Bradford West: The Future of Europe

As reported in last night’s news feed, former MP George Galloway and his Respect party scored an upset victory in yesterday’s by-election in Bradford West. The seat he successfully contested was thought to be safe for Labour, as it had been for almost forty years.

Below is an analysis of the results by the Leicester Tiger.


George Galloway: An Analysis
by the Leicester Tiger

So the votes are in. The pundits have decided. And the narrative is now taking shape.

George Galloway’s win in Bradford West has nothing whatsoever to do with Islam, they tell us. Preposterous. Nonsense. Don’t be silly. Move along; nothing to see here. (Please note the prayer bump on the head of the imam kissing Galloway’s hand: here)

The conclusion in Britain from news sources on both the Right, and the Left, is that Bradford West is an upset at the heart of the Labour movement. It represents nothing more than the “Old” traditionalist Labour contingent forming up with a “diverse” Pakistani vote to secure victory for Galloway.

That, and a triumph for Galloway’s skills as an orator. Yeah, sure.

This is stuff and nonsense that has no grounding whatsoever in the facts. Galloway won a 10,000 plus majority by convincing the electorate that he was a better Muslim, or rather a real Muslim, when compared with the favourite, Imran Hussein of Labour, who all previous political logic predicted to be a sure thing.

The reason why I asserted last night over on the Vlad Tepes Blog that Bradford West is Europe’s future is that Galloway’s “Respect” party is nothing more than a political reality that is inevitably going to emerge from country to country in Europe, as the demographics shift.

The party has only ever stood successfully in one other constituency before: Tower Hamlets. In this campaign video for Bradford they are described as the party that “sorted out” Tower Hamlets, and indeed they did: Respect’s control coincided with its transition from minority Islamic borough to Islamist Sharia fiefdom. As regular Gates of Vienna readers will be more than aware.

Why on earth did Galloway come to Bradford, where he had never been before, and win the most resounding turnaround that Westminster parliamentary history has ever seen? And in a constituency that has been a safe Labour seat for 40 years? This video debate between the candidates is illuminating, and it highlights why for example, as Galloway’s letter to Bradford West’s Islamic community made clear the fact that Hussain was Pakistani, or represented the policies of Labour leader Ed Miliband, was utterly irrelevant.

What mattered more to the key voters of Bradford (and didn’t even appear on the radar screens of the “Westminster bubble”) was that Imran Hussein was widely rumoured locally to be a boozer, and thus couldn’t possibly be considered a proper Muslim. While Galloway — teetotaller, two Muslim wives, a political career supporting Muslim causes, and a history of making Islamic declarations of faith — secretly was.

Galloway’s win came because “The Respect Party” is code for The MUSLIM Party. The European precedent has now been set for a thumping win by such a party, and it will be the first of many. Mark my words.

Let’s break down the numbers:

Candidate	Party	# votes	% of vote	% change
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 Democrats	1,505	4.59%	-7.08%

There is nothing whatsoever to misunderstand here.

If the assertions of the British commentariat had any validity, the percentage shift from Labour in Galloway’s favour would have far exceeded that from the Conservatives. But the figures do not represent such a reality at all.

Galloway’s independent support numbers a mere 4% shift in vote, on top of the combined block abandoning all the other parties. The academic analysis is just as divorced from the reality happening on the ground as the political punditry.

Given that the entire election turned into a sectarian, “I’m more Muslim than you” contest, between Hussein and Galloway, not surprisingly the 50% of the constituency that are thought to actually be English stayed at home. Thus the turnout crucially was exactly 50%.

This is the object lesson to which we must pay close attention: it’s not necessary for Muslims to outnumber locals to achieve political dominance in Western Europe. (Neither is there some decades-hence projected point where Islam begins to take political control by overwhelming population numbers.)

All that has to happen is for apathy and infighting to keep a united European vote either divided or away from the polls, and for the right religiously-motivated candidate to unite the Muslims behind him.

Finally, I also noted last night how this win decisively proved the case for the Islamisation of Western Europe made by Kent Ekeroth in an interview last week on RT, where he was harangued as a fantasist by the others speakers and even the host.

One of those “debunking” his “absurd” assertions was Mohammed Shafiq of the Ramadhan Foundation, “the UK’s leading Muslim youth organization,” and a “moderate” group aimed at “helping young Muslims… and fostering interfaith dialogue.” So who’s this on the right of Mr Galloway last night in the pink tie? Why, if it isn’t Mr Shafiq!

Really, you couldn’t make this stuff up.