On the campaign trail with George Galloway

In 2012 Left Foot Forward noted that Respect was running a ‘divisive and regressive' campaign. Three years later little has changed

 

Few people, when casting their vote on polling day, will have Judgment Day in mind. But Oldham’s Muslim population are being told by George Galloway to consider the ‘final day’ when they choose their candidate for local elections.

The Respect party leader, who is standing for re-election in Bradford West, visited the town on Sunday to officially launch the campaign for Respect Oldham council election candidate Tariq Mahmood Ullah.

According to Galloway, not only do the borough’s Muslims have to consider choosing the right candidate for their ward, but they have the added burden of voting on behalf of the Palestinians.

“The people of Gaza don’t have a vote,” Galloway declared. “If they did, they would vote for Tariq. A vote for Respect, therefore, is a vote for Palestinians.”

The green and red Respect Party bus visited Waterloo Street with Galloway on board, alongside Ullah – a married father-of-three – who is fighting for election in the St Mary’s ward, a predominantly Pakistani area. Labour’s Shadab Qumer will be fighting for re-election.

The atmosphere may have been electrifying for the majority male members of the community, who greeted Galloway as though he were the Messiah, but it was intimidating for someone like me, one of a handful of women at the campaign launch. During the rally  most women chose to stay on the other side of the road, away from the men.

Starting with the Islamic blessing bismillahirrahmanirrahim (In the name of Allah, the most gracious, the most merciful), Galloway described Ullah as a “lion” who has got the “sheep” (that’s politicians to you and me) ‘nervous already’.

It is commendable for politicians to try to get more people involved in the democratic process, and this is what Galloway seems to be doing. He is defending a 10,140 majority in Bradford West, where he won support from a cross-section of the city.

When Galloway claims to be speaking ;for those Labour has abandoned’ there may also be some truth to it. Although Oldham is a Labour-run council, two UKIP councillors were elected to the Council for the first time last year, with the party coming second in many of the 20 wards.

After winning Bradford West in 2012, Galloway claimed to have “smashed” the clan-based/biraderi bloc voting. “We don’t believe in biraderis,” he said in Oldham. “There’s nothing Islamic about biraderis, there’s nothing democratic about biraderis.”

Traditionally, when a candidate was chosen for the election, it would have been an elder selected by his clan on the basis of bloodlines rather than merit. For the second and third generation Pakistanis in the UK, the biraderi system is not as relevant as it was for the first generation of Pakistani settlers, who found that it provided essential support in the form of links back to the villages of Punjab and Pakistani-administered Kashmir.

But despite Galloway’s bluster, this continues today. And the journalist Nick Cohen was correct when he described Galloway’s politics as ‘unashamedly communalist’. Those who once identified with their ethnicity or their parent’s country of origin – i.e. British Pakistanis – now identify more with their faith, i.e. Islam. In this respect Galloway has found his ‘new revolutionary proletariat’, as Cohen puts it.

Galloway’s speech in Oldham was littered with Islamic terminology and religious rhetoric. He claimed that Muslims would have to account for their actions and the way they vote. This is nothing new – these were words recycled from a speech he gave back in 2012 in his by-election campaign.

Galloway also made references to grooming cases that have recently been in the news – two of the men who were jailed in 2012 for preying on vulnerable girls were from Oldham –  claiming that it is unfair to label them “Muslim criminals”.

“These men are not vile perverts because they are Muslim, they are just vile perverts,” Galloway said, before going on to say that “the biggest terrorists in the world are white Christians in the White House. They killed one million Iraqis and they’re still doing it.”

Ratna Lachman, a human rights campaigner who chaired the hustings in Bradford earlier this month, remarked that personality rather than issue-based politics dominate in Bradford West.

That seemed to be the case in Oldham on Sunday. The Oldham candidate preferred to let Galloway do the talking for him, though when he did speak he merely said he wanted to “ease concerns some may have for Islam”. Very little was said about local issues and how Respect would address the needs of Oldham’s residents.

Opinion seems divided over Galloway. Some Bradford residents claim he has done little for the city. Records show he has spoken in four debates in the last year and has voted in 11.19 per cent of votes in this Parliament – well below average amongst MPs.

Meanwhile West Yorkshire Police are investigating after allegations were made on an anonymous website against Labour’s candidate Naz Shah. At the hustings earlier this month Galloway went on the offensive against Shah, accusing her of lying about her forced marriage. Muslim Women’s Network UK described Galloway’s comments as “irresponsible” and “counter-productive”.

Dan Holden wrote on Left Foot Forward in 2012 that Respect was running a ‘divisive and regressive’ campaign. Three years later and little has changed.

Iram Ramzan is a freelance journalist. Follow her on Twitter

38 Responses to “On the campaign trail with George Galloway”

  1. Angry of Bradford

    It would be good if the Labour Party put some effort into Bradford West. It’s a winnable seat with Galloway’s supporters peeling away so much of the campaign is about how his opponents are puppets of the Israeli State and international Zionism (no, I’m not exaggerating).

    Unfortunately, Labour’s awful handling of the selection process means we might just end up with George, an MP who’s missed 92% of votes whilst representing us whilst becoming the the MP with third highest outside earnings.

  2. Leon Wolfeson

    “(no, I’m not exaggerating).”

    Why am I not surprised.

  3. Ken Bell

    Just to make a point about the UKIP presence in Oldham. One of the councillors sits in Failsworth West where I lived pretty much from birth until about twenty years ago. Warren Bates is his name and when I knew him in the 1980s he was rock solid Labour. He was driven out of the party by the Blairite polyocracy who took it over and after a stint in the Greens he ended up in UKIP and became a councillor fairly recently.

    People like Warren who believe in the old Labour values really do belong in Labour. That fact that he now sits for UKIP says more about Labour today than it does about Warren Bates.

  4. littleoddsandpieces

    UKIP is not old Labour.

    Modern Labour is New Labour and more Tory than the Tories.

    RESPECT MANIFESTO ON PENSIONERS

    The Moslem population has been in England long enough to be concerned about the state pension and works and private pensions provision.

    MANIFESTO – RESPECT – PENSIONERS

    RESPECT FOR PENSIONERS

    This country are among the poorest in the EU, where pensions have also been under attack for several years.

    MY NOTE:

    The UK has the lowest state pension of all rich nations bar poor Mexico (OECD)

    MY NOTE ENDS

    RESPECT MANIFESTO continues:
    Like the Tories before them New Labour has perpetuated this shameful situation by refusing to raise the basic state pension in line with inflation and to restore the link with earnings.

    MY NOTE: HOWEVER MANY TIMES I WROTE TO MILIBAND, HE HAS IGNORED TO OFFER TO REVOKE THE COALITION’S PENSION BILLS 2010-2014 (FLAT RATE STATE PENSION) that will leave huge numbers of men and women with NIL STATE PENSION FOR LIFE.

    See why at end of my petition, in my WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT section, at:

    https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/state-pension-at-60-now

    MY NOTE: THE MOSLEM COMMUNITY MIGHT CARE TO SHARE MY PETITION ON THEIR TWITTER AND FACEBOOK ACCOUNTS. ESPECIALLY THE LOSSES to THE WIFE NOT GETTING A STATE PENSION ANY MORE.

    RESPECT MANIFESTO continues:

    In fact New Labour is continuing to attack pensions and is now proposing to increase the retirement age to seventy.

    Alongside this are increasing attacks on occupational pension schemes as well.

    MY NOTE: SERPS opt out also hits works pensions.

    People affected are those who were in an employer’s defined-benefit pension scheme that was “contracted out” of the state system between 1978 and 1997.

    In return for taking the risk of “contracting out” of the safe state
    system, these workers were promised that inflation increases on a part of their pension known as the guaranteed minimum pension (GMP) would be paid for by the state after they reached state pension age.

    The Cabinet Office pension scheme booklet for the civil service scheme is one of dozens of booklets and state pension guides that explain the system. The Cabinet Office says that “the Government pays the increase on the GMP part of your pension with the state
    pension”.

    When the single-tier pension replaces … state pensions systems of the past, on 6 April 2016, these government-paid GMP increases will disappear for millions of men and women who reach state pension age after that date.

    END OF MY NOTE: from article in The Independent
    27 March 2015
    Women to lose benefits from contracted out pension schemes
    http://www.independent.co.uk/money/pensions/women-to-lose-benefits-from-contractedout-pension-scheme-10140198.html#

    Continuation of RESPECT MANIFESTO:

    In 1997 six million workers were covered by final salary schemes. Today that figure has been halved as employers replace final salary schemes by average salary schemes.

    MY NOTE:

    See Article excerpt from 1994 in The Independent below.

    Back in 1994 private pensions were known to have been hit by the SERPs opt out.

    This ‘bombshell’ will hit even more works and private pensions with the changes coming with the flat rate state pension, that pays less or even nil state pension for 10 years or less National Insurance contribution / credit history.

    Article The Independent in 1994…

    Last week (27 MARCH 1994) the Serps bomb exploded, as news emerged that contracting-out incentives for low earners do not cover the administration charges levied by some life insurance companies.

    An analysis by Coopers & Lybrand, the accountants, of figures compiled by the Department of Social Security concluded that at least 2.4 million of the 6 million people who have personal pensions should never have been advised to contract out.

    MY NOTE: In 1999 National Insurance Fund ceased to be administered by Department of Social Security and went under Inland Revenue.

    Continution of the article from 1994:
    Some 40 per cent of all those who opted out of Serps had gross annual earnings of less than pounds 10,000 in 1991/2.

    They will be worse off because they do not earn enough for their pension contributions to outweigh the charges imposed by the life insurance companies operating their pension plans.

    A further 85,000 people who have contracted out were too old to benefit except ‘by pursuing a risky investment strategy’

    READ MORE: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/the-private-hell-of-pen…ooks-at-the-selling-of-inappropriate-savings-products-1432068.html

    CONTINUATION OF RESPECT MANIFESTO ON PENSIONERS

    Big business has been allowed to raid pension funds, take contribution holidays, and refuse to compensate pensioners and current employees in the event of bankruptcy.

    MY NOTE: TORIES PASSED LAW IN 1993 that ended the guarantee of pension pay out.

    Labour never brought back their 1975 law that guaranteed pensions.

    MY NOTE: TORIES PASSED LAW IN 1995 that began the rise in retirement age.

    Labour never revoked that law.
    MY NOTE ENDS

    RESPECT MANIFESTO continues
    New Labour is actively attacking occupational schemes in the public sector where it is itself the employer.

    MY NOTE:

    The opt out from SERPs (State Earnings Related Pension Scheme that became the State Second Pension from 2002) is the biggest mis-selling of them all.

    SERPs began on 6 April 1978.

    The public sector, mostly women employees, was permitted by Tory and Labour governments to contract out staff from exactly the same day of 6 April 1978.

    The Lib Dem Pensions Minister Mr Steve Webb is in charge of the flat rate state pension that comes in force on and from 6 April 2016.

    Where the SERPs opt out means state pension forecasts as low as £38 per week, even after a full working life paying National Insurance, not the promised flat rate £155 that the bulk of new pensioners will never get.

    https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/state-pension-at-60-now

    MY NOTE ENDS

    RESPECT MANIFESTO continues:

    It (Labour) plans to increase the retirement age for all public sector employees initially to sixty-five.

    MY NOTE: The retirement age for women is 66 from 2013 and 66 for men from 2013.

    MY NOTE ENDS

    RESPECT MANIFESTO continues:

    1.5 million local authority workers are facing later retirement and increases in contributions to compensate for employers’ pension holidays and civil servants are also facing later retirement and attacks on their final salary scheme.

    MY NOTE:

    SERPs opt out is abolished on and from 6 April 2016,

    so everyone will pay the full 12 per cent of your wages in

    National Insurance contributions,

    not the 10.4 per cent per year when contracted out.

    MY NOTE ENDS

    MANIFESTO OF RESPECT RE PENSIONERS continues:

    Respect rejects the argument that the ageing population means that decent pension provisions are no longer affordable.

    MY NOTE:

    There has been over 1 million new workers in the UK come from abroad. They are young and have had have larger families. So there is no ageing population, because more than enough young have immigrated into the UK.
    MY NOTE ENDS

    RESPECT’S MANIFESTO continues:

    Big corporaions in Britain and elsewhere are seeking to boost their profits at the expense of pensioners by grabbing the deferred wages that pensions represent.

    MY NOTE:

    The flat rate state pension will pay nil state pension for 10 years or less National Insurance history.

    The biggest tax avoidance scheme is by firms running the salary sacrifice system which means the workers fall below the wages’ LOWER EARNINGS LEVEL, so get nil automatic National Insurance credits.

    So are out of ther welfare state / benefits scheme and will never get a state pension.

    https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/state-pension-at-60-now

    MY NOTE ENDS

    RESPECT MANIFESTO continues:

    Respect will give full support to those trade unions that are planning action to defend pension rights.

    MY NOTE:

    It is my hope that Mr Galloway can prevail on SNP and Plaid Cymru (if they rise from the current 3 MPs to more like near the maximum 40 in Wales) to revoke the Coalition’s Pension Bills 2010-2014 (flat rate state pension), and revoke the 1993 laws that ended the guarantee of pension payout and revoke the 1995 law that brought in the rise of the retirement age.

    MY NOTE ENDS

    https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/state-pension-at-60-now

    SUMMARY OF RESPECT’S PENSIONERS MANIFESTO:

    Respect calls for

    ● An immediate rise in the basic state pension to £110 per week for all pensioners

    MY NOTE:

    THE SNP is offer a flat rate £160 per week.

    The current basic state pension is £113.10 per week.

    The mis-selling of OPT OUT FROM SERPs would mean that people have lost not only the £113.10 per week state pension now

    As new claimants retiring on and from 6 April 2016.

    But about £165 per week of the top up to the state pension that SERPs had been.

    So could have been receiving since 2013 for women turning 60 and men turning 65, £278.10 per week.

    MY NOTE ENDS

    ● Restoration of the link between the state pension and average earnings.

    MY NOTE:

    THE UK IS IN BREACH OF THE EU SOCIAL CONTRACT AT THE INSUFFICIENT LEVEL OF BENEFITS AND STATE PENSION.
    MY NOTE ENDS

    ● Annual increases in the state pension in line with wages or prices—whichever is the greater.

    MY NOTE: LOST BY WHAT MAGGIE THATCHER DID AGAINST WOMEN IN THE UK THE MOST. AS WOMEN TEND TO BE POORER THAN MEN IN THE UK. The state pension is payable if remain in work or lose job due to massive austerity job cuts even worse to come.

    END OF MY NOTE

    ● Reduction of the age for receipt of the state pension to sixty for men and women

    MY NOTE: This petition is already in the UK parliament, but is continuing until after the general election.

    http://you.38degrees.org.uk/p/statepensionlaw

    My petition also includes the return of the state penson pay out age as 60 for women, but glad RESPECT includes men as well. Because nature is not equal. Men are not as long lived as women.

    MY NOTE ENDS

    RESPECT MANIFESTO continues:

    ● Free long term care for all pensioners

    ● A national free travel scheme for all pensioners

    ● End attacks on occupational pension scheme;

    ● final salary schemes for all employees

    ● Statutory occupational pension schemes covering all employees
    in both the public and private sector, with compulsory contributions by employers plus full liability by employers in the event of bankruptcy.

    ● An end to age discrimination in the provision of all goods and services

    LABOUR HAS ALREADY LOST

    THE TORIES HAVE ALREADY WON

    Parties like Respect will be the only opposition left in the UK parliament.

    326 MP minimum threshold to form a UK parliament.

    Neither Tory nor Labour will reach that threshold.

    Lib Dems due to fall even as few as 19 MPs in May.

    Tories are obliged, being the sitting government, to remain in government in a caretaker government.

    So the Tories have to remain in power in May, even if Labour get some more seats than the Tories.

    It is not possible for Labour to surge from around 250 MPs to 326 MPs in May.

    Tories are on track to lose down to 264 MPs from the 300 MPs they ‘won’ in 2010.

    No party won in 2010. More people did not vote than did vote for any winning party, and most voting areas are marginals.

    SORRY FOR THIS LONG ENTRY, BUT I AM IN FACT TRYING TO TALK TO MR GALLOWAY DIRECT AND WISH HIM EVERY SUCCESS

    I have lost all my state pension. I am not alone by the millions of men and women to come. Worked all my life paying National Insurance contributions, entirely unaware that SERPs opt out effected my state pension provision.

    The flat rate state pension is more about abolition of the state pension, especially to women.

    But I am the victim of the rise in retirement age in 2013 from 60 to 66 (about half a million women so far), so us women from that change, do not retire until the next parliament not this one coming.

    Men’s retirement age rose from 65 to 66 in 2013 and they lost £3000 of age related tax allowance from then onwards.

    https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/state-pension-at-60-now

    Men and women older than us retire in the next parliament from 2016 and will be hit first, to round about the quarter of a million men and women from April onwards.

    https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/state-pension-at-60-now

  5. James Chilton

    Galloway is a consummate flimflam artist. He could have made his living in any number of ways – all of them would include feigning an attitude of sympathy and understanding.

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