George Galloway – speech 06.02.10 at the Brady Centre
Leaders of the community brothers and sisters, comrades and friends Asalamu Alaikum.
I think were going too win this campaign, don’t you? I feel it, I feel it in this room today, when I see the breadth and the potential power of the opinion leaders in this hall, I feel that we are going to win this. This is an idea whose time has come.
We are very proud to be associated with it in Respect and were proud of the part that we’ve played with many others in bringing about this referendum. It was an extraordinary sight outside, however, as we came in I really couldn’t work out what was going on and most of the people of the demonstration were members of the Labour party in Tower Hamlets. But directed elected Mayors is a Labour policy. Ken Livingstone is the best thing that ever happened to London.
We have a Labour mayor in Hackney directed elected, we have a Labour mayor in Newham directed elected so what is it about Tower Hamlets that the Labour party doesn’t want it. Elected mayors exist in Newham, in Hackney, in Lewisham but not a directed elected mayor in Tower Hamlets, I tell you its absurd, its crazy.
What are they afraid of?
One of them told us in the East London Advertiser this week, my opponent in Poplar, the man who wants to introduce a law to force Muslim men and women to sit together at weddings, he says he doesn’t want a directly elected mayor because it would be a job for me! Well flattering though it is, for my opponent to imagine that Im so popular that 51% of the people of the borough of Tower Hamlets would choose me as mayor. I have no intention of standing for mayor of Tower Hamlets but I have every intention of giving the people of Tower Hamlets the right to directly elect a mayor. That’s my intention.
Others say the fact that there’s posters outside saying “Ken”, (I don’t think they know that Ken’s much more popular than the local Labour people here in Tower Hamlets) “Ken don’t divide our community” saying that a directed elected mayor will divide the community, but the opposite is the truth. To be elected mayor under the system of STV (single transferable vote) you have to obtain the votes of 51% of the people, what could be more united of the community!
I’ll tell you what divides the community its 20 people in a cabal, in a dark room, down in Canary Wharf ‘wheeling and dealing’, back scratching and back stabbing and offering Peter the money you use to give to Paul, or you’ll give it back to Paul if you’ll vote for the right candidate for leader and changing your leader every year. That’s what is dividing the local community and we have had enough of it here in Tower Hamlets.
But the real reason is not because they think it will divide the community or that they think I’ll be the mayor of Tower Hamlets, the real reason was standing out there on the demonstration pulling the strings as always they want to keep things as they are because a tiny tiny cabal of labour party grandees pre eminent of which is Michael Keith. He wants to run Tower Hamlets like he has ran Tower Hamlets over the last 10-15 years and I say to you Michael Keith- if you want to run Tower Hamlets put yourself up as a candidate. For the directly elected mayor of this borough and lets see how you do in that campaign
Madam chair, brother and sisters I believe that we can win this campaign we are united here, there are people from Labour, from Liberal from Conservative from Respect even people of no party people, of all faiths, all communities, all colours, young and old, men and women, if we unite on this for a ‘yes vote’ in this referendum- I tell you we will sweep the boards in this referendum.
Laurie P on said:
Andy, contacting you here because I can’t find your email! I’m sorry if you feel I misrepresented you in my last post. I was making a rhetorical point about women and blogging which I thought you would be behind, and it wasn’t meant at all to be a targeted attack on you – just an example of the sorts of attitudes that women bloggers face, even from decent, nice liberal guys!
I do appreciate that you said nice things about me, and don’t get me wrong – I’m a massive fan of yours and a great respecter of the work you do, and I don’t believe that you are yourself any sort of misogynist. But that comment needed addressing, and I actually don’t think you gave a satisfactory answer, and the topic as a whole needed addressing, although I ought to have published more of your response.
L.
Boab on said:
“’ll tell you what divides the community its 20 people in a kabala in a dark room, down in Canary Wharf ‘wheeling and dealing’, back scratching and back stabbing”
Why did you use the word Kabala, George?
Is it a reference to Jews sitting in a dark room working out how to divide up other people’s money? Was it just an unfortunate choice of word, a bit like George W Bush’s “Crusade”. Or are you trying to play the race/religion card with your power base?
Why exactly did you choose a word that relates to Jewish mysticism when discussing the management of Tower Hamlets when so many of your voters are Muslim? Is it all a Jewish conspiracy? Will you be distributing copies of Protocols next?
Nas on said:
Boab: calm down. It’s a quick transcription of a speech. He said cabal. Now I imagine we’re going to hear that that’s anti-semitic too.
Boab on said:
If he said Cabal, no problem. But it does not say that here. Perhaps Andy should change it.
rachel trickett on said:
#4 It was definitely cabal. I heard it. Elsewhere I’ve heard him refer, in the same context, to “meeting in what used to be smoke-filled rooms”. It is really quite absurd to imagine he actually said “kabala”. Perhaps Andy should correct the transcription, for fear of those obsessed with trying to smear George Galloway with the claim of anti-semitism using the error of transcription against him.
Andy Newman on said:
I have changed the transcription.
Sean on said:
any decent hard working councillor would tell you Mayors like Council Cabinet
are bad for democracy
and when you end up with English Nationalists in a Working class area youll know why !!!!
rachel trickett on said:
#7 Councils are having to choose between a new “Leader and Cabinet” system and a mayor directly elected by a version of the Alternative Vote system. There are much more democratic ways of organising local government but these are not being offered as an option by the government.
In Tower Hamlets you can side with right wing, racist New Labour, the official Lib Dems and Tories and oppose the directly elected mayor, or side with the majority of voters from the ethnic minority communities and everyone else fed up with a system which is most likely to continue to concentrate power in the hands of the right wing, racist New Labour.
This is the point made most forcibly by Ken Livingstone, effectively endorsed by Keith Vaz and which George Galloway summarises above )he speaking before both Livingstone and Vaz). I know which side I am on and which side all progressive people ought to be on once they understand the nature of politics in Tower Hamlets.
None of this suggests a choice of a mayoral system is appropriate for other areas, although nor should anyone be dewy-eyed about the new “leader and cabinet” system as an alternative.
John Cale on said:
The only problem with the mayoral model is that they cannot be held to account properly when they screw things up. Councillors will become irrevelent and powerless. You may also have that dreadful prospect of cohabitation, whereby one party wins a majority of council seats and another wins the mayoralty – the result is political schizophrenia. The leader and cabinet system may not be perfect but at least a majority of councillors could remove a corrupt or incompetent leader. If you elect a mayor, they are accountable to no-one and are likely to be autocratic, arrogant and pig headed because they will be handed complete control of one billion pounds with no proper checks and balances. Do we really want a local caudillo whose only interest is absolute power, which as we all know corrupts absolutely.
Boab on said:
Thanks for updating that Andy. I wouldn’t have liked to think of George as having said something so scurrilous. I wish him luck and think he will make a fine Caliph of Tower Hamlets.
Boab on said:
“a fine Caliph of Tower Hamlets.”
I obviously said Mayor. That was clearly a transcription error.
durruti02 on said:
great!! a so called socialist arguing for a mayor! NOT for a vast increase in democracy, of decenralisation, of community empowerment, of referendum but for a mayor! lol that sums up GG. as he asked anyone in hackney or newham what they think of having an elected mayor with a cabinet??? everyone on the left is opposed. GG is only supporting this as he thinks he could get elected
John Cale on said:
The only problem with the mayoral model is that they cannot be held to account properly when they screw things up. Councillors will become irrelevant and powerless. You may also have that dreadful prospect of political co-habitation whereby one party wins a majority of council seats and another wins the mayoralty – the result is political schizophrenia. The Leader & Cabinet system may not be perfect but at least a majority of councillors could remove a corrupt or incompetent leader in a Full Council meeting. If you elect a mayor, they are accountable to no-one and are likely to be autocratic, arrogant and pig headed because they will be handed complete control of £1 billion with no proper checks and balances. Do we really want to elect a self-styled Caudillo, whose only interest is for absolute power, which as we all know corrupts absolutely.
Armchair on said:
For Boab:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc1BC6MFUos
Francis McGonigal on said:
” To be elected mayor under the system of STV (single transferable vote) you have to obtain the votes of 51% of the people, what could be more united of the community!”
I do support elected mayors, but George Galloway makes a factual error here. STV is not used for mayoral elections but the Supplementary Vote. This means that only the top two contenders are considered in the second count, so in a fragmented field the winner may not have majority support. This is a deficiency in the detail of the legislation but can result in serious anomalies.
Omar on said:
#6
Err, it’s still reading”…a tiny tiny kabala…” which did raise my eyebrows a bit.
Andy Newman on said:
ahh – there were two
corrected both now
Mike on said:
As it happens, the term cabal does derive from Kabbalah/Caballa via medieval Latin and French although it hasn’t meant that for 400 years.