GALLOWAY SLAMS CAMERON ON THE ECONOMY

'David Cameron and his Bullingdon Club buddy Gideon Osborne cannot blame Europe for Britain's first double-dip recession since the 1970s,' said George Galloway today, while campaigning in Bradford for the local elections.

'It is the savage cuts to public spending that have sent us back into this disastrous recession. It is ABC that if the private sector isn't investing and the taxpayer is cutting consumption for fear of unemployment, slashing government spending will drive the economy down. That's what I predicted and it's exactly what has happened.

 'The government is now going to make things even worse in Bradford. They have singled out Bradford council for some of the worst cuts in the region and they now want to introduce regional pay in the public sector which is code for pay cuts.

 'There are easy ways for the government to cut the deficit if this is the problem they claim it is. We should bring all our troops home from foreign wars, scrap the replacement of Trident and we could close the tax loopholes which allow £100 billion in taxes to be avoided and evaded every year. If we did those three things, we would be quids in with no deficit."

GALLOWAY PLEDGES BONFIRE OF THE CONSULTANTS

Bradford West MP George Galloway promised that if the Respect party holds the balance of power after Thursday's council elections it will move to scrap the use of consultants, on which the Labour administration spent more than £7 million last year.

'We will do everything in our power to hold a bonfire of the consultants, rather than the present situation where the council is burning money,' Galloway said. 'It is completely unjustified and an insult to council tax payers struggling to pay their way that this obscene amount of cash ends up in the pockets of fat cat consultants. Ask any Bradford citizen whether they can spot how these millions spent benefitted them and you'll get blank looks. And then outrage. Council services are being slashed at a time when vast sums are being paid out to these companies. This money needs to be invested in the city, for the benefit of the city, rather than boosting the balance sheets of private companies.

'The Respect councillors elected on Thursday will do all in their power to root out waste and corruption.'

LABOUR COUNCILLOR AND THE RPG

A leading Bradford Labour councillor has been pictured brandishing a rocket propelled grenade launcher, surrounded by an arms cache.

Amir Hussain, councillor for Bradford's Toller Ward, is one of the seven members of Labour's ruling executive, responsible for health and social care, and is paid over £37,000 a year by the council.

Bradford West MP George Galloway said, 'Respect was vehemently attacked by the Labour party after they made public a Facebook photograph of one of our candidates with a rifle on a dangerous aid mission in Afghanistan. Labour claimed he was unsuitable to stand for office. What will Labour say or do now about Councillor Hussain? It would be completely hypocritical of them if they don't immediately suspend him and demand that he steps down from the council.

'There is no way a rocket propelled grenade launcher can be described as a defensive weapon,' added Galloway. 'An RPG is for taking out tanks and armoured vehicles. To the left of the picture you can also see rifles propped up.'

The Real Deal with George Galloway

Bradford Spring gets rapping

George speaks at the Bradford Pakistani Community Centre on Saturday 28th April

London's big choice on Thursday

London faces a big choice on Thursday. Nowhere is the choice bigger choice than in London's East End. The election for Mayor of London next Thursday, 3 May, matters.

There are some who don't want you even to know that there is an election taking place, or who are encouraging the falsehoods that the result doesn't really matter or that it is all something of a lighthearted personality contest.

That's not true. On the one side stands Boris Johnson - a Tory who campaigns to hand over money to the rich through tax cuts, someone who has supported every war over the last decade, someone who seeks out the company of bankers, rather than people like you. 

 

Comment with George Galloway MP

Galloway: Both parties 'have been in bed with the Murdochs'

Watch George on BBC2's Newsnight discussing the corrosive effect of both Labour and the Tories getting 'in bed' with the Murdoch empire. Watch here on BBC.

George Galloway bids farewell to the 6th Viva Palestina Convoy as it leaves Bradford

Respect Party Conference 2012

The 2012 Respect Party conference will take place in Bradford on Friday 15th and Saturday 16th June. The conference is open to all members of the Respect Party and is your chance to determine the priorities and strategy of the Respect Party in the coming year.

The conference will open with a rally on the Friday evening and be followed by a full day of debate and discussion on the Saturday. Delegates will also have the opportunity to listen to international guest speakers and elect part of the incoming National Council (for details of the regional elections please see below).

We will publish details of the venue when confirmed. A full agenda will be confirmed after the National Council meeting on 12th May.

Formula for profit ahead of people

ALL the polish in the world will not expunge the damn spots staining the race card at the forthcoming grand prix in Bahrain. There are only 700,000 Bahrainis, plus an equal number of foreign residents, but their Arab revolution has proportionately been the bloodiest of the lot.

If Bahrain had the population of Egypt, we'd be looking at a notional 10,000 dead. Add the wounded, the gassed, the tortured and the incarcerated and you really are looking at a bloody disaster.

"The pull of Galloway" - George talks to The House magazine

George Galloway is perhaps the most experienced ‘newbie’ MP you’ll ever meet. As he walks through Westminster Hall, he urges guests not to step on the plaque to ‘Braveheart’ William Wallace. On the way to the Central Lobby, he points to the statue of Charles James Fox, his favourite parliamentarian (a fellow radical, anti-imperialist with a colourful private life). Up the steps to the Committee Corridor, he identifies the spot where Spencer Perceval was shot dead. And, adding a bit of 20th century history, he even recalls the site where John Reid once threw a punch at him during a row over the first Gulf War.

Like a London cabby showing off his (pre-SatNav era) Knowledge, the newly elected Member for Bradford West certainly knows the nooks and crannies of the Palace of Westminster. He may have a New York radio show, a TV programme in the Middle East, a column in the Daily Record and a new fanbase in West Yorkshire, but the Respect Party MP can’t resist the lure of the House of Commons.

Read the full article at The House

GALLOWAY SLAMS GREENWOOD

George Galloway today accused Bradford council leader Ian Greenwood of 'cowering behind' a Labour party probe into suspended Heaton councillor Imdad Hussain, 'which my revelatiions were responsible for launching.'

The Bradford West MP revealed this week that Hussain had been suspended from holding a company directorship for seven years and slammed by the Official Receiver for failing to provide financial information about more than £1 million in revenues. The receiver compulsorily liquidated the, Company Claimwise Legal Services, which went down with more than £300,000 in debts. He was suspended from the Labour party on Thursday evening after Galloway made the evidence public. 

When Populism Is Dangerous For Democracy - To The Media Gallows With 'Controversial' George Galloway

RECOMMENDED ARTICLE: MediaLens looks at the response of the mianstream media to George Galloway's election victory

George Galloway’s stunning victory in last week’s Bradford West by-election afforded a rare opportunity to witness naked imbalance, establishment scorn of any challenges, and blatant anti-Muslim propaganda in the corporate British media.

The excellent News Sniffer website exposed how the Guardian hurriedly fixed political editor Patrick Wintour’s ugly analysis of Galloway’s 10,140 majority win, with a staggering swing of 36 per cent from Labour to the Respect party. Wintour’s shoddy journalism had initially focused on how the constituency’s ‘Muslim immigrant community’ had largely abandoned Labour. The offensive trope of ‘immigrant’ Muslims appeared three times in his piece. And Galloway’s popular call for the immediate withdrawal of British troops from Afghanistan, and ‘a fightback against the job crisis’, was disparagingly cast as ‘fundamentalist’.

GALLOWAY CALLS ON PRIME MINISTER TO INTERVENE ON ODEON

"The Odeon symbolises the utter failure of the regeneration plan for Bradford City Centre," said George Galloway this morning. "There needs to be an urgent enquiry into what has gone wrong both with the Odeon and the Westfield hole. Those responsible for this debacle must be identified and a plan to get us out of this mess which carries the support of the people of Bradford must be devised. That's why I am calling on the Prime Minister to intervene."

This follows a flurry of letters George Galloway sent yesterday to the Prime Minister, the head of the Homes and Communities Agency, the chief executive of Bradford Metropolitan Council and the chairman and managing director of Langtree Group plc, the Odeon developers who want to demolish the building. The letters are copied below.

In these letters, Galloway calls on the HCA and Langtree to abandon their plans to demolish the Odeon. He also questions whether the planning permission originally granted for the development of the Odeon site is still valid and asks the chief executive of Bradford MDC to investigate allegations of conflict of interest in the original decisions on the project.

GALLOWAY DEMANDS COUNCILLOR AND COUNCIL LEADER ARE REMOVED OVER FINANCIAL SCANDAL

George Galloway, the Bradford West MP, is demanding that a Labour councillor disqualified as a company director for gross financial misconduct immediately resigns his seat, along with the council leader who appeared to collude in a cover-up.

'Councillor Imdad Hussain has no place on Bradford council and no place in the Labour party,' said Galloway. 'If he isn't kicked out by the party - and I am demanding that the party do just that -  I am sure he will be by the voters of Heaton. Hussain has been disqualified as a company director for seven years in the worst case of financial malpractice I have ever seen. Council leader Ian Greenwood has known all about if for almost a year and has done nothing about it. He is guilty of participating in a disgraceful cover-up and he has to go too.'

Galloway raises Afghanistan war in Prime Minister's Questions

Galloway calls for a vote for Jean-Luc Melenchon this Sunday

George Galloway, Respect MP for Bradford West, has issued a call for voters in France, and French voters in Britain, to support Jean-Luc Melenchon and the Front de Gauche in the first round of the French presidential election on Sunday.

Fresh from a sensational by-election win in Britain, which returned him to the House of Commons, Galloway said: "Jean-Luc Melenchon has set the presidential election campaign on fire, eclipsing the hate-filled, far right Front National and putting at the centre of the national political debate the kinds of policies we need across Europe to invest and grow our way out of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. 

Hundreds attend Respect's Big Thank You celebration in Bradford

Hundreds of supporters in Bradford attended the big thank you celebration at the Venue on Sunday 15th April. They heard from Respect's local election candidates and victorious MP George Galloway who thanked everyone who helped in his historic election victory.

Watch George's speach below.



Watch the speeches by Respect's local election candidates below.

George sworn in as MP for Bradford West

Respect's George Galloway has taken his seat in the House of Commons as the new MP for Bradford West. He was officially sworn in on Monday - more than two weeks after his victory in a by-election - after Parliament returned from its Easter recess.

The one-time Labour MP captured the seat - previously held by his old party - with a majority of more than 10,000. He has vowed to speak out about Bradford's economic problems as well as his opposition to the Afghanistan war.

read the full story and watch the video on the BBC website here

MILIBAND CHALLENGED ON FURTHER GALLOWAY SLURS

Leader of the Opposition Ed Miliband has been challenged on more claims he has made in the last few days against George Galloway since Galloway's shock by-election victory in Bradford West.

At a meeting in Derby, Miliband absurdly claimed Galloway had promised Bradford voters he would cut taxes. Now it is alleged Miliband also claimed to a meeting in Exeter that Galloway supported Saddam Hussain and President Assad of Syria. These claims have been challenged in a letter to Miliband from Galloway aide Rob Hoveman. Hoveman is still waiting for a response to a previous email challenging the taxes claim.

The text of the email to Miliband is below.

George on the Daily Politics show before entering Parliament

George: "Why I'm troubled by Eyres and graces"

I WRITE this deep in Bronte country, in the village of Haworth, extraordinarily part of the district of Bradford, my new realm by the grace of God and 18,000 plus voters.
And it's not just the heights that are Wuthering. Mainstream politics has gone into meltdown in Bradford. Judging by the response in the streets, if I were to run for the presidency of the entire city, I'd win before the others got out of the starting blocks.

More than two weeks on, the by-election continues to fixate the political class and its media. But they still don't get it. Ed Miliband, for example, can't seem to stop himself from talking about me.

Unfortunately, the Labour leader is disobeying the first law of holes - when in one, stop digging. He should invite me round for tea, maybe he'd learn something about Labour values and how popularly to enunciate them. I could even give him a bit of style advice and elocution perhaps.

GALLOWAY DEMANDS ANSWERS ON THE ODEON

Newly-elected MP for Bradford West George Galloway is to press for an urgent meeting with Prime Minister David Cameron over the fate of the iconic Odeon building in Bradford. Galloway also wants answers from the proposed developers and the Bradford city council.

In his meetings Galloway will be seeking:

• an independent survey of the iconic building to find out if it can be saved and the cost of doing so if feasible.
• an outside legal judgement of the development contract alleged to be unbreakable and 'legally binding'.
• an expert view on whether the planning permission granted by the council is binding or can be revoked.

'What's going on is more opaque and shrouded in mystery than the acres of plastic sheeting now covering the building,' Galloway said. 'I want to know, "what's the script?" The developers and the council need to level with me and the Bradford public about the future of this grand building because, frankly, everyone has lost faith in them to deliver both the project and the truth.'

GALLOWAY CONDEMNS WIND MAST DECISION IN BRONTE COUNTRY

George Galloway has condemned the decision by a very small number of Bradford councillors to allow planning permission for a wind mast to go ahead in the heart of Bronte country on Thornton Moor, Denholme.

 "The Bronte sisters are three of the greatest authors in the English language," said Galloway. "The parsonage in Haworth where they lived is rightly a museum to their lives and their art.

 "During the election campaign, I raised the fact that the council had done nothing to highlight the birthplace of the Bronte sisters in Thornton to attract tourism. This is despite the fact that there have been not one but two acclaimed and very popular films, Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, in the last few months.

ED MILIBAND CHALLENGED OVER GALLOWAY CLAIM

Leader of the Labour Party Ed Miliband was this morning challenged over claims he made about George Galloway in a meeting in Derby. Miliband claimed he had heard that George Galloway had said he would cut taxes in the run up to the Bradford West by-election.

Now Rob Hoveman, one of Galloway's principal aides, has written to Miliband describing the claim as absurd and calling on him to retract the claim. He has also challenged Miliband to come to Bradford and debate with George Galloway.

The full text of the email to Ed Miliband is immediately below:

Respect's big Thank You party

Since our sensational election victory, things have moved on at a staggering speed. However, George Galloway and RESPECT would like to pause and thank all the activists, supporters and campaigners for the amazing collective effort they put in. There were so many people involved, on the front-line and behind the scenes. EVERYONE deserves a special thank you. RESPECT would like to invite you all to join us for food & drink, a big thank you and celebration with George.

We also want to remember our brother Abu Bakr, who fought so hard for so long to bring change to Bradford.

Please join us at 3pm on Sunday 15th April 2012 at The Venue, 245 Sunbridge Road, Bradford, BD1 2JY

Bradford Council candidates begin their election campaigns

Watch videomessages from our other candidates as they are published at the Bradford Respect YouTube channel here

George writes in the Daily Record
WELL, it's been 10 days that shook my world, and one or two others too.

I've been elected in a landslide, married, carried aloft, let down, betrayed, re-entered Parliament, doorstepped by the Fleet Street rat-pack like I'd never been away, Paxman'd (though things ain't what they used to be) on Newsnight, smeared on the Channel 4 show 10 O'Clock Live by a Tory boy I'd never heard of, libelled, praised and I'm not even an MP yet!

Parliament is on holiday and I haven't sworn my allegiance to Her Majesty and all her heirs and ­successors yet, though I've got my car park space back, picked up a ­mountain of post and had a warm welcome from the workers there, some of whom I've known for a quarter of a century.

The postmen in particular. "Been a lot quieter around here without you," one said, and he didn't just mean the reduction in ­suspicious packages.

Galloway celebrates Bradford Bulls victory

George Galloway, newly elected MP for Bradford West, celebrated the Bradford Bulls victory over local rivals Leeds Rhinos with Bulls chairman Peter Hood at Odsal on Good Friday. This was the first ever rugby game George Galloway had watched.

"It was exciting, fast and very physical," said Galloway afterwards. "The Bulls were handicapped by having no less than 14 players injured out of a squad of 30. They barely had enough players to field a full side with substitutes. And yet they held the Rhinos to just a four point lead at half time. Then in the second half and with a player in the sin bin, the Bulls took the lead through Jamie Langley, the only survivor of the great side that took the World Club Challenmge in 2006. And then doubled their lead. A fantastic result not only with all the injuriesd but with a financial crissi hanging over the club." 

Patrick Cockburn: Galloway won for some very good reasons

The ferocity of the attacks on George Galloway by the British commentariat is one of the most revealing outcomes of his victory in the Bradford West by-election. News presenters saw no problem in conducting interviews with the newly elected MP that were largely a shower of insulting and unproven accusations. Columnists wrote thousands of shrill words warning readers that he and his victory were atypical and had no broader significance for the country. And, if his success did have any relevance, it was the ominous one of illustrating deepening racial division in Britain, despite the fact that Mr Galloway continually explained that he had won in non-Muslim as well as Muslim majority wards.

There is an amusing half-hour to be spent watching YouTube clips of television interviews with Mr Galloway in the days after he was elected. With a few honourable exceptions – Sky was more even-handed here than the BBC or ITN – most of the interviewers appeared in the role of prosecuting attorneys. They had the air of men and women who knew they were not going to be reprimanded by their employers, however rude they were to the successful candidate. They were convulsed with rage because Mr Galloway said complimentary things to Saddam Hussein and Bashar al-Assad when he met them. Of course he had, as had every other visitor from Donald Rumsfeld to Tony Blair who had been to see these autocrats when they were in power. Other criticism was of astonishing naivety. For instance, had not Mr Galloway played ethnic politics by cultivating Muslim voters? Of course he had since they were numerous in the constituency, but then so had Labour to a far greater extent by selecting a Pakistani Muslim as its candidate.

Read the full article in The Independent here

Bradford shows the way

George Galloway MP writes in the Morning Star

As a fanatical Bob Dylan fan, one refrain has played over and over in my mind over the last week - "Because something is happening here, and you don't know what it is..."

Ballad Of A Thin Man could have been written for the political elite and punditocracy, schmoozing with each other in a gilded echo chamber in London.

The earthquake delivered by the people of Bradford West last week rattled them, but left so many unshaken in their complacency - at least at first.

With weary predictability they lurched from one comforting fake explanation to another in a transparent attempt to avoid the truth.

George Galloway's victory: two views from a Bradford household

Women and the young have been credited with springing the by-election ambush. Ratna Lachman and her son Kieron Mirchandani Cooper tell the Guardian Northerner more 

The electoral victory of George Galloway in the Bradford West by-election represents a seismic change in Bradford's politics that will reverberate in the forthcoming local and future national elections. In his victory address George Galloway gave notice that his party intends to take the mainstream parties on in other northern cities. For a campaign that barely lasted four weeks, the conversion of a 10-1 odds at the bookies to the suspension of all bets for a Galloway victory, three days before voting day, is indicative of the sea-change that is taking place. Whether this ripple will turn into a national tide remains to be seen?

Ratna Lachman is Director of JUST West Yorkshire, promoting racial justice, civil liberties and human rights. Read more here

The Bradford West by-election was a disaster for Labour. Not just the result, but also the campaign itself. It was a campaign marked by a belief that the election would be a coronation for the Labour candidate Imran Hussain.

Let's get this clear. This election wasn't a referendum on the government nor was it a referendum on the Labour party on the national stage. This was a referendum on the local politics that have come to define the Bradford West district and which the Bradford Labour Party shamelessly ignored.

Kieron Mirchandani-Cooper, 19, is on a gap year and will be going to Nottingham Univesity in September to read Politics and American studies. Read more here

GALLOWAY TO MEET BULLS' CHAIR OVER FINANCIAL CRISIS

George Galloway will be a guest of Bradford Bulls' chair Peter Hood at tonight's home derby against local rivals Leeds Rhinos. He will be discussing with Mr Hood the financial crisis that has engulfed the Bulls and what he can do to help.

"The Bradford Bulls are a central part of Bradford's tradition and also its future," said George Galloway, ahead of the meeting and the game. "This is the team that won the championship and the World Club Challenge not so long ago and will win both again. I'll do anything and everything I can to help the Bulls get on a sound financial footing and to spread the word that rugby league is a brilliant game and the Bulls deserving of the support of all Bradfordians."

George will be handing over his pledge to Mr Hood in person at 5.30 this evening.

George speaks out against Islamophobia and war

A few days after he won the election on 29 March 2012 to become MP for Bradford West, George Galloway explains in this video why Muslims like him because he has always defended them against bigotry, hatred, occupation and war.

 

Celebrate with the Bradford spring fundraising t-shirt

29.03.2012 was a sensational moment in British political history. George Galloway has dubbed his victory in Bradford West the Bradford Spring. There's never been anything quite like it, a party from the Left, outside the Westminster mainstream, turning a safe Labour Seat into a 10,000 majority against war and cuts, for a progressive alternative. Wear 'Bradford Spring' on your chest wherever you are and share in the joy of, for once, the neo-liberal consensus being shattered.

AND even better, for every shirt sold we will give one FREE to the army of young helpers, many unemployed, who helped secure the success in Bradford West. A small help toward ensuring the 'Bradford Spring' becomes a change for all seasons.

SPECIAL OFFER! £3 OFF FOR FIRST 48 HOURS JUST £12.99, usual price £15.99 CLICK HERE

Mark Steel: Galloway and Aung San Suu Kyi – so alike

His win has proved that people, including the young, can be reconnected with politics writes Mark Steel in The Independent

Britain is different now, since George Galloway was elected in Bradford. Partly this is because he's splendidly unpredictable, so it's possible he'll resign to compete in the Olympics at weightlifting, or discover he's fourth in line to the throne. He's also baffled the politicians and commentators who think they know how politics works. So the suggestion is made that the outcome was a result of Galloway unfairly courting the Muslim vote. Because as anyone knows, if you want to trick a Muslim to vote for you, it's best to be a Scottish Catholic standing against a Labour Muslim. That's why the entire Pakistani parliament is made up of Celtic fans, and the current Prime Minister of Bangladesh is Andy McDowell, from Falkirk.

How did the national media miss this?

A snapshot of the evening election campaign with George Galloway on 29th March, from the battle bus as it travels through the streets of Bradford. Shot between 6-9pm that evening

 

2000 join George to celebrate a remarkable victory

George Galloway addresses the huge crowd at his election celebration in Infirmary Field on Sunday 1st April. The introductory speeches are from Kevin Ovenden and Respect Party leader Salma Yaqoob.

 

Plus - How did the national media miss this?
A snapshot of the evening election campaign with George Galloway on 29th March, from the battle bus as it travels through the streets of Bradford. Shot between 6-9pm that evening.

George talks to the Guardian