the return of gorgeous George?

Ernie – look at the huge vote for the SNP in Scotland. Its a picture of how totally disillusioned people are with the main parties, who are now utterly and completely unrepresentative of 90%+ of this countries population. And the further north you go, the worse this disconnect is

The posh over-privileged **** from Islington is is actually about 0.1% more representative of your average northern working clas voter than the posh over-privileged **** from Chipping Norton

Basically, when faced with a vote for

a) The Tories (As Evil and corrupt as ever)
b) Labour (effing useless since nearly bankrupting the country)
c) Lib Dems (lairs and traitors)
d) None of the above

then whoever represents d is looking like the best option

Can’t see much wrong with binners post tbh.

binners – Member

Ernie – look at the huge vote for the SNP in Scotland. Its a picture of how totally disillusioned people are with the main parties,

The SNP have been the biggest party for 6 years and bigger than the tories and lib dems for many decades. they are a main party in Scotland – the tories are a small irrelevant party

Binners nearly nails it.

And the further north you go, the worse this disconnect is

Do you spend so much time in the south that you know the feelings of the people down here?

a small irrelevant party

small yes, I thinka ll the time that a lot of Scotish law and policy is mad ein Westminster they’re anythign but irrelevant.

No scottish law is made in Westminster. 🙄

I thought that the Scotch were governed by the same tax laws re: VAT on pies as everyone else?

or is there a separate scots law on pasties?

Erm…. uncle Jezza…. I’m agreeing with you. I’m wasn’t saying disillusion started with this Tory government.

The last supposed ‘Labour’ lot were made up of essentially right wing, authoritarian, privately educated, over-privileged career politicians too. No different from this lot, really. Just worse at doing their sums

They’re as representative as me in the north as they are of you in Scotland. ie: not one single little bit. The only difference is that you’ve had an alternative to vote for. We haven’t. We need one though. And fast!

Do you spend so much time in the south that you know the feelings of the people down here?

no but he can see how they vote – he said the further north you go so that means leaving the South surely to get to the North so it is not even a comment on the South but the North.

I like characters like George …we need more people like him [ from all political sides] that are in politics for something other than climbing the pole to power and sacrificing what they believe in to achieve it…Nick clegg and the lib dems for example.

Its a by election they are not really indicative of anything tbh other than people get to do a protest vote as it wont alter who governs
I gues we now they are unhappy with all the parties

Teej! You’re back!

How was your exile? Productive?

His comment that his win was a “Bradford Spring” is interesting in that his attempt to link it to the “Arab Spring”, steals from something that has seen the downfall of the sort of slimy dictator that he evidently used to be quite fond of…

is there a separate scots law on pasties?

I think TJ was trying to help you understand that “Scots Law” is, by definition, a product of the Scottish legal and legislative process, although you are correct that VAT is still a reserved matter for Westminster.

On the matter of Gorgeous George, speaking as a former constituent of his back in his Glasgow days, he’s not without his redeeming qualities as a local MP, but he’s a far too in love with his own ‘cult of personality’ for my liking.

How short memories are! How could anyone vote for the fool who sucked-up to Saddam Hussein and performed an excruiciationg cat impression on Celebrity Big Brother?

A Bradford Spring? No, like our current weather it be gone in a week or two.

I think TJ was trying to help you understand that “Scots Law” is, by definition, a product of the Scottish legal and legislative process

I did know that, but I thought listing all the nuances of national and international law/etc that is controlled by the Westminster Parliament vs that controlled by the Scottish one would have just made dull and uninteresting reading when I wanted to do was say that the Tories and their policies/actions are far from irrelevant for most people who live in Scotland.

Clearly now TJ’s back I should focus on the dull and uninteresting rather than trying to get a point across in a concise fashion so as not to offend his sensibilities on Scottish law.

binners – Member
They’re as representative as me in the north as they are of you in Scotland. ie: not one single little bit. The only difference is that you’ve had an alternative to vote for. We haven’t. We need one though. And fast!

Do you actually believe that a broadly left-of-centre party would have any chance at all of getting to power in England?

Sweet Jesus TJ. Can we leave the whole Scottish thing alone please? Its been done to death. Other subjects are available.

In this case Bradford, George Galloway and how the labour party have just turned Call-me-Daves worst week in office into his best. Quite a momentous achievement. He must be cracking the bubbly open at number ten this morning!

If Labour doesn’t learn fast and ditch the useless, spineless geek pronto, then they’re staring down the barrel of their next general election performance

They won’t of course. Its utterly depressing

thought this was gonan be about this guy:

no but he can see how they vote – he said the further north you go so that means leaving the South surely to get to the North so it is not even a comment on the South but the North.

that man has a vase of flowers on top of a lit wood burning stove.

genius.

Do you actually believe that a broadly left-of-centre party would have any chance at all of getting to power in England?

Which is why northern England needs to join Scotland when you go independent.

Independence for the South East of England is the answer. Once those lot **** off, I’m sure the rest of us would bump along quite happily 😀

Anyway, back on topic.

I wonder which role George enjoyed more – being Rula Lenska’s pussy or Saddam Hussein’s lapdog?

TandemJeremy – Member

Scotland – the tories are is a small irrelevant party country

TFTFY 😆

I can’t believe that the Tories, the party of government, got 8.4% of the vote. As far as I can figure out the Tories have never received less than 30% of the vote in Bradford West for over a 100 years.

How many of those votes were mid-term by-elections where an independent candidate won?

I must say that I find this result pretty depressing. George Galloway is at best an odious man who for all his postulating is only really interested in promoting himself.

As well as being a pretty lazy MP (see attendance record referenced above), he is also a dark master of divisive politics – the campaign he fought against Oona King in 2005 was characterised by him saying things that were patently untrue. He ingratiated himself to the largely Muslim population of Bethnal Green largely by repeatedly focussing on the fact that Oona King’s mum was Jewish – and perpetuated the discussion of this by using the Muslim Association of Britain and local mosques. That sort of behaviour simply isn’t acceptable in my book and is entirely incompatible with being a good MP.

What worse about the actual 2005 result was that he unseated a very hard working constituency MP (this was recognised across the partly lines) and then failed to turn up to Parliament to represent the people he’d hoodwinked and instead spent his time castigating the Senate and pretending to be a cat on Big Brother.

The population of Bradford West will get exactly what they deserve as it can’t have been made any clearer what kind of man they were electing.

That is quite a remarkable achievement – he has finally found somewhere else that is stupid enough to elect him and restart his gravy train. I had hoped we’d seen the last of him after he was humiliated in the Scottish Parliament elections last year, but not to be.

People tend to like because he gives a good soundbite and there is an impression that he is standing up to The Man. However the more you get to know him as either just as a representative or more closely if you are involved in certain political causes / groups then that attitude rapidly changes to one that instead considers him to be a self serving repulsive sleazeball!

He’s a very good public speaker, probably a complete creep but no worse than the usual calibre of politician, and at least he’s giving Labour a big kick up the arse which they so badly need.

I salute your indefagitability…

He’s an utter scumbag and douchebag. There are no lengths to which he will not go to sustain himself. It is not for nothing that he has had to move twice to continue his political career.

Binners – you raised Scotland and the SNP and made a fundamental error in the way you described them.

TJ – you know what I’m saying. The main parties are no longer remotely connected to the people they’re supposed to represent. Actually… the Tories probably are. Labour is now totally remote from its core vote, which it has shamelessly taken for granted for decades

The only place where a credible alternative has been put before the voters is north of the border. And look what happened? Or do you think everyone vote SNP because they’re all rabid nationalists, desperate for independence?

I don’t even think Alex himself is daft enough to believe that!

The north is crying out for an credible alternative. There can be no clearer demonstration of that than a self-regarding idiot like George Galloway overturning a 5,000 labour majority to win by 10,000 votes. Thats a ridiculous swing. Will it register in the dinner parties of Islington where the ‘Labour’ party now bases its powerbase? Of course it won’t!

binners – surely the Labour Party (and others) are aware of the wishes of the electorate – all those focus groups and so on? That being the case, I still can’t see that there is a massive demand for a left-of-centre party in England.

I know – it’s all a bit chicken-and-egg. No party = no voters, no voters = no party…

http://www.wussu.com/current/galloway.htm

Point taken binners

the problem has been that a few tens of thousands of swing voters in a few dozen marginal seats decide elections. Labour went for that centre ground under Blair and captured it. all the English parties are now fighting for that centre ground – thats where Cameron made his gains.

Unfortunately labour have lost their roots along the way and lack the courage to become a crusading party of the left again – create a constituency and drive a national mood forward with desire to reform.

I believe they could do this this and reconnect with their constituency if they wanted to or had the courage – they are still running scared from the 80s tho where a combination of good PR from the Tories, the splint in the left with the SDP and poor leadership from labour lost them elections. they made the wrong diagnosis here thinking it was socialism that was the deciding factor not teh SDP splitting the vote and poor leadership in labour

They should have chosen the brother that can speak properly.

Proud of Bradford this morning. He’s a shit cat but a good thorn in their sides.

I believe they could do this this and reconnect with their constituency

what constituency? you’re twenty five years too late to revive any sort of social/cultural/racial/religious partisan alignment that would win an election. The social markers are all gone and voted participation has evaporated.

Labour have to be really careful. The North has traditionally voted Labour, and I’ve seen plenty of examples of fathers pretty much forcing sons/daughters to vote Labour at polling booths when I worked them due to ‘traditional’ values. The thing is those traditional values have almost been long forgotten and it won’t be long before the next generations question the ‘traditions’. A lot of Labour voters I’ve dealt with hold almost diametric values to the Labour party.

Who is the rodeo guy on the left and what does he stand for? Shooting a spinning girl from a horse?

I’d vote for that.

He’s fighting it on the issues.

The Return of Galloway, The Return of Sectarian Britain