George Galloway's visit to Cork #1

You may recall my previous post anticipating this some weeks ago. I have had great difficulty in acquiring digitised material to share with you about it, but here is his main host's "take":

Well, it was a very interesting evening indeed...George Galloway ended up storming out of the Philosoph debate last night

In front of 500 people in Boole 4, Mr. Galloway spoke of the role of the United States in supporting Israeli actions in Palestine, while Mr. Gregg spoke of the history of the USSR in comparison to the United States. However, controversy arose when Mr. Gregg made several allegations against Mr. Galloway regarding his links with Saddam Hussein's regime, allegations to which Mr. Galloway took exception, demanding that Mr. Gregg withdraw the remarks.

The debate continued when Mr. Gregg refused, but controversy erupted again when Mr. Gregg repeated his allegations, prompting Mr. Galloway to walk out of the debate, criticising the Auditor for failing to intervene as well as threatening legal action against Mr. Gregg over his remarks. Between 150-200 of the audience walked out of the debate with Mr. Galloway, who returned to the UK early this morning. Mr. Gregg stood over his remarks last night, stating that he was willing to defend all his comments in court should Mr. Galloway take further action.

Following the walk-out, the debate continued with up to 300 people remaining, while the motion was defeated when put to the floor.

As I've said in the thread in the Soapbox, the Philosoph treats all of its guests with equal courtesy, and allows them all the same opportunity to speak and to reply to any points made in the debate or indeed, accusations made against them by other members or guests. This is the extent of the protection that we offer to people who wish to speak in the house, as it is, first and foremost, a forum for free speech. However, we recognise that on this occasion, some people were very offended by the events of last night, as Mr. Gregg overstepped the bounds of the debate by engaging in personal attacks on Mr. Galloway. For that, we apologise.

_________________

Gwen Boyle

Public Relations Officer

UCC Philosophical Society 157th Session

For another view of the Gregg approach, see Eamon McCann here. (It is preceded by stuff about SBC; my apologies if the scatology offends you even more than it did me).