DEM not gonna CON dis NATION: Rolling UK politics in the short-lived post-Murdoch era

quotes that summarise etc

Murdoch was going ham on Cameron on Twitter earlier today. Kind of intrigued as to how this is going to play out.

i love cameron's "that guy's not privy to anything, he was talking above his station, that's simply not how things are done round our way"

when the guy was TREASURER OF THE TORY PARTY

A warning shot I guess, the tories have racked up a good deal of 'debt' with Murdoch, and haven't been able to pay back in favours nearly as much as was planned.

i think the latest drama is another case of murdoc rattling his cage and sending a message to tory hq as to who still runs the show.

of all Osborne's cuntish traits i think "hasn't bought a pasty at Gregg's" is pretty far down the list

George Galloway (Respect) 18,341 (55.89%, +52.83%)

Imran Hussain (Labour) 8,201 (24.99%, -20.36%)

Jackie Whiteley (Conservative) 2,746 (8.37%, -22.78%)

Jeanette Sunderland (Liberal Democrat) 1,505 (4.59%, -7.08%)

Sonja McNally (UKIP) 1,085 (3.31%, +1.31%)

Dawud Islam (Green) 481 (1.47%, -0.85%)

Neil Craig (Democratic Nationalists) 344 (1.05%)

Howling Laud Hope (Monster Raving Loony Party) 111 (0.34%)

not Galloway again :(

Didn't see that coming. That's an absolutely terrible results for everyone (except Galloway).

galloway is such a fucking vulture

I didn't actually know that bye-election was happening, and apparently neither did Labour given they've been looking the other way all week.

This is feeding into my vague feeling that Labour will actually come out of the next election with fewer seats than they did in the last one.

I'd be wary of reading too much into this unless Respect start making inroads elsewhere.

I'm thinking more about the SNP in Scotland.

Plaid Cymru as well maybe.

it felt like this week was potentially a huge turning point against the coalition, and the tories not just the lib dems, but labour still don't look capable of taking advantage of it

I mean in fairness it's not like Bradford needed to turn away from the Tories in the first place, but Labour hardly have their own house in order.

" but labour still don't look capable of taking advantage of it"

and this is the most depressing part of the whole thing ..

here's an idea : lets do a photo op buying a pasty ?

for f*cks sake.

Pasty-buying photo ops are all well and good. The fact that "pasty tax" is a thing *at all* is that the media have obviously decided that they're not going to give the Tories a free pass and it's easily soundbiteable - see also "granny tax" - so they might as well ride with it. It (more or less) worked for Cameron. But the press aren't willing to give Labour any credit yet so fuck knows how this will play out.

Steady drip-drip of bad news that actually captures the public's imagination is never good for any government though. And pasty tax is the sort of thing you'd have expected to see in the arse end of the Brown government.

Also wau the LibDems lost their deposit.

both pasty tax and granny tax seem most indicative that the non-left press have turned on the govt - they both seem like manufactured outrage, certainly there have been far more reprehensible coalition policies, but as mdc said they're easily soundbiteable and stacking them on top of each other within a week (and in addition to cash-for-access) is exactly the sort of thing that creates the kind of nebulous but negative public impression that's impossible to shake off

"Woman suffers 40% burns when petrol ignited as she was transferring it to containers in her kitchen, North Yorkshire fire and rescue service says. More details soon ..."

I wonder if Francis Made is still as keen on getting untrained members of the public to stockpile fuel.

what is this "Labour" of which you speak?

otoh this coalition still has 3 years left to run (and the possibility of it actually collapsing seems as remote as ever) so it could just be idk mid-term blues or something. i have no faith that labour will get it together in the next 3 years.

the other week some friends and i were vaguely wondering whether labour miiiiight return to some semblance of adequacy once the chuka umunna/stella creasy/rachel reeves generation takes over

Actually, looking at the figures for Bradford, something weird has happened. It's not just a swing from Labour to Respect and stay-at-home coalition votes, it seems to be a massive swing to Respect from everyone. Turnout was about 80% of what it was at the general election, but Labour got less than half the votes they got then, the Lib Dems lost two-thirds of their support, and only A FIFTH of people who voted Tory in 2010 voted for them yesterday. The missing Labour votes alone are nowhere near enough to give Respect the totals they got: it looks like thousands of Tories voted for Respect.

i like rachel reeves but if her recent television appearances are any indication she needs a bit more steel in her spine not to get steamrollered by cockfarmers

The missing Labour votes alone are nowhere near enough to give Respect the totals they got: it looks like thousands of Tories voted for Respect.

― Let's Talk About Socks (Nasty, Brutish & Short), Friday, 30 March 2012 10:29 (16 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it may be an issue of turnout - lots of regular voters don't show, because they usually don't in a by-election, but galloway brings out a whole new group who don't normally vote. (in some cases because they're dead, don't exist, don't live in the area etc...)

Can't see that this has much significance apart from lol Galloway tbh. If he hadn't been there labour would have romped it on a lower turnout. 'Democrat1c National1st' is Nati0na1 Fr0nt I guess?

xp In fairness, I wouldn't be surprised if lots of the missing Labour / Lib Dem / Tory voters were dead / imaginary people switching sides. It's also much easier to coordinate bloc voting in areas with a large Asian community, which can lead to these massive swings.

George seems on top of this, though.

http://www.votegeorgegalloway.com/2012/03/fears-over-large-scale-fraud-with.html

this is really interesting on the various factors that make up Galloway's appeal -

A common theme was frustration at clan politics in Bradford, known by the Urdu word Bradree, meaning relation or family, which here has become a byword for exclusivity. Many felt that too many important decisions were taken in Bradford by a small number of Pakistanis who came from Mirpur, a small town in Kashmir, and who had carved up the most important Labour party positions between them over the years.

It's estimated that 70% of British Pakistanis have roots in Mirpur, btw. The figure is probably higher in Bradford.

I'd be genuinely surprised in Galloway managed to win without converting at least some of those power-brokers, tbh.

presumably he did, yeah - but it does seem like a lot of his appeal is in this image as the "anti-establishment" candidate, a rebellion against conventional politicians both on a national and local level.

So depressing that anyone votes for George Galloway

why do you hate him so much? Is it his personality or what he stands for?

Where do you start?

- Not actually that left-wing but plays up to it for the benefit of voters
- "I salute your strength, your courage etc etc"
- Standing against Jewish candidate in Bethnal Green & Bow knowing he could take advantage of racial tensions in the area etc etc

- just a terrible mp, does nothing for constituents, never attends parliament
- raised money to help an iraqi girl with leukaemia and used it for political campaigning
- took money from the oil to food programme while protesting the effects of sanctions
- "syria is, as I have often said, the last castle of arab dignity"
- embarrassing cat impersonation on tv

etc...

What racial tensions, Matt? King was elected twice as MP for BG&B, and got voted out because she supported a war that made most of her constituents apoplectic with rage. Always good to remind the MPs even in the safest seats that they're not invulnerable- see also Neil Hamilton in Tatton.

Would also disagree to an extent about him being a terrible constituency MP, his backroom staff were pretty active on local stuff when I lived in BG&B. And if you're a commons party of one, I can see the logic that much parliamentary business is a waste of time.

The Telegraph, among others, had to pay out a fair bit in damages for claiming Galloway took money from the oil for food programme.

<em>always</em> good?

I'll go with yes until you come up with an example which makes me go 'hmmmm...'

germany in the 1930s

that time in 2010 when the conservatives won the general election

Yeah, a lot of the reasons you guys have listed are untrue or just regurgitated spins from the media. I'm interested in hearing more facts on this one, though: - Not actually that left-wing but plays up to it for the benefit of voters. I have had my doubts about this too, and would be swayed off the fence if you can back it up with evidence. I mean, don't get me wrong, the man is a smarmy self-publicist, but if you have to take that for some left-wing policies then I can deal with it. If you don't actually get the promised policies, then dude can piss off.

I think he is "left wing" but that's about the only good thing I can think to say about him

in a two horse race between him and david cameron i would vote for cameron

"syria is, as I have often said, the last castle of arab dignity"

^ how much more do you need really?

Of course it isn't "always" good - at local level BNP councillors get in partly because of dissatisfaction with mainstream incumbents. But generally I agree that MPs in safe seats shouldn't complacently assume they'll get back whatever they do.

There were plenty of Labour MPs who voted for the war and enraged their constituents, Galloway made a conscious decision to pick Bethnal Green & Bow and I'm not sure you can separate that from racial tensions in the area around 2005. At the heart of this is whether you think Galloway actually does anything for his constituents. I opposed the war and think it's quite right that MPs who voted for it against the wishes of their constituents got voted out, but those constituents deserved better than Galloway frankly.

"syria is, as I have often said, the last castle of arab dignity"

This quote could mean many things tho!!! If he'd said that Assad was the last castle of Arab dignity then it is obv reprehensible, but he didn't.

There were plenty of Labour MPs who voted for the war and enraged their constituents, Galloway made a conscious decision to pick Bethnal Green & Bow and I'm not sure you can separate that from racial tensions in the area around 2005.

I'm not sure you can separate it from the fact that 40%+ of Bethnal Green is Muslim but, as they overwhelmingly voted for a Jewish MP before that, i don't know if racial tension is really the right term here.

in a two horse race between him and david cameron i would vote for cameron

― caek, Friday, March 30, 2012 3:21 PM (15 minutes ago)

that sounds like the uk verzh of a french presidential runoff, metropolitan smarm vs stalinist rabble-rouser

The Telegraph, among others, had to pay out a fair bit in damages for claiming Galloway took money from the oil for food programme.

― Bananaman Begins, Friday, 30 March 2012 15:05 (26 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

a parliamentary inquiry ruled that it was "undeniable" that he and the mariam appeal had taken oil for food money. the telegraph lost its case because it relied on a public interest defence rather than trying to claim justification: it paired the story with a swivel-eyed editorial that called galloway a "traitor", which destroyed its public interest claim of merely bringing allegations to light for public debate.

but the only time anyone has had to make a ruling on the facts of whether galloway took oil for food money was the parliamentary inquiry, and it said he did.

i'm getting deja vu because i'm sure we've been through this before. the fact that it isn't better known that galloway did indeed take money from saddam - and away from the iraqi people when they needed food and medical supplies - is just an example of the chilling effects of his litigiousness.