Mass campaign saves media museum

 The government's culture minister Ed Vaizey has pledged that the threatened National Media Museum will not close. He conceded that a campaign by Bradford's MPs and a grassroots one has made closure 'politically impossible'.

The commitment came this afternoon in a meeting in the House of Commons with Bradford MPs. 'This is a triumph for public opinion and for democracy,' said Bradford West MP George Galloway. 'It shows that if you fight you aren't guaranteed to win but if you don't fight you are guaranteed to lose. The public campaign has proved that. What a campaign and what a result.'

'The minister said, "tell the people of Bradford the museum is safe",' Galloway added. 'There will still be haggling, I'm sure, over the modalities, between the government, the local authority and the Science MuseumGroup about who pays for what and what the museum's focus should be.' Visitors to the museum, he said, have halved over the last decade.

George on Question Time

George Galloway is one of the panellists on BBC1 Question time this evening at 10.35.

The programme is from Edinburgh and the audience is comprised of young people who will be eligible to vote in the 2014 referendum on Scottish independence.

Among the other guests are Nigel Farage of UKIP, Labour's Anas Sarwar, SNP MP Angus Robertson and the Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson.

Museum crisis meeting scheduled

The Bradford MPs meeting on the media museum crisis in Bradford called by George Galloway will take place tomorrow (Wednesday, June 12) in parliament.

George has also resubmitted an application for an urgent statement on the future of the museum and applied for an adjournment debate next week, the earliest possible, and has also applied to raise a question at Prime Minister's Questions next Wednesday.

The museum is threatened with closure by its owners, the Science Museums Group, if government budgetary cuts go ahead.

Vodaphone pays no UK corporation tax again

Vodafone, the world's second largest mobile phone firm, paid no UK corporation tax for a second year running in 2012.

Vodafone said UK network investment and interest payments wiped out corporation tax liabilities for the year to April.

It said operating profits of £294m in 2012 were offset by interest payments of £300m on loans to buy 3G spectrum.

Vodafone's annual report also revealed chief executive Vittorio Colao was paid some £11m.

The company said it was committed to "integrity in all tax matters" and that it paid £882m in other UK taxes and contributions during the year.

Support demo for media museum

If you're in Bradford tomorrow - or even if you can get there - turn out for the mass demonstration to save the National Media Museum.

George Galloway has organised a rally at 12 noon, Saturday June 8, outside the museum in Bradford city centre. The museum, one of four in the Science Museum group, is threatened with closure due to government cuts. His fellow Bradford MP Gerry Sutcliffe (Labour) will also be attending the rally. Other local MPs - with the exception so-far of Lib-Dem David Ward - have pledged to join in a parliamentary campaign to save the museum.

'The purpose of the demonstration is two-fold,' Galloway said, 'to point out to the public of Bradford and beyond the threat to the museum and, secondly, to let the authorities and the government know that they well not get away with closing it down.'

Galloway fights for museums' futures

George Galloway has put down a parliamentary motion and written to the Secretary of State for Arts and Culture over the threatened closure of three museums, including the National Media Museum in Bradford.

Along with the media museum, two others in the same group - the National Railway Museum in York and the Museum of Science and Industry - are threatened with cuts or closure in the forthcoming spending review. Galloway points out that the three are integral to Britain's cultural heritage, have outstanding records which would be even better with more adequate funding. The closure of the media museum, he went on, would have a devastating effect on attempts to revive Bradford's city centre.

Derry MP has 'shot himself in foot'

George Galloway responded to criticism from a Loyalist MP that he had put in too many parliamentary motions by telling Gregory Campbell that he had 'shot himself in the foot'.

Campbell, the DUP MP for East Derry, rather bizarrely put down an Early Day Motion to criticise MPs for over-use of the procedure, mentioning that one unnamed member had put in around 100 motions. He later told the press that the MP he was criticising was Galloway, who has put in over 100 motions.

Galloway responded: 'There's a rather famous video on YouTube of Gregory Campbell loading a pistol, but I'm afraid he has shot himself in the foot on this one. Is there a limit of the number of motions an MP should put in? Does Mr Campbell think he should be vetting them? It seems so. But can he point out any that aren't genuine, dozens of which have had hundreds of MPs supporting them? 

He continued: 'I see that Mr Campbell is having to hand back over £60,000 to the taxpayer in profits made on his second home, so he's probably feeling mad at those of us who haven't been cosseted and enriched on the public purse. Rather, even more mad. He should concentrate on representing his own constituents and not attack another MP who is rather more diligent, and has a rather better and more acknowledged record in parliamentary debating than the member for part of Derry.'

George Galloway on the Woolwich murder

Galloway condemns Woolwich 'atrocity'

Speaking hours after the brutal killing of an off-duty soldier in a Woolwich street George Galloway condemned it as a 'sickening atrocity'.

He added that there could be no excuse for the attack where the soldier, still to be named, was first knocked-down by the attackers' car before being hacked to death. But he pointed out that what happened in London was exactly what 'we are paying people to do in Syria'.

He will speak further about the barbaric killing later tonight on his Comment show on Press TV, which can be watched online.

Government stance hardens on Bangladesh after Galloway question

In response to a question from George Galloway, the British government has called for 'an impartial, transparent, independent investigation' into the ongoing violence in Bangladesh which has resulted in more  200 deaths.

The Bradford West MP asked the Foreign Secretary what information he had about the killing of peaceful protestors, particularly those taking place in Shapla Square, Dhaka on May 5/6. Foreign office minister Alistair Burt responded that the British government was very concerned about the upsurge in violence and made his appeal to the Bangladesh government to set up the independent inquiry,

'This is almost unprecedented,' said Galloway, 'one government calling on another to set up an arms' length inquiry. The only conclusion you can take is that our government does not trust or believe the Bangladesh government is capable of investigating these state killings. And no wonder, given the brutal murders this foul and corrupt Bangladesh government has been carrying out. 

'Of course, despite the plea, there's not a chance that the Sheikh Yashina regime will comply.'

Altaf Hussain, Godfather of Karachi - resident of the London borough of Edgware

On his blog George posted this about Altaf Hussain.

This entry was posted on May 14, 2013, in Pakistan and tagged Altaf Hussain, election, Imran Khan, Karachi, MQM, terrorism. Bookmark the permalink.

Yesterday I called upon the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police to arrest a British citizen for incitement to murder. It is an open and shut case. You can watch his lips move on television, broadcast from London, in the wake of the controversial election count in the giant port city of Karachi, Pakistan. Hussain openly threatened the young democracy protesters agitating for a re-run of the election there that he would have them cut them down with swords.

No-one should think this mere rhetoric, Hussain is already convicted in Pakistan for multiple murder extortion organised crime and terrorist offences. That’s why he lives in Edgware. In fact he is chief suspect in over 100 murder cases, including in England in the murder of one of his own leading comrades.

Galloway again calls for Altaf Hussain's British citizenship to be pulled after Karachi killing

George Galloway, in a series of parliamentary questions and a parliamentary motion, has asked the British Prime Minister and the Home Secretary to remove MQM leader Altaf Hussain's British citizenship.

Hussain is currently living in London after successfully applying for citizenship during the tenure of the last Labour government. He says that he fears for his life were he to return to Pakistan.

Galloway asked the government to examine whether the MQM leader should be thrown out of the country after Hussain made a serious of inflammatory broadcasts. However, following the assassination of the vice-president of Imran Khan's party, the PTI, which is blamed on the MQM, Galloway is once again raising Altaf Hussain's status in the British Parliament. Zara Shahid Hussain was shot dead outside her house as Karachi votes in a partial re-run of the Pakistan general election.

Continue reading the main story

The second war on Suffragettes

National chair Yvonne Ridley has written an excellent piece in Counterpunch on Suffragette Emily Wilding Davison who died under the King George V's horse at the 1913 Derby.

You can read it here: http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/03/22/the-second-war-on-suffragettes/

Galloway calls for peaceful removal of Bangladesh 'gangster government'

George Galloway last night called for the peaceful overthrow of the Sheikh Hasina/Awami League government in Bangladesh. Speaking at a huge protest rally in East London, Galloway denounced the massacre of Islamic scholars earlier in the week.

 “Even on the most conservative estimates of the number of people murdered, it exceeds the loss of life in 9/11,” said Galloway.

“This is a game changer as the Americans would say. Bangladesh will never be the same again. This is the beginning of the end of this corrupt, murderous government.” He went on to deny there was now any possibility of free and fair elections in Bangladesh.

“Either they will be fixed by the government or they will be cancelled. That is why the only way we will get the change Bangladesh needs is through people power, a peaceful revolution that will remove this gangster government. The media is now under the almost total control of the Hasina government and in the West there has been an almost total media blackout about the massacre.”

 Galloway added that the British-based Bangladesh TV had boycotted the rally and called on them to do their duty and tell the truth. “I’m against hanging anyone but it’s a fundamental truth in politics that those who live by the sword will die by the sword. There has to be an end of the politics of revenge.”

George also denounced the factory tragedy which has now taken the lives of over a thousand people and urged support for the campaign he launched a week ago to make Western multinationals fully accountable for the working conditions of those in their supply chain.

Galloway to commemorate the Bradford City disaster

George Galloway will join hundreds of mourners today to commemorate those who lost their lives in the Bradford City fire 27 years ago.

Fifty-six people died and at least 265 people were injured. The memorial will take place at Centenary Square at 11am.

The old Valley Parade stadium, the long-established home of Bradford City Football Club, had been noted for its antiquated design and facilities, including the wooden roof of the main stand. Warnings had also been given about a major build-up of litter just below the seats. Following the fire the stadium was totally rebuilt.