Galloway’s tasteless crowing and hypocritical ‘told you so’ within hours of the bomb attacks in London was no surprise to those of us who have followed his career closely. But my impression is that it did indeed come as a surprise to some of those who a few weeks ago, after his senate appearance, thought the MP at least deserved some credit for ‘standing up to the Yanks’.
I have the feeling the Galloway bubble has burst. Forget the politics for a moment – no-one likes a ‘know it all’ or a ‘told you so’ at any time let alone after an atrocity. If the words I heard last night count for anything the ‘colourful maverick’ has become the ‘arrogant ****”.
That was certainly how he came across on Newsnight on Friday when, in desperation, he turned on presenter Gavin Esler, hardly one of the Paxman school, who was merely asking if he didn’t think that he should measure his words more carefully. Esler ended up, quite rightly, cutting him off. You can see the exchange here (click on latest programme and the section begins on 21 minutes).