Galloway & Respect being taken for chumps by Community politics

"Respect councillors in Bradford resign en masse George Galloway's party in disarray as its five city councillors resign amid growing internal dissent". Headline in yesterday's Guardian about the latest split in the latest version of the ill named political party "Respect". The Councillors accuse Galloway of trying to "marginalise and excommunicate party members who raise legitimate concerns".  While the Gorgeous one himself says of them "If they had a shred of principle they would now resign their council seats and stand again in their new colours."

I don't know the exact ins and outs of Bradford politics but while I know that Galloway's egotism, megalomania and laziness as a MP would have contributed to the split, it seems once again, local communities are taking him and his ultra left cronies for a ride.

I have come across respect activists who openly admit that they will use Galloway and his allies to finance and organise elections but they have no interest or sympathy in their domestic politics and as soon as possible will dump them.

How on earth a motley crew of mostly middle class, Trotskyite, militant atheists feel they have anything in common with conservative minded Muslim businessmen has always been beyond me.

(picture of Newham Respect former headquarters)

Galloway the Ego slithers back to the East End

So Gorgeous George Galloway and his creature Diss-Respect is back in Newham, busy trying to stir up division and discord  in our community.

Jumping on any bandwagon they can, less than 3 years since this unlikely alliance of Muslim religious conservatives and extremist revolutionary atheists  were kicked out of East London, they are back with more of their nonsense.

Diss-Respect is trying to inflame concern about the recent refusal of a planning application for a large mosque in Abbey Mills, E15.

Galloway has taken time off from sucking up to murderous dictators, rape suspects and despotic regimes to claim if it had been a Catholic or Jewish church, then it would have been given permission. The only reason according to him, it was turned down was that it was "by... Muslims".

This is a completely untrue and also in my view a despicable statement to make. Even the worse sort of carpetbagger must realise that such baseless, inflammatory comments are shameful and potentially incite hatred.

Galloway calls for Newham Labour Mayor Robin Wales "to resign" over the turning down of the current application.

Why?  Robin Wales played no part in the planning committee decision. It was made by Newham Councillors. You cannot "whip" Councillors on planning decisions.  They make their own minds up on the merits of the application within planning law.

Robin Wales was re-elected as Newham Mayor in May 2010 with 68% of the vote. One of biggest majorities in the country on the same day that Galloway was humiliated and thrown out as a MP of next door Tower Hamlets.

Boris Johnson, the Tory Mayor of London has also turned down this application. Although I would be more than happy for Boris to resign, why hasn't Galloway called for his resignation as well?

Doesn't Galloway realise how stupid he and anyone else looks calling for anyone to resign when there is no legal or any other basis whatsoever to do so?

Newham is an imperfect but still successful multicultural and diverse community.  One key thing that all right thinking people agree upon and value is the rule of law in this country. I personally fully support the idea of a beautiful, signature mosque and religious facilities for this site, but it must fully comply with planning law. No ifs and no buts.

Galloway has also been spouting on about how he is going to run a petition on a debate in the House of Commons on this issue. Galloway is one maverick MP out of 650. The rest of MPs quite rightly mostly despise him and will not pay the slightest attention to anything he says or does.

Picture above is of the former Newham Respect headquarters "To Let".

No comment.

George Galloway and the Secret Policeman



Shock, Horror: George Galloway MP has been exposed for hiring as his personal Parliamentary Assistant, the wife of one of Scotland Yard's most senior Counter-terrorist Police Officers, Afiz Khan, who is a Detective Inspector with the elite SO15.

Galloway even gave his PA, Aisha Ali-Khan, the keys to his own London home. Apparently the happy couple had marital relations (or was that "carnal knowledge"?) in his home.

Despite declaring her relationship with DI Khan, Aisha has now been suspended by George who is planning to dismiss her. She apparently thinks that this is due to "Some men in Respect hated the fact that she was a non-hijab-wearing Muslim woman, she says. "The atmosphere around Respect was so hostile to women. I was seen as an outspoken, opinionated woman who had ideas, who made things happen, who organised events and the guys didn't like it at all."

She further complains she is being made out to be a tart "sleeping with random police officers".

Respect hostile to women??? Surely not! Especially since its one and only MP, the Gorgeous One, has such a progressive attitude to rape and abortion? Don't mention "window lickers" either.

Picture is one of George being caught out doing one of his many moonlighting jobs while pretending to be an MP. Is this another Guy Burgess? I think we should be told the truth about him and his Secret Policeman family.

"Respect" purges dissenters

Two former National Council members of "Respect" have left the "Party" after being "purged" from their positions following criticisms of Gorgeous George over his recent comments about rape. The article explaining how and why they were purged was published today at 5.29pm on Socialist Unity and comments on the post was rapidly closed at 8.39pm.

Apparently because an administrator objected to some rather mild comments about GG as being an "anti-Galloway hate fest".... and the problem with that is???
 

..and why Jack of Kent is being censured by...Wikileaks?

Hat tip Jack of Kent. "A couple of days ago I did a long post over at the New Statesman which dealt with the legal mythology which had developed in relation to the Julian Assange extradition case.

I had thought they may be the last substantive thing I would write on the subject. However, a number of Assange’s more committed supporters continue to question my motivations in blogging about the Assange case. This being so, I thought a short (and I hope) final word would be useful.

When the relevant allegations against Assange emerged two years ago, I happened to be one of the first legal bloggers to cover the subject. Straight away it appeared to me that there was a significant due process issue. There appeared a lot of people anxious to discredit the allegations (and the complainants) without there being a proper investigation. In particular, there were many individuals who believed their take on the allegations had a higher purchase than any formal process. There were even some who were “slut-shaming” the complainants.

I thought this was very wrong. I still do.

From that basis, I began to cover the legal side of events involving Assange and Wikileaks.

In February 2011, I challenged the threat of Wikileaks of taking action against the Guardian for “malicious libels”. It seemed inappropriate to me for the organization to be making such a threat. After all, Wikileaks is supposedly about transparency and freedom of information.

And in May 2011, I revealed the Wikileaks £12 million “penalty” clause in their Non-Disclosure Agreement and indeed published the entire NDA. I showed that it – wrongly – claimed a commercial and proprietary interest in the information which had been disclosed to it. This was concerning, because – again – Wikileaks is supposedly about transparency and freedom of information.

(When Wikileaks and others contended that such an NDA was actually appropriate for their work, I even drafted an alternative NDA which had no such commercial pretensions.)

It was becoming clear that Assange – or whoever else at Wikileaks was responsible for their NDA and libel threat – had at best a misconceived notion of law. The impression was that they were making legal stuff up as they went along, and that law was ultimately something which bound others but not them.

Against this background, I blogged about the extradition case. This was not because I have a particular interest in international law, but for another simple reason. It appeared to me that there was a perhaps concerted effort by individuals with significant media power to misrepresent the applicable legal issues so that the due process of an investigation into an alleged rape and sexual assaults would be frustrated and discredited.

This just seemed wrong. And so I started – first on Twitter, and then on blogs – to challenge what were false and misleading statements about the extradition case.

However, this did not go down well, at least with Assange’s supporters.

Here I am being denounced by Wikileaks to their 1.6 million followers.


(I am now actually blocked by Wikileaks on Twitter, which I think is kind of ironic.)

But such tweeting and blogging seemed the right thing to do, and – despite the abuse – I am glad that the debate in respect of the extradition is more informed by correct statements of the law than it otherwise would be.

Most of the critics of my posts on the Assange extradition miss a simple but crucial important point.

This is not really about Assange. I have not met him, and although I regard him as a serial fantasist when it comes to the law, I have no idea whether he is guilty or not guilty of the allegations. It also matters nothing to me whether he is convicted or acquitted. Indeed, if the investigation and criminal proceedings close down by their own volition then I would not give it a second thought.

It is about due process. It is about the circumstances in which people with media or political power can seek to undermine a criminal investigation into rape and sexual assault by promoting misinformation about the law and legal process.

This matters, and an interest in confronting this misdirection provides a complete explanation for why I have followed the case in the way I have done.

The strange paradox is that I have been implicitly criticised for placing into the public domain materials and information which supporters of Wikileaks and Assange do not want to have circulated. They instead want their version of events to be adopted without query.

That said, I have always been a fan of the principle of Wikileaks. (I was especially happy when the “sacred” texts of the Scientology cult was placed by Wikileaks into the public domain.) There is an important public interest in the continuance of the Wikileaks project, but its future really should be de-coupled from the personal matters of any one individual.

The rights of Assange are important; but so is due process.

And complainants of rape and sexual abuse have rights too".

Jack of Kent

A letter to Bradford West from Tower Hamlets

"I felt sick to my stomach when I saw the news from Bradford. George Galloway was an appalling MP for Bethnal Green and Bow which is why the people of Tower Hamlets rejected Respect so decisively in May 2010. I hope you can stop the rot quickly and avoid losing council seats in May.

I don’t pretend we’ve got all the answers for you as you work out how to tackle Galloway, but we’ve had nearly ten years to learn some lessons. You’re the experts on your area, so make use of this as you will as you rebuild the Labour party in Bradford West.

Whilst Galloway’s core supporters are rallying and celebrating, many local people will be feeling uncomfortable with what’s been done, or nervous of the consequences. Oona was amazing in the period after her defeat, attending meetings and talking to people, acting as a focus for worries and uncertainty – still trying to do casework! The Labour Party was visibly still there for people even when we had lost. That was a basis for rebuilding. Jim Fitzpatrick MP was then stalwart in dividing his time attending campaign sessions in his own seat in Poplar and Bethnal Green and Bow until we selected our new candidate.

You’ve seen the politics of division at work. “Real” Muslims vs “thirsty” Muslims. Vicious lies have become key campaign tools for some in Tower Hamlets, from claims that Oona wanted to ban halal meat to lies about mayoral candidate Helal Abbas being a wife beater. In my council election in 2010 many people in the ward received a letter telling them not to vote for me because I was a Jew. (I’m a Christian, but facts are beside the point). By that evening our ward activists had written, stuffed and distributed a letter to those thousands of voters setting out our opposition to that politics of hatred. Our support from local Bangladeshi Muslims strengthened. The lies and hatred must be challenged.

It’s too easy sometimes for Labour Party officers or staff to enforce the use of an old campaign formula because it worked before, or it’s what they know. Our best election campaigns have been formed through having a strategic campaign lead and leaving space for people’s good ideas. Everyone has to be able to make a contribution and it has to be valued. Fighting these people is tough, and investing in relationships to build the Labour Party’s resilience is important.

Get your own house in order, but always have a hand out to those who truly want to come home and help Labour win again. Some of your members will have asked people to vote for Galloway. They can’t be Labour Party members any more – we have rules, and we can’t let the party rot from within. At the same time, Labour won’t win again without the support of some of the people who voted Respect. Tough judgement calls to be made.

Never retreat into campaigning comfort zones. If we believe in communities where people from different backgrounds live alongside one another, we have to model that and learn from one another. Mono ethnic canvassing teams send the wrong message. If there’s a big Iftar party take someone who’s never been inside a mosque to share the food. It’s not only bright young graduates or long term campaign experts who enjoy voter ID number crunching – every activist should be briefed and engaged.

There’s no such thing as a “community leader” who can single handedly deliver huge blocks of votes. In my ward there are a number of women’s circles who come together for Islamic prayer and to talk about their children, family budgets…exactly like the mother’s coffee mornings in the church hall in the village in Wiltshire where I grew up. We win when we are where people are.

In any election, we have to appeal to people’s heads and people’s hearts. Respect feeds on anger and alienation. Labour can remind people of our achievements and set out a strong policy programme for the future. We only win when we also have a strong message of hope that people can believe in. Working out clever policies and presenting ourselves as competent bureaucrats won’t be enough.

Good luck. Let us know if we can help".
Rachel Saunders

Why we all hate George Galloway (unless you do community politics)

It just goes to show that you just can't keep a bad man down! Poor old Bradford West. They will soon learn - as did the people of Tower Hamlets. First posted here November 2007. Hat-tip Col Roi.

Tower Hamlets: A bit of a flashback

Tower Hamlets Councillor Rachel Saunders gives her personal take on what has gone wrong with the local Mayoral election.  Hat tip Labour List (and Unmesh Desai!)

"Thursday night, the night Labour lost Tower Hamlets, felt like a bit of a flashback. The venue was different, York Hall instead of Canary Wharf’s Winter Gardens, but Oliur Rahman and Rania Khan were doing V for Victory signs, hard working Labour activists were miserable and Ken Clark (London Labour's regional director) was at the front of the room looking grumpy.

One difference though – in 2006 I went up to a couple of Labour councillors and gave them a piece of my mind for working as a part of a group of Labour councillors who were making deals with Respect and others to save their own skins and knife councillors they disliked. This time Lutfur Rahman was victorious, but no longer in the Labour Party, at last openly supported by Respect and by others who travel through political parties as it suits them.

This election result came after a messy summer, where two separate panels made up of NEC and regional board members decided not to shortlist Lutfur Rahman, but he got on the shortlist through an appeal. Having previously declined to shortlist him, NEC members chose not to accept his nomination by the local party, and voted instead to impose the sitting council leader Helal Abbas.

Abbas is a decent man with an impressive personal story. From his leadership of the local squatters movement in the 1980s, standing up for Bengali families in desperate need who were excluded from social housing, to his record as the first Bangladeshi council leader, Abbas was the best candidate to steer us through the difficult times ahead. Why did he lose?

It will take a bit longer than a day to articulate what went on in the Bangladeshi community over the past few weeks and months. It is important to be clear that our greatest campaign leaders and activists were Bangladeshi, and that Lutfur presented himself as “Real Labour”, exactly like Respect before him – the bonds that tie our party to the east end of London remain strong, and our opponents only win by impersonating us.

I think our loss has two root causes. One, despite London region intending to run a short selection process and leave us a long summer to campaign, the cock ups and conspiracies meant we must have appeared to our electorate to spend the entire summer warring amongst ourselves. Combined with the London mayoral selection and leadership elections that many of us were involved in, we can’t blame our electorate for feeling like we lost our focus on what should really matter. We did continue to run campaign sessions several times a week, but not everyone will have seen us. This will have contributed to the very low turnout.

Secondly, Lutfur’s narrative was up and running before our story had its boots on. Lutfur presented himself as a victim of the evil Labour Party machine. He had much of the Bengali media behind him, and the intervention of Ken Livingstone, who turned up a few days before polling day and did a walkabout with Lutfur that the BBC were available to film, meant that Labour Party process was all anyone could talk about. Added to this was a smear campaign more filthy than I could have imagined – and I’ve seen a few nasty ones since Respect came into town.

Make no mistake though, there is no difference between the coalition of people that came within one councillor of toppling us in 2006 and the people who managed it on Thursday. Previously Ken Livingstone came to Tower Hamlets to slate Jim Fitzpatrick MP and give Galloway a hug, this time he slated Abbas and hugged Lutfur. Siraj of Clifton restaurant was a supporter of Galloway then and he’s a supporter of Lutfur now. Oliur Rahman, the first Respect councillor and opponent of Jim Fitzpatrick in 2005, who has been a member of four political groups in as many years (SWP/Respect, Left List, Labour, Lutfur), was crowing at the Labour defeat.

The selection process was a mess, but the NEC were absolutely right to stop Lutfur being the Labour candidate.

We defeated Respect convincingly in May 2010, and we’ll do it again. We’ll do it in exactly the same way. Again, we have a wave of new activists who are disgusted at what they have seen and want to defeat it. Again, we have excellent local organisation and hard working talented activists and councillors. We’re stronger than before, with two excellent Labour MPs. We’ll win back the hearts and minds of the people of Tower Hamlets through demonstrating that we understand their concerns, and that only Labour can represent the whole of our community.

This time we’ll have to stand up for them in opposition at the Town Hall. If you oppose the politics of hatred and division that Galloway stood for in Tower Hamlets - before we drummed him out - then stand with us".

West Ham 6 play Millwall 4 (Abbas as Labour Mayor)

Apologies for post title but I just couldn't resist it. Yesterday I was out with a canvass team led by West Ham MP, Lyn Brown in Millwall, Isle of Dogs, Tower Hamlets.  We were campaigning for the Labour Party Candidate for Mayor, Helal Abbas.

Last Saturday about 40 activists from Newham helped out with the campaign. 

The meeting point was in Copenhagen Place which I thought was fortuitous considering the election will be held this week on Trafalgar Day.  We were sent off to knock on doors.  The reaction from voters was again very positive. 

One person told me that he and his family will be definitely be voting Labour on Thursday "we don't want our Council tax in the hands of George Galloway for the next 4 years".  I told him I couldn't possibly comment :)

I also knocked on the door of the Chief Executive of a well know East London voluntary sector organisation and had a chat.

What is strange is that I work in Tower Hamlets and have been campaigning a few times now and I have never seen any of the opposition parties out door knocking or delivering leaflets?  Instead it appears from this report by independent local blogger, Ted Jeory, that for some - most effort has been in simply smearing Abbas and trying to poison the community against him.

Respect are up to their old tricks I see.

I posted on Facebook the other day this great quote from local MP Rushanara Ali "What’s at stake next Thursday is a billion pound budget, in one the most vibrant and diverse boroughs at the heart of our capital. For the people of Tower Hamlets this isn’t about personalities, it’s about the real issues – schools, housing, jobs and the economy. This is no time for a Galloway-backed independent who appeals to the margins and wants to turn the clock back to the politics of the past".  The bile it generated from Labour opponents was great fun.

Election is on 21 October - Campaign office is at 349 Cambridge Heath Road, London, E2 9RA - 3 mins from Bethnal Green tube and is open for canvassing and leafleting from 10am-until late every day until the election. Or you can ring 0207 729 6682 or email abbas4mayor@gmail.com for further details.

Picture is from left: Newham Councillor Charity Fiberesima, Gordon Miller, Lyn, Councillor Pat Murphy (honorary West Hammer for day) and John Cullen.

"A vote for Respect will let the Tories in"

Yesterday evening I was helping out the re-election campaign for Jim Fitzpatrick and the Labour Council candidates in Poplar and Limehouse. I was delivering targeted mail around Limehouse ward. I thought I knew my way around Tower Hamlets but it was pretty confusing and difficult to find particular blocks.  But I managed eventually to work it out.

The only opposition campaigners I came across were a group of Tories who were also lost and it appeared to be wondering around in circles. They only had to ask me and I would have sent them the correct way – honest!

I was very pleasantly surprised to see a complete lack of any activity or posters for Respect. It is very different atmosphere to 2005 but Galloway could still do the Tories dirty work for them (see picture).

Update: you can help Jim out tomorrow - go to Party headquarters next to Chrisp Street market - 11 Market Way, E14 6AH. It's close to All Saints and Langdon Park DLR stations - the Bus Number 15 also goes there. Ring 020 7729 3186.

“On the knocker” for Labour in Green Street West 2010

Picture of the Labour team (and young helpers!) at the end of our voter ID canvass in target ward Green Street West. Our West Ham Parliamentary candidate, Lyn Brown, led the charge.

In 2006 this ward was the only one in Newham taken by Respect. Since then two of the three former Respect Councillors have joined the Labour Party and are now active campaigners in the ward for Labour despite not being candidates themselves (the Newham Recorder has got this wrong).

I think this shows political commitment and great strength of character by them. Not least since the fanatical rump that remains of Newham Galloway/Respect have been up to their old tricks of violence and intimidation.

No surprise there.

Battling for Bethnal Green and Bow

"On Tuesday Progress visited the East End, meeting up with Rushanara Ali in Bethnal Green and Bow. Rushanara told us about George Galloway and his neglect of the area and its people, the divisions his election caused and how she's trying to unite the community and make their voice heard in parliament again".

Newham Labour Helps out Jim in Limehouse & Poplar.

Yesterday West Ham and East Ham Labour Party members from across Newham joined in on a mass canvass to help our comrades in Limehouse and Poplar. We had about 30 activists turning out including the Mayor, Sir Robin Wales and Lyn Brown. I was part of a team with Stephen Timms, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, and Minister for Digital Britain.

The reception was pretty good on the whole. Either side of the River Lea, East Londoners are instinctively Labour. There was also not a single Tory or Galloway canvasser to be seen the whole time we were there.

I do wonder how the “Gorgeous One” will manage in an election this time without his SWP brain washed foot soldiers to do all his dirty work?

I fear that Galloway is not only trying to score political points but to further poison relationships between the local communities. He will do all he can to try and elect a Tory MP for the seat.

He’s quite happy about that prospect since the one thing he learnt from his former SWP comrades about such political “Fronts” is you should either “Rule... or Ruin”.

Jim Fitzpatrick MP: West Ham Labour Guest Speaker

Last night Jim was the guest speaker at our monthly West Ham Labour Party General Committee meeting. The Former fire-fighter and trade union activist will be the Labour Party Parliamentary candidate for the new seat of Poplar and Limehouse in our sister borough of Tower Hamlets. Due to boundary changes and gentrification Jim is facing a very strong challenge from a Tory Merchant Banker and of course the loathsome opportunist Gorgeous “George Galloway”

Jim came over really well. Despite the enormous pressure he must be under he was relaxed, articulate and self confident.

He explained clearly what are the political problems he and the local Party are facing, why this has come about and what he is doing about it.

Our GC delegates of Bangladeshi origin were the first to congratulate Jim on his speech and to support him and his comments about those who try their best to divide our communities and whip up hate and mistrust.

I thought he went down really well and in the post GC analysis in the pub - some West Ham GC delegates - who have let us say not always been amongst his greatest fans in the past were impressed with his speech and have offered to help him and his CLP out in the forthcoming election.

By co-incidence last week after the House of Commons UNISON Labour Link Housing Association meeting with Minister John Healy MP we bumped into Jim on the way out in the central Lobby. One of the UNISON members with me was a constituent of Jim, who despite being a little bit shy, made me stop everyone so I can introduce her to him so she could thank him personally for the work he had done as her MP to help out her local organisation.

Good bloke. Nuf said.

Must lobby him personally on the "Campaign for Dignity and Respect" for workers in Notting Hill Housing Trust.

I will be helping out Tower Hamlets TULO with organising local Labour Party supporting trade union canvass and leafleting teams in Limehouse & Poplar as well as Bethnal Green & Bow.

(Picture of Jim supporting UNISON Workers Memorial Day ceremony outside Tower Hamlets Town Hall)

Galloway is a Norwegian Blue in Green Street West.

We had some 20-ish Labour party members out yesterday morning from all over Newham. This was despite the glorious warm sunshine and blue skies.

Green Street West use to be the “heartland” of diss-Respect in Newham. All their 3 councillors were elected to this ward. They have now pretty much disintegrated.

I didn’t find a single person who admitted to being a Respect supporter. It was quite, quite different from canvassing here during the very stormy Council elections in 2006. When we faced a largely non-Newham imported motley collection of ultra left revolutionaries and the far right Islamic extremists screaming abuse and threats at us.

Lyn Brown MP joined us as well. No-one at all mentioned MP expenses (Lyn said if anyone brought it up then bring her over and she would speak to them personally) but I suspect that some Labour voters will punish the Party by staying at home on Thursday. Hopefully not that many and I think they will return to Labour next year.

Fellow UNISON Labour Link activist Alan Griffiths and I got shut inside a modern gated development off Romford Road which had no internal entry door opening - so we had to climb over a 6ft brick wall to get out. Why waste money getting fit by joining a gym when if you are trade unionists you can join the Party for only £1 per month and go canvassing!

Afterwards we had a debrief and forward planning session at the “Black Lion”.

It was a good day locally despite difficult national circumstances.

Mars Hill – 20 Questions to a fellow blogger

Check out this link here to find out my response to the Paul Burgin’s (Mars Hill) 20 point questionnaire.

If you really want to find out about why I started blogging and guess who was the "pompous and conceited" trade union blogger; my best blogging experience; my worse; why I think my best post is “George Galloway: My Part in his downfall”; what inspired me to go into politics and why I use to hide behind the sofa when I was little – then please check it out.

Socialist Unity "apologises" to Police

This is probably the most utterly bizarre story of the year.

CLARIFICATION AND APOLOGY

On 25 June 2008 we published a posting, by Andy Newman, entitled “J’accuse! — the Dreyfus Affair”.

This posting included a copy of a letter Mr George Galloway MP had sent to the RT Hon Jacqui Smith the Home Secretary, identifying Inspector Christopher Dreyfus as an agent provocateur at an anti-war demonstration in Parliament Square on 15 June 2008.

Mr Galloway said that he had observed Inspector Dreyfus commit various crimes, including incitement to violence, attempted assault on a police officer and several serious public order offences. He called upon the Home Secretary to conduct an inquiry into Inspector Dreyfus’ behaviour. Our posting called upon readers to comment on Mr Galloway’s letter. We made clear that Inspector Dreyfus denied the allegations.

We understand that, as a result of Mr Galloway’s letter, the matter has been comprehensively investigated by the British Transport Police and the Metropolitan Police, and that their findings have been reviewed by the Crown Prosecution Service.

The investigations did not substantiate Ms Whittaker-Khan’s story or the allegations in Mr Galloway’s letter. The CPS has confirmed that there is no case to answer.

We now accept that Christopher Dreyfus was not present at the demonstration and did not engage in any of the criminal behaviour referred to in Ms Whittaker-Khan’s story or Mr Galloway’s letter.

We apologize to him for the damage caused to his reputation.

No Comments

Harry’s Place has the full details on how seriously weird this story is – I thought at the time that the alternative universe that Galloway lives in must be cracking up. To make such an accusation against a high profile Gay Police officer with a Jewish sounding name without any “proof” was just bonkers. The Police Officer denies being at the demo. The only “evidence” was a "Mail On Sunday" (for crying out loud) journalist who thought a violent protester was this Transport Police inspector she had met previously at a party in Bedford. Didn't anyone have the wit to think about how historically loaded the name "Dreyfus" is or google his full name beforehand? A secret Policeman or what!

Now Socialist Unity and I don’t usually see eye to eye on many things but I hope that they are not being sued. They have apologised and perhaps that should be the end of the matter except not to trust the "Gorgeous One" in the future.

They all learn eventually.

Diss-Respectful Liars

I missed this until today. Check out Ilford South Labour MP, Mike Gapes web and his astonishment on finding out the lies that the George Galloway “Respect” Candidate in the local Council by-election in Valentines Ward had put out. This Candidate claims to be the Director of the government sponsored “Redbridge Against Islamophobia and Extremism (RAIE).”

A totally fictional public meeting supposedly organised by RAIE with Respect dork Galloway and Mike Gapes was invented with the headline “The Iraq War was good for Britain!” Posters were even placed in local schools and handed to people outside mosques in the area (paid for by whom?). Mike had not been invited and was totally unaware of this meeting.

The extremist Galloway Respect candidate has now resigned as "Director" (believe it or not) from the anti-extremists group RAIE – but apparently not as a "Respect" candidate?

The best way of countering these utterly vile people is of course to help out with the Labour campaign

Fighting the Good Fight in Mile End East

After the Forest Gate South coffee morning with West Ham MP, Lyn Brown, I drove over to Tower Hamlets to help out in the by-election in Mile End East (vote this Thursday). The Labour Party candidate is Rachel Saunders and I had been told to make my way to the Burdett Estate.

I drove along St Paul’s Way looking for Labour canvass teams. Opposite St Paul’s school was the Gorgeous One himself, standing on the pavement shouting into a megaphone surrounded by about half a dozen of his diss-respect acolytes. They were huddled around him trying to hand out leaflets to an empty street.

I slowed down and opened the car window to try and listen what he was going on about. I could not make out any coherent statements only incredibly loud ear piercing electronic feedback noises interwoven with occasional barely recognisable grunts. You could not make out the sentences but it seemed to be all about being aggressive, bombastic, bullying and threatening. You could imagine him sneering “We are keeping an eye on you, we know where you live”. What was amazing was how seriously he was taking all this. He appeared to think he was on a podium addressing a packed rally - shaking his arm up and down while vigorously pointing his finger at an audience of no-one. I thought it was all quite symbolic. A little man in the true sense of the word living on supposed past glories in denial of reality.

The rag bag of supporters gathered around him (nearly all white and male) should have been out on the “knocker” talking to local people and trying to persuade them to support their candidate.

I wondered what the SWP would have made of this when they had been in charge of respect. At least they had the sense to know that such prancing about is no substitute for organised and systematic canvassing. Of course, their belief that such actions were furthering the revolution was equally as deluded as George who believed that diss-respect would replace the Labour Party.

I soon joined up with Labour canvass teams. There was a really good turn out by local members and Councillors. I was sent to join a team which included Rachel herself; Council Leader Lutfur Rahman, A M Ohid Ahmed, Alibor Choudhury, Marc Francis, Shiria Khatun and UNISON member Cllr Sirajul Islam with his 9 year old daughter (get them while they are young). Councillor Carli Harper-Penman was out and about with London Assembly member, John Biggs.

From the top of the blocks you could look around and see small groups of Labour Party canvassers wandering around the estate. There was even a balloon stall. Interestingly I saw no Tory canvassers at all. It may appear that the local Tories have something in common with Galloway and don’t want to support former SWP associates?

The canvass itself I thought went well. It was somewhat surprising (I say no more) that some voters said they had been told that the respect candidate was also the Labour Party candidate?

For the first hour or so I could still hear the whine in the distance of the Respect megaphone. Eventually it died away so peace and quiet resumed. Who knows what when people stir up community politics and hatreds, but I have no doubt that eventually diss-respect will also fade away and become yet another weird and wonderful footnote in extremist east end politics.

Meet outside Mile End Tube (there is only one obvious entry/exist) 6pm tomorrow, 2pm and 6pm Wednesday. People wanted all day Thursday. Contact

Labour Party National Campaign Day: Out and about in the British Estate

Yesterday I went to Tower Hamlets to help out with campaigning in the new Poplar and Limehouse parliamentary constituency (CLP). West Ham CLP is twinned with this seat, which is held by Labour MP, Jim Fitzpatrick.

Jim is supposed to be facing the utterly loathsome, George Galloway, as his “Respect” opponent in the next General election. The SWP/bigots coalition has largely collapsed recently, so the only beneficiaries of a respect campaign in this area will be the Tories. Galloway, of course would still have his radio and other well paid media interests when he loses.

We ended up in Berkeley House, which is a 21 floor tower block in the British Estate. This block is managed by East End homes and is being refurbished. We picked up quite a lot of case work, especially over the renewal of the block lifts and parking issues.

I found solid support for the Labour party in this ward, also no interest whatsoever in any change in Labour Party leadership.
Picture of my ace canvass team Rachel, Jimbo and James is above.

While to the left the picture is a new sign of the times; the graffiti in the communal stairs includes people’s email addresses!

I can't believe that there is no apparent Concierge service for this block? We just walked in. It is not the answer to all problems, but you do need effective 24/7 security for such blocks.

I appreciate that the block is being refurbished but the graffiti in the stairs was particularly bad.