Galloway returns to Parliament in sensational win in Bradford West - Labour/Coalition smashed

[articul8]

I've no problem with her liking ballet per se - it's more the pretending to give a shit about the people of Bradford I have a problem with

 

[littlebabyjesus]

I've no problem with her liking ballet per se - it's more the pretending to give a shit about the people of Bradford I have a problem with

What, you have a problem that she isn't pretending to give a shit? Sorry, I don't follow now. Either she's ignoring them or she's only pretending to give a shit?

Why bring up ballet?

 

[articul8]

Ha, even pretending to give a shit would a start of sorts. At the moment she's ignoring them whilst claiming to represent their interests.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Ha, even pretending to give a shit would a start of sorts. At the moment she's ignoring them whilst claiming to represent their interests.

At the moment, not appearing to ignore them would involve acknowledging, for instance, that the wars she supported were wrong, and that the economic policies she supported were wrong. This is a systemic problem the whole of the labour party has at the moment. They are discredited.

 

[articul8]

Yes - but they could except that, call for with withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan and set out a clear alternative to neoliberal austerity.

 

[coley]

Poor bet. A couple of hundred, maybe a thousand, but there's no way you could mobilise 10% of the population of a constituency (Galloway's majority is 10,000 and change, the population of the constituency is just over 97,000) on postal votes alone. You may loathe Galloway (I do), but attributing his victory to a degree of ballot-rigging that's actually impossible to organise is just sour grapes.

I wasnt, just a suggestion that the others may prove to be 'poor losers' and any suggestion of vote rigging will be used to explain their poor showing

 

[coley]

Same as you, but without the oxy.

aye, I wondered who would be first with that wonderfully original riposte

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Yes - but they could except that, call for with withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan and set out a clear alternative to neoliberal austerity.

Who's 'they'? Harman can't do that, not with her record. I had a tiny bit of sympathy with David Milliband the moment he was caught berating Harman for clapping his brother's mealy-mouthed half-apology for Iraq. She's discredited by her own appalling record, as is the entire labour leadership.

 

[coley]

You don't think he's genuine in his opposition to British military action of recent years? I do.

No, I honestly think he is totally cynical and exploited the anger and resntment of the Muslim population, IMOA

 

[Bernie Gunther]

Yes - but they could except that, call for with withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan and set out a clear alternative to neoliberal austerity.

Structurally, I'm not sure that they could to be honest.

I would think that they've been too thoroughly captured by neo-liberal capitalist interests to do more than posture a bit.

To stick a cherry on top of a pile of neo-liberal dogshit and tell us that it's tasty and totally different to the cherry-less pile of neo-liberal dogshit the Tories are offering.

 

[butchersapron]

I've no problem with her liking ballet per se - it's more the pretending to give a shit about the people of Bradford I have a problem with

Maybe you and the LRC can put enough pressure on her to make her give a shit, then we'd be rolling, if people like that gave a shit - that would be great. I don't know why or how so many leading labour politicians don't give it a shit - must be pure bad luck, that's all i can think of.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

No, I honestly think he is totally cynical and exploited the anger and resntment of the Muslim population, IMOA

He did exploit their anger and resentment, yes. And he was able to do that as a result of a consistent record of opposing UK military action over the past decade. I don't doubt that he is genuine in that opposition. It would be rather extraordinary if he weren't.

 

[Riera]

Serves Labour right for being a bunch of weak-kneed neolib cunts. The Tories did badly too.

 

[Meltingpot]

For those who like him (and I for one loved the way he stuck it to those American senators, which was probably his high point); how much constituency work will he do this time round though? That was a large part of his problem last time in London, he just wasn't there when the daily grind of an MP needed doing.

 

[Spanky Longhorn]

He did exploit their anger and resentment, yes. And he was able to do that as a result of a consistent record of opposing UK military action over the past decade. I don't doubt that he is genuine in that opposition. It would be rather extraordinary if he weren't.

Indeed the issue is that he is able to cynically exploit that anger and resentment because of his genuine opposition.

 

[mk12]

From the Guardian: "and the Liberal Democrats lost their deposit after netting 4.59% of the votes – down 7% on the 2010 general election result."

 

[butchersapron]

Seems to me that his victory can in large part be put down to local issues - resentment at the labour councils stitch ups in favour of their preferred networks in resource allocation or licensing or whatever - GG mobilised anger at that rather than any wider anti-war stuff. Anti-war stuff would gain him a level of residual support, but not to this level, not to 50% of the vote.

 

[belboid]

that is nice isnt it - Labour vote falls 20%, coalition vote falls 30% (from a lower base as well). Cracking

 

[belboid]

Anti-war stuff would gain him a level of residual support, but not to this level, not to 50% of the vote.

anti-war stuff gave him a base to work from, it meant he was 'trustable' by (a lot of) the voters

 

[littlebabyjesus]

anti-war stuff gave him a base to work from, it meant he was 'trustable' by (a lot of) the voters

Yep, I agree. I don't doubt that local issues were crucial to his winning, but he is a credible anti-labour candidate because he opposed labour's wars.

 

[butchersapron]

anti-war stuff gave him a base to work from, it meant he was 'trustable' by (a lot of) the voters

Absolutely, but that wasn't - as far as i can tell from here - the mobilising issue. There's clear lessons here in what were the mobilising issues and how they were worked despite the seats demographic anomalies - lessons that undermine the oh no we must vote labour and work to get a labour victory whilst working to change labour bollocks so prevalent since may 2010.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

I've no problem with her liking ballet per se -

Really? If she'd gone to the cinema instead, or a football match, would you have brought that up?

 

[Balbi]

Fawkes is reporting, and stirring, the obvious anger between the leadership, Iain McNicol and the campaign team in Bradford. There was no expectation management, just denial all round.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Fawkes is reporting, and stirring, the obvious anger between the leadership, Iain McNicol and the campaign team in Bradford. There was no expectation management, just denial all round.

I get the impression that they, and most other people, genuinely didn't think they would lose.

 

[belboid]

No one thought Galloway would win (probably not even Galloway), but they seem to have paid absolutely no attention to what people were telling them on the ground. They were still thinking they'd won up till 11 last night!

 

[Balbi]

Hmmm, then this - with it's point amongst the bad writing - implies otherwise....

http://labourlist.org/2012/03/bradford-debacle-galloway-is-right-labour-must-listen/

It was clear that something was significantly wrong. Household had been marked off as Labour- household, not individuals. And they were voting, but not for us.

I think they knew a week or so ago, but decided to keep schtum.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

It will be interesting to see if new-labour respond (as they have done for the last couple of decades) with the usual "if we do well in an election / poll it endorses our policy of getting more right-wing; if we do badly in an election / poll,it shows we're not getting right-wing enough fast enough" approach.

Or whether they might just finally get the message.

Although given the last 20 or so years, it's only a very faint hope.

From the Guardian: "and the Liberal Democrats lost their deposit after netting 4.59% of the votes – down 7% on the 2010 general election result."

 

[littlebabyjesus]

I think they knew a week or so ago, but decided to keep schtum.

Ah, well maybe they knew more than they made out. What could they do, though? What can Labour ever do at the moment?

Thing is, I don't buy this 'not listening' stuff particularly. I think they are fully aware of how a lot of people feel. They've lost any intellectual integrity. Their policies have no principled base to them. That's the problem. It is still the party that Tony Blair made.

 

[Balbi]

And, i'd say, they simply got their campaign strategy wrong - played it as a safe seat, rather than a marginal. Viewed Tories as the big threat, dismissed the independent. My local Tories got hammered five years ago because they viewed Labour as a threat - the Lib Dems monstered the council elections, got four years in power and then got turfed out for Tories last year. Wrong strategy means you lose, regardless.

 

[butchersapron]

GG now relegated to third largest swing after Hughes and Winnie Ewing (SNP) 38% swing from labour in 1967.