Duncan Hamilton: A salute to the gorgeousness of George Galloway

Published on Wednesday 23 June 2010 19:22

I FIND myself in the minority of people who neither love nor loathe George Galloway. I am, however, bewildered by his very public job application to become an MSP. Don't get me wrong, he has every right to stand and the good people of Glasgow may indeed enjoy sending their own little parcel of havoc to the parliament in Edinburgh. Actually, if he sells it like that, he's a shoo in.

Moreover, he remains a powerful, interesting and provocative orator. He would unquestionably add colour and spice to what has become worthy and dull. He claims, with characteristic modesty, that the Scottish Parliament "needs members who might be recognised outside their own living rooms" and that he would fit the bill. Indeed he would - who, for example, can forget the excruciating image of George in Big Brother down on all fours lapping milk from a bowl while pretending to be a cat? If ever there was a time not to be recognised in a living room, that was probably it. He is also remembered for his time in the living room of Saddam Hussein, and his deferential praise of the Iraqi dictator.

But that doesn't tell the whole story. This is a man who produced a stunning performance at the US Senate hearings on Iraq oil deals. On any view it was a triumph, as such as Menzies Campbell said at that time. But that's the problem - a man constantly juggling triumph and disaster, displaying principle then foolishness. The only common denominator is publicity. Galloway's vision of hell is walking down the street and not being recognised.

Why then stand for Holyrood? I am not really buying the "I am being pressurised by people to add substance to the Scottish Parliament" line being spun in his interviews. I suspect the truth is that he craves a pulpit, and has twigged that convincing 15,000 Glaswegians to elect you under a PR system is a lot easier than winning a first-past-the-post seat in Westminster. I don't criticise that - it is perfectly sensible politics - but please, George, let's lose the image of being carried shoulder high along the M8 by throngs of ecstatic supporters as the saviour of devolution.

But what if he wins? The truth is he will be bored senseless. This is a man who is a terrific media act. He thrives on international politics and the big occasion. Political adrenaline is the drug which brings him back to seek a representative role time and again. And he wants to go to Holyrood?

Has he ever been there? It is everything that he is not. It is about consensus not division, administration not lofty statements of principle, worthy and important work in committees not lengthy and powerful oratory in the Chamber. In fact, it is almost impossible to imagine designing a politician less suited to Holyrood. But that, I confess, is why part of me would like to see him win. This is an old school politician seeking to enter the world of "new politics".

It is a clash of style and a collision of political cultures. Holyrood has perhaps been too ready to abandon everything about Westminster. Longer speeches, more passion, more division - these are not always bad things. The Scottish tradition of thesis, antithesis, synthesis lives on.

Of course, there have been independents and minority parties before. Dennis Canavan was thoughtful, intelligent, diligent and vocal. Tommy Sheridan and the SSP flared brightly but briefly. Margo MacDonald is, well, Margo MacDonald. What unites those examples is that they emerged as part of the devolution story - each added a chapter to the emerging sense of what the new Scottish politics was to be all about. By contrast, this candidacy is about something altogether different. It is an unapologetic reintroduction of an aggressive, polarising Westminster style. The question for me is this: will Holyrood blunt Galloway or can he impose his style on it?

His problem is that the institution and structures will starve him of the oxygen of publicity. Individual MSPs and minority parties are squeezed in Holyrood. The coverage tends to be of First Minister's Questions and occasionally some other government business. Whilst the committees do important work, they are nowhere near the engine of reform originally envisaged. Nor do they have the capacity properly to hold the Executive to account. Remember, too, that the Business Bureau effortlessly controls which debates reach the floor of Parliament. Once there, the chamber sits until only 5pm and speeches from Galloway will ordinarily not exceed four minutes.

Imagine if Galloway MSP wanted to debate the Middle East. That kind of debate would transform the Scottish Parliament and is long overdue. It is an unsustainable absurdity that Glasgow City Council can regularly debate international affairs but the Scottish Parliament does not. The problem is he just won't get the airtime.

That isn't a reason for him not to try, however, and his candidacy reminds us that there remains an appetite in the public for something different. The fact that, after Alex Salmond, Galloway would immediately become the best-known MSP really should give our MSPs some food for thought.

Let's be frank - no parliament could operate with more than a few George Galloways. Radical, bombastic, wacky, odd, intelligent - he is a mass of contradictions. But in the last analysis that kind of eccentric independent always has a place in our democracy. If nothing else, it is hard not to salute his indefatigability.