To George Galloway's launch party for his Fidel Castro Handbook at Portcullis House at the Commons last night. A smaller man than I imagined, about 5ft 8in and leaner than his full, somewhat flat face might suggest. Size 7 feet shod in cheap black shoes.
One day this man will drop dead while giving a speech and yet still finish it, perhaps even as rigor mortis sets in. His loquacity is phenomenal, his voice that of the Old Testament Yahweh ready to give good thundering. After a boring, halting speech by the Cuban ambassador, paying tribute to our hero and Castro, George got up on the podium and showed us how it's done. Marvellous oratory, sublime nonsense about the Cuban shangri-la, its lack of racism etc. No mention of human rights abuses (but then the US can't talk).
He told one good story. "I went to the London School of Economics and delivered a speech. I likened the relationship between Britain and America to that between Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. Unfortunately, Miss Lewinsky was in the audience .... "
1 comment:
You're spot on about Gorgeous George's oratory.
I interviewed him at some protest a while back, and even in the space of a 30-second soundbite he managed to build to a furious pitch of emotion. It put me in mind of a rockslide staring on a mountain top with a few pebbles and flattening the village at the bottom ten minutes later.
It must be something to do with the way he rolls his Rs.
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