RIGHTWINGSPARKLE

We may have just heard about George Galloway here, but in Britain he is well known. Oh boy.

Here's some excerpts:

“Gorgeous George”, after all, has got away with it before, time and time again. He has always escaped deselection despite saying he doesn’t “give a f***” what the Prime Minister thinks, mourning the collapse of the Soviet Union as the “biggest catastrophe” of his life, describing Ché Guevara as his “ultimate hero” and receiving boxes of Havana’s finest Cohiba cigars from Fidel Castro, a friend.
His mistakes range from the malign to the ridiculous. Mr Galloway joined Gerry Adams on a Troops Out march long before the Sinn Fein leader talked of peace. At a press conference called to rebut corruption charges over his management of War on Want, his now ex-wife was less than pleased by his confession of having “carnal knowledge” of a Greek woman he met on a charity trip.

Although Galloway has said he supported democracy in Iraq and the removal of Saddam, the story goes on to say:

"Most famously, on a trip to Iraq in 1994, he told Saddam: “Sir, I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability. And I want you to know we are with you until victory, until Jerusalem.”
Mr Galloway claimed initially that he had said “so” instead of “sir”. Later, his explanation was that he had been saluting the Iraqi people — in the Glasgow sense of “youse” — not “you”, Saddam.
Those who choose to disbelieve him point out that he has sometimes adjusted his life story to suit himself. His claims to have been “born in a slum tenement” and to have first worked in a tyre factory have been challenged by friends who say his parents were comfortably off and that he worked for only seven weeks at Michelin during the school holidays. He is even said to have lied when he joined Dundee Labour Party by pretending he was 15 when he was 13."

H/T to my overseas friend dave bones.