Without Reservation

When Hannah Spencer arrives at Westminster on Monday, then will Keir Starmer know who she was? His letter to all Labour MPs does not mention her. It names three people, Angeliki Stogia once, Zack Polanksi once, and George Galloway three times.

Apparently, "The Greens were able to capitalise on an endorsement from George Galloway to win over enough voters to push them over the line." Labour went into the by-election 13,413 votes ahead of Reform UK. It came out of it 1213 votes behind Reform, and 5615 behind the Greens. That was quite some capitalisation on an endorsement from a 71-year-old on the other side of the world. It also explains George and Gayatri's arrest at gunpoint, which has led them to leave the country for the safety of their children. Andy Burnham would have won Gorton and Denton. Except against George. See them both at Makerfield?

George now says that the Greens therefore owe the Workers Party a clear run in the three constituencies where it came second last time, as well as wherever it had councillors by the time of the next General Election. That is complicated by the fact that it has a councillor in Gorton and Denton, but more broadly, if the Prime Minister is to be taken seriously, then it is asking for too little. The Workers Party and the closely allied Independent Left, not least since Jeremy Corbyn campaigned for Spencer, deserve clear runs wherever they were either first or second in 2024, and wherever they had councillors in 2029.

Starmer does not really do dignity, but even blaming George manages to maintain more of it than the idea that Muslim women who had been all ready to vote for Matt Goodwin were coerced out of doing so by their husbands who instead  insisted on a white woman with a gay Jewish Leader. "My husband deals with that" is one of those things which women say to men when they want us to go away. Sam Coates must have had it before, and he must have known that a woman reporter would have elicited a very different response.

Hardly mentioned is that the Conservatives dropped from 2,888 to 706 and lost their deposit. But if Muslims were integrated when they voted Labour yet are sectarian now that they do not, then why not anyone else who got uppity? Why not Hindus who stopped voting Conservative? In 2024, the Conservatives' only gain was Leicester East, Bob Blackman at Harrow East received the highest vote share for any Conservative candidate in the country, he was the only Conservative elected with an absolute majority, and he was one of only three Conservative MPs to be re-elected with increased majorities. Blackman has repeatedly been sworn in as an MP on the Bhagavad Gita, and at the House of Commons he hosted Tapan Ghosh, who was at least as violently opposed to Christians in Bengal as he was to Muslims.

Don't go off the reservation, Indians. If Muslims need to know their place, then so do Hindus. So do Jews. So does everyone. But the Muslims are clearly ignoring that nonsense, as must we all. For a start, the result at Gorton and Denton has left Starmer with no political capital to subject us to digital ID and to live facial recognition, or to take away our rights to trial by jury and to appeal from the Magistrates' Court to the Crown Court, or to go to war with Iran.