It is fair to wonder how many politicians could pack St George's Hall to standing room capacity on a cold Monday night, as George Galloway did. Certainly Tony Blair could do so, but the crowd would be largely composed of protesters. Against all expectations, Galloway was received with unanimous approval, a truly astonishing feat for anyone, much less him.

Galloway demonstrated, once again, that he is simply the most dynamic speaker in the British body politic, if not the world. That Galloway can prepare incendiary declarations and denunciations is hardly news, but an unexpected and extraordinary feature of his performance was the way he thought on his feet.

George was introduced by an increasingly pregnant Lizi Alnatt (yea Lizi! way to go Mike!!). Lizi treated us to a quite witty recollection of when she first met Galloway, in Palestine more than a decade ago. The occasion was a youth football match, and it turned out that the Palestinian definition of "youth" embraced large bearded gentleman some years beyond our own "under 15" conception.

Galloway leapt up from his chair like a shark going after bait. He remembered the match well, he declared, and then proceeded into an entirely spontaneous comedic monologue worthy of Robin Williams (Palestinian youths being cheered on by their children) that concluded with his having convinced his young Celtic side to "throw the match" in the interests of diplomacy.

The charm offensive having succeeded, Galloway settled into his stump speech. The foundations are known to all-the Iraq war was a disaster, Labour is now engaged in a whitewash of historic proportions, our policy errors have rendered the Middle East unsafe for more than the next generation, Tony Blair is Bush's poodle, Ben Bradshaw is Blair's "nodding dog"-the substance of the speech was much the sort of thing that can be heard in any pub and on every street corner.

What makes Galloway special as a speaker is not so much that he has any special insights-although this certainly appears to be the case in comparison to most of his associates in the House of Commons (there was a tremendous sequence about George, on the eve of the war, sensing "a chill running through the House...looking for a spine to run up")-but the extraordinary array of rhetorical weapons that he has at the ready, and his freewheeling and essentially flawless appraisal of which to use when.

Who else would think to compare Iraq and Joan Collins in terms of weapons of mass destruction? It occurs to Mr Galloway that the only "WMD" found in Iraq is a single vial of bo-tox. In his opinion it is likely that Queen Joan carries more in her purse. There was also a rather well received comparison of the relationship between the Blair and Bush governments to that of the relationship between Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton.

One-liners abounded, but it was the more developed metaphors that stuck. On several occasions Galloway invited us to consider the Middle East as a bitter swamp. The people in the swamp, he suggested, are bitter because Western policy towards them has been essentially racist.

How else could you explain our cold detachment from the nearly 1 million Iraqis that the United Nations estimates have died from our sanctions, particularly in light of our uniform and proper outrage at the deaths of 3000 Americans in New York. In the same vein, our indifference to the daily plight of Palestinians...the fact that we know precisely how many British servicemen have died in the Iraq War, but don't even bother trying to count civilian Iraqi deaths, beyond figuring that it must be well more than 15,000 at this point...Mr Galloway did not lack for examples of a skewed policy, at least.

It should not surprise us, then, when "vile mosquitos" such as al-Qaeda arise from the swamp. It is only predictable that mutations would arise from the swamp of deceit and despair. The problem is that the swamp is expanding rather than contracting, and that we are making the swamp more volatile rather than cleansing it. And then, at the summit of his analysis, Mr Galloway did something that Mr Blair has not. He urged us to take collective responsibility for the swamp. It is, after all, the result of the policies of our elected leaders, and responsibility follows accordingly. Mea culpa.

Following the speech Galloway was open to questions, and answered them adeptly, not least the ones that he chose not to answer. As the speech was a Stop the War Coalition event, he chose to sidestep issues having to do with his RESPECT coalition, and it's willingness to field candidates (including himself) against Green members of the European Parliament. Incredibly, this evasion was greeted with hardly a grumble. Well, is this the British left, or not?

It occurs to me that, as a speaker, Galloway is an extraordinary dancer. That being the case, he has offered himself up as a partner in what would be a most entertaining and illuminating dance. Galloway declared himself ready to debate Exeter's very own MP Ben Bradshaw at a time and place of Bradshaw's choosing, and with the event conducted by anyone whom Bradshaw might think would protect him.

Without lingering too long on the image of a lobotomized giant sea slug caught in the headlamp of a freight train...I believe that the idea has some merit. Bradshaw could prove that he's more than a mere "nodding dog," and defend the policies that his master...ah, party leader, still persists in defending. He would thus have the opportunity to both regain public respect and earn brownie points. If it turns out that he gets annihilated no one would be particularly surprised. It's a win/win situation.

George said that he was protesting against Saddam Hussein when Bradshaw was still wearing....well, he made fun of your school clothes, Ben. It's really a golden opportunity Ben, you mustn't let this one get away. It's probably the only chance you'll ever have to address more than 500 people in your own constituency.

George Galloway was here. He says that he'll come again, to explain that business about his coalition not being so much of a coalition. In the meantime the Stop the War Coalition encompasses all of the parties that Galloway hoped to include. Stranger than that, we're all entirely getting along, even with an election nearly upon us. We are united to the extent that we are, George explained, because we all want to "give Mr Blair the bloodiest nose possible" in the elections. Well, my sentiments exactly.

this fine report originally appeared in the Exeter Flying Post

Speech is over, now go home