Well, firstly I’m not entirely sure I like the British part of that seeing as I no longer live there and I haven’t been there for 5 years. But my solidarity with Gaddafi is based around his achievements for the Libyan People and like any regime his made mistakes but over all he did so much for his people including women.

 “Women, like men, are human beings. This is an incontestable truth”

—Muammar al-Gaddafi
Not many regimes in that area that would say that 

Highest standard of living in Africa is a fairly good achievement in itself. Libya has been transformed by Gaddafi from one of the poorest nations in the world to a nation which under Gaddafi had less than 5% malnourishment. This article is certainly worth reading http://globalciviliansforpeace.com/2011/11/09/the-standard-of-living-in-libya/ 
Some interesting facts can be found here also http://stats.uis.unesco.org/unesco/TableViewer/document.aspx?ReportId=121&IF_Language=eng&BR_Country=4340&BR_Region=40525 

Then there is also this 

Then there are the people who want to replace him 
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8407047/Libyan-rebel-commander-admits-his-fighters-have-al-Qaeda-links.html  

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-18679632 

Torture has occurred regularly since the overthrow of Gaddafi. 
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v33/n22/hugh-roberts/who-said-gaddafi-had-to-go  That’s an interesting essay on Gaddafi 

Then there is that. 

 

And that

“The bloodless coup of 1969 followed a similar pattern as the Egyptian Revolution in 1952, when the last remnants of British power were overhauled by the Free Officers, Muammar al-Gaddafi was one of a coterie of military officials. In power the Colonel sought to model the regime on the pan-Arab and secular nationalist set up in Egypt, Gaddafi railed against the European colonial powers, America and Israel. Before his death in 1970 General Nasser said “I rather like Gaddafi. He reminds me of myself when I was that age.” The Gaddafi regime forced out the British and American military bases and quickly moved to expel Westerners. At the same time the regime sought to craft a welfare system to provide universal health-care, education and affordable housing which fed into an anti-imperialist platform. The regime began to fund groups like the PLO, the ANC and the IRA. Gaddafi later described the system he was building as Islamic socialism, it might be more accurately described as Islamic Maoism. The country began to resemble an African Cuba.”- http://historiographical.tumblr.com/post/24941922769/the-bloodless-coup-of-1969-followed-a-similar 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLGtZ5wKNV4&feature=player_embedded 

http://globalciviliansforpeace.com/2012/05/25/libya-africa-and-africom-an-ongoing-disaster/  

http://globalciviliansforpeace.com/2012/05/16/libya-under-pentagon-nato-rule-corruption-internecine-conflict-and-the-fruits-of-imperialist-warfare/ 

Sorry about the huge amount of information and stuff  but basically he has been a victim of U.S imperialism. I see nothing wrong or contradictory with being a socialist and supporting leaders who did so much for their people. The true Gaddafi has been distorted by the Western media and although many supporters try and make Libya under Gaddafi seem like a utopia I think the facts speak loudest here. Libya is on a very dangerous downward spiral. 

Enjoy my little explosion of  information on Gaddafi now in a all new rebloggable format