Gorgeous George Galloway

[glasnost]

All hail George Galloway and his incredible by election victory. Excellent to see him back in parliament.

Bravo/a Butter. That's exactly it and Galloway's a working class outstanding orator who can get the peeps to wake from their long slumber and smell that black stuff. The 1% will be finished if this happens on a global scale and they know it hence the increasingly repressive policies we're witnessing and will witness over the next few years. Galloway isn't entirely my cup of brown stuff if I'm entirely honest (he should've left Labour before he was expelled) but at least he's a breath of fresh air and has some truths to tell and isn't afraid of telling them. I hope his rabble rousing honesty will remain intact once he gets a foot back in parliament on issues such as Israel. That's if Mossad don't get him first. (Joke!) (Kind of.)

I heard him give a long interview on R5. He came across as belittling, rude, arrogant and evasive.

Wouldn't you be if you were being interviewed by a ministry on information propagandist? Who was the shill? Campbell? Why dontcha put a link up?

"Whatever anyone thinks of Galloway, the bottom line is that people feel that the mainstream political parties don't represent them. They all play at politics and court those with power and money but have absolutely no understanding of those just trying to live." - Butternoparnips.

I think you are right that there is a lot of apathy about politics. However, I think Galloway was elected on a campaign of pro-Islamic/identity politics to a predominantly Muslim demographic against a party whose leader is Jewish. Not really that difficult. Would also be interested to know how much of the win was via postal votes, although of course, I am sure there wouldn't be any kind of postal voting fraud going on like there was in Tower Hamlets cough cough.

Glasnost. The only people that have physically harmed Galloway in the past have been fellow Islamists and I am sure those evil Jews Mossad have bigger fish to fry than some bombastic Scottish mp.

Orwellian - But doesn't that mean they were feeling just as unrepresented? Bradford's a Labour stronghold and their candidate was a Muslim.

He is repulsive and the people of Bradford pretty dim to elect him.

He's a hideous, misogynist bully who lied to the people of Bradford, sending out literature that claimed the Labour candidate was a bad Muslim who drinks alcohol (which is not true) and implied he was a Muslim (equally untrue). He hangs out with some very dodgy extremists who hate women and gay people. Did anyone see Newsnight when he lost his temper after winning the London seat, when Paxman asked him whether he was proud to have got rid of one of the very few black women in Parliament?

Disgusting man. I fear the people of Bradford are going to regret choosing him - I can completely understand contempt for all three main parties, but Galloway is NOT a good alternative. No-one's ever got to the bottom of the oil trading stuff - he was accused of breaking sanctions against Iraq to trade oil under the guise of his charity. Never been clear exactly what happened. And there were accounting irregularities when he was in charge of War on Want, although as usual no-one could pin anything on Galloway.

Orwellian you should name change and quit taking the great man's name in vain. Oh but hang on. I see what you did there. YOUR comments are Orwellian as in misleading doublespeak. Incredibly devious of you to imply a link between "evil Jews" and Mossad. It's like equating Protestants to MI5. Jews are Jews. Mossad is Mossad.

Equally devious of you to imply the Muslims of Bradford voted Galloway because Miliband's Jewish.

edam. Come on. If Paxman asked you such an irrelevant, intellectually dishonest question re. Oona King wouldn't you get a tad uppity? And noone's ever got to the bottom of "the oil trading stuff" because it was all a smearing attempt.

"Disgusting", "repulsive", "hideous". All emotive, abusive terms. He must be doing summat right if he's got them riled that much and the mainstream media paints him as such a monster.

He'll be interesting to watch, but it's not a revolution and I'm not getting my knitting out just yet.

TBH, I think Bradford has got off lightly with our George. It could have been someone far scarier who harnessed all that anger.

www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/mar/31/george-galloway-respect-tariq-ali

glasnost. You were the one who mentioned Mossad, not me. Why mention them at all or are you as paranoid as Galloway? Why am I devious to link Bradford Muslims voting against a party with a Jewish leader? It may be the elephant in the room but anti-Semitism (Jew hatred) is rampant in Muslim countries (and I don't mean anti-Zionism, I mean old fashioned, Nazi-era Jew hate).

Orwell was a great seer whose many beliefs have come to pass. I'll call myself whatever I bloody well like!

I'll take your posts as April fools.

glasnost - it was an entirely relevant question but clearly you are a Galloway fan and incapable of seeing anything straight, rather than through the lens of Galloway worship.

Yeah, my words were judgments - as a voter I'm entitled to make judgments about MPs.

No edam Paxman's was not a relevant question. It was risible, manipulative and cynical. But clearly you are a blinkered, ideologically driven Galloway hater incapable of seeing anything straight. Toodle pip!

Rubbish - I just disagree with you. Most people do. Except some unfortunates in Bradford who are about to discover their mistake.

Are we reading too much into this?

Is it not as simple as:

1. Labour fucked the economy over
2. The Labour candidate was flipping awful
3. No-one in West Yorkshire votes Tory nowadays, especially in this time of austerity

Ergo, let's protest and vote for not-so-gorgeous-George

The muslim vote, which may well have been swayed by the anti-war in Afghanistan rhetoric, only actually comprised 25% of the vote, I am told.

It isn't true that no-one in West Yorkshire votes Tory. Keighley and Shipley, I believe, both have Conservative MPs. The Tories have not done badly in this seat in the past; it encompasses Heaton, an area of Bradford previously quite wealthy, though going down in the world now, which was fairly solidly Tory until recently.
It seems Galloway may have used some unsavoury tactics against the Labour candidate. I endorse fully the views of Edam; he is disgusting, but also a ludicrous figure. I don't think his election means anything other than there are some bigots in Bradford who will respond to his manipulations; and that, I'm afraid, I knew already.

Lots of supportive messages on the bbc website from people about this victory. I think he has done really well, and shown how disillusioned people are with the mainstream parties.

Nowt like a working class articulate truth teller to get the ruling classes and their mainstream media guard dogs hysterical.

All the Galloway haters are quick to use abusive terms but can't explain WHY he's disgusting, repulsive etc. I'd hazard a guess that it's because they're merely spouting views shaped by a biased, propagandistic mainstream media bent on demonising and smearing him.

And edam judging by your predictable, conventional posts I'm sure you'd find it unfathomable but I don't give a fig whether people agree with me or not. It's useful to put the other side in a society (yeah, that'd be ours) where propaganda, spin and flimflam (dis)informs so many's opinions. Critical thinking's going the way of the dodo.

once again, glasnost, you are confusing 'someone disagrees with me' with 'someone is wrong'.

IMO there is a massive vacuum in British politics atm. This result represents just that.

We have Labour, who mismanaged the economy - again - although it took a bit longer than in the 70s - thus causing the severity of the current slump.
The Tories, who are enjoying the opportunity to make a lot of idealogically based policies and cuts on the back of the slump.
The Lib Dems - drunk on self importance now that they have a say (well in theory anyway). All principles that they had (which was their USP) have been abandoned.

In addition the political class on all sides appears out of touch and tainted. The opposition is very, very poor - people like Balls and Miliband, quite apart from the lack of charisma and ideas, should be nowhere near the leadership as they were a part of the disasterous Brown regime. It is past a joke when the only party with real integrity and a clear message are UKIP.

I am well aware of the opportunism of Galloway, his dodgy past and general gobshiteness, but I am afraid that if lived in Bradford, I would probably have voted for him.

Can we ditch the 'Labour were uniquely responsible for the entire global crisis of capitalism' schtick, for once? George Bush was in charge in the US when it started - and where it started - and he's hardly a raving left-winger. And I don't actually remember the Tories demanding that Labour rein in the City - quite the reverse, they were desperately promising to match Labour's spending pledges, notably on the NHS (not entirely true in practice but no surprise there).

(Not just Bush, either - Sarkozy, Merkel, Berlusconi - all right-wing leaders in charge when the shit hit the fan.)