Victory (and a comment on the election result elsewhere)!

So there we are - safely returned as the Conservative councillor for Bingley Rural. With over 5,000 votes which is pretty humbling. Kathryn and I had eaten in The George (Cullingworth's excellent pub) and left for the start of our marathon counting process with well-wishes and assurances of confidence in my success ringing in our ears. Some 32 hours later (that's right thirty-two hours) the result above emerged. Lots of people's hard work rewarded.

Elsewhere in Bradford we'd already seen Labour's 'grip on the City' strengthened (as the local paper put it) with its candidates winning in Bradford West and Bradford East. And in doing so ridding the city of two divisive and bigoted MPs - George Galloway and David Ward. The defeat of Galloway was a national spectacle - as the first rumours came from the vote tallies at the count, Twitter began to celebrate the ousting of Britain's most divisive politician and holder of records for blocking people on social media.

So when, while awaiting the final couple of results from Keighley, George Grant who'd flown the Tory flag in the contest with Galloway invited us to a drink at Bradford Brewery it was impossible to refuse. After all this new Bradford institution had been the scene - virtually - of one great battle in the campaign to run George Galloway out of Bradford. A battle that, when the history is written (if anyone bothers), brought hundreds of new people to the fight.

We dashed through the torrential rain to join George Grant and arrived to witness (one loutish drunk aside) a scene of unusual Bradford unity as left and right wing folk of all races and creed cheered the defeat of a man who had tried to bring sectarian politics to Bradford. It was a good night.

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As dog whistles go this one from George Galloway is loud!

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One of GG's lines in his Bradford West election campaign has been to suggest that the Conservative and Labour candidates against him are stooges for a sinister neo-conservative think tank called the Henry Jackson Society. Worse that this think tank is a sort of Zionist sponsored campaign that wishes to destroy Mr Galloway (or at least get him unelected).

That's the context for this:

The inference here - in a constituency where about half the electorate is Muslim - is that the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu was somehow responsible for the Labour Party's selection process in Bradford West. You can read across from this is two ways - that it's all a Zionist conspiracy (doubtless Galloway's defence) or else that it's a Jewish conspiracy (which the lack of clarity in Galloway's comment allows others to claim or argue).

Lot's of people would consider this particular image rather anti-Semitic. All I'm going to say is that it's a very loud dog whistle indeed.

Update: Another similar image doing the rounds...

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George Galloway isn't doing his job and doesn't like being reminded...

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The voting records of Bradford's MPs are now public and they reveal that four out the the District's five MPs vote in most divisions. And this is entirely as it should be because the main reason we elect an MP is for that person to toddle off down to London and vote. This is because the MP is a representative sent to parliament because all of the UK's sixty-odd million people can't squeeze into that chamber with the green seats.

So George Galloway's dismal record on voting - he bothered with just 15.5% of votes - should be a matter of shame for the famously blustering MP. Instead he mounts a ridiculous defence - more a set of pathetic excuses than an argument. Or rather an anonymous spokesman mounts this excuse for a defence;

Mr Galloway disputed the worth of the figures, because they fail to register whether an MP is absent from Westminster – or is present and has chosen to actively abstain.

Furthermore, he argued, his constituents agreed that many votes were "farcical", because most MPs followed whips’ instructions to win rewards, or avoid punishments.

A spokesman said: "The choices on offer are unpalatable to George, being either the Government’s proposal or the official Opposition’s - neither of which George supports. 

Given that the more assiduous voter of our five MPs is Phil Davies - famously one of the most rebellious Tory MPs - the argument about 'whips' is a bit pathetic. It's true that there are plenty of other things for MPs to do - and George Galloway may or may not be doing these (the evidence is mixed) - but not voting remains a dereliction of the duty Bradford West's electors charged him with performing.

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Bradford Labour deputy leader backs Galloway's rally against free speech

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I asked on Friday who would join George Galloway in attacking the idea of free speech (I know George dubbed it a 'free speech rally' in the same way that communist dictatorships call themselves 'democratic').

And we now have our answer - 'hundreds' turned out in last night's cold and snow for what is now being called a 'multi-faith' rally (I wonder how many non-muslims - Galloway excepted, of course - actually attended) and they heard George say:

"I am here to defend the honour of Muslims, Islams and Muhammad.

"These are not cartoons, these are obscene insults to the prophet Muhammad.

"The backlash against Muslims is under way in France and the UK.

"It seems there are limits to freedom of speech in France. That's hypocrisy, not democracy.

"For the sake of unity in our society, we have to demand from our Government the protection of our prophets."

So pretty clear from George there - he wants blasphemy laws that extend the (already excessive) privileges granted to religion and to Islam in particular.

And he was joined in this call by Imran Hussein, deputy leader of Bradford Council and parliamentary candidate for Bradford East:

"There is a big debate around freedom of speech. It is a fundamental right.

"Let's have freedom of speech, not freedom to openly insult.

"I was deeply insulted, deeply offended by the publication of Charlie Hebdo, in particular its depiction of the Holy Prophet Muhammad.

"There has been double standards and hypocrisy here."

So Cllr Hussein thinks that somehow he has the right not to be offended and that special protections - essentially a blasphemy law - should be granted to the faith he professes because him or others might be upset by that blasphemy. This is not free speech.

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So who will join in George Galloway's anti-free speech protest?

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It really doesn't come as a surprise that George Galloway has come down on the side of being offended and opposing free speech. He will (quite rarely) grace Bradford with his presence tomorrow evening to join a protest rally under the banner of 'Our Prophet Our Honour'. This event - organised by David Humphreys, George's vicar on Earth - is explicitly against free speech and George is right there:

“While he totally condemns the killings, there is a feeling in the community that there are problems facing Muslims about the issues of free speech. These cartoons have provoked a great anger.”

I'm sure some people are angry about 'these cartoons'. After all, you've every right to be offended and upset by things that are written. But what George and his friends want is a privileged protection for one particular religion - they want the right not to be offended. And in doing this they want to remove the right to free expression from other people.

On Tuesday next week, Bradford Council will debate a motion that says:

This Council notes the deplorable recent terror attacks in and around Paris.

The Council reaffirms its commitment to the freedom of self expression, as contained within  Article 10 of the Human Rights Act 1998.

The Council requests that the Interim Chief Executive write to Anne Hidalgo, the Mayor of Paris, expressing Bradford District Citizens’ condolences for and esprit de corps with, the people of Paris and wider France. 

It will be interesting to see what is said - and whether other councillors try to water down the commitment to support free speech. I am reminded that, on a previous occasion, Bradford's Labour Group voted down a similar motion (proposed in less shocking circumstances).

Update: In a slightly delicious reaction, Jason Smith - Bradford UKIP head honcho - has called for the event to be banned. Seems UKIP don't think much of free speech either!  It also resulted in Galloway - having organised an anti-free speech rally - to make out he's defending free speech. Proof yet again how monumentally stupid UKIP folk too often are!

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The kind of Council George Galloway wants for Bradford...

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Is this:

The authority that he has built is a beacon throughout the country in educational and in other social and political achievements. There are no academies in Tower Hamlets…

I wish we in Bradford had a council like Lutfur Rahman has in Tower Hamlets.

And what is Tower Hamlets like then? Ah, yes:

Police are investing a “rotten borough” facing allegations of cronyism, corruption and religious extremism, it emerged yesterday, after Eric Pickles took direct control of Tower Hamlets council.

Eric Pickles has dispatched three commissioners to oversee spending in the east London borough after a blistering report found public buildings had been sold to allies of the mayor and hundreds of thousands of pounds had been given as grants to ineligible bodies.

Contracts were awarded without the appropriate paperwork while Lutfur Rahman, the independent elected Mayor, personally selected preferred companies, an official report found. 

Good to know, George!

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George Galloway blames Ukraine's problems on Israel

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Quite incredible really but true. George told callers to his programme on Iranian propaganda channel, Press TV, that 'the Zionists' had sent gunmen to the Maidan to help the 'revolution' so the Nazis could win and the remaining Ukrainian Jews would have to go to Palestine.

It's bad enough that one of Bradford's MPs isn't remotely interested in the problems of the City but when he spouts such nonsense you have to question Galloway's fitness to be an MP at all. Although he carefully skirts around outright anti-semitism (unlike some of his callers), the language and approach is still pretty appalling. But not quite as appalling as his use of lunatic conspiracy theories as a way to wind up naive supporters.

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The EDL in Bradford: a suggestion...

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Next weekend those lovely people, the EDL are popping in to visit Bradford. Not for a spot of shopping and certainly not for a curry but for that most un-English of pastimes - marching down the street waving banners.

Not surprisingly the Council and the cops are in a bit of a funk over this - last time this charming bunch of neo-Nazis visited the city, we rolled out 1,700 policemen to welcome them (not sure how many came but is was fewer than 100).

It is a self-evident fact that laying on massed hordes of policemen and making their visit the top of every agenda and every news broadcast delivers precisely what the EDL want - publicity. Plus of course that other bunch of nutters - the anti-democratic left - will turn up. Sadly George Galloway and the EDL deserve eachother - they are cast from the same unpleasant mould.

I do however rather agree with Dave Green (this is not a common occurrence) when he says:

...stay away from a protest by the far-right English Defence League (EDL) and any counter-demonstration in the city later this month.

I would go further and say to those who are tempted to go and shout (or worse) at the EDL as they shamble past dragging their knuckles on the flags - don't bother. Do something more practicable - take the kids to the park, go for a walk along the canal, watch football on the telly, pop into your local pub, have a McDonald's,  sing folk songs in the garden, climb a tree, play board games, wash the car, fix that dripping tap you've been meaning to fix... Anything but go into Bradford and indulge the EDL's power fantasies, anything but pretend there is any value of purpose in having a "peaceful multicultural celebration" right in front of this bunch of mindless thugs. That is just plain stupid, is bad for Bradford and simply reinforces the views contained in the EDL's brain cell.

Ignore the EDL march. Don't grace them with the attention they crave. Don't provide them with justification for holding another march. Don't pretend you can face them down. Don't take it on yourself to "confront" their evil message. Just ignore them, treat them with the disdain they deserve. Do something else.

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What about George Galloway's commitment to Bradford?

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It seems pretty shallow right now:

George Galloway has announced he intends to fight Boris Johnson for the job of Mayor of London, despite the present incumbent already insisting he will not stand for a third term.

Now I appreciate that George is a bit of a fantasist but this suggests he's rather taking the good folk of Bradford West for granted don't you think?

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In which George Galloway wants Twitter banned...

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I'm not joking:

"[This House] believes that this failure to cooperate with the detection of the sources of criminal behaviour is reprehensible," it adds "and calls on the Government to impose sanctions on Twitter until it agrees to fully cooperate with the UK authorities and police in the detection of crime."

And the crime? This is 'being rude to George', or so it seems:

"Twitter is now used for a variety of criminal activities including sending malicious communications,"

Oh dear George, oh dear! Nannying fussbucket doesn't fully capture the sheer fascism of this proposal!

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So where is Bradford then, George?

I got home this evening to be greeted cheerily by Kathryn saying that the Tour de France will be passing by us - through Haworth and Oxenhope on its way to the Calder Valley and beyond. Cheering news indeed on a snowy evening in Bradford.

And that's the point - Bradford is where I live, where I'm a local councillor and where this great race will pass through. It seems however that some of Bradford's MPs want to redraw our political geography and claim that these places - Ilkley, Haworth, Keighley, Oxenhope, Silsden - are not parts of the Bradford Metropolitan District Council:

"George Galloway, MP for Bradford West, said the Tour route seemed to "deliberately avoid the city, going to the leafy areas of Ilkley, Otley, Haworth and Keighley instead".

Bradford metropolitan district council is contributing a six-figure figure sum in order to bring the Tour to the district. Galloway said: "It would be money well spent if it achieved tangible and substantial benefits in tourism and revenues for the city of Bradford, but it seems clear that the Tour caravan and the hundreds of thousands who follow it will spend their money elsewhere."

Now while this is perhaps the very first time that anyone has described Keighley as "leafy", does George Galloway not think that the rest of us are deserving of tourism, worthy of Bradford Council - our council - support? Will not the thousands flocking to watch the tour along its route through the Bradford District bring substantial benefits "in tourism and revenues"?

What we see here is Galloway seeking to lay claim to his little part of Bradford being the whole of Bradford - that the parts where 40% of the district's population live are not even to be considered as part of the City. There are many, although I'm not one, who'll take George's comments - as well as the equally daft and divisive remarks from Lib Dem, David Ward - as futher cause for separating Keighley, Ilkley, Bingley & Shipley to create a new Aire-Wharfe council.

Mostly though, this just reminds us how little George Galloway either knows or cares about the place he represents in parliament.

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Bradford spring becomes a murky autumn

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I nicked the headline (from the Techie Fairy) because it sums up George Galloway's problems in Bradford and the doubtful legacy it brings. The Guardian reports on George's troubles:

Ten days after giving her name publicly as spokeswoman for the campaign, Smith's car windscreen was smashed. Banners from the demo were on the back seat. Concerned that she may have been targeted by Galloway supporters as a result of the campaign, she called the police, who confirmed last week that they were investigating the incident as an alleged hate crime, as well as "a complaint relating to comments made on a social networking site". Smith says officers have told her they are contacting Facebook and the IP addresses behind the profiles responsible for the worst abuse.

It may, of course, turn out to be nothing to do with Respect but there's a sense of worry among those who have criticised what this party is up to in Bradford. On the social media sites there's a feeling - just that so far - that people acting for Respect or George Galloway are trying to take down accounts that are critical of Galloway's record since becoming Bradford West's MP.

Of course it's easy for Galloway to fend these criticisms off - after all he's not in Bradford most of the time (and before anyone gets too shirty, this is true of all the City's MPs) and isn't lord and master of all his supporters. However, there are plenty of reports that Bradford West constituents - unable or unwilling to see George - are trying to see other MPs from the City for there to be some substance in the criticisms of Galloway's efforts on behalf of Bradford West.

At the time of the by-election there was a sense that this was the breaking of Labour's stranglehold on politics among the City's Asian community and especially in the Pakistani muslim community. Rather than an endless game of positioning within clans, families and friendship groups, we were to get real debate about the concerns and worries of Bradford's young asian population. It seems that George isn't interested now he has his place in parliament - we return to grandstanding about the middle east.

However, what is most striking about the situation is the reaction of the useful idiots who George used to cover up his divisive campaign. The handful of white socialists who thought that George was campaigning on their issues rather than running an unpleasant, sectarian campaign amongst Bradford's muslim community:

"The only way the party can recover is to elect a strong and principled leader who can work to build an effective party, one who can build party structures, develop support, win elections and draw a clear distinction between the policy of the party and the words of its MP. Whether that's what the party wants remains to be seen," 

These are the words of a wishful thinker scrabbling around to justify the point or purpose of Respect as a party rather than its real position as a vehicle for George Galloway's ego.

The worst thing about all this is that the hope that Galloway raised in a lot of people has been dashed. I'm not surprised for the man was always more mouth than trousers but I am saddened for those enthusiastic youngsters who took to his cause. Not to liberate Palestine or get a free Kashmir (for all that they wanted those things) but because they were told that Galloway's megaphone would shout loud and long about Bradford. It hasn't - all we've had is the occasional 'parp' amongst George's screeching defence of Assad's Syria and the theocratic regime in Iran.

In truth, by playing the politics of race and religion, Respect has set Bradford back. Our journey towards a Bradford identity - to being, yet again, a place to be proud of - hasn't ended but Respect has taken us on a turn away from the more direct path. We have to make the case again for cohesion rather than multiculturalism, for fair-dealing rather than special treatment and for all communities in the City to be equal.

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Oh the gorgeous, indefatigable irony of it!

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One has to smile:

George Galloway, the founder of the Respect party, ironically appears to be Britain's least respected politician. His overall net respect score is -67 points.

Miaow George!

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George Galloway: sometimes it takes an Arab to explain...

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George appeared on a Syrian sponsored TV station in the Lebanon and got into some bother:

He then goes on to farcically defend the Iranian regime, telling an audience member, "You make me sick", forcing him to walk out as Galloway utters, "Alhamdulillah"

Indeed it seems mighty odd that George "Bradford Spring" Galloway is defending the Syrian regime (not to mention the regime in Iran) so I was helped out by Karl Sharro, Lebanese blogger and commentor on Arab democracy who imagined George reflecting on how his first Syrian-funded TV appearance had gone:

Al-hamdullilah today we have completed the first episode of my new show at Al-Mayadeen television channel, for which I will be receiving £3000 per episode. The money will go towards buying more houses that I can name after important moments in the history of the Palestinian struggle inshallah. Perhaps a villa on the French Riviera. There’s so much more that I can do for Palestine, like I keep reminding Syrians.

When the producers of the show first contacted me, I was a bit anxious. ‘Would I have to wear a tight-fitting bodysuit and pretend to be a cat?’ Somebody had told me that was haram. Also, that it made it look like I would do anything for money. They reassured me that wouldn’t be the case, I would just have to be myself. Well, not exactly myself, I decided Arabs would like me more if I pretended to be Eli Wallach playing an Arab in a spaghetti western.

Do read the rest of Karl's reflections - they are rather funny and to the point. But the saddest thing about all this is that George will get into more trouble for thoughtless foot-in-mouth remarks about rape and disability than he will for defending murderous dictatorial regimes on TV stations with possible links to one or other (or both) of those regimes.

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"Bad sexual ettiquette" - George Galloway is becoming an embarrassment to Bradford

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OK, George Galloway is a contravertialist, ever willing to say the unsayable, to defend the undefendable and to march fearlessly into the corridors of power shooting from the hip. But this might just tell us rather more about George, and it ain't good:

I mean not everybody needs to be asked prior to each insertion. Some people believe that when you go to bed with somebody, take off your clothes, and have sex with them and then fall asleep, you're already in the sex game with them.

It might be really bad manners not to have tapped her on the shoulder and said, "do you mind if I do it again?". It might be really sordid and bad sexual etiquette, but whatever else it is, it is not rape or you bankrupt the term rape of all meaning. . .

I don't adhere to the tedious "all men are rapists" argument heard too often from feminist agitators but it does seem to me that having "another insertion" without the woman's agreement is rape. George Galloway is entitled to take the view that the women in the Assange case weren't assaulted (although we'd know the answer to this if the dear old chap would pop over to Sweden for his trial) but to describe penetrative sex without the woman's consent as anything other than rape is quite appalling.

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Things that really aren't a surprise...

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George Galloway is a muslim convert (although he didn't quite mention this fact in a recent by-election):

George Galloway, MP for Bradford West, is a Muslim. He converted more than ten years ago in a ceremony at a hotel in Kilburn, north-west London, attended by members of the Muslim Association of Great Britain. Those close to him know this. The rest of the world, including his Muslim constituents, does not. 

What I can't understand - unless George thinks his conversion might lose him votes - why he hasn't come clean about it? What sort of muslim does that make him?

Or maybe it is a surprise - Mr Galloway continues to deny the claim:

 "The opening paragraph of Jemima Khan's piece in the New Statesman [referring to an alleged conversion ceremony] is totally untrue. Moreover I told her it was fallacious when she put it to me. I have never attended any such ceremony in Kilburn, Karachi or Kathmandu. It is simply and categorically untrue."

So there you go! Clear as mud! Which really isn't a surprise at all.

Update II:

It seems that George really didn't go through this ceremony (although the New Statesman say he didn't deny it and he says he did):
 

“Jemima Khan asked me on tape about this phantom ceremony in Kilburn and I told her it was a lie and whoever told her it was a liar. No trace of this exchange appears in the New Statesman piece, which is predicated upon it. Now that they are denying my denial it places the matter in the hands of my solicitor.”

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What an ex-Respect supporter has to say...

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Most of those who make the mistake of viewing Galloway as some sort of hero end up regretting it. I know because I used to see him as a hero myself. I can remember attending many anti-war rallies in Hyde Park that involved Galloway speaking and galvanising the crowd. One Big Brother appearance and a speech supporting al-Qaeda in Iraq later, I changed my mind and began to see through the charade.

It seems the people who voted for him in East London in 2005 had the same realisation since the Respect party’s East London chapter was all but decimated in the 2010 general elections.  He is, after all, not a constituency MP but a political activist who spends most of his time gallivanting around the Middle East and furthering his media career. It’s only a matter of time before the people of Bradford West also see through the antics of this hapless anti-imperialist, yet pro-autocratic buffoon.

Interesting words there from Ghaffar Hussein.  There are more to be read here.


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