‘George Galloway is unfit for public office’ – there. It has to be said. The man’s latest comments – which I’m sure must be a test of how far he can push the public’s tolerance – should be grounds for de facto exclusion from public life.
In his Daily Record column, Galloway has gone on record as saying he would defend Tommy Sheridan “even if I thought he was guilty”. This is a disgrace.
Sheridan is accused of perjury. Perjury is the ultimate form of lying, because it has as its motive the intent to pervert the course of justice.
For an elected representative of the people to say he’d defend a friend against the charges of perjury even if he knew that friend was guilty, is at best an abuse of trust (the public’s, one’s constituent’s) akin to a carer stealing from their patient. At worst, it is a form of treason because it strikes at the very heart of the rule of law, the basis of our liberal democratic society.
If nothing else, our elected officials ought to defend the rule of law without fear or favour. If, by their own admission, they cannot or will not be truthful and honourable – and respectful of the public trust they have been given – they should be declared unfit for office.
