Galloway returns to the land of his birth

DUNDEE- BORN MP George Galloway will return to his old political stomping ground next month to recall his “misspent youth” and state his case against Scottish independence.

The Just Say Naw! event at the Whitehall Theatre on November 9 will be split between a talk from the politician and a question and answer session.

Mr Galloway, who is the Respect Party MP for Bradford West, said: “It will be extremely interactive and that will probably be an understatement, because I’m expecting those who are supporting the Yes campaign to be there in numbers.

“Breaking up a small countr y of Englishspeaking people who have been together for 300 years for no very good reason seems like a bad idea.

“It won’t all be about the independence question, because I think that will bore the audience.

“I will ruminate about Dundee and my times there, my political life and what I stood for.”

Mr Galloway, who became secretary organiser of Dundee Labour Party in 1981, said he personally chose the Whitehall Theatre for the event.

He said: “Once upon a time that would have been the big time for me, to tread the boards of the Whitehall Theatre.

“I went to see Francie and Josie there, I’m not joking, 40 years ago, and so that theatre is still in my mind.”

He said his rare returns to the city were usually only to visit his father’s grave, but that he had fond memories of his early Dundee days.

He said: “I took my wife to the Law about a year ago to show her the city. I’m looking forward to having a few hours at least to walk around and see my old haunts.

“I misspent my youth a bit in Dundee, in and out of the fabulous Imperial Snooker Hall. I’ll be talking about the unbelievable week Dundee City Square was transformed into Red Square, Moscow for the making of a film by John Schlesinger.

“Lord Reid told me the story that someone had called him, having arrived off a train in Dundee, and said, ‘Galloway’s finally done it. He’s transformed the City Square with pictures of Marx and Lenin hanging from the Caird Hall and he’s got Russian soldiers in fur hats running around’.”

“I had an idyllic childhood and an idyllic political life in Dundee and I’ll be forever grateful for that.”

Tickets for the event are available from www. dundeebox.co.uk.

Picture: PA. George Galloway is coming to the Whitehall Theatre to speak about independence and his “misspent youth”.