Great conversations, part 94

Unless you're a taxi driver or have a very limited social life, you won't know unless I tell you that I just had the alloyed pleasure of a live broadcast discussion with George Galloway on his TalkSport radio programme. The invitation was definitely a surprise, as Galloway had previously refused to debate with me on the BBC's Daily Politics programme.

I reminded Galloway of this when he expressed incredulity that I wrote for what had once been a great newspaper of record but now stoops to employing me as a leader writer. He wittily responded by repeatedly referring to me as a banker, which he apparently believed was simultaneously a literal description and also rhyming slang for what I truly am. I pointed out that his "no-shows" were an enduring expedient also experienced by my friend Christopher Hitchens after he'd whopped Galloway in their New York debate.

It was that sort of conversation.

It hardly matters - though the subject itself matters very much indeed - that we were supposedly talking about Israel's military campaign against Hamas. The producer graciously phoned me afterwards to say that he thought it was great radio because we clearly detested each other. This is not quite accurate: I can't speak for Galloway, but "deride" would be the better verb in my case.

UPDATE: My thanks to Guy Walters (see the comments below) for sending a link to the recording of the broadcast, here - our discussion is about 48 minutes in. I note that the producers have an unfailing habit of fading out a guest as soon as Galloway interjects, which he does a lot; but they were kind enough to instruct him in the first place that I would appear as a guest, so I think this is fair enough. I also note that Galloway lovingly stores on his website the entire archive of these programmes, stretching back to 2006. You would have to be a devoted admirer to listen to all of these, let alone record them for the master's use - so it's fortunate for Galloway that such a person exists, and unfailingly turns up in the comments threads of this blog in high indignation (see below) whenever I fail to evince the required degree of adulation.

Comments

[Peter Tomlinson]

Oliver, you are a wordsmith...

[Guy Walters]

Archive: http://www.spiderednews.com/GeorgeGalloway.htm?vid=984345

GK appears about a third of the way through.

[JOHN CHUCKMAN, TORONTO]

Why the link to this Guardian column?

Put up a transcript or an audio link to your exchange.

Your report of this is brief and selective, to say the least.

I know Galloway can be a rude, pushy man, but, at his best, he is incomparable as a passionate defender of things he believes in.

At his best he reminds me of some of the great figures of the late eighteeth century, at least what we know of them from their words in print.

To say otherwise, just seems pathetic fantasy.

[faceless]

Oh for christ's sake - you actually used that image of Galloway from Big Brother. This proves, if required, that you really are a petty, run-of-the-mill, hack with skills that should really be in some rag like the Sun instead of the *posh* rag that the Times is becoming.

Did you post it because you know that every time Galloway called you a banker, tens of thousands of people laughed at you? You stupid bunt.

[Ariel]

Is there anywhere we can hear this?

[Noga]

"This is not quite accurate: I can't speak for Galloway, but "deride" would be the better verb in my case. "

How very "bankerly" of you, Mr. Kamm. Careful not to go beyond the limit, but certainly making good use of the funds available.

Priceless!

[Oliver Kamm]

Guy Walters, thank you for the link.

Faceless: nice to hear from you again. I note that for some reason you pop up here when, and only when, I make disobliging remarks about George Galloway, so I'm pleased that my readers will have many more opportunities to read your views.

Ariel, GW above has kindly provided the link.

Peter Tomlinson and Noga: thank you.

John Chuckman: er, no.

[Tony Francis]

I know very little of G. Galloway, other than TV clips in the US alleging he had received substantial amounts of money from Saddam Hussein years ago. It made his protest of the 2003 toppling of Saddam questionable. I really don't know anything about his involvement with Iraq, one way or the other. I don't know whether he received money from the oil embargo days or not.

He did strike me as a man who enters the fray with a pre-written script, and who will not stray from that script, no matter where the discussion goes. At some times, simply repeating predetermined talking points was almost laughable, because they had nothing to do with the questions and comments at hand. I didn't see anything of him in those days that would make me want to hear more of him today.

[Oliver]

It was an excellent listen, and so rare to hear someone who is able to out-debate "Mr. Galloway". Well done, I look forward to hearing you on live media again soon.

[peter]

What strikes me about Galloway is that he is not an interviewer in any meaningful sense. He is not a rhetorician of any note.

However, he is an aggressive, manupulative blunderbuss whose tactics of interruption, repetition and diversion are straight out of the SWP summer camp. To his acolytes, he could never 'lose' an argument as they measure him by factors such as volume and bombast. More fool them.

[Paul]

Just listened to the broadcast and I have to say he was incredibly rude, nasty and ignorant in his approach to interviewing you. Cheap ad hominem attacks and other such nonsense is unflattering in any debate but with an issue of such grave importance it's quite reprehensible. Very impressed you were not drawn into doing the same - although if you had, it would have been quite forgivable.

[Dom]

Just listened to it. You destroyed him.

[faceless]

Kamm, I turn up when I get a news alert regarding Galloway. Maybe you've heard of such a thing? It's like geek magic!

Anyone who publishes that daft pic, not least in such a whiningly childish way, is always going to give a reason for a dig. It's the most hack thing you could have done if you wanted to prove your validity as a commentator.

Don't you have an editor? If not, why not try an inner monologue? It usually works for me, and I'm not even writing for the national press - though I never needed to be told that banking in public is a silly thing to do.

[Francis Dobbs]

I heard the interview and felt that while it was not the most Gentlemanly on Mr Galloway's part, that you both gave as good as you got and for me, it was most definitely compelling radio.

Well done Mr Kamm.

[John Farmer]

I have never for the life of me understood why Mr. Galloway enjoys a reputation as a formidable debater. His sneering, snide style rarely rises above the gutter in which he is always so eager to wallow. One must assume he was far less worried about the "radicalization" of Muslims when he supported the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, or far more recently, went on Syrian television and praised the jihadists in Iraq who were doing everything in their power to stoke a sectarian civil and reduce that country to absolute beggary. Mr. Galloway is of such farcical proportions, one is almost happy to have him in public life just for the humor of it all. Almost.

[David Duff]

'Faceless',

"Don't you have an editor? If not, why not try an inner monologue? It usually works for me".

Alas, not on this occasion.

Still, I know wotcha mean, you can never get a really reliable 'inner monologue' when you need one, can you? The bloke I see in the shaving mirror every morning told me it was all the fault of that geezer, Freud; typical, another bleedin' immigrant!

And wot's wrong with the Sun - "We Love It!"

Oh, and by the way, both Galloway and Kamm are 'sneerers' in their different ways, but 'our Ollie' Kamm does it with 'klass'!

[dmatr]

Is it really necessary to display a picture of maverick legislator George Galloway prancing around in a skin-tight red leotard? He was just bringing politics closer to the people.

The picture of him pretending to be a cat licking imaginary milk from Rula Lenska's hands, for reasons still unknown, is much funnier.

[Carolian]

Well done Oliver, you shmeissed the idiot whose principal tactic was calling you a 'banker' with the innuendo of a 'w' at the start of the word. The usual highbrow stuff from this moron.

[David]

It is a coincidence that the Kamm's of this world always become most energized whenever Israel engages in another of its periodic atrocities?

[Kippers]

Very few people think that Hitchens "whopped" Galloway in their New York debate. Both HItchens and Galloway were poor debaters, and the event only became famous because there was so little discussion in the USA about the invasion of Iraq that they had to bring on as couple of Brits.

[sonic]

Oh Ollie!

You'll never really grow up will you.

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