Fast Lane Society George Galloway
The Fast Lane Society was pleased to welcome former Labour and Respect MP George Galloway to Upper School. Mr Galloway opened his speech by talking about socio-economic inequality in Britain and the way in which it is being widened by the Coalition’s spending cuts. In his view, measures such as the rise in VAT are unfair as they are hitting the poorest the hardest. He proposed an alternative way of dealing with the deficit: scrapping Trident. Another suggestion he made was to stop taxation avoidance by top businessmen such as Philip Green. In general, he argued that the country has to find a way forward which avoids the drawbacks of communism but also the rapaciousness of capitalism.
The next part of his speech focused on the crisis in Egypt, which he believed would have a monumental impact on the Arab world. He argued that it will lead to minor revolutions in other Arab countries and a change in the Egyptian attitude to the Palestinian- Israeli conflict.
Mr Galloway then fielded a number of questions about a variety of topics. When asked if he regretted going on Big Brother he said that he didn’t as it enabled him to raise £500,000 for the Palestinian cause. He added that he had been asked to go on it again but once was enough. Finally, he was asked if a peace between Israel and Palestine is a realistic prospect. He answered that before the Egyptian crisis he would have said not in his lifetime, citing the documents leaked to The Guardian. However, he believes that the situation has now changed and it is becoming increasingly more likely, though it will still strongly depend on the USA and European Union.
Alex Windsor-Clive (TEJN)
