The waste of "RESPECT"

The Sunday Telegraph has calculated the MPs who are the best and worst value for money, based upon the number of times they have voted, the number of speeches they make, the number of written questions and the expenses claimed. (Sunday Telegraph: Best and worst value MPs revealed)

At the top end of the scale are Philip Hollobone and Dennis Skinner. At the bottom end, by a long way, is "RESPECT"'S George Galloway. It is not easy for an MP who attends Parliament to make less of an impact on Westminster than a group of abstentionists, but George Galloway has succeeded with an impact on Parliament even less than Sinn Féin!

This reflects badly on "RESPECT - The Unity Coalition" as a whole (as does their recent complete failure to demonstrate respect or unity but that's another matter). Galloway is also notorious in his constituency for doing little to help most of his constituents. Instead it seems he has joined the tradition of extreme left-wing MPs spending all their time wandering around feeling important, making speeches to extreme left-wing rallies and visiting dodgy foreign leaders, all while claiming large expenses to keep them in fine clothes. And going on Big Brother.

Here's hoping that at the next election voters will reject not just Galloway himself but all the "RESPECT" candidates, putting an end to state-subsidised communism.

More classic Spitting Image

Here are a few more classic Spitting Image sketches courtesy of YouTube. First we have another with the two Davids:

However it wasn't all joy for the Alliance or its one leader who found himself in a phone box party:

And finally his reputation for changing parties reached the ultimate extent:

One has to wonder what David Owen would do if he were in active politics today. But it's not too late - he could team up with Robert Kilroy-Silk, Robert McCartney and George Galloway to form the first ever 4 in 1 Micro Party! That's right, no end of fractionalism, breakaways and one man ego trips, all from one single (*) grouping! Vote for it now! Because no-one else will!

(* Single at the point of formation. We cannot gurantee continued adherence.)

"RESPECT" - still shaking things up!

When it was founded the so-called "RESPECT - The Unity Coalition" pledged to shake up politics and change the nature of politics. This week they've continued to do that.

Over a third of the "RESPECT" group on Tower Hamlets Borough Council have resigned the whip, feeling that their leader has "systematically acted to appease only one section of the party and community". Unsurprisingly they are the four associated with the national Socialist Workers Party. See their statement at East London Advertiser: We quit because we have no respect for Respect group leader. It's also notable that the ring leader of the four is Oliur Rahman, who stood in the Poplar & Canning Town seat at the last election. With George Galloway having decided that the "RESPECT" nomination for that (renamed) seat is his by right, one has to wonder if Rahman has a personal issue in all this. On my one encounter with him I found him to be even more stubborn minded than George Galloway and watched with bewilderment as he went on about courtesy whilst interrupting someone speaking and claimed that a point about what had been seen on Iraqi television was invalid "because the BBC is inherently biased". One has to wonder where "RESPECT" found this idiot.

But as for "RESPECT" itself, it is just conforming to the standard pattern of a flash party that springs up from nowhere, gets a bit of support and then disintegrates when its internal contradictions are exposed. And for the rest of us it's all hilarious to watch as socialists demonstrate that their most hated enemies are other socialists!

How will anyone notice George Galloway's suspension?

George Galloway has been suspended from the House of Commons for eighteen days after an investigation by the standards committee. (BBC News: Galloway suspended from Commons)

Given that Galloway's attendance record makes even Sinn Féin look like a contributor to Westminster life, how is anyone going to spot the difference?!

A worrying trend

BBC News has a piece on the electoral battle in Tower Hamlets. This local authority contains, amongst other things, both my university (Queen Mary, University of London) and George Galloway's constituency (and very occasionally George Galloway himself).

What worries me the most is this comment:

Labour is pinning its hopes on getting white voters to the polls, to compensate for loss of Muslim support to Respect.

Turning elections into crude sectarian headcounts does nothing to improve democracy. There are many problems in Tower Hamlets but they are not going to be solved by a party being seen to owe its electoral success to one ethnic group. All it does is perpetuate the idea that the body meant to help the population as a whole is only going to support that group. This approach merely breeds political extremism as a reaction.

As the article also says:

Millwall, a ward which briefly elected a BNP councillor, Derek Beacon in the 1990s.

That was the first ever BNP victory in the country.

And they're standing candidates in the borough...