In his Friday evening speech outside Downing St last week Sunak wittered on about mobs and expressed concern that the voters of Rochdale had elected as an MP someone he didn’t like, perhaps particularly on Palestine.
The Murdoch owned Times (5th March) devotes an editorial to Mr Galloway and describes his election as alarming.
Reality needs to intervene. George Galloway has been around in politics for a long time. He has consistently taken a line against Western imperial adventures (rather less so elsewhere..) and that continues to annoy Governments that support them, including the British.
His economic programme is mildly social democratic although probably a bit left-wing for Starmer. He is also a social conservative.
This mixture is far from unusual in politics though it often seems to bypass media commentary on Galloway. Ben Quinn in the Guardian (5th March) describes him as ‘far left’ a label he certainly never accepts anymore than most of those on the far left do.
There is a wider point. Talk of protest and mobs suggests that the proper way to do politics is at the ballot box. That is certainly something the Times supports. It disapproves of any protest in the UK (elsewhere is fine)beyond noting that of course theoretically there is a right to protest.
The answer surely is to follow the point made by Bertolt Brecht. If the voters of Rochdale have elected the wrong MP its time to elect some new voters in Rochdale
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