butchersapron
Bring back hanging
Who didn't get courted?
Galloway returns to Parliament in sensational win in Bradford West - Labour/Coalition smashed
- Thread starter Fisher_Gate
- Start date
articul8
Dishonest sociopath
I want to register my opposition to a) the national position on cuts as signalled by Ed Balls's "we'd keep the Tory cuts" speech and b) to the local Labour party's abject failure to resist the cuts, and it's insistence that closing half the libraries is in fact "the next stage in the exciting development of Brent's libraries".
This is a good question. I do intend to vote for Ken Livingstone, both for the message it would send in the party, and the pledges he's making on cutting the cost of public transport. But mostly because I want to work with other party members to try to insist that we listen to traditional Labour voters who want an alternative to the cuts. And because I can't see an alternative to Labour being built unless the left has definitively thrown everything it possibly can at changing it.
I hold the majority of Labour party activists and representatives in complete contempt. And I'm a member!!
Bernie Gunther
Fundamentalist Druid
Interestingly, he does claim to have won every ward.
binka
!!!!!!!!!
why would that be highly unlikely? just had a quick look at his election leaflets and posters and it seems he was not only anti war but also came out very pro nhs and made a big issue of being against the cuts and tied that into how shit things were locally. i could easily imagine him appealing to large numbers of white working class voters
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
so in what way do YOU think labour are an alternative to the conservative / liberal democrat coalition at the next election?
articul8
Dishonest sociopath
No, they really don't. They factor in a drop in overall turnout and measure the respective transfer in voting behaviours as though they were drawn from a proportional section of those previously voting.
articul8
Dishonest sociopath
there is not a *national* alternative or anything like it. Galloway has just proved he can buck the national picture.
- "“An Important message from George Galloway
To voters of the Muslim faith and Pakistani heritage in Bradford West
A’Salaam o Aleukum
I have been increasingly angered by the dishonest and desperate efforts of the Labour campaign for Imran Hussein, to deceive you about your vote.
You should vote for him because he is a “Muslim” they say, and because he is of Pakistani background.
Leaving aside the wisdom of a Labour party running such a sectarian campaign in a constituency which contains thousands of people of many faiths and backgrounds, and in the name of the deputy leader of Bradford Council no less. Let us look at this more closely.
God KNOWS who is a Muslim. And he KNOWS who is not. Instinctively, so do you. 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 you believe the other candidate in this election can say that truthfully.
I, George Galloway, have fought for Muslims at home and abroad, all my life. And paid a price for it. I believe the other candidate in this election cannot say that truthfully.
I, George Galloway, tell the truth, stand up for the truth, in parliament, on radio, on television, in the face of all its enemies, without fear, however powerful they are. Even in the US Senete, by the Grace of God. The truth and Mr Blair’s New Labour are passing strangers.
I, George Galloway, hold Pakistan’s highest civil awards. The Hilal-i-Quaid-i-Assam for services to the restoration of democracy in Pakistan 30 years ago and the Hilal-i-Pakistand for my work for the freedom of Kashmir. What has the Labour candidate ever done for Bradford let alone Pakistan and Kashmir?
I, George Galloway, came to the side of the people of Palestine in their agony, tried to save the people of Iraq, now demand the immediate end of the war begun by NEW LABOUR upon the people of Afghanistan and I am leading the fight against a new war, this time with Iran.
And, with your support, and if God wills it, I want to give my remaining days in the service of all the people – Muslims, Pakistanis and everyone in Bradford West. I await your sincere judgement on this matter.
Wa’Salaam o Aleukum
GEORGE GALLOWAY"Is that genuine? Fuck sake if so. What a knobhead.
articul8
Dishonest sociopath
I'm saying Labour *could* and *must* offer an alternative, however inadequate it might be. Not that it necessarily will. But that's something to fight for/over
frogwoman
No amount of cajolery...
see that's an attiude i can't fucking understand, you're a member of a party but you are completely contemptuous of most people who are also activists in it?
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
Harriet is saying same right now on c4
belboid
Exasperated, not angry.
sigh...
the people that dont vote, dont vote. stop tryng to count them. you are plain wrong, everyone but you knows it. hell, you know it really, you must!
If people stop voting for a party, they represent a swing away from that party, even if they dont vote for anyone else.
articul8
Dishonest sociopath
ask your comrades!
frogwoman
No amount of cajolery...
there's going to be an awful lot of that "bucking of the national picture" i woulda guessed ...
stethoscope
Well-Known Member
How's the changing things from within going btw, articul8?
binka
!!!!!!!!!
they wont. they'll keep quiet, win the election, then continue with the same policies
Bernie Gunther
Fundamentalist Druid
[quote="manny-p, post: 11040471, member: 4897] <snip>
Is that genuine? Fuck sake if so. What a knobhead.
[/quote]
I've yet to see it confirmed as genuine.
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
In what way is this a justification for your don't touch labour plan?
Beautiful, in theory.
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
Well, he's been exposed
articul8
Dishonest sociopath
I'm sorry, you don't understand how swing is calculated if you don't recognise it assumes that turnout effects all parties proportionately. You'd need a much more substantial psephological model to really factor in differential turnout.
Divisive Cotton
Now I just have my toy soldiers
Just thinking about the current three parties.
Lib Dems / Tories have displayed total lack of any vision about where they want Britain's economy and society in the next ten or 20 years (yeah I know, Neo Liberalism and all that but, unlike previously, they are now going down this path because they don't know what else to do).
Labour - they now live in a total policy vacuum. There is nothing there - I don't even detect any chatter that is bubbling under the surface
What does this mean? It will mean a victory for the SNP in the coming referendum vote. They have a clear vision of a social democratic independent Scotland (I'm not stating that it is good or bad, just that they have a roadmap)
In Wales, will Plaid Cymru prosper under its now leadership? Quite possibly
In England? The far right? The far left? A mixture?
Lib Dems / Tories have displayed total lack of any vision about where they want Britain's economy and society in the next ten or 20 years (yeah I know, Neo Liberalism and all that but, unlike previously, they are now going down this path because they don't know what else to do).
Labour - they now live in a total policy vacuum. There is nothing there - I don't even detect any chatter that is bubbling under the surface
What does this mean? It will mean a victory for the SNP in the coming referendum vote. They have a clear vision of a social democratic independent Scotland (I'm not stating that it is good or bad, just that they have a roadmap)
In Wales, will Plaid Cymru prosper under its now leadership? Quite possibly
In England? The far right? The far left? A mixture?
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
'Sado-Monetarist Austerity'
I'm nicking that
I'm nicking that
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
Push comes to shove - articul8 - on the other side. Red pepper, please be different harriet.
Bernie Gunther
Fundamentalist Druid
He nicked it from Doug Henwood, or the 'sado monetarist' bit anyway.
Divisive Cotton
Now I just have my toy soldiers
can we stop this reclaim the labour party bunfight on this thread. 1993 called and asked for its discussion back
stethoscope
Well-Known Member
Yes it's real. Two things. Galloway's an opportunist prick who can play on the cultural loyalties like a violinist and that letter was sent out to muslim residents in the wards as a direct response to Labour phoning up households going "How can you vote for a non-muslim? Don't you know the Labour party candidate is a real muslim, as supported by x, y and z in the local community?"
Believe it or not Galloway's not the only one who's an opportunistic gobshite with low morals in this by-election. Labour were being even more "communalist" in their persuit of an imaginary muslim block vote than even Galloway was! The Tories only canvassed white wards the entire election, with really thinly veiled anti-immigrant leaflets, basically reducing themselves to trying to win over the residual BNP vote in these areas.
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