What's wrong with George?

by Rab Clark

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Extraordinary outburst from George Galloway, on his YT show, in response to this message from a viewer named Caroline:

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‘”There are no riots in Scotland. Fact”

Caroline…don’t be so stupid.

Do you think there’s not anyone in Scotland who would get involved in these sort of riots? Seriously?

You ever been at Tynecastle?

You ever been on the slopes of Ibrox Park?

Enough with your stupid Scottish nationalist exceptionalism.

This vileness has happened in England where 50 million people live. It has happened in the north of Ireland where 2 million people live. It has not yet seriously happened in Wales and it has not happened in Scotland, yet.

So quit dancing on Britain’s grave you stupid separatist.’

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Start watching from about 57 mins to get a flavour of the other comments he’s reading aloud and the sheer vehemence of his responses. By the time he’s finished with Caroline’s contribution (which is a simple statement that he himself confirmed) he’s bawling his head off.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrAhWgY_dMc

We can't say for sure if George knows the 'Caroline' in question. Perhaps he could see her surname on the message scrolling in front of him, recognised it from a previous encounter and decided to give her a piece of his mind. Perhaps she's a regular contributor and knew how to push his buttons. But the likelihood is that George was confronted with a message he didn't like, in real-time, and reacted instantly, in which case his outburst is revealing.

Galloway is, arguably, the finest orator of his generation and many cite his performance in the US Senate as proof of his courage and ability to stay calm under pressure. But Caroline's brief message triggered something, resulting in a stream-of-consciousness rant, devoid of logic, which started and finished with childish personal abuse: 'You're stupid!'.

Others have already considered the substance of Caroline's factual statement and offered possible explanations. (See the link to Leah Gunn Barrett's article below.) But Galloway seemed completely thrown, grasping desperately for a persuasive 'response' to a perceived slight when he simply didn't have anything truly objectionable to work with. Caroline was right. And George made a whole stack of assumptions about her, not least the hyperbolic accusation that she was 'dancing on Britain's grave'.

This is powerful polemic to be sure and conjures a potent image, but what does it signify in George's mind? Why did he become so confused so quickly, resorting in the end to the aggressive finger-pointing and snarling?

Galloway has long been a Marmite figure. As unionists go he is one of the most entertaining and can be relied upon to deliver stirring rhetoric on virtually any topic. But in the current circumstances he knows that he has to be careful and one could almost hear the braking and screeching as he struggled to avoid stating the obvious corollaries - our transcription does not convey the weight and timing of the word 'yet'. Was he about to imply that the unrest sweeping rUK will inevitably erupt in Scotland? The cynical might suggest that such a development would bolster whatever 'argument' he was straining to express.

If anyone knows the Caroline' who messaged George, or on the off-chance that she sees this, we would like to offer her the opportunity to respond to George's angry insults and dismissal of approximately 50% of the Scottish electorate as 'stupid separatists'.

We don't expect any apology from George let alone an explanation of his strange vision of what 'Britain' is. But we can, in the weeks leading up to the George Square gathering of 'British patriots', keep in mind that freshly-minted image - painted by George himself - of his beloved union, dead and buried.

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The uprisings are in England and Northern Ireland, not Scotland (substack.com)

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