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 [NYTr] Galloway on July 7th 
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 |From Hansard - House of Commons, 7th July, 2005 4.29pm 
  
 Mr. George Galloway: The hon. Member for Pendle (Mr. Prentice) said that it 
 is a funny old world, and that is certainly true with regard to the issue 
 that he raised. I am, I think, a longer-serving Member of this House than he 
 is, and I remember when the Labour Benches were littered with members of the 
 Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Indeed, Members who wear different badges 
 today used then to sport daily the badges of CND. 
  
 Mr. Kevan Jones: Some of them are in the Cabinet. 
  
 Mr. Galloway: Indeed -- the Cabinet is full of them. That was a time when 
 Britain was facing a Soviet Union and an eastern Europe bristling with 
 thousands upon thousands of intercontinental ballistic missiles, all aimed 
 at us. Now that there is no such adversary, those same Members have swapped 
 their badges. I have no doubt that they will comprehensively vote down the 
 motion tabled by the hon. Member for Pendle at the parliamentary Labour 
 party meeting. As he is a gentle soul, I fear for his safety on that 
 occasion if the reports I hear of the PLP are anything like accurate. 
  
 I have been sitting through the debate feeling not that it is a funny old 
 world but that it is another world. The sort of complacent consensus that 
 has crept by osmosis through the Chamber as the hours have passed is so 
 utterly different from, and in contradiction to, the attitude outside in the 
 country and around the world that I became more persuaded than ever that the 
 House of Commons is out of touch with reality. 
  
 I am sorry that the hon. Member for Gosport (Peter Viggers) is no longer in 
 his place. He may well be an expert on defence procurement matters but, in 
 his mini discourse on Islam, he reminded us of the universal truth that a 
 little knowledge is dangerous. His "Reader's Digest" analysis of Islam and 
 the people of the Muslim world-more than 1,000 million strong-illustrated 
 the chasm between the east and the powerful here in the west. 
  
 At least one, perhaps two of the explosions this morning took place in my 
 constituency. Many of those caught up in the events were my constituents, 
 heading to work in the City and the west end. I spent four hours or so this 
 morning at the Royal London hospital in my constituency where the medical 
 staff are toiling, without a break, to deal with the casualties who are 
 being brought in in their scores-perhaps, by now, in their hundreds. 
  
 I walked among the emergency workers, including the fire brigade staff, in 
 the very stations that have in the past few weeks had fire engines taken 
 away from them as economy measures. I refer to the fire station at Bethnal 
 Green in my constituency and the fire station in the King's Cross-Euston 
 area-the two places where the fire services are stretched almost to breaking 
 point in dealing with the consequences of this morning's events. The people 
 of the east end and the emergency workers are going about their business 
 calmly and stoically in the way for which our country is famous. 
  
 I condemn the act that was committed this morning. I have no need to 
 speculate about its authorship. It is absolutely clear that Islamist 
 extremists, inspired by the al-Qaeda world outlook, are responsible. I 
 condemn it utterly as a despicable act, committed against working people on 
 their way to work, without warning, on tubes and buses. Let there be no 
 equivocation: the primary responsibility for this morning's bloodshed lies 
 with the perpetrators of those acts. 
  
 However, it would be crass to do other than what the Secretary of State for 
 Defence in a way invited us to do. We cannot separate the acts from the 
 political backdrop. They did not come out of a clear blue sky, any more than 
 those monstrous mosquitoes that struck the twin towers and other buildings 
 in the United States on 9/11 2001. The Defence Secretary said that we must 
 look at the causal circumstances behind the problems of security and defence 
 in the world. I insist that we do so. 
  
 If Members examine our debate tomorrow in the cold light of day they will 
 discover a self-evident truth: many Members of Parliament find it easy to 
 feel empathy with people killed in explosions by razor-sharp red-hot steel 
 and splintering flying glass when they are in London, but they can blank out 
 of their mind entirely the fact that a person killed in exactly the same way 
 in Falluja died exactly the same death. When the US armed forces, their 
 backs guarded, as a result of a decision by our politicians, by our armed 
 forces, systematically reduced Falluja, a city the size of Coventry, brick 
 by brick and killed an unknown number of people-probably the number runs to 
 thousands, if not tens of thousands-not a whisper found its way into the 
 Chamber. I have grown used to that. I know that for many people in the House 
 and in power in this country the blood of some people is worth more than the 
 blood of others. 
  
 Mike Penning (Hemel Hempstead) (Con): Will the hon. Gentleman clarify a 
 whisper that has come to the House? Did he say elsewhere today that 
 Londoners had this coming? Is it true that he said that? 
  
 Mr. Galloway: That is a despicable smear. 
  
 Madam Deputy Speaker (Sylvia Heal): Order. I remind all hon. Members that we 
 are debating the fourth report of the Defence Committee. 
  
 Mr. Galloway: The Minister of State says from a sedentary position that it 
 is more or less right. I take it that that means that it is not right. I 
 have never uttered any such words. The words that I am speaking now are my 
 words. If the hon. Member for Hemel Hempstead (Mike Penning) would care to 
 listen, he can disagree with me, but he should not attempt to put into my 
 mouth words that I have never spoken. Madam Deputy Speaker, I ask for your 
 protection. [Hon. Members: "Oh!"] It is either that, or I shall keep 
 speaking and no one else will- 
  
 Madam Deputy Speaker: Order. I have already asked hon. Members to debate the 
 motion on the Order Paper. Perhaps we would all do well to confine our 
 remarks to that. 
  
 Mr. Galloway: The exchanges that we have just heard are further evidence of 
 my point that in this bubble people just do not get it. If I cannot touch 
 the heart of the hon. Member for Hemel Hempstead with what happened to the 
 people in Falluja, I shall move on to firmer ground. 
  
 Does the House not believe that hatred and bitterness have been engendered 
 by the invasion and occupation of Iraq, by the daily destruction of 
  
 [continued in next message] 
  
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