Re: George Galloway wins Bradford West : Fri Mar 30, 2012 7:13 pm  

Who really wants to vote for Labour? Can you see any of the shadow cabinet forming a government?

Re: George Galloway wins Bradford West : Fri Mar 30, 2012 8:03 pm  

wigan_rlfc wrote:

Who really wants to vote for Labour? Can you see any of the shadow cabinet forming a government?

To be fair, even though I get your drift and agree in the main, they couldn't fare much worse than the present lot.

Though Thatcher and Blair (rightly) had their critics, they at least had brains.....Cameron and his cronies are just plain incompetent.

Re: George Galloway wins Bradford West : Fri Mar 30, 2012 9:38 pm  

cod'ead wrote:

If they're playing the sectarian card, they've missed an important point: are Muslims so predicated to voting for rabid Catholics? When's the Pope's official visit to Islamabad?

A bit like Warsi trotting off to Rome and shrilling that the West should stop being afraid of its Christian heritage?

Re: George Galloway wins Bradford West : Fri Mar 30, 2012 9:50 pm  

Dita's Slot Meter wrote:

Bradford has long been a lost cause in terms of the failed multiculturism experiment.

Lots of people from outside Bradford keep telling us this. You do not have even the slightest idea of what you are talking about beyond crude stereotypes of the city you've picked up from third parties.

Re: George Galloway wins Bradford West : Fri Mar 30, 2012 10:10 pm  

vbfg wrote:

Lots of people from outside Bradford keep telling us this. May I politely invite you to go fsck yourself?

I don't blame you for your reaction, though I'll refrain from accepting your invite.....The simple thing is though, to many outside Bradford (and probably a good few inside), it is a city which highlights everything wrong with the idea of multiculturism.

Large swathes monopolised by people with no wish to be 'British'....Indeed, many seem to have a major dislike to the country, despite being happy to use the many advantages our country offers over the nations that they 'support' over their adopted home.

The rhetoric of the last 24 hours has not helped Bradford one bit, and the sight of Galloway being chaired around by cheering Muslims is something that will only serve to build tensions around the country as a whole..... This was an election with massive racial undertones, which Galloway was well aware of, and appallingly exploited.

Re: George Galloway wins Bradford West : Fri Mar 30, 2012 10:45 pm  

Dita's Slot Meter wrote:

I don't blame you for your reaction, though I'll refrain from accepting your invite.....The simple thing is though, to many outside Bradford (and probably a good few inside), it is a city which highlights everything wrong with the idea of multiculturism.

No, you're wrong. What Bradford highlights is the way in which modern societies become fragmented and alienated from themselves. Many people have chosen to view this through a race coloured lens when looking at Bradford, and frankly I say these people are idiots without the wit to point out which parts of the country aren't like this. I have had many arguments with friends about the nature of segregation in Bradford in the wake of Make Bradford British. They mostly divided neatly into two camps - those who take the "they don't want to be British" line (of whom I know mercifully few) and those who take the "segregation? we're not segregated!" line. They're both wrong. Their world views are segregated from each other along class lines, family history lines, personality lines, money lines, cultural lines, general outlook lines and many others, including race and religion. It's not about "they". There are hundreds of nationalities in Bradford, and even those non-white backgrounds that seem homogeneous because of their country of origin are divided along those same class lines as everyone else. There's a big difference in upbringing between people whose families came from mountain villages and those from urban areas, as well as those from higher born castes and those from lower.

I have lived everywhere in this city, from old houses with a mixture to all-white estates to the very centre of the Bradford West constituency. It's a city made up of old villages that rapidly merged into one, and it never lost that flavour. It is full of self contained communities that were always isolated from each other. Those parts of the city that aren't old villages are now old all-white housing estates which might as well be villages. The whole city was like this long before you say we became a failed experiment in multiculturalism. It's nonsensical jibberish to say it's a new phenomena and it's all their fault, and it's even more nonsensical coming from a foreigner like you.

When I lived on Buttershaw (an all-white estate) I very definitely wasn't one of them, and they let me know it[1]. When I lived in Great Horton I received christmas cards from my neighbours for the very first time. The lady who currently rents my house there from me set up a community farm on some abandoned land there. This currently has several hundred active volunteers from every background who are growing cheap food on unused lands for the benefit of everyone. This is right in the middle of Bradford West, which would be one of the areas you claim is monopolised by people who do not want to belong.

If you want to decide what's wrong with Bradford then come here and look at it.

[1] I should point out that I'm a Bierley lad, another all-white estate. Buttershaw was a culture shock because it didn't have herds of wild horses roaming around it.

[DaveO]

Re: George Galloway wins Bradford West : Fri Mar 30, 2012 10:46 pm  

cod'ead wrote:

It shows just how little Labour have learned, especially after Galloway had beaten Oona King in 2005. To lose one safe seat to Galloway is misfortune, to lose two safe seats to the man is sheer incompetence.

And in 2010 Labour won it back again from Respect when they put up a former assistant to Oona King v a former assistant of Galloway (who had left the picture).

It was in fact one of only three seats in the entire 2010 general election Labour took off another party so does not being able to hold onto your seat as the incumbent party in the face of government unpopularity not represent sheer incompetence as well?

Or is the reality of the matter protest votes evaporate at general elections?

Whatever the truth in that to link 2005 and 2012 is nuts. None of the mainstream parties can look on this with any comfort. The Condems will in the sense it takes the headlines away from the last few weeks of incompetence but that is head in the sand stuff. If this result represents anything real then they are all in for a kicking whenever a protest candidate pops up. The trouble is it does not represent reality.

If Galloway stood in that idiot Francis Maude's constituency were he to resign Galloway would loose his deposit. So Galloway won't do it. He wouldn't do it on Chester either where I live which is a marginal. All he will ever do is pick constituencies where he thinks he can tap into what is a disenfranchised Labour vote because he is a political coward and opportunist.

He is a very good one when it comes to by-elections and Labour have to work out why they lost and how they can deal with his regular by-election standings but it really doesn't represent a great political shift in my opinion because the man fronting it is a discredited moron.

Re: George Galloway wins Bradford West : Sat Mar 31, 2012 12:09 am  

would you like me to be the cat?

my constituency, they don't need me
i'll go on Big Brother on all fours and drink cream
i'll miss debates that affect their fates
it's all about publicity, maybe they're into bestiality

would you like me to be that cat?
actually i'd like you to be the politician

F8ck knows what we stand for
tried to read our manifesto once, got bored
but the whip's well equipped to make me toe the party line
i don't really care, the elected dictator can decide
at least then he'll be kind to me
so very nice to me
keep me more than comfortably
giving me bonuses i don't need

do your f8cking job mate
i don't care what else you do
i'm looking for an MP
not a deity from you

here's the form sir, sign your name
and list every little thing you did yesterday
i know that look mister, what's your game?
it's a test of impressions, are you ready to play?
it's not a job it's your reputation
we'll treat your mind like a mental patient
soon you'll be thinking correctly

pre-chorus
chorus

i'll lap up everything you say
if you rub me up the right way
you talk i'll pretend to listen
stroke me into submission

pre-chorus x2
chorus

I love Miacca.....

Housing Benefit Cuts for the Scroungers. : Sat Mar 31, 2012 5:33 am  

This is what I like about us lefties. We can agree to disagree. Unlike the other lot, we have that ability! I wont bother with that spare room Minty. Save it for the likes of Wigan Fan after drinkypoos. You probably have a lot more in common.

Re: Housing Benefit Cuts for the Scroungers. : Sat Mar 31, 2012 7:16 am  

WIZEB wrote:

This is what I like about us lefties. We can agree to disagree. Unlike the other lot, we have that ability! I wont bother with that spare room Minty. Save it for the likes of Wigan Fan after drinkypoos. You probably have a lot more in common.

Question Time Thursday 19 April from Leeds should be a don't miss.

Yvette Cooper v Sayeeda Warsi

I've also tipped Damo off about it, so he can apply for tickets