Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Gallowatch: My MP is to be suspended from the House of Commons for 18 days. It's made me smile. The Committee on Standards and Privileges has issued this punishment because our George has been a bit naughty, allegedly. No surprise there. He's concealed the true source of funding for a dodgy-looking charity he set up, one with Iraqi connections. The greedy fool. And he's brought Parliament into disrepute by questioning the integrity of the watchdog that dared to question him. The deluded egomaniac.
Of course, Mr Galloway will not be bowed. He's issued a ranting statement in which he castigates the authority of Parliament and attempts to semi-plead his innocence. But all to no avail. His 18 day ban from the House of Commons begins imminently. Serves the braggard right. Except that this leaves me, and the other voters of Bethnal Green and Bow, without a functioning electoral representative. Hmmm, hang on, I'm sure I've written that before...
In January last year George voluntarily barred himself from Parliament for 21 days by entering the Celebrity Big Brother house. We watched him strutting his stuff in skintight lycra and mewling like an unforgettable pussy, when he might instead have been voting on Crossrail and other matters of local importance. George's standing amongst his constituents has never recovered from the media mauling he received 18 months ago. We're wise to him now - he's all mouth and no responsibility. And what do you know, it turns out that an 18 day Parliamentary ban will have absolutely no impact on his life whatsoever.
George Galloway has one of the very worst voting records of any MP in the House of Commons. Only ten MPs vote less frequently. Five of those are Sinn Féin MPs (who believe in staying well away from Westminster) and four are Speakers or Deputy Speakers (who aren't permitted to vote anyway). That just leaves Clare Short (who's lost interest since she resigned the Labour Whip last year) and then George. He's attended a miserable 13% of all possible Commons votes since the last election (the Parliamentary average is more like 70%). I feel pretty much disenfranchised, to be honest.
George would rather be promoting his new book or mouthing off on TalkSport than speaking in a debate or walking through the division lobby. During the last 18 working days he hasn't spoken or voted in any Parliamentary debate whatsoever. Not once. During the last two months he's spoken on a single occasion only, on the subject of Pakistan, kicking off his speech by mentioning that he holds "the highest civil award that the country can bestow, the Hilal-i-Quaid-i-Azam". Other than that, not a word. The man is an absentee MP already. How can you ban someone from Parliament if they're never there anyway?
I'm indebted to the TheyWorkForYou website for all of this damning electoral evidence. Here I also learn that George earned just over £35000 for his recent stint on Big Brother's Big Mouth, that his TalkSport contract nets him over £100K a year, and that the BBC recently paid for him to go to Qatar and back. I wish they'd left him there.
• Fee for appearing on ITV's 'Don't Call Me Stupid'. (£10,001-£15,000) (Registered 26 June 2007)
• Fee for presenting Big Brother's Big Mouth on C4. (£35,001-£40,000) (Registered 26 June 2007)
• Fees for hosting a radio show every Friday, Saturday and Sunday night on Talk Sport Radio. (£100,001-£105,000)
• Fee from Endemol UK for my appearance on Celebrity Big Brother. (£145,001-£150,000) (Registered 3 March 2006)
I wonder if any of you have an MP who's behaved any worse? Have a look and see. But I bet my MP comes out at the bottom of the heap. No respect, that man, no Respect at all.
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