Hitchens on Galloway
In the Independent (via Oliver Kamm):
"He looks so much like what he is: a thug and a demagogue, the type of working-class-wideboy-and-proud-of-it who is too used to the expenses account, the cars and the hotels - all cigars and back-slapping. He is a very cheap character and a short-arse like a lot of them are, puffed up like a turkey. He has managed to fuse being a Baathist with being a Muslim sectarian and a carpet bagger in the East End - as well as a front for a creepy sub-Leninist sect, the Socialist Workers' Party. He's got the venomous riff-raff at one end and your one-God fanatics on the other. Wonderful. Just what we need. "
Working-class wideboy? A short-arse* like a lot of them are?
We mustn't take this too seriously. Galloway was equally rude back, and though I have no idea about Galloway's height, I imagine Hitchen's comments about that are no less accurate as Galloway's calling Hitchens "drink-soaked" and pointing out that his hands were shaking (I've seen Hitchens live, and that's basically a fair description, if a rather incomplete one).
Nevertheless it's pretty pathetic stuff.
* I am 6ft 3. I have never though considered this a political benefit. What Hitchens means by 'like a lot of them are' I don't know. Normally the historical comparision with Galloway has been with Oswald Mosley, though he was well over 6ft tall.
posted by Matthew @ 5/19/2005 10:48:00 PM
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