Interesting victory speech....

Just watched the victory speech of George Galloway who won the constituency of Bethal Green and Bow in the East London area running under the "Respect" party banner. Here is a link to a video clip of the speech. It was probably the most interesting one of the night -- a straight forward attack on New Labour (which kicked him out of the party because of his opposition to the war and his personal contacts with Saddam Hussein) and an even more targeted assault on the local borough officials. Galloway is an interesting character that has obviously been underestimated. But there more than a bit of demagoguery and arrogance in his approach, and his comments about parliamentary colleagues ("spineless" supporters of Blair with the "blood of 100,000 on their hands") guarantees that he will be a loose, loud (but ineffective) cannon in Commons. The fact that he beat one of the few black female MPs (Oona King) has added to the feelings against him on the liberal left despite his leftist reputation. (For a previous speech in which he articulated his views quite clearly, see here.) In an interview on BBC that followed, Galloway went head to head with Jeremy Paxman, and eventually walked off after having taken Paxman to task. That was worth staying up for.... (Video here)