Galloway Jaw Jaw. BBC Waugh War.

How peculiar Galloway lost to Waugh, phonetically sounding like war. Was it rigged? To what extent did Hope Note Hate, the hate group, influence the outcome?

The phrase “Jaw Jaw War War” is often attributed to Winston Churchill; hardly the bastion of peace, indeed, I get the impression he was inclined to war, war and more war. Was he funded by a group called The Focus? Apparently, but never mind for now. Once known as Gorgeous George, is now called a toxic extremist conspiracy theorist by new Labour Rochdale MP Paul Waugh. How appropriate that Waugh, which sounds like war, was joined by Tony Blair’s WoMD spin doctor Alastair Campbell on BBC Today. Campbell spun Labour’s election victory based upon just 20% of all votes as the new big.

Unless you have a BBC license, you cannot access this, the BBC Radio 4 Today programme 06 July 2024:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0020xhh
It will not remain to ‘listen to again’ for ever, so I’m transcribing some of the conversation between BBC Radio 4 Today’s Emma Barnett and newly elected labour MP for Rochdale, Paul Waugh.
Waiting in the wings was Alastair Campbell, the bullying depressive Burnley supporter who helped Tony Blair lie us into an invasion of Iraq and the death of thousands. Despite the carnage they contributed toward, Blair, Campbell and their chum Peter Mandelson, friend of Jeffrey Epstein, remain at liberty to freely condemn others as extremist.

Emma Barnett, not a Palestinian, asks Waugh, ‘… how did it feel to beat George Galloway?’
Waugh refers to ‘dark clouds of extremism’, ‘we had to suffer not just abuse and threats and lies’, ‘an extremist like Galloway’, ‘apologist for the Chinese government’, ‘apologist for Assad’, ‘a conspiracy theorist’, ‘the toxicity of George Galloway’. Another fair and objective take from BBC R4 Today then.

Paul Waugh has been a political journalist for the last 25 years.
1 hr 12 mins into the link above that you probably can’t access, but for the record…
BBC: ‘…dramatically ousting George Galloway only weeks after he was elected MP for the area. A warm welcome to you both. Start with you Paul, congratulations.’
MP Waugh: ‘It’s an incredible privilege and humbling honour to represent the people of the town where I grew up, I feel incredibly passionate about the place where I’m from. I want to get on with the delivery of the change that people voted for. For me, it’s important to get a genuine chunk of genuine levelling-up for the people of the north, places like Rochdale that have for too long been forgotten…. Rishi Sunak himself admitted that he wanted to redirect funds to places like Tonbridge Wells, away from more deprived places in the north…’
BBC Emma interjects: ‘I like the fact that you’re still doing some attack lines on the Conservatives despite having just won your seat and the landslide. It’s good to see you’re ready to be in this situation and flip the role from journalist to MP, but… how did it feel to beat George Galloway?’
MP Waugh: ‘It was one of the result many people on the night responded to with sense of joy. I heard that at Labour HQ lots of cheers went up when they saw Rochdale being reclaimed. Certainly, my phone was melting with messages of congratulations. Why? Well, there’s a wider point here which is George Galloway is the kind of populist that we’re seeing across the world gaining traction in recent months. You’ve got the dark clouds of extremism coming over France, in the US as well with Trump’s almost imminent arrival. What happened in Rochdale is that we defeated what are effectively extremists that call themselves populists. George Galloway is a guy who exploits and rides a wave of legitimate anger over a legitimate issue which is Palestine and a need for justice for the people of Palestine, but he exploits it in a way that is utterly toxic. This is the man who, certainly during our campaign, we had to suffer not just abuse and threats and lies on the streets just as many candidates did across the country who faced independents…’
BBC: ‘By who?’
MP Waugh: ‘By supporters of his, campaigners of his, even on the day of the general election I was standing at a polling station with a couple of female Labour activists who were shouted at and intimidated. That kind of stuff is utterly unacceptable, but the wider point is an extremist like Galloway, who doesn’t believe in a 2 state solution, for Israel and Palestine, who is an apologist for Putin when it comes to Ukraine, he’s an apologist for the Chinese government when it comes to the treatment of the Uyghur Muslims in China, he was an apologist for Assad on the deaths of Palestinians in Syria. This is a guy who is a conspiracy theorist…’
BBC: ‘But, he had just won… he’s not here to respond, he didn’t as I understand even show up to the count to hear that he’d just lost his seat…’
MP Waugh: ‘Exactly, and that tells you a lot about the man that he didn’t even take his defeat in person. He was sitting in a hotel room nearby as the result was announced.’
BBC: ‘We’ll leave that for now, but it is striking that only 4 months ago he won that seat and Labour has taken that back as they have across the country…’

At 1 hour 16 mins BBC Emma introduces Alastair Campbell who goes on as you’d expect and states Labour has a big mandate for change. 20% of the votes? That’s the new big today? Campbell emphasises ‘change’. He says that people see a new cabinet that ‘looks more like us’.

1 hour 20 mins
BBC Emma: ‘Paul, to you quickly if I can. Levelling up and getting money to the north. Is that top of your list for change change as a new labour MP?’
MP Waugh: ‘I grew up in a council house with free school meals. I’d like to see more council housing. We’ve got a fantastic new Secretary of State for Housing Angela Rayner whose lived experience will power a new approach, a different tone in government in building affordable housing, but also when it comes to free breakfast clubs for kids at school, we’ll have instant change. I think people will see that delivery quite quickly and an NHS back on its feet. That was a massive issue in Rochdale for me and many constituents. My wife works in the NHS as a midwife, I know they’ve been on their knees saying we don’t have enough staff and women feel unsafe giving birth not having enough staff is appalling. We’re gonna see real change on that issue, hopefully change in cutting edge manufacturing jobs. We’ve got some fantastic plans with the mayor lined up. We just need to unlock the potential with places like Rochdale and I’m so excited with a Labour government delivering it. We need to switch now from campaign mode. My aim was to win and defeat the toxicity of George Galloway. My main aim now is to deliver the change people voted for. It’s lots of different voters like Tories, Liberal Democrats, Labour, people who voted for us.
BBC: ’You’re going to have to get used to answering the questions Paul, not just setting them. You changed from being in one of the least trust professions, journalism, to one of the other least trusted professions, being a politician. What a transference for you.’

It seems Galloway may be taking action to explore the possibilities of an unfair election. I doubt he’ll have much success, but let’s watch this space.

Let’s look back on ‘extremist’ George Galloway who calls for peace, yet labelled as toxic by Paul Waugh whose name is phonetically ‘war’. Let’s remember some of ‘toxic’ George’s previous moments.

Some clips from the testimony…

I’m not a supporter of mass unmitigated immigration or the huge mosque in London’s Aldegate East turned Karachi central nor, for example, the naming of road signs around Blackburn in Arabic script. But, George Galloway calls for a ceasefire in Gaza and his support in Rochdale was significantly based upon the local Muslim population. The UK government is supporting Israel’s ‘right to defend itself’. It is resulting in mass slaughter. Dr. Mads Gilbert suggests the death toll could be as high as 500,000.
‘Killings and deliberate deaths in Gaza: are the real, direct and indirect human costs of the Israeli terror attacks and siege 190,000? 500,000? Dr Mads’
https://x.com/DrMadsGilbert/status/1810365575182332215

’War is a racket’, as a Substack comment recently reminded me.
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/198259

-o0o-

As a wag once said,
‘The artist must go very far, so that the ordinary man will go far enough. Arsenal!’

Yurtta Barış Dünyada Barış : Peace At Home, Peace İn The World… if only.

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