Bridge's life does seem tempting, the way he puts it. Pity such contentment still leads to so many eat the rich views. Must say though, I am more with Bridge than Willie on this one. (That'll cost me a pint next week, but hey ho.) Though of course, I don't recognise the party of the rich waffle, as every party is of the rich once you learn the ropes...

I don't hold a candle for Galloway. His appeasement of Saddam Hussein sent all the wrong signals and was almost as bad as Th*tcher's "my enemy is my enemy" appeasement of the monster. Galloway is right to shout foul over Bliar's lies to provoke war, but his rosy view of life in Iraq was as shameful.

That said, he became my hero when asked at the USA hearing how many times he had visited Saddam, and he said the same number of times as Dick Cheney, the difference being he wasn't selling him arms. Got to hand it to him, he had style. (I didn't look up the actual quote, but it was approximately that..)

No, protest votes are all well and good, but tend to be good for extremist viewpoints, and that sends the wrong signals too. Fascist parties rely on people's frustration with mainstream government and Galloway, whether he is comfortable with the notion or not, is propping up the mechanism that gives extremists the oxygen of publicity.

The bloody nose for all parties would send a message to any government, except perhaps this one?