George Galloway pulls off the most incredible result in the Bradford West by-election, he secures a win and a 10k majority, it’s the stuff of legend!

Dear All

To quote a famous line:

“I don’t believe it”!

But it is true; George Galloway is celebrating a dramatic victory in the Bradford West by-election.

The result is mind blowing, after Galloway secured a 10,000-plus majority.

It seems the political class has a problem, all of the political class.

Politics at one time was about helping people, somewhere along the line, it became something rather different, it became about self interest, serving big business and careerist in nature.

People are waking up to the fact that politics is run by main stream parties by a middle class clique.

The result is unbelievable but more than that, the majority is incredible.

Galloway says this result highlights the "massive rejection" of mainstream parties.

Can this be the start of people in Britain voting for effectively independent candidates?

Not enough evidence to say yes, but it must be a concern for mainstream parties.

Galloway's party, Respect, swept from fifth place at the 2010 general election, to victory on a swing of 36.59%.

F*cking hell!!!

Galloway is a real politician known as a great speaker and debater, formerly of the Labour Party; he has pulled off some stunning results in his career, including sticking it to Blairite careerist Oona King.

A result I enjoyed in its Portilloesque magnitude.

Galloway has described this as "the most sensational result in British by-election history bar none" after being declared the victor with well over half the total votes.

For the Labour Party, who were picking up by-election seats like confetti from the Tories, this is a serious blow for Labour which entered polling day as overwhelming favourite.

If they can’t pull a win like this out of the bag when the Tory/ Lib Dem Government are on the ropes, it shows their selection process is wrong.

The middle class candidate isn’t always the best candidate.

Labour Party sources pointed to a massive slump in the Conservative vote as evidence of the Government's unpopularity but what’s the upside when equally Labour are just as unpopular?

The Liberal Democrats lost their deposit, no surprise there; Clegg has destroyed the party by going into coalition.

The reasoning of a ‘unity’ government doesn’t wash with the public; this was all about Clegg’s middle class greed and ambition.

He has sunk the careers of many people by his stupidity.

If I was Clegg, I would walk out on the coalition but then I wouldn’t have made the mistake of going into it in the first place.

The defeat focuses the spotlight back on the leadership of Ed Miliband.

He is seen as a weak leader politically and personally.

Galloway won 18,341 votes to the 8,201 for Labour candidate Imran Hussain.

This is a significant event in political history, do the British people realise that by voting for independent candidates that they can effectively take back their democracy?

I hope so, mainstream political parties aren’t about helping the people; they are about pushing their own personal agendas out with mainstream public concerns.

In Scotland, there is a possibility of many councils being hung, Glasgow a key area is in flux, no party may hold overall majority after May’s election. The balance of power could be in either minority parties or independents.

Democracy would be better served if more independents or minority were elected to effectively do the job of oversight that elected bodies sometimes ignore.

But for George Galloway, this result is incredible, when you thought his career was over, he has done it again.

This is right up there with his Oona King win, possibly better since he was very much an underdog.

We could do with more underdogs in politics fighting for the people.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University