The rights and wrongs of George Galloway

What to make of George Galloway's 18-day suspension from the House of Commons?

I've probably made it fairly clear already on this blog that I'm not a fan of Mr Galloway, or of the RESPECT Party. Galloway's views on the Middle East are thoroughly counter-productive, and encourage hatred, rather than co-operation, between Muslim and Jewish communities in Britain. His record of attendance and participation in Parliament is beyond a joke, and his speeches, whilst oratorically very impressive, are truth-mangling bile fests which, rather than making peace more likely, actually set it back.

I'll never be able to forgive RESPECT for their behaviour at this year's NUS Conference, where they tried to block a motion to give Jewish students greater protection against anti-Semitism. The Union of Jewish Students wanted their members to be able to define anti-Semitic behaviour for themselves - a fundamental protection already enjoyed by ethnic minority groups since the Macpherson report. RESPECT argued that Jews should be denied that same protection, as they might abuse it in order to silence criticism of Israel.

With all that baggage, you might think I am delighted to see Galloway go down. In fact, I'm very disturbed that an elected MP can be thrown out of Parliament by his or her peers, on the say-so of the Standards and Privileges Committee. The only people with the power to get rid of an MP should be his own constituents. Much as I dislike Galloway, he was fairly elected, and should sit in Parliament until he stands down or gets voted out.

Unlike Galloway, I believe that the Committee acted in good faith and that their decision was a fair one. They claim they have strong evidence that Galloway failed to declare his charity's financial links with the Saddam Hussein regime, and I'm prepared to trust their judgement. But whatever an MP's misdemeanours, his constituents still deserve a representative in Westminster.

Who knows what might happen during the summer recess? When Parliament resumes, and Galloway's suspension begins, his constituents might have serious need of his help, and they don't deserve to be kept waiting for 18 days for somebody else's misbehaviour.

The tale of BBC Question Time, Part 1

The past three weeks have been epic. I roadtripped across seven countries (well, five proper countries plus Monaco and Liechtenstein). Then, I moved out of my flat in Berlin. It took me a day to pack everything, and another day of playing Tetris with my bags and my car boot. By the time I'd wedged three suitcases, two violins, two guitars and two amplifiers into the back of my Mégane, there was no space left for that barrel of Duckstein or that case of Almdudler I'd hoped to bring back; oh well. It took a day, a night and a ferry crossing to get home to Altrincham, and then I went into a couple of days' hibernation.

And now I'm back to blogging.

The biggest political story at the moment, of course, is the battle to be the fifth panellist on next week's BBC Question Time. It's the annual Schools Question Time edition, where a group of sixth-formers get to produce an episode of the flagship political programme. This year, they've decided to have a young person, chosen from the general public, taking the final place on their panel.

When they advertised the competition, I decided to have a crack at it. I had to send in a one-minute video clip explaining why I thought I was right for the job. I put my camera on a table, and told it how frustrating Question Time is when the political guests are allowed to get away with question-dodging and waffle; and then I saved the rant and e-mailed it to the BBC.

A week or two later, mid-way through my roadtrip, I was walking along the seafront in Nice when the BBC rang for a phone interview - they wanted to know a bit more about my political views, and to ask me some awkward questions. The poor beach-goers were treated to 20 minutes of watching me pace up and down the promenade, delivering a heartfelt plea for votes at 16 and the eternal damnation of George Galloway.

Four days later, in the middle of a tricky parallel parking manoeuvre outside a youth hostel in Lugano, the phone rang. I stopped the engine, picked up the phone, and was thrilled to hear that I'd made it into the final ten. My video was put up on the BBC site, alongside the videos of the other nine bright-eyed hopefuls, and we were subjected to a public vote, to narrow the field down to five.

At this point, I'd like to say a massive thank you to everyone who voted for me. I know that a lot of my friends from the blogosphere backed me as the final QT panellist, and I'm very appreciative of all the support, especially to Nich Starling for giving me a massive plug.

It all paid off too, because I had another call from the BBC to say that I've made the final five - so I'll be heading to London this Wednesday to try and clear the last hurdle: a mini-QT in the studio, where I'll have to try and be more telegenic than the other four. Hopefully, hopefully, I'll make it onto the show.

Whatever happens, this story will have a Part 2.