At the end of a report that Bradford West MP George Galloway is suing the National Union of Students for calling him a “rape denier,” the BBC notes:
Mr Galloway himself was unavailable for comment because he is in Venezuela ahead of the country’s presidential elections.
A spokesman for Galloway said damages recovered from his legal action “will be donated to the defence fund for Julian Assange and Bradley Manning”.
For the record I believe that while Galloway can be fairly called all kinds of awful things, I’m not sure that what he said about “insertion” and “the sex game”– as appalling as it was– rises to the level of rape denial (more like rape cluelessness). But singling out the NUS for legal action is simply mean and petty.
But why is he in Venezuela? I know he’s a big fan of Hugo Chavez’s brand of “anti-imperialism”– which involves solidarity with the likes of the late Saddam Hussein, the late Muammar Gaddafi, Robert Mugabe, Aleksander Lukashenko, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and of course Bashar al-Assad— but how is he serving the interests of his constituents while there? In fact how is he even serving the interests of Hugo Chavez?
(Hat tip: DaveM)
Update: Galloway tweets that he’s in Venezuela “campaigning for the comandante.”
Does he really believe he will convince even one Venezuelan to vote for Chavez?
(Hat tip: Meir)
Further update: France’s Front de Gauche, a coalition which includes the Communist party, is also in Venezuela campaigning for the Big Guy.
Additional update: Shudder.
