Harry on George

Letter from Harry Cohen MP on George Galloway's "splendid and brave presentation to the Senate". Looks badly cut to me but here it is:

Congratulations to George Galloway on his splendid and brave presentation to the Senate. As well as stoutly defending himself, he vigorously exposed the bankrupt, murderous and thieving consequences of the sanctions, war and post-war policy toward Iraq. I do not agree with the implied assumption in your leader (May 18) that his peroration did not matter much.

I am sure that if he had not achieved such success, some of my more feeble-minded parliamentary Labour colleagues would have been referring him to the parliamentary commissioner for standards to get him suspended and subsequently thrown out of parliament. They would have been prompted and encouraged by the whips, who prior in the process would have been prompted by Downing Street.

There are a lot of examples of frivolous complaints to the commissioner against opposition politicians that the commissioner himself has complained about. So it was important that George won. Now the speaker can fulfil his promise to fully protect the rights of backbenchers, including George
Harry Cohen MP
Lab, Leyton and Wanstead