I don't think that the people of Bradford West yet fully realise just what it is they have elected in George Galloway, but just like Bethnal Green and Bow before them I believe they will soon start to feel stirrings of misgivings.
Maybe they should watch these two cringe worthy video clips, both scenes from TV's Celebrity Big Brother starring George Galloway, he may not drink alcohol but he hasn't let that stop him prancing around in a red Lycra catsuit on national TV and purring into Rula Lenska's lap like a huge "fat cat". Once they have viewed them maybe they should ask themselves how close this man on the videos is to the man they thought they were electing as their MP? And ask themselves if they would have still voted for him if the Labour party had played a dirty tricks a campaign like George Galloway did and flooded Asian homes with this kind information?
In the aftermath of the poll the usual political pundits lined up to give us the benefit of their wisdom and after a bruising week for the Tories we saw the Tory supporting TV presenters report Labour's little "local difficulty" with glee, nothing remarkable there, except they were as usual not reporting the entire story, instead, we got the now predictable response "questions being asked about Ed Miliband's leadership", except they were not, no questions were being asked about Ed Miliband's leadership because the loss of this constituency to George Galloway was a phenomena and is the exception to the rule, but as usual where Labour is concerned TV reporters, especially the BBC and Sky News will never let the truth get in the way of their Labour bashing pro government stories.
There is absolutely no denying that the Labour campaign was at fault by treating George Galloway and Respect like any other minor party and I find it absolutely astonishing that they failed to study the phenomena that took him to victory in Bethnal Green, if they had they would have realised that just like Bethnal Green before them the Bradford West seat had many of the ingredients for another major political upset. They should have informed Bradford West voters that the reason why Galloway did not stand for re-election in his former constituency of Bethnal Green and Bow was because he was a yellow livered coward and knew he would lose so stood in the neighbouring seat of Poplar and Limehouse instead! They should have explained the reasons why Galloway plays "musical constituencies", in fact it was their duty to warn Bradford West voters and they failed, they need to bear this in mind for the next election.
Galloway also lost his job as a presenter on Talk Sport Radio where he was a regular controversial figure and would regularly insult and humiliate people who disagreed with him. No doubt he was forewarned of his impending fate at the radio station and could have been at a loose end and another key reason why he decided to stand for election in Bradford West.
I have no doubt that altruism never plays a part in the actions of George Galloway - ever. Whatever George Galloway does, George Galloway does for himself, one word sums him up - "narcissistic". Galloway flaunts around a predominately Muslim area using terms like "Bradford Spring", this alone should tell people what this man is really about. Everything is about him, himself and he, he doesn't want to know about what he can do for the people of Bradford West, he is all about taking what the people of Bradford West can do for George Galloway. It is what he is going to stir up by using emotive terms like "Bradford Spring" that should be a cause for concern to every single rational person in this country and not just residents of Bradford West, especially when he is also talking about the riots of summer 2011 - it's truly frightening.
Since last Friday, I have heard and read some comments from people in Bradford West who seem to believe that Galloway is some kind of knight in shining armour riding in to save them all on his trusted steed. I almost feel sorry for them because unfortunately, I think they are going to be very disappointed! First they should ask themselves just what one lone MP can do for them? Secondly they should perhaps study what he did for the people of Bethnal Green in Tower Hamlets, which wasn't much at all, he wasn't even there most of the time, he was always off pursuing his causes célèbre, especially when he appeared in TV's celebrity Big Brother, he was away from his constituency for weeks which mean they did not have an MP to turn to should they needed his help. He was out of the country a lot too, he was out of the country so much at one point that in Westminster he was dubbed the "Member for Baghdad"! Here is an official list of dates he was out of the country while he was a Labour MP (he was expelled from the party in 2003) List of Mr George Galloway's entries in the Register of Members' Interests relating to Iraq between 1991 and 2005 People should not take my word for George Galloway's disinterest in representing his constituents in parliament, they should should take a look at the official figures. Between May 2005 when he was first elected to represent Bethnal Green and Bow and when he stood down in May 2010, out of a possible 1288 chances to vote, George Galloway only managed to vote 98 times. Bearing in mind his constituency was a London constituency a virtual stones throw away from Westminster, doesn't bode well for Bradford West really does it? Look at his voting figures MP for Glasgow Kelvin after he was expelled from the Labour party, between October 2003 and April 2005 out of a possible 549 opportunities to represent his constituency in Parliament he only managed to vote 19 times. As the link I have included above shows, George Galloway was out of the country most of time yet still taking his salary as a constituency MP.
Unsurprisingly, it did not take long before his popularity started to wane in Bethnal Green and Bow. In 2010 instead of standing again or standing down in his own constituency like most sitting MPs would, extraordinarily, Galloway stood for election in the neighbouring Poplar and Limehouse seat which he subsequently lost.
Reports from the Bangladesh community in Poplar & Limehouse say that on the morning of the 2010 general election the police were were called to a polling station in the Ben Johnson primary school in St Dunstans in Poplar, after voters reported they were being shouted at and intimidated in the street by George Galloway's Respect party campaigners, demanding that everyone vote for Respect. This was also happening in the Bethnal Green and Bow constituency, where Abjol Miah supporters were said to have been harassing voters into voting for him or suffer the consequences if the Liberal Democrat candidate Ajmal Masoor wins, in any event neither Respect or Liberal democrats won the poll, it was Jim Fitzpatrick who won the seat for the Labour party. It is actually illegal for anyone to campaign on the day of an election within a certain radius of a polling station, but staying within the confines of law doesn't worry Respect campaigners apparently.
Voter fraud in the postal voting system in Tower Hamlets has also been investigated by the police, giving rise to suspicion that over 5000 ghost voters had registered for postal votes and that as a consequence there were fears that Respect could take the seat, fortunately Rushanara Ali for Labour was elected. However, the Labour party wanting no part in voter fraud of misrepresentation had expelled Lutfur Rahman, the mayor of Tower Hamlets, from the Labour Party because of his links with an extremist Muslim group, the Islamic Forum of Europe (IFE) . This is the same group that George Galloway has had supporting him in Bradford West, where the IFE has an active operation.
Bethnal Green has since returned to normal but many people still believe that George Galloway and his Respect party are a party of hate and division and will divide the Muslim and White communities.
Galloway did not even wait for the count in Poplar and Limehouse, defeated, he slunk off, only to pop up in Glasgow List in 2011 where he unsuccessfully stood for election to the Scottish Parliament where once again he was defeated, even his native Scots didn't want anything to do with him. Then he saw a chance of what he calls a "perfect fit" for his particular brand of politics emerge in in Bradford West by election and he seized his chance and this time managed to succeed in fooling most of the people most of the time. I can't help thinking that George Galloway could stir up and give a mighty kick to a hornets nest of disquiet among fundamentalists groups and this fills me with fear for the people of Bradford West. Labour should have seen this coming for sure, but so too should the Tories and the Liberal Democrats who are supposed to be the party of government. This is not just a shock for the Labour party, this is a rejection on a "Biblical scale" of the Tory-led coalition government politics, who have managed to make ordinary law abiding peaceful Muslims (who are the majority) feel disenfranchised with their random attacks on Muslims and immigration, attacks used every time the government felt they were slipping in the polls. Once again we see clearly David Cameron, Nick Clegg and George Osborne use naked politicking and the age old tactic of 'divide and rule' and play upon peoples fears for their own political advantage, we see it repeatedly, we saw it last week when the Tories used fuel to deliberately panic the nation in the hope of diverting attention from their total incompetence to govern this country correctly and fairly for all the people, not just the privileged few ( the elite,which they are all part of).
It is the arrogant measure of George Galloway, a man who abuses the trust one set of constituents, and then thinks he can do exactly the same in a neighbouring seat and no one will notice! He attempted to take the residents of Poplar and Limehouse for fools, fortunately they showed him they were nobody's fools, especially George Galloway's! Galloway's former Bethnal Green seat then returned to Labour in the 2010 general election. The people were wise to George Galloway and had learned about his antics with women and money and how he got his hands on the latter has always been questioned in parliament, here is an official letter requesting such information and a response for Galloway. The voters of Poplar & Limehouse also recoiled at his support for off the wall causes and weird personalities and saw right through him and elected a Labour MP. Galloway has always been a contentious figure however since being expelled from the Labour party he has become bitter and vengeful and has had a string of abject failures.
In January 2004, Galloway announced he would be working with members of the Social Alliance in England and Wales, and others, under the name Respect – The Unity Coalition, generally referred to simply as Respect. This was despite Galloway having a track record of antipathy toward Trotskyists, and the largest component of Respect being the Socialist Workers Party, which broadly identifies itself as part of the Trotskyist political tradition. But hey George Galloway can quickly skew anything and make everything about himself if it is in the interests of George Galloway. (As the people of "Blackburn" oops sorry Bradford West will soon be discovering for themselves.)
Labour in Bradford West should have informed voters that some former members of the Socialist Alliance, including the Workers Liberty and Workers Power groups, objected to forming a coalition with Galloway, citing his political record, and his refusal to accept an average worker's wage, with Galloway claiming "I couldn’t live on three workers’ wages." If he couldn't live on three workers wages, how out of touch is he with the people of hard hit Bradford West? If George Galloway was hardly ever in his Bethnal Green and Bow constituency in London, how often will he be in the constituency of Bradford West after the initial novelty of his victory has worn off?
Labour's Deputy leader Harriet Harman has said they believe that they lost the Bradford West by election in the last week when something happened to change the minds of voters who had previously pledged to vote Labour. Ms Harman could be right as this actually coincided with a hastily prepared leaflet that did not bear the Respect logo, or the names of an agent or printer which is required by electoral law. The leaflet was apparently flooded into all the Asian areas of the Bradford West constituency. Its allegations that Mr Hussain is a heavy drinker are totally false and libellous. Galloway has started of in his constituency in the usual Galloway way, he is already bandying threats about, threatening legal action over wrongs he feels were done to him, however, if he really wants to clean up politics as constituency MP for Bradford West he could ask the police to investigate who sent that libellous pro- George Galloway leaflet to thousands of homes, which broke the law covering elections. I suspect Galloway will do nothing though because when the law is broken that suits Galloway, that's OK.
It seems that Galloway boasts on his rallies and election literature about having respect for Muslims, but this respect dis not stretch to his Muslim opponent! Galloway's form of respect applies just as long as they do not disagree with him or stand against him in a democratic election and doesn't mind if his followers libel an innocent man and personally bring him down in his standing in his community, something that means a great deal to all Muslims. (Look at what happened to Muslims that opposed Galloway in Bethnal green and Bow and Poplar and Limehouse, they were abused and shouted at in the streets, women and young voters among them). If the leaflet wasn't put put out by Respect campaigners with or without George Galloway's knowledge then who was it and why would they do such a thing? A police investigation must be started. the leaflet said:
"GOD KNOWS who is a Muslim. And he knows who is not, "Let me point out to all the Muslim brothers and sisters what I stand for. I, George Galloway, do not drink alcohol and never have. Ask yourself if the other candidate [the Labour candidate, Imran Hussein] in this election can say that truthfully. I, George Galloway, have fought for the Muslims at home and abroad, all my life, and paid the price for it. I, George Galloway, holds Pakistan's highest civil awards."George Galloway stood in the Bradford West by election for the same reasons he stood in Bethnal Green and Poplar, because he has a festering grudge for Labour because they expelled him from the party, in my opinion, I don;t think he cares one jot for the people of Bradford west, whether they are Muslim, Christian or agnostic, he is just using them to get at the Labour party in his never ending grudge, which appears to have turned him into a nasty, deceitful and bitter human being.
He wasted no time in personally insulting Mr Hussain, who is by the way a Muslim too, pity the courtesies that Galloway says he has for all Muslims do not extend to Mr Hussain. Galloway told a rally that he was a "better Pakistani than he [Mr Hussain] will ever be. He also inferred that Mr Hussain was never out of the pub and because of that he shouldn't go around telling people to vote for him because he is a Muslim. This is the kind of dirty nasty unpleasant tricks that gets politics and politicians a bad name.
Galloway also shows disregard for all the hundreds of thousands of Muslims Saddam Hussein tortured, had raped, executed and murdered and thrown into mass graves and completely ignored what Saddam did to Muslims in Halabja , where he murdered thousands of people using chemical warfare. Women laying dead in the street where they fell clutching their babies and children. Regardless of what you felt about the Iraq war how could Galloway associate himself with someone who butchered his own people, all Muslims? Doesn't this go against everything Muslims are taught in the Quaran? Galloway said to Saddam "Sir, I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability" and later tried to explain that by saying he was "saluting the Iraqi people! A pretty odd way to salute people who were being regularly tortured, imprisoned or murdered, women and children among them raped and imprisoned in cages or ending up buried dead or alive in mass graves! I really do not know how this man manages to fool so many Muslims that he is on their side when patently the only side he is on is his own, George Galloway is a dangerous attention seeking narcissist. George Galloway maintains that he is the same as Muslims in effect that the only thing he fears is "Judgement day", the same as they and he says; "I'm ready for that", I hope he is, however he may find his particular "Judgement Day" may not be what he thinks it will be. Then again he could just be saying that to gain favour with his supporters, who knows what goes on in the murky depths of George Galloway's mind.
At another rally, Galloway talked again about divine judgement. Apparently he stands for justice and haqq (haqq is very important to Muslims, it stands for truth and righteousness). Using this Galloway told the crowd which was overwhelmingly a Muslim audience, that he believed for "religious reasons" in the same Judgement Day as they [the audience] did and then asked the crowd how they would explain on their Judgement Day that they had the chance, "on 29th March 2012, to vote for someone who led a "great campaign" against the slaughter of millions in Iraq, but instead voted for a party which has killed millions of Iraqis? As he mentioned that people should have an explanation for not voting for him [Galloway], perhaps he has a better excuse for his maker on his Judgement Day than saying he was saluting the Iraqi people when he was sucking up to Saddam Hussein & sons, the cold blooded butchers, murderers and torturers of millions of Muslims? The same family who shot the entire Iraqi football team because they lost a match!
What George Galloway appears to have done is tantamount to emotional blackmail and was deliberately trying to scare people into voting for him and if it isn't against electoral rules, then it should be, it is totally outrageous that Galloway has been allowed to get away with peddling this kind of hate and fear tactics. I truly believe that labour should lodge a complaint to the police and have Galloway and his Respect "followers" investigated. Even if it meant that if Galloway was found guilty and Labour were to lose another by election, it would still be doing what is right and proper under our democracy.
However, it has to be said that he had support from across the political spectrum or the Tories and the Lib Dems would not have lost votes either! But Galloway has the ability to turn on the charm and be all things to all people, which is why he appealed across the board. However, would those people have voted for George Galloway if they knew that Mr Galloway has some very useful allies in Yorkshire?
"At his main rally last Sunday, one of his supporting speakers was Abjol Miah, a leading activist in both Respect and the extremist Islamic Forum of Europe (IFE), which wants to create a sharia state in Europe."Mr Miah has been an important figure in the IFE’s ever-growing influence in the east London borough of Tower Hamlets. He had taken a key part in the election of Lutfur Rahman, thrown out of Labour for his links with the IFE, as mayor of Tower Hamlets.The IFE also played what Mr Galloway himself, in a secretly recorded tape, called “the decisive role” in his previous shock election victory, in Tower Hamlets in 2005. “I am indebted more than I can say to the Islamic Forum of Europe,” he said. The IFE also has an active operation in Bradford. Then there was the Muslim Public Affairs Committee (MPAC), another radical group that campaigned against a Labour MP for being “Jewish” (she wasn’t, as it happened). It waded in strongly for Mr Galloway, repeating the baseless smears against Mr Hussain. “Thirsty Imran Hussain (hic) likes his refreshments,” smirked MPAC’s website. “And campaigning in this unseasonably good weather is thirsty work indeed … George Galloway is giving Hussain a real run for his money.” Mr Galloway, said MPAC, was a teetotaller, “a defender of Muslims and Bradford West’s last hope”.His links with radical Islam are real enough. As well as the IFE, he remains a presenter for the Iranian regime’s state-controlled Press TV channel. He has repeatedly praised and met the leaders of the banned Palestinian terrorist group, Hamas. The Telegraph
Since winning the by election Galloway is already demonstrating bizarre over the top behaviour by touring the City on an open topped bus and this should give all the ordinary people of Bradford West cause for concern. He is not a celebrity he is an MP and he should act like one, he is in Bradford West (not "Blackburn") to do a serious job of work not indulge in unseemly triumphalism, where does this behaviour fit in with the Qur'an?....especially over another Muslim who is after just a political opponant and a good, decent respectful man?
The election result should give us all serious cause for concern, including the incompetent out of touch Conservative led coalition government. Something stirred in Bradford West and it wasn't "Sleeping beauty", it was George Galloway and he is no beauty, he is an attention seeking, cigar smoking Fantasist who could give "Walter Mitty" a run for his money! Incidentally the cost of those revolting smelly big cigars he smokes could probably feed a whole family for a month and that is excluding the cost of the gallons of mouthwash he must get through trying to purify what is probably his fetid cigar smoking breath!
What happened in Bradford West was not only bad for the Labour party is was an out and out rejection of the Coalition government and their political game playing and their disgraceful harmful policies on all people and this to a lesser extent is the mood sweeping this country, one I have continually pointed to as slipping beneath the radar of the opinion polls.
If Labour are going to ignore what went on in Bradford West (and I do not think they should, I think it should be reported to the police), then they should not spend too much time licking their wounds but have a huge rethink on how to re-establish the Labour movement with its core voters. those of us who follow the labour party realise that they have not deserted people, but those people do not feel this, they feel under attack from their own government and they are crying out for Labour to stand up for them.
David Cameron, George Osborne and Nick Clegg and all their sycophantic MPs have made our caring welfare state bad words, something that we should be ashamed of, well we shouldn't be ashamed, the mark of a good civilised society can be gauged by the way it takes care of those worse off than ourselves. The Labour movement should put back the C into caring and take back the faux "compassion" from the Tories and re-establish compassion in our communities. I think they will and further, I too believe in fate and this is why I believe that Ed Miliband won the Labour leadership election, he does care, he does "get it", but he must start showing not only in thoughts, but also in deeds.
