Dumb Fleece and Galloway.

The choice, at least for me, and not just at this election, but generally (‘scuse the pun), and for some time, is between individuals, and not party politics, which I abandoned some time ago. The result of that abandonment is as enlightening as it is refreshing as it is liberating.

Party politics, and the mainstream particularly, is a very malign wolf in sheep’s clothing and a wolf that preys on the naivety of the electorate to the point that it takes all of us for stupid.

We: you and I, are presented with an insulting oligopoly of political choices, protected by an electoral system that is not now even used in the former totalitarian states of Eastern Europe.

The antidote to this fetter on our democracy is for us to treat party politics with the contempt it deserves and pay a little closer attention to certain individuals whom the parties, and the toads in the media, would rather we ignored – and, be assured, they do their damn hardest to ensure we don’t benefit from such a ‘free market’ or ‘competition’ of debates and ideas.

The same is true throughout the world of smoke and mirrors that we live in: deluded into believing we have a wide choice of products and services, in reality we are manipulated and managed by a very small number of very large private organisations.

Ironic then, perhaps, that the monopoly of mainstream political ideas and, moreover, their presentation, is consistently and articulately challenged by one George Galloway.

I have, for some time, made no secret over my admiration for this man and his ability to rile irritate, annoy and dumfound the otherwise torpid and stale cartel of ‘mainstream’ politics.

Whether or not you agree with the substance of what he says (and I agree with much, but not all of it), be under no illusion that what scares the establishment is not his politics, but his style and his ability to inspire people to think outside the box.

For this, he has been labelled as corrupt, as a fraud, and as a demagogue. As if this weren’t insult enough, amongst his critics are those who are guilty of the far more serious crimes of mass murder, and incitement of unprecedented worldwide racial tension, and they escape, scot damn free, from the scrutiny the deserve, by virtue of their membership of a supine majority.

Subverting prevailing orthodox opinion is fundamental to democracy and individual liberty. Those, who today, would like to gag or traduce Mr Galloway, are no better than those, who in previous years, would have denied women the vote and supported the continued criminalisation of homosexuality.