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Selection battles in Tower Hamlets

The little creature in the photo is a few millimetres long. It belongs to a group called troglobites that have evolved to live in absolute darkness. Or, depending on your point of view, some god decided that this species live for millions of years in absolute darkness. Even the humble troglobite has worked out that…

Liam
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The little creature in the photo is a few millimetres long. It belongs to a group called troglobites that have evolved to live in absolute darkness. Or, depending on your point of view, some god decided that this species live for millions of years in absolute darkness. Even the humble troglobite has worked out that Labour is going to win back the Bethnal Green and Bow seat in the next General Election. And it lives in a cave. In Australia.


Sitting MP George Galloway has been invisible in the constituency since Christmas. Neither his own nor the Respect website give much clue to his whereabouts. The local paper reported last week that he became a father again but that does not explain his absence.


By contrast the much unloved Oona King has been popping up everywhere from light entertainment shows on BBC2 to a lobby of the Commmons with a group of local schoolboys on behalf of something called the “Make Space” campaign. She’s also been appointed to the chair of Coventry University’s Institute of Community Cohesion. Another couple of years of that type of thing and she’ll be in the House of Lords.


King would pretty definitely be electoral poison for the local Labour Party. So the East End Advertiser reports that the battle is now on between former council leader Helal Abbas, Luftur Rahman and London Assembly member John Biggs. It is a pretty uninspiring field with no meaningful political differences involved.


My guess, and it is utterly uninformed speculation, is that a similar type of “discussion” has opened up inside Respect. Only two things are certain. Galloway’s absenteeism has severely damaged the organisation’s electoral prospects and, just like in the Labour wrangle, high political theory won’t figure large in the selection battle.

9 responses to “Selection battles in Tower Hamlets”

  1. Korakious Avatar
    Korakious

    To be honest, I didn’t expect much more from Galloway. He is an opportunist careerist, and a bad one at that.

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  2. rob j Avatar
    rob j

    Come on now, is Galloway any less absent than any other MP? And would an “opportunist careerist ” stand for a small left party? Even a “bad” careerists. Lets judge RESPECT on what it does , not on our personal dislike of inviduals involved.

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  3. Korakious Avatar
    Korakious

    Galloway is not less absent than other MPs, but other MPs do not pretend to be socialists. An opportunist careerist would (like Tommy Sheridan) stand for a small party if it was essentially a personality cult around him that allowed him to run unchecked.As for what RESPECT does, when was the last time they said anything about socialism?

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  4. Chris Paul Avatar
    Chris Paul

    Galloway has now and always did have a very poor record of attendance “at the HoP” and if he’s not on the ground either (and he’s not) then he is probably vying with the Tory Wintertons for absenteeism … but the Wintertons do spend a lot of time kissing babies, visiting nurseries and er kissing more babies.There you go Galloway and Winterton in the same post … you owe me £5.

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  5. Chris Paul Avatar
    Chris Paul

    And another thing. What about the many excellent women vying for the BGB nomination. (now down to three plue three I hear). Might even be a bit of political variety there. Certainly no excuse not to drop their names in. Are Respect also looking exclusively for a man? One who doesn’t visit pole dancing clubs naturally.Women comrades may be keeping their powder dry versus the worst excesses of both Bangla and Nu Labour conservatism.

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  6. Victor Avatar
    Victor

    Read it weep sectoidsLabour ‘MP hopeful’ quits race to join Galloway’s Respect Party”Labour has been hijacked by a bunch of ultra-conservatives. It’s bad for democracy.” EASTLONDONADVERTISER – Thu, 05 Apr 2007 A WOMAN in the race to be Labour’s next candidate to take on rebel MP George Galloway’s Respect Party in London’s East End has quit the selection process and changed sides. Johanna Kaschke has defected to Respect after reading the East London Advertiser’s March 28 edition about the Labour Government trying to change the law to defeat a campaigner in the High Court over public housing. She went straight to her computer and fired off a resignation letter to Labour, then joined Galloway’s party. “I find there is a bad atmosphere in the (Labour) party, driving out council tenants and disrespecting leaseholders alike. “It is totally disgusting that the Labour Party acts against its own members, dismantles the National Health Service, a tendency to stop free health treatment. “Our local authority has become an oppressive force, forcing residents out of their dwellings by making it too expensive for leaseholders to afford the upkeep or forcing tenants to be with private housing associations. “The Labour Party has become an oppressive organisation, nothing more to do with the democratic people’s party it once used to be.” It is a blow to the bitterly-divided local Labour party, whose morale sank in Galloway’s Bethnal Green constituency after he ousted their MP Oona King in the 2005 General Election. Joanna told the Advertiser: “Labour has been hijacked by a bunch of ultra-conservatives. It’s bad for democracy.”

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  7. Liam Mac Uaid Avatar
    Liam Mac Uaid

    I don’t permit unsigned anonymous comments. All the more so when they make unsubstantiated claims. That’s why I’ve deleted two of them from this post.Victor, if Johanna Kaschke’s views on the minimum wage are as reactionary as reported I wouldn’t judge her to be much of a catch. The real trouble with Respect is that it is not very attractive to socialists and trade unionists anymore and recruits like her won’t help matters.

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  8. Liam Mac Uaid Avatar
    Liam Mac Uaid

    One more thing Victor. This is a grown up blog for people able to read and use big words and hold fairly complicated ideas. If your preferred method of political discussion can’t raise itself beyond the type of infantile name calling characteristic of the politically clueless or a drunken boor I’d be grateful if you could find another forum on which to share your insights with the world. There are lots of them out there. I trust it was a momentary lapse.

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  9. Johanna Kaschke Avatar
    Johanna Kaschke

    I object to this misrepresentation about the minimum wage. I clearly state on my website that I want an international minimum wage everywhere. My remark is not understood in context namely that often small businesses do not have the resources to pay a minimum wage as much as big businesses have because foreign companies can import goods and services so cheap as to undercut the prices of small businesses. But if there was an international minimum wage the price situation would be different, thanks for giving me the opportunity to reply to your post.

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