COMMENT: George Galloway MP

Last night George Galloway swept to victory in by-election in Bradford West. It was and is an historic victory that humiliated the three main parties and saw him gain a 56% share of the vote for his Respect Party.

I find George Galloway an oddity.

So many of his headline politics I find superficially attractive. I support his opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I agree with him that the West's support of Israeli action against Palestine is wrong. He's right when he says we shouldn't be preparing for war with Iran. I support his disarmament opinions. I agree with him when he talks about equality and when he highlights the corruption and failure of the established big three political parties. I want a fairer society like he does. I admire the way he speaks his mind and stands up for the underdog.

But I just don't trust him or believe a word he says.

I don't know why. It's irrational but I just don't find him trustworthy and, were I to live in Bradford West, I would have agreed with all his policies but still voted for someone else, or more likely spoilt my ballot paper.

COMMENT: Happy Birthday, Gordon

Today is Gordon Brown's birthday, and on Twitter some people have been celebrating this with huge amounts of praise for Gordon and his political career.

Yes, really!

Gordon Brown, possibly the worst Prime Minister the UK has ever had, being praised and celebrated.

Not only did he miss several opportunities to reign in the bankers in the City of London, and sit back and do nothing about the bonus culture that is now being criticised from a sides of the political divide, but he oversaw one of the worst financial crises the world has ever seen, and simply buried his head in the sand and did little to solve the problem. Gordon has always been good at blaming others. It's never Gordon's fault. Except a lot of the problems in the UK today are his fault.

He and Blair did nothing about phone hacking back when the first rumours surfaced and, of course, he did nothing about accusations against Murdoch and News International because he risked losing the support of his nate Rupert and, therefore, his cushy job , benefits and salary.

Then, of course, there's the hundreds of thousands if deaths that he and Blair are responsible for in both Afghanistan and Iraq. The blood of many innocent civilians lies at the feet of Gordon Brown, and, sadly, while some call for Blair to be tried for war crimes they forget that the UK's involvement in illegal wars wouldn't have been possible with Gordon Brown's support and approval.
And now, having been rightly dumped by the UK electorate, he continues to screw the taxpayer by taking his MP salary while hardly ever turning up in Westminster, using rooms there to help get private work for himself and getting lots of bookings for talks, etc. Yes, in the past year he's found it hard to find time to turn up in the House of Commons but has had enough time to earn more than £1.5 million giving talks and making appearances. I wonder how his constituents haven't revolted at this.

Yes, I'd wish Gordon Brown a Happy Birthday too, but I'm sure he's perfectly happy laughing at how he's conned the UK public.

COMMENT: Top Totty

Kate Green, the Labour MP for Stretford and Urmston and shadow Equalities spokesperson, has kicked up a fuss in the Palace of Westminster about a beer being served in the Strangers' Bar (the bar where MPs can take guests).

Green's issue with the beer is that its name and logo (pictured below) are inappropriate in parliament. Apparently she was "disturbed" by the image - I do hope she never goes to the beach - she'd go apoplectic!

She might have had a point. Certainly the name of this prize-winning beer, a true British business success, is a little dodgy and one could claim that the logo of a woman in a bikini top is a bit sexist. It's certainly not the worst beer name or logo I've ever seen but, for a moment, let's give Kate Green the benefit of the doubt.

So she notices the beer on sale, and its logo, and makes a complaint. Fair enough.

But no! NOT fair enough! The Strangers' Bar has been selling Top Totty, with the same logo on the pump, FOR FIVE YEARS!

This raises several questions:

1. Has Kate Green not been in the Strangers' Bar for the past 5 years? Does she NEVER have guests in parliament? If she does, has she NEVER taken them for a drink?

2. Perhaps Kate Green HAS been in the Strangers' Bar but has never gone up to the bar to order or pay for drinks?

3. Maybe Kate Green fails to notice anything around her? In that case, maybe she's not safe to drive? Maybe all her faculties aren't working?

4. She must be aware that her little hissy fit has given Top Totty, and Slater's, the Stafford-based company who brew it, the best publicity they could ever have wanted - in ALL the newspapers, on news bulletins everywhere and without costing them a penny. I do hope it doesn't turn our she has shares in the company!

5. Or maybe there's something else, perhaps more sinister, behind a carefully timed complaint, saved for a special occasion?

Who knows what Kate Green's motivation is. I wonder if it's the start of trouble for Miliband from Harriet Harman's covern - the "female only alternative shadow cabinet"?

Her little tantrum has, of course, worked. The beer has been banned from the Strangers' Bar - the end of five years of sales during which Kate Green was in disturbed until yesterday.

Maybe Kate Green should be offended by Famous Grouse whiskey (on animal rights grounds) or Tia Maria (because it sounds foreign) or India Pale Ale (because she somehow finds it racist) or .... the list could go on.

There is one thing Kate Green could object to... the nearly £10,000 per annum that MPs each get in subsidised food and drink in the bars and restaurants in the Pakace of Westminster. But, oh no, the image of a woman in a bikini top is far more "disturbing" than the financial corruption that MPs still benefit from at tax payers' expense.

I suggest an MP who has failed to notice something for five years is less than competent as a human being and hope the electorate in Stretford and Urmston seriously consider other options at the next election.

OPINION: MPs and "being seen" to do the right thing

Yesterday, Rachel Reeves, a Labour MP, tweeted that she had signed the Holocaust Educational Trust's Book of Commitment. I tweeted back that I thought this was tokenism and achieved nothing. She replied this morning that I should be careful about what I tweet and that it was important to remember the lessons of the holocaust.

Now I wholeheartedly agree that it is important that we remember the holocaust and learn lessons from it, as long as we put those lessons into action. Simply getting a warm glow, and using it to get some positive publicity is insufficient - that is why her tweeting about signing the book is tokenism.

Rachel Reeves, as I said, is a Labour MP. In the past decade, Labpur has taken us into two major wars, in Afghanistan and Iraq, that have needlessly cost the lives of tens of thousands of civilians: lives lost, families destroyed, women and children injured and maimed. Has she, or the Labour Party, learnt any lessons from the past, from the holocaust, from history?

As well as being a party of civilian bloodshed, she has shown herself to be signing the book to help her own publicity. Why else would she tweet about it? As Immanuel Kant said, good deeds should be done just because they ate good deeds and not because of any other reason. This would include using a good deed for publicity and even if you just got a warm glow out of it. Sure, if it makes you feel good that's fine, but that shouldn't be the reason to do good. Do good because that's the right thing to do, and encourage others to do likewise.

What Rachel Reeves, and various other MPs, should have done, if they genuinely think signing a book is a good thing and makes a difference, is to sign the book and encourage others to do so. What they did was sign it, then shout to the world, via Twitter, "Look at me! Look at me! Aren't I wonderful? I signed a book of commitment!"

I hope you get the difference. I guess it's the problem with our increasing personality/celeb-inclined politicians who aren't unit to do good but to promote themselves and help themselves up the greasy pole.

By all means do good and by all means encourage others to do good but please don't use it for personal gain. And, ultimately, actions speak louder than words. Do any of the "Me! Me! Me!" politicians act in a way to prevent further genocides and oppression, or will they just cash their pay cheques and not give a toss?