It comes as Prime Minister Boris Johnson has denied SNP a second vote on the referendum for Scottish independence. Moreover, there are three similar oratorical devices, which are judicial (analytical/forensic), deliberative (legislative), and epideictic (performative/dramatic). Moreover, his style is packaged to appeal to a specific audience whilst repelling the more deliberative mainstream. Andrew Scott Crines uses an analytical framework to dissect what makes George Galloway’s style of political communication so effective. Nicola Sturgeon’s dreams of an independent Scotland have been torn apart by George Galloway, who explained how the move would be “damaging” to the public. He claimed Scots would move out of the country if Scotland left the UK. By using this analytical framework, I was able to discern that Galloway drew mostly from pathos-driven rhetoric with epideictic oratory. The ‘establishment’ is broadly defined as mainstream Westminster elites. Note: This article gives the views of the author, and not the position of the British Politics and Policy blog, nor of the London School of Economics. More specifically, opposition to the mainstream for its own sake whilst defending against western involvement in the middle east and beyond. In a recently published journal article, I analysed George Galloway’s style of political communication, his target audience, and how he fits in with the broader political discourse in British politics. His “more deliberative” political opponents use generalities such as “Muslims are evil” and “[insert country here] is the best country on earth”, which make no sense but appeal to people who like to hear how great and superior they are compared to everybody else on the planet when in reality they are among the worst war criminals the world has ever seen, i.e. We use cookies on this site to understand how you use our content, and to give you the best browsing experience. However, Respect’s support base expects anti-war rhetoric that anticipates specific personal characteristics from its leaders. Bush/Blair and their supporters. Mr. Galloway harshly criticized the report and challenged members to produce evidence of the allegations. George Galloway brings his radio roadshow to West Bromwich tonight, where he will be speaking at 7pm. Indeed, his character as a morally upstanding individual who defends the interests of those being ‘attacked’ by the west is key to growing his credibility with that specific group. This is a deliberate technique because it grows the anti-political establishment image of both Galloway and the party which vital in order to set themselves apart. Such speakers tend to be those who have a small but identifiable audience and/or support base that is loosely distinct from the ‘mainstream’. Your email address will not be published. However before doing this it was first necessary to appreciate Galloway’s political context as an Anti-Political Establishment (APE) rhetorician. GEORGE GALLOWAY's campaign to rid Scotland of the SNP has gained a dramatic momentum in recent days, with tens of thousands of people signing a … To summarise, Galloway’s rhetoric is textured “in the language of emancipation, for the underprivileged, dispossessed and disenfranchised”; however “its solutions can also be traced back to the far-left thinking of the ‘new left’, much of which is authoritarian”. That line was admiringly recorded in the press. It’s still garbage, but it has a more peculiarly distinctive smell to early 21st Century noses than the comparatively odourless stuff served up by Cameron, Clegg and co. And as long as other politicians are so absymaly lacking in original voices of their own, then Galloway’s 1930s crib book will give him an appeal far beyond his modest talents. But then, Galloway is not really a great orator. By having an ‘other’ to perform against, Galloway eschews the conventions of normal political debate whilst attacking his opponents using romantically formulated rhetoric. In fact, the phrase “disgrace a banana republic” had been coined precisely one month earlier by Judge Richard Mawrey criticising abuse of postal voting in Birmingham. Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  God knows who’s a Muslim and who is not, in the language of emancipation, for the underprivileged, dispossessed and disenfranchised, its solutions can also be traced back to the far-left thinking of the ‘new left’, much of which is authoritarian, Catching up with George. Such allusions enable him to imply that “I am a better Pakistani than he [the Labour candidate] will ever be. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. George Galloway is calling on Nicola Sturgeon to resign (Image: GETTY) Speaking on a live Facebook broadcast for Alliance for Unity, Mr Galloway said: "Numbers are on our side. The origins of the Respect party provided a specific demographic that appeared to be unrepresented by the mainstream elite. Moreover, he also pre-emptively defends against “the drumbeats for war with Iran” which he suggests “are getting louder, and the escalating provocations by Western capitals are developing a logic of their own”. To accept cookies, click continue. A truly great orator wouldn’t be reduced to recycling other people’s phrases, let alone one’s that were barely cold. Required fields are marked *. But he has been cunning/lazy enough to bring a justly forgotten style of rhetoric out of the attic, and people who have shallow historical knowledge, or who are not observant about where George lifts a lot of his material from, are amazed and impressed by its (supposed) originality. He hadn’t even used another simile. Cameron, Miliband, Clegg and co tend to use a sort of bloodless, written-for-focus-groups managerialese that everyone is a familar with and many are more than a little fed up with. A committee report on alleged abuses of the program had named Minister Galloway as one of several foreign officials who had received lucrative oil allocations in the scheme. Change ), You are commenting using your Google account. Importantly, the more mainstream anti-war protestor tends to express their opposition through mainstream parties. He’d simply lifted a memorable phrase from someone else and recycled it in an almost identical context, as if it was his own. Galloway hadn’t even used it in a different context. He uses a combination of pathos-driven perfomative-oratory to allude rather than specify. George Galloway’s style of communication is to tell the truth. May 17, 2005British Member of Parliament George Galloway testified at a hearing on how Saddam Hussein manipulated the United Nations' Oil-for-Food Program to win influence and reward friends in order to undermine sanctions imposed on Iraq following the Persian Gulf War. He would be considered a mediocrity, totally lacking originality, in the 1930s, even among fellow leftists. Rhetoric is the content of a speech, oratory is its delivery. This is because it gives him an opportunity to demonstrate his ‘ideological righteousness’ against his chosen opponents. There are three rhetorical devices which are used to analyse speeches. This is appealing to his supporters because they have come to expect this form of defensive rhetoric which simultaneously critiques the West. For example, when speaking in the United States, he will tell the truth that the Christian Americans exterminated the natives and forced the residual survivors into reservations, rather than pretending that the United States legitimately acquired its land. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Galloway stands out in large part because he uses a vocabulary that is very distinct from that favoured by most of his opponents.