Morally bankrupt Labour, Unite and Respect rally round fraudster Lutfur Rahman

The Unite union, the Labour Party and Respect Party are rallying round convicted election fraudster, Lutfur Rahman.

Rahman was removed from the office of Mayor of Tower Hamlets and banned from seeking re-election by a special elections court last month after being convicted of 7 charges of vote rigging, lying about his rivals, bribery and exerting spiritual influence. The prosecution called 100 witnesses, including council staff who were told to illegally collect postal votes to avoid being sacked and pictures and videos were widely published on the internet showing Rahman's supporters intimidating voters outside polling stations and even accompanying voters inside. He was caught bang to rights.

Unite's chief of staff delivered a personal message of support for Rahman from Len McCluskey, the leader of the union, saying that "Unite is proud to associate ourselves with Lutfur Rahman". George Galloway also sent a message of support describing the judgement "an anti-democratic, anti-Islamic and racist coup". Labour's Christine Shawcross, a member of the party's National Executive Council, is trustee of his legal defence fund and describes the ability of judges to remove politicians from office when they have got into office by breaking the law as "a disturbing precedent" whilst former Labour mayor of London, Ken Livingston, described it as "politically motivated".

The police are considering bringing criminal charges against Lutfur Rahman who has been landed with a legal bill of £250k which could rise to as much as £1m once costs hearings have been held.

Even the Iranians are scared of UKIP

Iranian state media outlet, Press TV, has made a sad attempt at a hatchet job on UKIP over Nigel Farage's comments on immigration.

Press TV's man in Westminster

Under the heading "UKIP leader begins to show his true face" and accompanied by a picture of Farage with the expelled former member Kim Gandy who Press TV describe as a UKIP spokeswoman, the article describes UKIP as "far right" and says that the party "is believed to promote racism by choosing fascist members" and citing Gandy as an example.

Press TV reinforces its lack of credibility even further by citing EDL News' description of Gandy - who they wrongly identify as a UKIP member and spokesperson - as the "angriest far right extremist" they've ever had.  Although their description of Gandy is probably not far off the mark, the EDL News website is an anti-EDL website.

But what really speaks volumes about Press TV is the fact that they provide a platform to the Islamist far left extremist, George Galloway MP.

Galloway wins Bradford West

A shock result in Bradford West last night has returned the Scottish communist Islamist, George Galloway, to parliament.

I'd like to thank my campaign team, Allah
and the voting public of Kashmir for electing me

This is usually a safe Labour seat thanks to the extremely high immigrant population but Galloway has managed to take it from them for the Respect party with a campaign specifically targeted at the muslim vote.  A letter he had distributed to the mosques in Bradford could easily be an application to be declared a good muslim rather than a begging letter for votes.  The Respect rosette's are even a declaration of their Islamist credentials.

But this is how democracy works of course - the people of Bradford have decided that they want a Scottish communist who laments the loss of the Soviet Union, supports repressive regimes guilty of human rights abuses, doesn't even live in Bradford and who is quite happy to stand in any constituency anywhere in the country to get into power.  George Galloway has surely got to be the first communist Islamic fundamentalist to enter parliament and his election last night is a truly worrying development.

Every party except UKIP and Respect lost vote share in the election.  Respect got a massive 52.83% increase over the last election in Bradford West, UKIP a more modest 1.31%.  But when you consider that Labour and the Tories both lost over 20% of their vote and the Lib Dems over 7%, a 1.31% increase for UKIP is actually a pretty big vote of confidence.

The full results were ...

George Galloway (Respect) 18,341 (55.89%, +52.83%)
Imran Hussain (Lab) 8,201 (24.99%, -20.36%)
Jackie Whiteley (C) 2,746 (8.37%, -22.78%)
Jeanette Sunderland (LD) 1,505 (4.59%, -7.08%)
Sonja McNally (UKIP) 1,085 (3.31%, +1.31%)
Dawud Islam (Green) 481 (1.47%, -0.85%)
Neil Craig (D Nats) 344 (1.05%)
Howling Laud Hope (Loony) 111 (0.34%)

Bradford West by-election

Sonja McNally has declared herself as a candidate in the impending Bradford West by-election for UKIP.

McNally is likely to have the left wing extremist, George Galloway, standing against her after he turned up to kiss babies and tell people he was a "freedom fighter".  He is reported to have said that he is "almost certain" to stand in the election.

Galloway's political career started in Dundee, then moved to Glasgow and then when he was booted out of the Labour Party he set up his own party (Respect) and moved down to London where his extremist views are more acceptable.  Having failed to get himself elected in London or to the Scottish Parliament, he has now decided to try his luck in Bradford!

"Gorgeous" George is presumably hoping that his support of the brutal and repressive regimes in Iraq and Libya will stand him in good stead with the large immigrant population in Bradford but I think he will be sorely disappointed.  He's also presumably banking on the traditional Labour voters in Bradford being as far left as he is but you'd struggle to find many people that lament the loss of the Soviet Union or call for mass nationalisation of industry, even in the Labour Party.

UKIP's candidate, Sarah McNally, was a Green Party member last year before seeing the light and joining UKIP.  She is a local, has stood in local elections in Bradford and is involved with local schools, voluntary groups and charities.

Which would you choose?  A Bradford local or Dundee/Glasgow/London/Baghdad George?