Sunday, May 08, 2005

people's republic of east end

In 1945, Phil Piratin won from the ‘Jewish’ East End. Mr Piratin was a communist.
He campaigned for class war, people’s democracy, and oh, a homeland for the European Jewry. 60 years later, Goerge Galloway, an unreconstructed socialist who bemoaned the end of the Soviet Union, has won from the ‘Muslim’ East End.

Means justify the end ­– the old party line goes. Mr Pilatin used appealing to Zionism as a mean to end capitalism. Mr Galloway’s means involve establishing gay rights and the rights of Muslims to enshrine their homophobia in state policy. Respect and Unity indeed! Wonder what place Mr Galloway has for a gay brother.

And to what end is Mr Galloway’s mini Hitler-Stalin Pact – parliamentary pensions or permanent revolution? And what end did the brothers and sisters have in their mind when they voted Mr Galloway?