Columnists From Scotland

"All dignified people in the world, whether Arabs or Muslims or others with dignity, are very proud of the speech made by president Bashar al-Assad a few days ago here in Damascus."

"For me he is the last Arab ruler, and Syria is the last Arab country. It is the fortress of the remaining dignity of the Arabs, and that's why I'm proud to be here."

"Syria is being threatened - because she will not betray the Palestinian resistance, because she will not betray the Lebanese resistance, Hizbullah, because she will not sign a shameful surrender-peace with General Sharon, and above all - more than any of these others - because Syria will not allow her country to be used as a military base for America to crush the resistance in Iraq."

"So I say to you, citizens of the last Arab country, this is a time for courage, for unity, for wisdom, for determination, to face these enemies with the dignity your president has shown, and I believe, God willing, we will prevail and triumph, wa-salam aleikum."

"This murder of Hariri was deliberately planned and executed precisely to implicate Syria and to set in train the events which have unfolded."

"Now, would you like me to be the cat?"

"Pipe down Mr Indignation. We'll see what the viewers thought of your double standards, your indignation about me and the aplomb with which you become a lying plutocrat in your gentleman's club."

"I had three goals and all of them were met."

"Only a fool has no regrets and I'm not a fool."

"As for Gordon Brown - I've described him and Blair as two cheeks of the same arse."

"[Q:] Would the assassination of, say, Tony Blair by a suicide bomber - if there were no other casualties - be justified as revenge for the war on Iraq? [...] [A:] Yes, it would be morally justified. I am not calling for it - but if it happened it would be of a wholly different moral order to the events of 7/7. It would be entirely logical and explicable. And morally equivalent to ordering the deaths of thousands of innocent people in Iraq - as Blair did."

"I would not support anyone seeking to assassinate the prime minister. That's why I said in the interview I would report to the authorities any such plot that I knew of. What I did make abundantly clear to Piers Morgan in the GQ interview is that I would like to see Tony Blair in front of a war crimes tribunal for sending this country to war illegally and for the appalling human consequences which resulted. That's what I will continue to press for."

"Israel is invading Lebanon and has killed thirty times more Lebanese civilians than have died in Israel, so it’s you who should be justifying the evident bias which is written on every line on your face, and is in every nuance of your voice, and is loaded in every question that you ask."

"One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. You are totally wrong in saying that in most people’s eyes Hezbollah are terrorists. In most people’s eyes Israel is a terrorist state. It’s the fact that you cannot comprehend that fact that leads to bias that runs through all of your reporting and every question that you’ve asked me in this interview!"

"What a silly question! What a silly person you are! Hezbollah is winning the war; you can see on the other half of the screen. Hezbollah is more popular today in Lebanon amongst Christians, amongst Sunnis, amongst Shiite, amongst all Arabs, amongst all Muslims that it has ever been. It’s Israel who’s lost the war, and Bush and Blair for politically organizing the war, who’ve lost politically. This is a defeat of Bush and Blair and Israel. Everybody but you can see it!"

"You don’t give a damn! You don’t give a damn, you don’t even know about the Palestinian families! You don’t even know that they exist! Tell me the name of one member of the seven members of the same family slaughtered on the beach in Gaza by an Israeli warship. You don’t even know their names! But you know the name of every Israeli soldier who has been taken prisoner in this conflict. Because you believe whether you know it or not that Israeli blood is more valuable than the blood of Lebanese or Palestinians. That’s the truth, and the discerning of your viewers already know it."

"Well, I don’t agree that it’s genocide, but I definitely agree that there’s suffering going on there."

"These extremist Islamists locked me in a room and threatened to hang me because we are the democratic alternative to them. We say to young Muslims: we know that you’re angry, you’re right to be angry. But the best way to be angry is to hit the government where it hurts, through politics, through the ballot box, through elections, through engaging with non-Muslims to build a broad front to bring about a change in policies at home and abroad."

"Christianity doesn't come into it. George Bush and Tony Blair are not Christians. Religious people believe in the prophets, peace be upon them. Bush believes in the profits and how to get a piece of them. So don't ever confuse this with a war of civilizations."

"The roots of this problem definitely are in the fact that not enough groups, trends, parties or individual personalities came into Respect [...] Therefore the perception was created that it was an organisation dominated by the SWP, who have form, or dominated by me, or, later, dominated by Muslims."

"Hamas won the only democratic election ever held in the Arab world so how they can be tyrants I really don't know [...] I am not in favour of Hamas but I am in favour of democracy."

"Because I don't believe that the government of Iran is a dictatorship I have no problem about working for Press TV in London which is a British owned television station. I'm not responsible for the government of Ahmedinijad. I'm not responsible for the leadership of Press TV."

"Let me tell you, I think that Julian Assange's personal sexual behaviour is something sordid, disgusting, and I condemn it. But ... Even taken at its worst, if the allegations made by these two women were true, 100 per cent true, and even if a camera in the room captured them, they don’t constitute rape. At least not rape as anyone with any sense can possibly recognise it."

"[One of the women] Claims that she woke up to him having sex with her again. This is something which can happen, you know. I mean not everybody needs to be asked prior to each insertion."

"It might be really sordid and bad sexual etiquette, but whatever else it is, it is not rape or you bankrupt the term rape of all meaning."

"Are you an Israeli? I don't debate with Israelis. I have been misled, sorry I don't recognise Israel and I don't debate with Israelis"

"I refused this evening at Oxford University to debate with an Israeli, a supporter of the apartheid state of Israel. The reason is simple: no recognition, no normalisation. Just boycott, divestment and sanctions, until the apartheid state is defeated. I never debate with Israelis nor speak to their media. If they want to speak about Palestine – the address is the PLO."

"Thatcher described Nelson Mandela as a "terrorist". I was there. I saw her lips move. May she burn in the hellfires...Tramp the dirt down."

"We did not suspend our democracy in our darkest hours why are we suspending it now? the fawning over Thatcher had gone too far... This put the tin hat on it the idea that we should suspend a vital part of our democratic process for a party political and private funeral, Mr Churchill didn’t ask for Parliament to be silenced, for confrontations across the House to be forbidden. When our soldiers were being laid waste in the Norway debate, the House of Commons perhaps rose to its finest 20th Century moment. Nobody said: "Our armed forces have suffered a disaster, the House of Commons cannot meet, the clash of ideas cannot be heard, we must muffle the drums and silence ourselves.""

"I am in the House of Commons every day; I just do not want to vote for Tweedledum or Tweedledee"

"It's not just people with a percentage of the vote who have the right to speak. All of us have the right to speak. What happened to Farage looked ugly in the rest of the country and the rest of the world. And the SNP I fear will take you down a road where grudge is everything."

"It was al Qaeda who used the chemical weapons. Who gave al Qaeda the chemical weapons? Here's my theory: Israel gave them the chemical weapons."

"I don’t begrudge the Labour members here their moment of celebration of course [...] But there will be others who are already celebrating: the venal, the vile, the racists and the Zionists will all be celebrating. The hyena can bounce on the lion’s grave but it can never be a lion and in any case, I’m not in my grave. As a matter of fact I’m going off now to plan the next campaign."

"I've always been a Labour man. I consider myself real Labour. I've never been a Marxist, or a Trotskyist, or any other kind of –ist other than a Labourist. If it weren't for Mr Blair and the Iraq war, I would never have been out of the party in the first place."

"[On Nigel Farage] We are not pals. We are allies in one cause. Like Churchill and Stalin..."

"The 'All-Asian short-list' hand-picked by Keith Vaz is just not good enough for the people of Gorton, one of the most deprived constituencies in Britain The short-listing, which excluded many better candidates, is the latest in a long line of insults delivered by mainstream parties to local communities."

"If the Bank of England is “independent” who took the decision to steal Venezuela's gold?"

"During my time in Venezuela... when I looked at the news stands it astonished me that the vast majority of the newspapers and the magazines owned by the rich were spewing out their anti-Chavez propaganda... the people who told you that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and that we must invade and destroy Iraq... that we must invade & destroy Libya for freedom and democracy... invade and destroy Syria in the interests of human rights & democracy... and many other places in the world. The same people who told you all these lies are telling you to hate Nicolas Maduro... [they] want to march you into yet another disaster... ask yourself.... If they were lying then why are they telling the truth now? ...Viva Venezuela, Viva Chavez, Viva Maduro!!"

"While the so-called European Parliament voted overwhelmingly to recognise a man in the street as President of Venezuela, the African Union voted unanimously to endorse the presidency of Maduro and Venezuelan sovereignty. Just think about that..."

"The former MP posted on the social media site after the Champions League final between Liverpool and Tottenham on Saturday night. He praised Liverpool's win, before adding: "No #Israël flags on the Cup!" - appearing to reference Tottenham's strong links with the Jewish community...He defended the comment, claiming a number of Tottenham fans were flying the flag of Israel in the crowd and it showed an affiliation to a "racist state"."

"[Referring to pro-democracy protesters] These people should know that Hong Kong is China. No country, absolutely no country, will allow an existential threat to emerge on its territory, to its own sovereignty, without responding in a way that brings the situation under control."

"We are not ashamed of our country's flag. Citizens of other states wave their flags, proudly. Why should the people of Britain not be proud of their state? (on Facebook, 26 February 2021)"

"I'm voting #Tory with my first vote for the incumbent MSP. And then for myself and [other A4U candidates] on the list. Now THAT is @Alliance4Unity."

"As the father of five mixed-race children I treat #Humza's accusation that I'm a racist with contempt."

"[M]ake Rochdale great again."

"Princess Kate has been missing for almost 80 days. There've been three faked photos and millions of rumours. What are the royals covering up? Is she dead or has she downed tools?"

"The North Korean regime is apparently so bad that even George Galloway has never been there to offer his support. Or maybe that’s because it’s so broke."

"My hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow, Kelvin made his familiar views known in his inimitable way. Some of the good points that he made on the middle east peace process would, I believe, carry more credibility if he had not made a career of being not just an apologist, but a mouthpiece, for the Iraqi regime over many years."

"But he looks so much like what he is: a thug and a demagogue, the type of working-class-wideboy-and-proud-of-it who is too used to the expenses account, the cars and the hotels - all cigars and back-slapping. He is a very cheap character and a short-arse like a lot of them are, puffed up like a turkey."

"Galloway’s preferred style is that of vulgar ad hominem insult, usually uttered while a rather gaunt crew of minders stands around him. I have a thick skin and a broad back and no bodyguards. He says that I am an ex-Trotskyist (true), a "popinjay" (true enough, since its original Webster’s definition means a target for arrows and shots), and that I cannot hold a drink (here I must protest)."