Observations on smoking (2)
What exactly was George Galloway smoking around the time of his appearance before the US Senate investigative sub-committee? Not an illegal Cuban cigar, by any chance? "I had a Havana next to my heart when I was swearing the oath," he tells me. "I lit it up inside the Capitol building once the hearing was over. And then I went outside and blew it towards the White House."
Galloway says it was an attempt to draw attention to the 40-year-old US blockade of Cuba, which continues to cripple the Cuban economy and cause untold human suffering. His stand has won him many plaudits in Cuba, but he has yet to hear from his old companero Fidel Castro. The now non-smoking president is unlikely to be impressed: he ordered Galloway to quit ten years ago because he was more use as an agitator than a consumer.
Could Galloway's planned US speaking tour be in jeopardy? The department of homeland security is unequivocal: there is a total ban on the importation of Cuban cigars, and transgressions can lead to fines of up to $55,000 and even imprisonment. "I'm sure they will pay particular attention to my cigar box. But once you've taken the label off, the only way you can tell it is a Havana cigar is by lighting it up," he says.
Galloway is no fan of the looming ban on public smoking, nor of lefties who consider cigar-smoking a rich man's pastime: "To paraphrase General Booth, who used to operate in my constituency: why should the devil have all the best tobacco?"
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