutes.
- George Galloway tried to exploit the internal crisis of the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) in autumn 2004 and to split the SSP.
In February 2009, Galloway called on the Egyptian people to overthrow the tyrant Mubarak .
Galloway is a public advocate for the interests of Muslims in Great Britain. He was one of the most vehement critics of the Channel 4 television report "Undercover Mosque" , for which radical Muslims were filmed with hidden cameras in British mosques in January 2007, preaching hatred and contempt against "infidels". He accused the authors of the report of anti-Muslim partisanship because they had not made the "spreading of hate in the Old Testament" and among Christian fundamentalists an issue.
Galloway harshly criticized Margaret Thatcher's death celebrations, lamenting the £ 10 million spent “canonizing this vicious woman” and called it “absurd” to compare Margaret Thatcher with former Prime Minister Winston Churchill . Thatcher was responsible for the de-industrialization of the entire north of Great Britain and South Wales and the simple word 'Thatcher' would provoke feelings of hatred among millions of Brits.
In 2014, Galloway declared the city of Bradford an "Israel-free" zone, which was countered by Rabbi Shneur Zalman Odze with a demonstrative visit by Israelis and British people with Israeli passports, which was organized via Facebook .
Galloway ran in the mayoral election for London in 2016, but achieved a result of only 1.4% of the votes cast.
Shortly before the conclusion of Prime Minister Cameron's negotiations with his EU partners in February 2016, Galloway publicly sided with the opponents of EU membership and declared that he would vote accordingly in the upcoming referendum .
Web links
- GeorgeGalloway.com Official website George Galloway (Engl.)
- RESPECT site (English).
- Statement on the London bombings by George Galloway on behalf of Respect, Socialist Worker, 9 July 2005 | issue 1959 (Engl.)
- Blog with pictures and links to Galloway's Celebrity Big Brother appearance & taz article on it
- Iraq war opponent George Galloway excluded from parliament WSWS article of August 3, 2007
Individual evidence
- ↑ Matthew Tempest: Galloway expelled from Labor. In: theguardian.com. June 20, 2017, accessed June 1, 2018 .
- ^ New Germany , May 5, 2010
- ↑ http://www.stern.de/news2/aktuell/labour-abnahmler-galloway-schetzt-wiedereinzug-ins-parlament-1807102.html ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically defective marked. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Galloway's victory is the last thing Britain needs , Daily Mail, April 1, 2012
- ↑ Kevin Rawlinson: Man charged over George Galloway assault. The Guardian , August 30, 2014, accessed September 2, 2014 .
- ↑ Mark Sweney: George Galloway rapped by Ofcom over impartial Press TV chatshows. In: theguardian.com. May 8, 2017, accessed June 16, 2018 .
- ↑ Ofcom widens inquiry into Russia-backed RT. In: news.sky.com. May 27, 2018, accessed June 16, 2018 .
- ↑ Andy McSmith's Diary: Gordon Brown and George Galloway earn more than Tory barristers , The Independent, February 4, 2015
- ↑ George Galloway's outside earnings third highest of all MPs , The Telegraph And Argus, October 24, 2014
- ↑ REGISTER OF MEMBERS 'FINANCIAL INTERESTS , House of Commons, February 2, 2015
- ↑ War of the remote controls: new Arabic TV channel challenges Al Jazeera , France24, June 14, 2012
- ↑ Al-Mayadeen: The last attempt to revive pro-Assad media ( Memento of the original from December 31, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Asharq al-Awsat, June 14, 2012
- ↑ Cumali Önal: Konvoyla 12 am km katedip Gazze'ye girdi. (No longer available online.) In: Zaman Online. Zaman , March 11, 2009, p. 1 , formerly in the original ; Retrieved March 11, 2009 (Turkish). ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ See "George Galloway clashes C4 over Undercover Mosque program" (YouTube) [1]
- ^ Galloway anger at Thatcher funeral and canceling PMQs. BBC News, April 15, 2013, accessed July 5, 2013 .
- ↑ Report on Israel-Netz and video on Youtube (English)
- ↑ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/06/london-mayoral-election-results-what-time-will-the-votes-be-coun/
- ↑ Jack Sommers: Nigel Farage Interviewed By George Galloway, Who Agreed With Him On Everything They Discussed. The Huffington Post UK, February 13, 2016, accessed February 22, 2016 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Galloway, George |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British politician, Member of the House of Commons and pacifist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 16, 1954 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Dundee , Scotland |