George Galloway is back!

[T_i_B]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17549388

Respect Party candidate George Galloway has taken the Bradford West parliamentary seat from Labour, winning the by-election by 10,100 votes.

Mr Galloway, expelled by Labour in 2003, said it was the "most sensational victory" in by-election history. He received 18,341 votes - a 56% share. He said his victory represented a "total rejection" of the major parties.

At the 2010 General Election, Labour's Marsha Singh, who resigned on health grounds, won with a majority of 5,763 .

Labour candidate Imran Hussein came second with 8,201 votes as the party's share of the vote was 20% down on its 2010 figure.

[SydneyDundee]

1. Excellent - he's sorely needed.

[MADem]

2. Who will be the particular popinjay of his latest post-Hitchins public re-incarnation, I wonder? nt

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. The changes in votes are pretty astounding

While turnout is slightly down on the general election, there were more who voted for either Respect or Labour than in the GE. Either they got a significant amount of people to vote for the first time (possible - this Guardian article says there was a significant Asian youth vote), or many people went straight from Tory to Respect - which seems unlikely.

Party --- 2010 --- 2012
Respect: 1,245 : 18,341
Labour : 18,401 : 8,201
Tory : 12,638 : 2,746
Lib Dem: 4,732 : 1,505
BNP : 1,370 : Did not stand (hooray!)
Others : 2,190 : 2,018

That's the scale of the swing to Galloway - in 2010, Respect came behind the BNP, who did not stand this time (hopefully this is a sign they have lost competency to put up candidates in many places, or are too poor to lose another deposit). While Galloway is a 'name', I had heard little about the by-election until Wednesday in national news (T_i_B, do you get the Yorkshire-area local news - was his candidacy a major news item on it?), so this can't be put down to just his fame, I think.

[T_i_B]

4. Yes I do get the Yorkshire news

Although I should point out that I don't watch the local TV news too much (way too much emphasis on Leeds over anywhere else in the county, which is why Look North is often referred to sarcastically round these parts as "Look Leeds".)

To be honest I wasn't even aware of this by-election til yesterday. It's been pretty much ignored by the media. However, it is not difficult to guess why George Galloway won in a town with a very large muslim population. Now if only the other parties didn't alternate between demonising muslims or ignoring them.

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. Though the Labour candidate was a Muslim deputy leader of the council

so it's less easy to depict them as ignoring Muslims in this instance. It may be a generational thing - someone on Radio 4's Today this morning that we see this as the democratic alternative to last year's riots.

[LeftishBrit]

6. Well, the Labour candidate is called Imran Hussein...

so I think that it's unlikely that he either demonizes or ignores Muslims.

I think it may be more a frustration with 'politics as usual' and resulting attraction to independent candidates - similar to the reason why some people, who are not primarily environmentalists, vote Green; and why the LibDems had an attraction for many disillusioned Labourites until they joined hands with the Tories. And especially right now, looking for someone who might offer some sort of solution to the ongoing economic mess. Sadly, I don't think that's going to be Galloway.

Also, I get the impression just on the basis of the numbers quoted, that turnout was pretty low, which can sometimes lead to strange results.

[fedsron2us]

7. Not sure it is that atypical a seat as some suggest despite its big Muslim population

It is one of the seats the Tories had on their target list which they needed to win for an outright majority at a General Election.

The constituency is not quite what outsiders imagine.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17564775

The figures suggest that 38% of the voters in the constituency are Muslim and the Labour candidate was very much from the Pakistani Muslim 'establishment' in the City. Arguing that this result is the vote of one ethnic group for Galloway does not really hold water. Ther is something else going on here. The disillusion with the established parties cuts across racial and religious boundaries.

[oberliner]

8. Also he was on Celebrity Big Brother

Maybe that had something to do with it.

[crazykate]

20. anyone watching celebrity big brother uk 2016?

anyone watching celebrity big brother uk 2016?, got one of my favourite 80's models sam fox maybe not as well known in america but some of her earlier work is well worth checking out, was a famous uk model and singer and did have some success stateside as well.

[dipsydoodle]

9. something else going on?

Not really - just the general attraction of complete opportunistic tossers.

[fedsron2us]

11. I agree Galloway is a populist opportunist with a very patchy record as a constituency MP

(as is Livingstone in London) but I think the the 'Orpington' size protest vote for Galloway signifies something more than just his ability to dupe people.

The reality for many young Britons of Pakistani origin in Bradford is that they are pretty much in the same economic boat as their poor white counterparts. The 'life opportunities' they are being offered are not that fantastic. Indeed, many may feel additional resentment since it looks to them as though their parents and grandparents made a particularly poor choice in the migration stakes by choosing to move to a city and a country that was already in relentless economic decline. To rub salt into the wounds they have been born just in time to see most of the remaining jobs and wealth that their parents were chasing being shipped back off to Asia and the Indian sub continent. Moreover, one suspects that like many of the white working class they have become sick and tired of being used as voting fodder to be farmed by the Labour party on polling day and then largely ignored thereafter. In that matter alone this is a significant result

The dire performance of the Tory party means that they are not in a much better position. Their vote declined by a bigger percentage margin even than even the Labour party and does not suggest they will be winning the northern Parliamentary marginals they need for an outright majority in the House of Commons anytime soon. One suspects that Tory core voters feel Cameron and Osborne have proved just as adept at screwing them over as Blair and Brown did to traditional Labour voters. I get the impression that the population of the UK increasingly feel that the Parliamentary system is essentially just a a game of three card monte, a con track perpetrated on the general population of all creeds, races and colours by a small professional political class and their shadowy financial backers .

Anyway the upcoming local council elections will probably be a better long term marker of the relative popularity of the main parties going forward.

[ikri]

12. Had to laugh at the Tories

They've been banging on about how poor a result it was for Labour whilst managing to ignore the fact that their own share of the vote declined by 75% from 2010 and the combined Tory-Lib Dem vote was less than half of Labour's terrible result. People voted for a left-of-centre or vaguely-centre-ish ahead of the coalition parties by a 6 to 1 margin.

The May elections could be very interesting.

[Ken Burch]

14. It's entirely possible that independent Left parties could make major gains in those elections

A result that would threaten the careers of Cameron, Clegg, AND Milliband.

[Ken Burch]

13. It's not THAT simple, though

I think it also reflects a sense among core Labour voters that their party really isn't fighting for them and really isn't offering voters a chance to vote for a clear break from the austerity/globalization/permanent war status quo.

If Labour takes the lesson and stops obsessing about appeasing a mythical "Middle England" electorate that clearly no longer exists(if it ever did)and clearly won't be voting for anyone but the Tories from here on in if it does exist) this could be an ultimately positive experience for that party.

If Labour doesn't abandon the Third Way, though, the voters will abandon Labour.

[iandhr]

10. Didn't he call for the murder of British soldiers?

[Sea-Dog]

17. he said they died in vain

which is true
http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/9614008.George_Galloway_attacked_over_soldier_comments_at_Bradford_West_debate/

[muriel_volestrangler]

19. He appeared to call for Arab armies to fight British soldiers in Iraq

The main complaint against Mr Galloway relates to an interview he gave to Abu Dhabi television on March 28 that was reported critically in The Sun two days later.

In his broadcast, the Left-winger said British troops should not obey "illegal orders" and he appeared to encourage Arab nations to fight them.

"Iraq is fighting for all the Arabs. Where are the Arab armies?" he asked. "We wonder when the Arab leaders will wake up. When are they going to stand by the Iraqi people?"

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1444848/Galloway-attacks-Labour-show-trial.html

[muriel_volestrangler]

15. Bradford West: A View from the Ground

A piece by a Labour volunteer.

Could Labour have held it? Probably, though there were a few problems, primarily that our literature was solely focused on the Tories and national issues, and not on Galloway and local issues, which was key. Galloway picked on local issues like ‘The hole in ground’ which was meant to be a Westfield in the city centre, our Odeon building which is in ruins and Bradford’s 30 year plus industrial decline. All 3 of which weren’t Labours fault, the first being the Tory-Liberal coalition on the council, the Odeon being private, and the industrial decline happened in the 1980s under Thatcher. Though these 3 things were on all the Respect literature, yet we produced no counter leaflets what so ever! And I heard on polling night that our HQ received a paper on everything bad Galloway has got himself into if we wished to use it, from supporting the Iranian and Syrian leadership, to his second home in the Algarve, to his poor attendance in parliament, everything! Though none was used! It was especially annoying when I heard lots of people telling me about what they read on the Galloway flyers and how great he is without knowing all the crap he’s got up to. Such was the scale that even I was being informed of some other negative Galloway facts after 10pm on Thursday in the Hotel that even I didn’t know, so if I as an activist didn’t have all the information at hand how can we expect the electorate to make a fully informed judgement on him. Well they didn’t!

Secondly we had this bizarre obsession with getting members of the shadow cabinet to come down and campaign and knock on some doors. On one occasion and three days before the vote this reached a peak where we wasted half a day trying to organise MP’s in to groups that can canvass doors so the media can take photos, we wasted 100’s of doors doing this.

Overall I’d say these factors lost us the election:

Galloway’s personal appeal as an orator and debater.
Many financial backers in Bradford switched sides to Galloway in that final week.
Muslim youth’s general feeling of being disenfranchised and who campaigned for him on mass.
An organisational failure on the ground to identify Galloway as a threat and our insistence on making this about the Tories nationally.
A local candidate who was perceived as a puppet and weak, and who got his candidacy through Bradree nepotism rather than merit. This played a massive part that needs a separate article.
And a feeling (trumpeted by Galloway) that Labour locally was weak, complacent and corrupt. A view I heard a lot on the door.
Galloway constantly promoted himself as the ‘Real’ Labour candidate, I think this helped people change sides with greater ease. His election speech was also about cementing that switching of sides. The speech was bizarre in a way, it was full of praise of the Labour party and it’s traditions and how he craves the old party back, he even said on Sky that he wants to see a Labour government in 2015!

https://www.facebook.com/notes/sean-dolat/bradford-west-a-view-from-the-ground/10150635414247016

[fedsron2us]

16. It is amazing that Labour learnt no lessons from Bethnal Green

and allowed Galloway and Respect to do them over again.
The assumption seemed to be that so long as they had Muslim as candidate they would win. In my view the Labour Party is still way, way too remote from its core voters and far too worried about winning that mythical middle England vote.

[T_i_B]

18. George Galloway's Respect party targets Bradford Council

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-17579777

The Respect Party will have candidates in every ward at Bradford's local council elections following George Galloway's by-election win, it says.

Speaking to more than 2,000 people at a rally in the city's Infirmary Fields on Sunday, Mr Galloway described his victory as the "Bradford Spring". He said "the political weather in the city of Bradford" had changed.

The three major parties said Mr Galloway's win was a one-off. The local elections will take place on 3 May.

Voters will choose one councillor in each of the metropolitan district council's 30 wards.