{"id":149539,"date":"2015-05-08T13:20:00","date_gmt":"2015-05-08T13:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?guid=ac850747a69de5412555712e0e18c183"},"modified":"2015-05-08T20:09:19","modified_gmt":"2015-05-08T20:09:19","slug":"george-galloway-defeated-uk-general-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/editorials\/george-galloway-defeated-uk-general-election\/","title":{"rendered":"George Galloway Defeated in UK General Election"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>by Stephen Lendman<\/p>\n<p>(<a href=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\">RINF<\/a>) &#8211; Parliamentarian, writer, broadcaster, anti-war activist, human rights supporter, Israeli critic, and champion of Palestinian rights among other credentials Respect Party member Galloway was defeated in Thursday&#8217;s general election.<\/p>\n<p>He lost his Bradford West constituency decisively to New Labour&#8217;s Naz Shah &#8211; 19,977 to 8,557. Down but not out, he commented, saying:<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t begrudge the Labour members here their moment of celebration, of course.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But there will be others who are already celebrating: the venal, the vile, the racists and the Zionists will all be celebrating.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The hyena can bounce on the lion\u2019s grave but it can never be a lion and in any case, I\u2019m not in my grave. As a matter of fact I\u2019m going off now to plan the next campaign.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Bradford West will always have a central place in my heart,&#8221; he explained.<\/p>\n<p>Shah thanked all her opponents in her victory speech &#8220;with the exception of one,&#8221; she said &#8211; leaving no doubt who she meant.<\/p>\n<p>She outrageously claimed Galloway &#8220;demean(ed) our democracy&#8221; while campaigning. He blasted Torries and New Labour for continuing business as usual.<\/p>\n<p>Millions of Brits are suffering. Corrupt politicians don&#8217;t care. Food banks are proliferating, Galloway explained. &#8220;Can you imagine what the country will look like by 2020 if these barbarians are returned&#8221; to power, he stressed.<\/p>\n<p>Social justice is fast disappearing. Neoliberal harshness is official UK policy. So is partnering with Washington&#8217;s endless wars.<\/p>\n<p>Galloway demands better. He was a marked man for championing what power brokers oppose.<\/p>\n<p>Campaigning was rough and tumble. A Galloway spokesman denied his tactics were out of line.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Shah has made it personal from the beginning,&#8221; he said. &#8220;She hasn&#8217;t told the truth, and she&#8217;s told untruths about George.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It didn&#8217;t affect his core supporters, reports indicated. They were out in force. It wasn&#8217;t enough.<\/p>\n<p>In 2012, Galloway defeated New Labour&#8217;s Imran Hussein overwhelmingly. This time was different.<\/p>\n<p>In late April, Galloway said he&#8217;ll run for mayor of London if his reelection campaign fails. He told Sky News:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I won&#8217;t run for London mayor if I am reelected on 7 May. If I am not reelected, I will run&#8221; in May 2016.<\/p>\n<p>He ruled out running as a sitting MP &#8211; suggesting it would be impossible to represent his constituents properly. A spokesman had no further comment.<\/p>\n<p>Galloway remains one of politics most charismatic figures. Supporters and critics alike agree few can arouse a crowd the way he does.<\/p>\n<p>It was an honor for this writer to be on air once with him as a guest. We had a rousing discussion not heard on major Western media outlets.<\/p>\n<p>Hard truths on issues mattering most are strictly verboten. Galloway features them on air and in parliament. Maybe as mayor of London next year.<\/p>\n<p>Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.<\/p>\n<p>His new book as editor and contributor is titled &#8220;Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>http:\/\/www.claritypress.com\/LendmanIII.html<\/p>\n<p>Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.<\/p>\n<p>Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.<\/p>\n<p>It airs three times weekly: live on Sundays at 1PM Central time plus two prerecorded archived programs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div><b>George Galloway Defeated in UK General Election<\/b><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>by Stephen Lendman<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Parliamentarian, writer, broadcaster, anti-war activist, human rights supporter, Israeli critic, and champion of Palestinian rights among other credentials Respect Party member Galloway was defeated in Thursday&#8217;s general election.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>He lost his Bradford West constituency decisively to New Labour&#8217;s Naz Shah &#8211; 19,977 to 8,557. Down but not out, he commented, saying:<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>I don&#8217;t begrudge the Labour members here their moment of celebration, of course.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;But there will be others who are already celebrating: the venal, the vile, the racists and the Zionists will all be celebrating.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;The hyena can bounce on the lion&rsquo;s grave but it can never be a lion and in any case, I&rsquo;m not in my grave. As a matter of fact I&rsquo;m going off now to plan the next campaign.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;Bradford West will always have a central place in my heart,&#8221; he explained.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Shah thanked all her opponents in her victory speech &#8220;with the exception of one,&#8221; she said &#8211; leaving no doubt who she meant.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>She outrageously claimed Galloway &#8220;demean(ed) our democracy&#8221; while campaigning. He blasted Torries and New Labour for continuing business as usual.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Millions of Brits are suffering. Corrupt politicians don&#8217;t care. Food banks are proliferating, Galloway explained. &#8220;Can you imagine what the country will look like by 2020 if these barbarians are returned&#8221; to power, he stressed.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Social justice is fast disappearing. Neoliberal harshness is official UK policy. So is partnering with Washington&#8217;s endless wars.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Galloway demands better. He was a marked man for championing what power brokers oppose.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Campaigning was rough and tumble. A Galloway spokesman denied his tactics were out of line.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;Shah has made it personal from the beginning,&#8221; he said. &#8220;She hasn&#8217;t told the truth, and she&#8217;s told untruths about George.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>It didn&#8217;t affect his core supporters, reports indicated. They were out in force. It wasn&#8217;t enough.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>In 2012, Galloway defeated New Labour&#8217;s Imran Hussein overwhelmingly. This time was different.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>In late April, Galloway said he&#8217;ll run for mayor of London if his reelection campaign fails. He told Sky News:<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;I won&#8217;t run for London mayor if I am reelected on 7 May. If I am not reelected, I will run&#8221; in May 2016.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>He ruled out running as a sitting MP &#8211; suggesting it would be impossible to represent his constituents properly. A spokesman had no further comment.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Galloway remains one of politics most charismatic figures. Supporters and critics alike agree few can arouse a crowd the way he does.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>It was an honor for this writer to be on air once with him as a guest. We had a rousing discussion not heard on major Western media outlets.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Hard truths on issues mattering most are strictly verboten. Galloway features them on air and in parliament. Maybe as mayor of London next year.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>His new book as editor and contributor is titled &#8220;Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>http:\/\/www.claritypress.com\/LendmanIII.html<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div>It airs three times weekly: live on Sundays at 1PM Central time plus two prerecorded archived programs.&nbsp;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1217,"featured_media":138571,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[461],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-149539","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-editorials"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1217"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}