George Galloway landslide in Bradford

SimonAH

If I were Ed Milliband I would have a bum twitching like a rabbits nose right now.....

EKE_38BPM

I've just been listening to Radio 4 and GG certainly kicked Labour's (and everyone elses) backside. As you said, Millibland should be feeling very nervous.

If Labour can't win one of their safe seats after the budget that wasn't exactly friendly to Labour's typical supporters, the Granny tax, the Pasty tax, fuel panic, Cameron's donation furore etc, boy are they in trouble.

SNP have nicked Scotland from Labour, Boris and Ken neck and neck and now Bradford.
I think someone may well be getting Millibland's coat for him.

tailwindhome

Wouldn't read too much into this result.

Galloway's 'personality' wins a lot of votes as does his single issue antiwar party.

I would have thought it would have gone down especially well in Bradford

notsoblue

Hmmm, I'm not so sure. The fact that GG and Respect have had success in Bradford and Bethnal Green isn't a coincidence.

gtvlusso

TBH - I think the Millipede is unelectable - he has f*ck all charisma. I don't think Labour want to be in power, there is a huge mess to clean up - let the CONDEMS really take the brunt of the crap and when everyone is tired of the same excuses from them; all change! Elections are not won as such, I believe that they are simply lost.

Note:
Winter of discontent in '79 - tories did nothing special, Labour just f*cked up royally.

EKE_38BPM

gtvlusso wrote:

TBH - I think the Millipede is unelectable - he has f*ck all charisma. I don't think Labour want to be in power, there is a huge mess to clean up - let the CONDEMS really take the brunt of the crap and when everyone is tired of the same excuses from them; all change! Elections are not won as such, I believe that they are simply lost.

Note:
Winter of discontent in '79 - tories did nothing special, Labour just f*cked up royally.

I can agree with Labour not wanting to be elected and they seem to be doing just everything to ensure that it doesn't happen.

Jez mon

Do by-elections actually mean anything? Bradford will probably vote labour back in come the next election, when the fear of a Tory majority is being bashed down their throats. If Galloway was a more prominent figure in politics, with a serious political party behind him, this might mean something. As it is Respect is a one issue, virtually one man party.

Besides, Milliband does seem to be a bit of a sacrificial goat, for the party to hide behind, whilst they sort their direction out.

anonymousblackfg

Hopefully the Labour party is thinking 'f*ck we ballsed that up when we picked him'

Nice to see the lib dems lost their deposit, they are gone as of the next election. that wet douche Ed Davey should not just be getting his coat, he needs to get hailing a cab.

SimonAH

What's the feeling on the probable outcome of Gorgeous Boris vs The Newt Collector Round Two?

notsoblue

SimonAH wrote:

What's the feeling on the probable outcome of Gorgeous Boris vs The Newt Collector Round Two?

Livingston doesn't really stand a chance.

motdoc

My feeling is that galloway is further left than the labour party and we are starting to see the start of a leftward swing.

But I'm a closet commie and optimist.

Condems in trouble, angering pensioners, anyone who uses NHS (will go down the pan I think), anyone who eats pasties (and I live in devon) etc etc

Greg T

motdoc wrote:

My feeling is that galloway is further left than the labour party and we are starting to see the start of a leftward swing.

By people already on the left . . . When the left moves left they become unelectable . . .











Elections won = Nil

rickyrider

George Galloway. The definition of a narcissist.

rjsterry

SimonAH wrote:

If I were Ed Milliband I would have a bum twitching like a rabbits nose right now.....

What I found very interesting was that the Tories actually had a bigger loss of share than Labour - 22% to 20% IIRC. The LibDems were nowhere in that constituency anyway but still lost out a bit.

No wonder they needed Pastygate and the Jerrycan Crisis to take the heat off.

EKE_38BPM

rjsterry wrote:

SimonAH wrote:

If I were Ed Milliband I would have a bum twitching like a rabbits nose right now.....

What I found very interesting was that the Tories actually had a bigger loss of share than Labour - 22% to 20% IIRC. The LibDems were nowhere in that constituency anyway but still lost out a bit.

No wonder they needed Pastygate and the Jerrycan Crisis to take the heat off.

Labour lost their safe seat.
Conservative lost a bigger share than Labour.
LibDem lost their deposit (embarrassing).
Respect got 56% of the vote from a standing start.

Labour put up an Asian muslim in a heavily Asian muslim area and still lost. GG seems to have the Asian Muslim vote sewn up both oop north and in civilisation.

anonymousblackfg

I've just read an article saying that woman was decanting petrol next to her lit oven...

Darwin was definately correct.

EKE_38BPM

anonymousblackfg wrote:

I've just read an article saying that woman was decanting petrol next to her lit oven...

Darwin was definitely correct.

Yeah, I heard that and thought the same (apart from the fact that she has already bred).

The story goes along the lines of her daughter needed some petrol, so mum poured it from (or to, I can't remember) a glass container in her kitchen whilst a hob fire was lit. Petrol vapours reached the fire and flashed-back to the container, resulting in some BAAAAAD burns.

One good thing about my mispent youth is that I now know how dangerous petrol is.

mudcow007

there was something about this on Radio 2 about 5 mins ago. they interviewed someone who said "yeah he reached out to the people, visiting mosques etc an even sent everyone letters to say he doesn't drink alcohol"

me thinks he may be just targeting a certain group of voters??

Jez mon

mudcow007 wrote:

there was something about this on Radio 2 about 5 mins ago. they interviewed someone who said "yeah he reached out to the people, visiting mosques etc an even sent everyone letters to say he doesn't drink alcohol"

me thinks he may be just targeting a certain group of voters??

That's exactly what he was going for, and to be fair, it worked!

tailwindhome

Jez mon wrote:

mudcow007 wrote:

there was something about this on Radio 2 about 5 mins ago. they interviewed someone who said "yeah he reached out to the people, visiting mosques etc an even sent everyone letters to say he doesn't drink alcohol"

me thinks he may be just targeting a certain group of voters??

That's exactly what he was going for, and to be fair, it worked!

The Cad

EKE_38BPM

Jez mon wrote:

mudcow007 wrote:

there was something about this on Radio 2 about 5 mins ago. they interviewed someone who said "yeah he reached out to the people, visiting mosques etc an even sent everyone letters to say he doesn't drink alcohol"

me thinks he may be just targeting a certain group of voters??

That's exactly what he was going for, and to be fair, it worked!

It is a strange tactic though. Target a group not noted for their political activism, get them to vote for you by pandering to their issues, blow everyone else out of the water including a rival who is actually part of that group.

Its a bit like West Ham attempting to pass Barcelona to death at the Nou Camp and succeeding.
Oh yeah, cycling forum. Its a bit like Cav taking on Schleck in the mountains and winning.

Jez mon

Are they not noted for their political activism, or is it just no one usually panders to this certain group of voters because to do so you need to visit lots of mosques and say you don't drink, which then puts you at odds with the majority of this country.

Moodyman

I think the well-publicissed death of a main campaigner helped with the sympathy vote on 20 March:

http://www.respectparty.org/2012/03/tra ... paign.html

notsoblue

EKE_38BPM wrote:

It is a strange tactic though. Target a group not noted for their political activism, get them to vote for you by pandering to their issues, blow everyone else out of the water including a rival who is actually part of that group.

Not sure I'd agree with that. Religion and politics go together very well and from what I gather Respect have capitalised on this by targeting British muslims who felt strongly about the war in Iraq/Afghanistan.

EKE_38BPM

notsoblue wrote:

EKE_38BPM wrote:

It is a strange tactic though. Target a group not noted for their political activism, get them to vote for you by pandering to their issues, blow everyone else out of the water including a rival who is actually part of that group.

Not sure I'd agree with that. Religion and politics go together very well and from what I gather Respect have capitalised on this by targeting British muslims who felt strongly about the war in Iraq/Afghanistan.

I see what you mean, but I don't really get the sense that young Asian muslims spend a lot of time at the local Labour club or out campaigning/on the hustings.
Targetting a group is one thing (and, boy, did he target them), but getting them to actually go out and vote is quite another. I have no numbers to back myself up, but I don't think Asian muslims have a big turn out at the polls.

notsoblue

EKE_38BPM wrote:

notsoblue wrote:

EKE_38BPM wrote:

It is a strange tactic though. Target a group not noted for their political activism, get them to vote for you by pandering to their issues, blow everyone else out of the water including a rival who is actually part of that group.

Not sure I'd agree with that. Religion and politics go together very well and from what I gather Respect have capitalised on this by targeting British muslims who felt strongly about the war in Iraq/Afghanistan.

I see what you mean, but I don't really get the sense that young Asian muslims spend a lot of time at the local Labour club or out campaigning/on the hustings.
Targetting a group is one thing (and, boy, did he target them), but getting them to actually go out and vote is quite another. I have no numbers to back myself up, but I don't think Asian muslims have a big turn out at the polls.

I don't know what the voter turnout was by demographic, but it would be interesting to see. I wouldn't be surprised if the asian muslim turnout was higher than the average turnout though.

rick_chasey

George Galloway being elected in a by-election is as good a barometre of public sentiment as my guffs are at predicting which way the wind is going to blow.

He's a single issue campaigner who picks the constuiencies he fights in very carefully.

rjsterry

EKE_38BPM wrote:

notsoblue wrote:

EKE_38BPM wrote:

It is a strange tactic though. Target a group not noted for their political activism, get them to vote for you by pandering to their issues, blow everyone else out of the water including a rival who is actually part of that group.

Not sure I'd agree with that. Religion and politics go together very well and from what I gather Respect have capitalised on this by targeting British muslims who felt strongly about the war in Iraq/Afghanistan.

I see what you mean, but I don't really get the sense that young Asian muslims spend a lot of time at the local Labour club or out campaigning/on the hustings.
Targetting a group is one thing (and, boy, did he target them), but getting them to actually go out and vote is quite another. I have no numbers to back myself up, but I don't think Asian muslims have a big turn out at the polls.

Not sure I agree with you. (Entirely subjectively) I'd say Asian Muslims are probably the most obvious ethnic minority in British politics, but I haven't anything statistical to back that up.

Canny Jock

Could be seen as voting against the current political system in general?

Conservatives - not voting for them.
Lib Dems - same as voting for the Conservatives.
Labour - increasingly irrelevant, not voting for them either.
Respect - they're not one of the main parties and I've vaguely heard of the candidate, they'll do.

Jay dubbleU

In a largely Muslim community the party that
a)invaded Iraq and then lied about the reason
b)had a leader who was investing heavily in oil shares
was probably not going to do well.

Cons - no chance
Libs - shot their bolt - now not only a minority party but a minority party which has sold out for a taste of power

So where else do you go ?

Clarion

Greg T wrote:

motdoc wrote:

My feeling is that galloway is further left than the labour party and we are starting to see the start of a leftward swing.

By people already on the left . . . When the left moves left they become unelectable . . .

Until the Falklands caper, this man was well ahead in the polls, and the Tories were heading for a trouncing. Even at the election, Labour policies polled better, but Thatcher was doing her Churchill impression, which trumped that.