Damage limitation

Here's more on the man whom a section of the British left has lately been content to support. (Thinks... Do members of the SWP ever picture Trotsky pretending to be a cat licking milk out of someone else's hand in full public view?)

George Galloway is set to earn £150,000 from his appearance on Celebrity Big Brother, but the Respect MP will write a cheque to the taxpayer for the percentage of his parliamentary salary he has drawn during his stay in the Channel 4 game show house.

Until now, it was thought that Galloway - who was shown in the Big Brother house this weekend pretending to be a cat, eating out of Rula Lenska's hand - would earn £60,000 from the show. His closest aides in Respect say he is in fact being paid £150,000.

Ron McKay, Galloway's oldest friend and press adviser, confirmed: "He'll write a cheque to the taxpayer for whatever the percentage of his parliamentary income is."

On an MP's basic salary of £61,000, Galloway earns about £155 a day. If he stays to the end of the show his promise could see the taxpayer being "refunded" around £3500.

According to McKay, Galloway now 'seem[s] unhappy in the house and is "withdrawing into himself"'. Doesn't your heart just go out to him? His oldest friend also confesses to having been made to 'feel a bit unclean'. (Hat tip: L.)