Abstract
This chapter discusses the rhetoric and personas of two significant voices of the left. George Galloway and Tommy Sheridan both gained prominence through their style of language, oratory, and ideological arguments over the course of their political careers. In doing so they operated outside of mainstream left wing politics, combining criticism of the ‘betrayal’ of Labour party leaders with a populist appeal to many people feeling disaffected by the formal political process. This chapter examines the rhetoric, public persona, and character narratives of Sheridan and Galloway, identifying key components of their approaches. We argue that their ‘outsider’ status offered them rhetorical opportunities which they often exploited in an accomplished manner. However, we conclude that their heavy reliance on personal character narrative brought significant political risks.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Judi Atkins, John Gaffney, Richard Hayton, Timothy Heppell, and Thomas Brook for their comments on an earlier version of this chapter.
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Crines, A.S., McAnulla, S. (2017). The Rhetorical Personas of George Galloway and Tommy Sheridan. In: Atkins, J., Gaffney, J. (eds) Voices of the UK Left. Rhetoric, Politics and Society. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51902-9_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51902-9_10
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