Galloway's Stunning Win Shakes Up English Political Scene

[polly7]

Galloway's Stunning Win Shakes Up English Political Scene
By Tariq Ali

Source: The GuardianSunday, April 01, 2012

http://www.zcommunications.org/galloways-stunning-win-shakes-up-english-political-scene-by-tariq-ali

George Galloway's stunning electoral triumph in the Bradford by-election has shaken the petrified world of English politics. It was unexpected, and for that reason the Respect campaign was treated by much of the media (Helen Pidd of the Guardian being an honorable exception) as a loony fringe show. A BBC toady, an obviously partisan compere on a local TV election show, who tried to mock and insult Galloway, should be made to eat his excremental words. The Bradford seat, a Labor fiefdom since 1973, was considered safe and the Labor leader, Ed Miliband, had been planning a celebratory visit to the city till the news seeped through at 2 am. He is now once again focused on his own future. Labor has paid the price for its failure to act as an opposition, having imagined that all it had to do was wait and the prize would come its way. Scottish politics should have forced a rethink. Perhaps the latest development in English politics now will, though I doubt it. Galloway has effectively urinated on all three parties. The Lib Dems and Tories explain their decline by the fact that too many people voted!

Thousands of young people infected with apathy, contempt, despair and a disgust with mainstream politics were dynamized by the Respect campaign. Galloway is tireless on these occasions. Nobody else in the political field comes even close to competing with him – not simply because he is an effective orator, though this skill should not be underestimated. It comes almost as a shock these days to a generation used to the bland untruths that are mouthed every day by government and opposition politicians. It was the political content of the campaign that galvanized the youth: Respect campaigners and their candidate stressed the disasters of Iraq and Afghanistan. Galloway demanded that Blair be tried as a war criminal, and that British troops be withdrawn from Afghanistan without further delay. He lambasted the Government and the Labor party for the austerity measures targeting the less well off, the poor and the infirm, and the new privatizations of education, health and the Post Office. It was all this that gave him a majority of 10,000. .........

[xchrom]

1. I love it!

[polly7]

3. I know, eh ....... I was so happy reading this!

[Vincardog]

2. WE could use the same news here! I love it.

[polly7]

4. And here!

[Baitball Blogger]

5. If the same thing happens here, we might get Stephen Colbert

for president.

[polly7]

6. Perfect:)

[dixiegrrrrl]

12. Alan Grayson, better choice.

[PassingFair]

7. Take THAT, you drink-soaked, ex-Trotskyite popinjays EVERYWHERE!!!

I LOVE me some George Galloway! Go get those "lick-spittles", George!



http://current.com/community/93096903_george-galloway-wipes-the-senate-floor-with-a-neocon.htm

[freshwest]

8. Galloway delivered this firm smack down to the GOP controlled Senate:

It simply does not get any better than that. I'm glad he won a resounding victory at home. I give my 'respect' to the British people for allowing this man a voice.

[freshwest]

9. I am so glad to hear this that I'm posting the announcement, too.

Congratulations.

[rocktivity]

10. Yeah. THAT George Galloway!

Last edited Mon Apr 2, 2012, 12:17 PM - Edit history (1)

http://election.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x4007023


rocktivity

[dixiegrrrrl]

11. "Nobody else in the political field comes even close to competing with him"

except Alan Grayson over here in the USA.

I adore Galloway.....delighted that he won.

[tavalon]

13. Is this the same George Galloway I know and love

He's a spitfire and a liberal and does not tolerate fools.

[polly7]

14. No One Saw it Coming

No One Saw it Coming
By Salma Yaqoob

Source: New StatesmanWednesday, April 04, 2012

http://www.zcommunications.org/no-one-saw-it-coming-by-salma-yaqoob

Anybody wanting to follow the Bradford West result unfold was forced to rely on Twitter as journalists and politicians alike were caught unawares by the political earthquake about to take place. But Respect supporters on the ground had been predicting for the last fortnight that a shock was in the air. And for one simple reason; people are disillusioned with austerity and war, they are disillusioned with being taken for granted, and when presented with positive coherent political alternatives, they respond with enthusiasm.

Bradford is mired in unemployment and stagnation. Its voters don't think they are "in it together" with the Tories and their millionaire donors. Quite the opposite. Respect's solution on the doorstep was to argue that we need investment not cuts in order to re-energise our economy and create the growth to deliver jobs. This is not some loony-left pipe dream; it is the experience of the American economy where old fashioned Keynesian intervention is driving down unemployment while discredited Thatcherite neo-liberalism drives it up here. When the voters of Bradford West heard that argument put confidently and coherently, albeit with an eloquence that only George Galloway can summon, they responded warmly to it. Surely that is the real lesson for Ed Milliband to draw from this result.

The other lesson is that huge numbers of people are disillusioned with British politicans sending our troops to occupy other people's countries. When George said that the two soldiers killed by their Afghan comrade had "died in vain", he spoke for many people in Bradford and beyond whose views on the war are rarely if ever reflected by mainstream politicians. .....