Who were the 8,264 people who voted for George Galloway at the Batley and Spen by election and, moreover, what were they thinking about? My overriding emotions today at Kim Leadbetter’s victory are joy and relief. Joy that the only local candidate and sister of Jo Cox, the former MP, who was murdered by a far right Nazi sympathiser, enjoyed an unexpected victory. The world of British politics hasn’t changed. The culture wars, unleashed by the 2016 EU referendum, have exposed the divisions in our country and turned it into an inward-looking country, trading on past glories and dreaming of a better day that never really was. All we needed was George Galloway, campaigning on both the far right and far left wings of politics at the same time, with added anti-semitism, misogyny, homophobia, thuggery and intimidation, throwing every bit of venom and hate at the the Labour leader Keir Starmer, yet despite having attracted over 8000 votes, good triumphed over hate.
I don’t see that very much will have changed. We are still a country in decline, losing influence in the world, confronted by the same culture wars that existed before this by election. If players oppose racism at a football match by booing players taking a non-political knee, we have a long way to go. Lunatic anti-vaxxers still attack actual doctors and so called ‘Kill The Bill’ – and I agree it is a dangerous draconian bill – demonstrators still set fire to police vehicles and in many areas we are a country that is not at peace with itself. We still seem to worship statues more than we care about millions of children going without a hot meal. The election of Kim Leadbetter was a small step in the right direction.
I am happier with Leadbetter’s win than Galloway’s defeat. And I am pleased about the order of things. The negative schadenfreude in enjoying Galloway’s humiliation is not better than the triumph of a decent person. I cringed when Galloway’s supporters deliberately muddied a local election by targeting the sizeable Muslim vote in the way he did. It is clear that Galloway succeeded in persuading people that the prime concerns of people in Batley and Spen were Palestine and children being taught “how to masturbate” and about “about anal sex”, the latter in Pride week. I’ll leave those voters to deal with their own hang-ups and biases. The voice of Vladimir Putin’s Russia Today TV station and friend of Hamas being closely aligned with working class voters deep in Yorkshire. I mean, honestly. There is a better way for these people. I hope they find it.
All the haters will be down in the mouth at Leadbetter’s victory and Galloway’s defeat. From right wing fruitbat and former actor Laurence ‘Loozza’ Fox to hard left former journalist Owen Jones, the extremes, the chattering classes of the far extremes will be all in it together and having to recognise that actually British people, or at least most of them, are liberal, with a small ‘l’ and their default emotion is not hate.
Politics will now wind down for the summer amid recrimination from the voices from the fringes who have held sway for a long time and hope from everyone else that things might start to improve from hereon in. For today, things got better. I’ll take that.
