tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/george-galloway-14711/articlesGeorge Galloway – The Conversation2024-03-08T16:20:11Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2251182024-03-08T16:20:11Z2024-03-08T16:20:11ZLabour’s Muslim vote: what the data so far says about the election risk of Keir Starmer’s Gaza position<p>According to the 2021 census, 6.5% of the population in England and Wales <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/culturalidentity/religion/bulletins/religionenglandandwales/census2021">identify as Muslim</a>. In <a href="https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/constituency-data-religion/">Rochdale</a>, which has just elected George Galloway to be its MP, the proportion of the population identifying as Muslim is far higher – at 30.5%.</p>
<p>As is often the case in byelections, the turnout for the contest that elected Galloway was low. But Galloway received 12,335 votes in a constituency which contains 34,871 Muslims. His campaign focused almost entirely on the war in Gaza rather than local issues, and although we don’t know what proportion of his vote was Muslim, it is a fair assumption that a large percentage of it was.</p>
<p>The question in the wake of Galloway’s election (and one that the new MP is certainly encouraging) is whether this byelection has any implications for Labour in the general election taking place this year?</p>
<p>Keir Starmer has <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68446423">argued</a> that Galloway won because the Labour candidate was sacked after repeating a conspiracy theory that Israel was behind the Hamas attack on October 7 last year. Galloway, by contrast, argues that his victory is a sign that voters are about to turn away from Labour in their droves because they are angry about its failure to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.</p>
<p>Which of them is right? </p>
<h2>The Muslim vote</h2>
<p>There are 20 constituencies in the UK that have an electorate comprised of more than 30% Muslims. All of them elected a Labour MP in 2019. At the top of the list is Birmingham Hodge Hill, where 62% of the population identifies as Muslim. </p>
<p>In Bradford West 59% of the population is Muslim, in Ilford South, 44%, and in Leicester South, 32%. Rochdale ranks 18th in the list of the 20 constituencies with the largest proportion of Muslim residents. Interestingly enough, just under 19% of the electorate in Holborn and St Pancras, Keir Starmer’s constituency, identifies as Muslim.</p>
<p>There are currently 199 Labour MPs in the House of Commons – a slight reduction from the 202 who were elected in 2019. A bare majority in the House of Commons requires 326 MPs and a working majority more like 346. The party clearly has a mountain to climb to achieve that, even with a lead of around <a href="https://www.politico.eu/europe-poll-of-polls/united-kingdom/#national-parliament-voting-intention">20% in current polls</a>.</p>
<p>So Starmer will certainly be asking whether Labour can still expect to win seats with a high proportion of Muslim voters in a way that it has done in the past, given what happened in Rochdale. He continues to equivocate over the deaths in Gaza and still follows the government’s line on the conflict, despite it being essentially a colonial war. </p>
<p>Historically, Labour has had a long tradition of anti-colonialism. After the second world war, it was a Labour government that began the process of de-colonisation in the British empire by giving independence to India in 1947.</p>
<h2>When is a safe seat not a safe seat?</h2>
<p>There is an argument that constituencies with a high proportion of Muslims are relatively safe Labour seats. This is evidenced by the fact that they remained in the Labour camp even when the party suffered a heavy defeat in 2019. The implication is that if anger over Gaza is confined to Muslims, then it is not going to affect the number of seats won by Labour very much.</p>
<p>However, concern about Gaza is shared by people other than Muslims. Polling from YouGov conducted last month shows that there has been a distinct shift in British public opinion about the war since it started. More people are calling for a ceasefire and fewer see Israel’s attacks on Gaza as being <a href="https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/48675-british-attitudes-to-the-israel-gaza-conflict-february-2024-update">justified</a>.</p>
<p>There is clear evidence that younger voters, in particular, feel <a href="https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/survey-results/daily/2024/02/12/4b134/1">more sympathy</a> towards the Palestinian cause than the rest of the population. This is also a group that heavily supported Labour in the 2019 election. While young people in this group are unlikely to switch to voting Conservative over Gaza, the concern for Labour will be that they might <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/search?q=Brexit+Britain">abstain</a> in the next election.</p>
<h2>How different religions vote</h2>
<p>Starmer’s reluctance to call out what is happening in Gaza is a puzzle, since Muslims are overwhelmingly Labour supporters. This can be seen in data from the <a href="https://www.britishelectionstudy.com/">British Election Study</a> online panel survey conducted after the 2019 general election. The chart shows the relationship between the religious affiliation of the respondents and their voting behaviour in that election.</p>
<p><strong>Religious Affiliation and Voting in the 2019 General Election:</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580681/original/file-20240308-26-9vs223.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A chart showing that support for Labour is far higher among Muslims than other religions." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580681/original/file-20240308-26-9vs223.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580681/original/file-20240308-26-9vs223.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580681/original/file-20240308-26-9vs223.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580681/original/file-20240308-26-9vs223.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580681/original/file-20240308-26-9vs223.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=587&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580681/original/file-20240308-26-9vs223.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=587&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580681/original/file-20240308-26-9vs223.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=587&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">How religious identity maps onto party preference.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">British Election Study</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Church of England used to be described as the “Tory party at prayer” and it clearly remains so today, since 64% of Church of England identifiers supported the Conservatives compared to just 25% who supported Labour. </p>
<p>In contrast, Roman Catholics were marginally more Labour (42%) than Conservative (41%). Nonconformists were similar to Church of England identifiers with 48% Conservative and 25% Labour. Meanwhile, 43% of atheists and agnostics supported Labour and 34% the Conservatives.</p>
<p>Jewish voters favoured the Conservatives by a margin of 56% to 30% Labour. Finally, Muslim voters favoured Labour by a massive 80% compared with the Conservative’s 13%.</p>
<p>If anger over the Gaza war is confined to Muslims it is not likely to influence the outcome of this year’s election. But it is worth remembering that this is not the first time Labour has been damaged by events in the Middle East. </p>
<p>Support for Tony Blair was greatly weakened by his decision to invade Iraq in 2003 at the request of the then US president, George W. Bush. He has never really lived down the reputation he acquired for this mistake.</p>
<p>There is not yet evidence that Labour’s position on Gaza will cost it a majority in the election but the strength of feeling on this issue is growing and the future is not certain. With hundreds of additional seats needed, Starmer can’t afford to take any for granted. The risk of losing these voters to the Conservatives is marginal but the risk of losing them to apathy and disillusionment should have him reconsidering his position.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225118/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Whiteley has received funding from the British Academy and the ESRC</span></em></p>Labour’s Muslim vote is concentrated in safe seats – but with an electoral mountain to climb, no contest can be taken for granted.Paul Whiteley, Professor, Department of Government, University of EssexLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2244442024-03-01T15:59:10Z2024-03-01T15:59:10ZWhat George Galloway’s win ‘for Gaza’ means for Labour’s standing with Muslim voters<p>The Rochdale byelection should have been a straightforward win for Labour. The late Sir Tony Lloyd served as a Labour member since 2017, with a majority of nearly 10,000. And yet the contest, triggered by Lloyd’s death in January, descended into chaos and controversy. </p>
<p>Now, nine years after his most recent term in parliament, the controversial former Labour and Respect MP George Galloway will represent the seat for his own Workers’ Party of Britain. </p>
<p>In an <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/fc541a7f-4af2-4532-8915-e5d8262f3550">all-male list</a> of candidates, both the Labour Party and the Green Party withdrew support for their candidates following allegations of antisemitism and Islamophobia, respectively. On the ballot paper, Azhar Ali still appeared as the Labour candidate and Guy Otten as Green because it was too late to make any changes. </p>
<p>Labour’s decision to withdraw its support for Ali came after leaked recordings revealed him saying that the Israeli government knew in advance about the attacks by Hamas on October 7 2023, and that they “deliberately took the security off [to allow] that massacre that gives them the green light to do whatever they bloody want”. </p>
<p>By dropping Ali, Labour’s standing among Muslim voters, in Rochdale and beyond, took another battering. Since the start of the war in Gaza, Labour’s position on the conflict has been seen as too lenient towards Israel by many Muslim voters and Labour Muslim politicians. Across the country, more than <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20240229-gaza-war-anti-semitism-uk-labour-israel-keir-starmer">60 Labour councillors</a> have resigned in protest. In November 2023, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/nov/15/commons-gaza-vote-labour-defy-starmer-ceasefire-israel">56 Labour MPs</a> defied the party leadership to back the SNP’s call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. </p>
<p>The Rochdale byelection was the first where the issue of Gaza was explicitly raised on the campaign trail. Clearly, many of the area’s Muslim voters (and others) used this chance to express their anger. And Galloway, who stood on a platform of “For Rochdale. For Gaza”, did too.</p>
<p>Muslims make up 30% of Rochdale’s population. It is therefore unsurprising that Galloway decided to court this constituency in his bid to return as an MP. He successfully won elections in east London and Bradford, both of which have significant Muslim South Asian electorates, and has long advocated for the Palestinian cause.</p>
<p>In 2009 he led the Viva Palestina convoy that travelled to Gaza to provide humanitarian aid during the blockade of the strip. A later <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/charity-inquiry-viva-palestina/viva-palestina-formerly-a-registered-charity">investigation</a> by the Charity Commission found “little if any evidence that humanitarian aid was distributed to those in need” by Viva Palestina, although Galloway always disputed the inquiry’s findings. </p>
<h2>Labour and the ‘Muslim vote’</h2>
<p>There is no such thing as a cohesive “Muslim vote” in the UK. For decades, Labour remained the party of choice for many British Muslims, but this had more to do with other factors <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Muslims-and-Political-Participation-in-Britain/Peace/p/book/9780367599164">including class and race</a>. The Muslim Council of Britain has, for many years, <a href="https://mcb.org.uk/features/elections/archive/muslim-vote-2019/">encouraged Muslims to vote</a> and be part of the political process, but does not back particular candidates or parties.</p>
<p>Within Muslim communities, there is often a political divide between generations. <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13676261.2020.1784855">Research</a> has revealed widespread disillusionment with electoral politics, among young Muslims in the UK.</p>
<p>Despite this, many remain politically engaged outside of formal elections, for example through <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/9781137275165">local community organisations</a>, and calling for substantive representation which addresses mainstream and often national political issues. The older generation, in contrast, is seen as prioritising local issues and representation much more closely tied to <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1111/1467-856X.12057">kinship and ethnic identity</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Close up of Keir Starmer speaking at a conference" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579207/original/file-20240301-30-2ydokj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579207/original/file-20240301-30-2ydokj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579207/original/file-20240301-30-2ydokj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579207/original/file-20240301-30-2ydokj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579207/original/file-20240301-30-2ydokj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579207/original/file-20240301-30-2ydokj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579207/original/file-20240301-30-2ydokj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Rochdale byelection result sends a message to Starmer to take Muslim voters’ concerns seriously.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/cardiff-wales-united-kingdom-february-2-1712952583">ComposedPix/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Despite these caveats about the absence of a Muslim vote, history shows that Muslims will use the ballot box to send messages on both domestic and foreign policy issues. This occurred most famously in the 2005 general election, when the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/pa/gsr064">Muslim protest vote against the Iraq war</a> helped to swing several constituencies against Labour. Many Labour MPs, including the then foreign secretary Jack Straw, had to fight tooth and nail to retain supposedly “safe” seats. </p>
<p>The major upset in that election was George Galloway winning the seat of Bethnal Green and Bow in east London at the expense of Labour’s Oona King, who voted in favour of UK involvement in the Iraq war. Galloway managed to overturn King’s majority of 10,057 by campaigning on an anti-war stance. Nearly two decades later, Galloway has used another war in a different constituency with a significant Muslim population to do the same.</p>
<h2>Looking to the general election</h2>
<p>In his acceptance speech, Galloway warned Starmer: “This is for Gaza. And you will pay a high price, in enabling, encouraging and covering for, the catastrophe presently going on in occupied Palestine in the Gaza Strip.” In classic Galloway oratory, he declared “all the plates have shifted tonight”, and that Labour has “lost the confidence of millions of their voters”.</p>
<p>Concern about Labour losing votes from its Muslim electors should not be overstated. <a href="https://ukandeu.ac.uk/does-the-israel-gaza-war-create-problems-for-labour-with-muslim-voters/">Opinion polls</a> still record the party’s support as high – and during a general election voters are less likely to vote on a single issue. </p>
<p>Still, Labour will now fear losing ground to independent candidates standing in constituencies with significant numbers of Muslim voters, especially in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/feb/10/labour-mps-facing-wave-of-independent-challengers-over-stance-on-gaza">seats</a> where MPs abstained from or voted against the SNP motion for a ceasefire in Gaza in November 2023. </p>
<p>For years, Labour has taken the support of Muslim voters for granted. Galloway’s win will certainly put pressure on Starmer and the Labour party to take voters’ concerns about Gaza seriously. The result in Rochdale may not indicate more electoral consequences for the party, but it does suggest moral ones.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224444/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Parveen Akhtar has previously received funding from the British Academy and the Economic and Social Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Timothy Peace has received funding from the British Academy, the Economic and Social Research Council and the Royal Society of Edinburgh.</span></em></p>The result sends a message to Keir Starmer about Labour’s relationship with Muslim voters.Parveen Akhtar, Senior Lecturer: Politics, History and International Relations, Aston UniversityTimothy Peace, Lecturer in Politics, University of GlasgowLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1638392021-07-02T14:30:24Z2021-07-02T14:30:24ZBatley and Spen: what bitter UK by-election won by sister of murdered MP tells us about state of British politics<p>The Batley and Spen by-election was a close contest that went right down to the wire with few commentators risking <a href="https://twitter.com/lewis_goodall/status/1410705508567326727">calling the result before it was announced</a>. At 5:25am it was declared. Kim Leadbeater was the new Labour MP for Batley and Spen, beating her nearest rival, the Conservative candidate Ryan Stephenson, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-57696431">by 323 votes</a>. It was close but a clear victory for Labour.</p>
<p>Leadbeater’s acceptance speech was always going to be poignant. This was the seat held by her older sister, Jo Cox, at the time of her murder in 2016. Cox, who won the seat for Labour in 2015, was killed by a terrorist who held extreme right-wing views and targeted Cox because of her work with refugees.</p>
<p>But what was striking – if also sobering and shocking in equal measure given the context – was that Leadbeater also had recourse to thank West Yorkshire police for their protection of her during the campaign. “Sadly”, she said, “I have needed them more than ever.” </p>
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<p>In fact, even before her victory had been declared, she released a statement pointing to the “intimidation and violence of those who had convened in the constituency with the sole aim of sowing division”.</p>
<h2>Discord, division and dirty tricks</h2>
<p>A total of 16 candidates put their hats in the ring for the race in Batley and Spen – a number of whom <a href="https://bylinetimes.com/2021/06/09/batley-and-spen-by-election-sees-five-far-right-candidates-on-the-ballot-paper/">represented far-right political parties</a>. But it was the presence of George Galloway standing as an independent for the Workers Party which seriously threatened to undermine Labour’s chances of retaining the seat it had held since 1997. </p>
<p>Galloway was determined to woo traditional Labour supporters, including the significant Muslim constituent in Batley and Spen. Capitalising on escalating tensions in the Middle East, Galloway sought to paint the Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer as anti-Muslim. His intention was to set up the vote as a referendum on Starmer’s leadership, to split the Labour vote and ultimately force Starmer out of office.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/batley-and-spen-two-problems-labour-needs-to-overcome-to-win-this-crucial-by-election-163291">Batley and Spen: two problems Labour needs to overcome to win this crucial by-election</a>
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<p>To this end, he also attempted to attract white working-class voters by building a narrative of the Labour leader as “woke” rather than for the working class.</p>
<p>In the run-up to July 1 there were deeply disturbing <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/jul/01/galloway-bid-for-batley-and-spen-seat-mired-in-intimidation-claims">reports</a> coming out of Batley and Spen detailing the intimidation and abuse of candidates. There were accusations of dog-whistle racism and homophobia, fake leaflets and foul play. The campaign descended into one of the most bitter and divisive by-elections of recent years. </p>
<p>Tracy Brabin, who had won the seat after the murder of Cox and whose win in the West Yorkshire mayoral election triggered the by-election, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-57636903">described</a> witnessing her group of canvassers “being egged, pushed and forced to the ground and kicked in the head”.</p>
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<p>It was by no means the only time such disturbing strategies have been exploited. In fact, similar divisions were present in the 2015 general election in Bradford West, an election in which Galloway was again present, this time fighting to retain his seat. At a hustings at the university, the then conservative candidate, George Grant, captured the “wild west” nature of the campaign by likening it to a 19th-century rotten borough rather than a 21st-century parliamentary democracy. </p>
<p>That election too descended into discrediting individuals and delving into their private lives rather than concentrating on the issues faced by people on the ground.</p>
<h2>Changing nature of campaigns</h2>
<p>Electioneering is by its very nature divisive, effectively asking the electorate to vote for party or candidate A and not party or candidate B. But dirty tricks or underhand tactics used to discredit opponents are by no means inevitable. And yet, while the notion of a sense of fair play and decency may be engraved in the nation’s idea of itself, the 2019 general election demonstrated how easy it is to resort to electioneering in bad faith in the age of social media. </p>
<p>From <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-50726500">faking fact checks</a> to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/dec/15/what-we-learned-about-the-media-this-election">manipulating videos</a>, the 2019 election threw up a whole catalogue of ways in which to unduly undermine political opponents. Indeed, divisive and personal campaigns may become more prevalent in an era of online campaigning. Something not unique to the UK, of course. The <a href="https://www.business-standard.com/article/us-elections/biden-assembles-legal-team-ahead-of-divisive-us-presidential-election-2020-120091500152_1.html">2020 US presidential election</a> was also divisive in nature as were the state elections in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/26/india-soul-at-stake-west-bengalis-vote-in-divisive-election-modi-bjp">India’s West Bengal</a> earlier this year. </p>
<p>In Batley and Spen, in the end, as the Leadbeater pointed out in her speech, the people voted for hope not hate. Yet the constituency is deeply divided and will take much work to bring together. Leadbeater was the only major candidate on the ballot box who was <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/07/02/kim-leadbeater-labour-candidate-saved-keir-starmers-job/">local to the area</a>. While the others leave, she remains, in her words, “the best person” to get on with the job of reconciliation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/163839/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Parveen Akhtar has previously received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council and the British Academy</span></em></p>Relief for Keir Starmer as Labour retains seat in what was billed as a referendum on his leadership.Parveen Akhtar, Lecturer in Political Science, Aston Centre for Europe, Aston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/874102017-11-14T14:29:42Z2017-11-14T14:29:42ZWill Alex Salmond’s RT show make him a Kremlin tool?<p>The decision of former Scottish first minister Alex Salmond to front a weekly political chat show on Russian international channel RT has been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/nov/10/alex-salmond-criticised-over-hosting-talk-show-for-russian-broadcaster">widely criticised</a> across the British political and media mainstream. Why would a prominent Western politician risk his reputation by colluding with what many believe to be an propaganda instrument of the Kremlin?</p>
<p>RT’s interest in Salmond is easy enough to fathom. The channel has been sympathetic to Scottish independence, of which Salmond remains a leading proponent. You might expect Putin to back anything that undermines the UK, of course. Hence Sputnik, another state-owned Russian news outlet, <a href="http://www.scotsman.com/news/russian-backed-sputnik-news-channel-lands-in-edinburgh-1-4199563">recently established</a> an Edinburgh office. </p>
<p>Arguably, RT is more focused on the UK after <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/rt-agrees-to-register-as-an-agent-of-the-russian-government/2017/11/09/bd62f9a2-c558-11e7-aae0-cb18a8c29c65_story.html">the US forced it</a> to register as a foreign agent. The Alex Salmond Show was unveiled soon after <a href="https://www.rt.com/shows/stan-collymore-show/">The Stan Collymore Show</a>, which is a means of extending reach ahead of Russia’s World Cup next year. RT also seems to have a following in Scotland, with pro-independence youth making up a significant proportion of its Twitter followers.</p>
<h2>Editorial power</h2>
<p>Salmond has been guaranteed full editorial independence, making the show with his own company and not in-house at RT. He <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/alex-salmond-show_uk_5a057b03e4b05673aa58b83f">points out</a> he has appeared on RT several times and was once very critical of Russia’s actions in Syria. RT often publicises the full independence it grants star presenters, as a point of difference with the likes of the BBC. <a href="https://www.rt.com/shows/larry-king-now/">Larry King’s show</a> is another example and is made by the host’s production company. </p>
<p>The channel formerly known as Russia Today has definitely evolved since its 2005 launch, partly in response to worsening relations between Russia and the West. Having launched to project a positive Russia to the world, it morphed into the channel of choice for those hostile to perceived US hegemony, then became a propaganda weapon for the Russian state in the “information war” that <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-western-plans-to-fight-putins-propaganda-war-could-backfire-42868">reached its zenith</a> following the 2014 Ukraine crisis.</p>
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<p>On the whole, however, RT is a mixed bag. It has broadcast some crude, misleading – and <a href="https://theconversation.com/war-of-words-how-europe-is-fighting-back-against-russian-disinformation-65444">sometimes downright fictitious</a> – material as news. Some shows are so biased as to be an affront to the intellect. Yet other stories really do provide alternative perspectives on important events. RT’s Yemen coverage has been impressive, for example, while large parts of the Western media have turned a blind eye to the conflict. </p>
<p>It is therefore simplistic to characterise RT merely as a tool of Kremlin propaganda, with chief executive Margarita Simonyan dutifully carrying out endless instructions from Vladimir Putin. For one thing, Kremlin narratives must be made suitable for the foreign environments in which RT operates. This means ignoring some Kremlin positions and even contradicting others – RT’s <a href="http://www.participations.org/Volume%2012/Issue%201/35.pdf">positive promotion</a> of gay culture during the Sochi Olympics was a case in point. </p>
<p>Presenters such as Oksana Boiko, Larry King and George Galloway have strong independent personalities and are never going to be state operatives. Others, including <a href="https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Abby-Martin-Responds-to-New-York-Times-Allegations-20170108-0030.html">Abby Martin</a> and Martyn Andrews, have been unafraid to contradict Putin in the past (though <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/rosiegray/rt-host-who-criticized-russias-ukraine-invasion-is-leaving-t?utm_term=.olKYzYWKmA#.fe48p8GRWX">Martin left</a> in 2015). The further from senior management, the more likely it is that the “Kremlin narrative” will be transformed.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194594/original/file-20171114-26423-rntc8t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194594/original/file-20171114-26423-rntc8t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194594/original/file-20171114-26423-rntc8t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194594/original/file-20171114-26423-rntc8t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194594/original/file-20171114-26423-rntc8t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194594/original/file-20171114-26423-rntc8t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194594/original/file-20171114-26423-rntc8t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194594/original/file-20171114-26423-rntc8t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Donald Trump on Larry King’s show.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">RT</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Meanwhile, a <a href="https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/ICA_2017_01.pdf">US intelligence report</a> earlier this year was probably wrong to conflate RT’s output with the “hackers”, “trolls” and “bots” who interfered in US and French elections (the Western media <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/why-russias-facebook-ad-campaign-wasnt-such-a-success/2017/11/03/b8efacca-bffa-11e7-8444-a0d4f04b89eb_story.html?hpid=hp_no-name_opinion-card-f%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.6871a3da20e3">exaggerated</a> their impact in any case). The report’s credibility was undermined by drawing on material from 2009. </p>
<h2>Western drift</h2>
<p>So you need a <a href="https://reframingrussia.com">more nuanced analysis</a> of RT to make sense of why someone like Salmond would work with it. Salmond’s show is a marriage of convenience between two opportunistic agents. It is also an indication of how the ideological landscape has reconfigured over the past two decades – as Western power ebbs to China. Brexit may be the dying gasp of Great Britain, clinging to its image as an imperial power capable of thriving alone; meanwhile, the rise of Scottish nationalism merely confirms the danger of the UK fragmenting. </p>
<p>It should also be said that Putin’s paranoid aggression on the international stage is Russia’s own version of the last imperial gasp. In this sense, the alliance of Salmond and RT is entirely logical: two antagonists seeking to dismantle the British state for different reasons.</p>
<p>The outrage in the UK at RT’s opportunism overlooks the growing global market for alternative output created by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/media-blog/2014/jun/12/objectivity-and-impartiality-in-digital-news-coverage">changing</a> worldwide <a href="https://eclass.uoa.gr/modules/document/file.php/MEDIA279/Social%20Media/With%20Facebook,%20Blogs,%20and%20Fake%20News,%20Teens%20Reject%20Journalistic%20%E2%80%9CObjectivity%E2%80%9D.pdf">attitudes</a>: the growing hostility in many parts of the world to Western superiority, to journalistic objectivity and impartiality, to parliamentary democracy, to Western capitalist monopolies. </p>
<p>Salmond, having exhibited open contempt for <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/alex-salmond-bbc-bias-was-significant-factor-in-deciding-scottish-independence-referendum-10506491.html">the “bias”</a> of the BBC and the London establishment against Scottish nationalism in the past, is clearly confident his RT show will not be met with the same outrage throughout Scotland – albeit current first minister Nicola Sturgeon <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-41941359">has taken</a> a different view. All the same, imagine how far removed attitudes are likely to be in Latin America or India or the Middle East. </p>
<p>In the end, Salmond’s initiative is a gamble. Whether British politicians should appear on RT cannot be answered simply. It’s one thing to appear on Worlds Apart, where Boiko conducts interviews in an open and often vicious debate. It’s quite another to appear on RT “flagship show” Cross-Talk, where real debate is usually a pretence and Putin’s critics are outnumbered by his supporters. </p>
<p>Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and the many other politicians from mainstream British political parties who have appeared on RT presumably consider that the importance of the issues they are appearing to talk about outweigh the risks of being seen to legitimise Putin. Equally, for others, the particular means that is RT will never justify such an end. </p>
<p>Salmond has in the past proved an astute reader of the political runes. RT represents for him a platform for indulging his career and promoting the causes he believes in. </p>
<p>It is therefore premature to conclude that Salmond’s latest venture marks his decline into irrelevance and disrepute. What it means for RT, and for the so-called information war is rather less clear – and perhaps still more intriguing.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87410/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Hutchings receives funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vera Tolz receives funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council. </span></em></p>Scotland’s former first minister has sparked outrage in the UK with his latest move.Stephen Hutchings, Professor Of Russian Studies, University of ManchesterVera Tolz, Sir William Mather Professor of Russian Studies, University of ManchesterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/642632016-08-23T13:44:25Z2016-08-23T13:44:25ZThe party is over for Respect, but George Galloway could find a home again in Labour<p>The Respect Party, launched 12 years ago as a platform for opposing the Iraq war, has ceased to be. After it lost its only parliamentary seat in the 2015 election, the party has “voluntarily de-registered” from the Electoral Commission.</p>
<p>The demise of the party has led to much speculation about what the future holds for George Galloway – the man who was the party’s leader and its only ever MP. Many now assume he will attempt to rejoin the Labour Party, which has shifted significantly to the left under Jeremy Corbyn. These two parliamentary stalwarts share many political ideals and fought together against the Iraq war in the early 2000s.</p>
<h2>Losing Respect</h2>
<p>Respect emerged in 2004 out of the anti-war movement. Galloway was a high profile figure and, within the space of just a few months, the party managed to win a quarter of a million votes in the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/vote2004/euro_uk/html/front.stm">European parliamentary elections</a>. Galloway himself was almost elected as an MEP in London.</p>
<p>A year later he went one better in the 2005 general election and was elected as MP for <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/election2005blog/2005/may/06/gallowaywinsi">Bethnal Green and Bow</a>, a constituency with a large Muslim population. More success followed in the 2006 local elections, when Respect became the official opposition on Tower Hamlets council.</p>
<p>But by 2007, the party was beginning to fragment. There was a bitter factional split between Galloway’s supporters and those close to the Socialist Workers Party. Most thought the party was finished and its electoral results in 2010 seemed to confirm this. The party lost Bethnal Green and Bow back to Labour and Galloway failed to get elected in Poplar and Limehouse (he vacated his <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/election2010/results/constituency/a26.stm">previous seat</a> for a Bengali candidate, as promised).</p>
<p>However, two years later, Respect had their man back in parliament with a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17549388">spectacular by-election victory</a> in Bradford West. The Labour Party, confident that this was very much a “safe seat”, lost by more than 10,000 votes. Galloway <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/idea/parveen-akhtar/british-muslims-and-local-democracy-after-bradford">polled more votes</a> than the other seven candidates put together. Then, three years later, he <a href="https://theconversation.com/has-george-galloway-met-his-match-in-bradford-west-39340">lost the seat</a> to Labour’s Naz Shah after one of the 2015 general election’s most divisive and bitterly personal campaigns.</p>
<h2>The Galloway brand</h2>
<p>Galloway alienated many people in Respect, especially women. Salma Yaqoob, one of the original founders of Respect, and the party’s other high-profile politician, cut ties with the party in 2012, citing Galloway’s <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-19323783">comments</a> about rape allegations made against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.</p>
<p>But he was electric on the campaign trail and there is little doubt that Respect’s greatest successes were largely due to his charisma and personal appeal – particularly for young Muslim voters.</p>
<p>Galloway couldn’t always pull it off. A shambolic campaign in the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-13305522">Scottish parliamentary election</a> of 2011 (which delivered just 0.35% of the local vote) and his most recent foray into the 2016 London mayoral election (when he won 1.4% of the vote) showed that without the right issues and electorate to exploit, his rhetoric could only get him so far.</p>
<p>His career in politics has been anything but dull. Serving as an MP between 1987-2010 and 2012-2015 he was also a contestant on Celebrity Big Brother and more recently brought out a <a href="http://www.theblairdoc.com/">film about Tony Blair</a>. He is a household name in British politics; something that cannot be said for most of the politicians serving in Corbyn’s present shadow cabinet.</p>
<p>Galloway has always maintained he was “Old Labour”. He even said so in his 2012 by-election victory speech as leader of the Respect Party. He had been expelled from Labour in 2003, for bringing the party into <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2003/oct/23/labour.georgegalloway">disrepute over his opposition to the Iraq War</a>. But in 2013 there were <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/10008911/Ed-Miliband-admits-to-meeting-George-Galloway-prompting-backlash-from-his-own-MPs.html">rumours</a> that he had been in talks with Labour’s then leader, Ed Miliband, to rejoin.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"185542633056239616"}"></div></p>
<p>He again <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/george-galloway-says-he-will-re-join-labour-pretty-damn-quick-if-jeremy-corbyn-becomes-leader-10429016.html">stated his desire</a> to rejoin the party during last year’s leadership election, a move which would have been deeply unpopular with many in the party – especially the Blairites.</p>
<p>If Corbyn stays on as leader – which is widely expected as the 2016 leadership campaign plays out – the balance of power will have shifted resoundingly to the left, paving the way for Galloway to possibly return to the fold. He and Corbyn were both heavily involved in the anti-war movement led by the Stop the War Coalition and Galloway describes Corbyn as his <a href="http://www.politics.co.uk/comment-analysis/2016/01/11/george-galloway-interview-labour-should-be-begging-me-to-ret">“friend and comrade for over 30 years”</a>. Indeed, Corbyn, alongside other far left comrades, opposed Galloway’s expulsion from the party in the first place. </p>
<p>Respect was founded as a radical alternative to the New Labour project. While its roots were firmly in the anti-war movement, it brought together leftist campaigners on issues ranging from the environment, equal rights and socialism. It rejected the “third way” espoused by Blair during his tenure. But since Corbyn was elected leader, the rationale for a separate party no longer exists. </p>
<h2>Friends again?</h2>
<p>It’s worth pointing out that Respect’s electoral results make it Britain’s <a href="http://pa.oxfordjournals.org/content/66/2/405">most successful</a> radical left party. These successes may have been restricted to a handful of areas with significant Muslim populations (Birmingham, Bradford, east London) but it managed to do so on a <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-856X.12057/abstract">shoestring budget and with a tiny membership</a>. It was able to mobilise previously disenfranchised members of the community to turn out in force to overturn previously safe Labour seats. That should remind Labour of one of the first rules of representative democracy – not to take the electorate, even loyal supporters, for granted. </p>
<p>Respect will go down as a unique electoral experiment. It was derided as a single-issue party but survived for many years after British troops had left Iraq. Under a different electoral system, it would have had even more success. </p>
<p>Who would bet against Galloway standing as a Labour parliamentary candidate again? Given the events in British politics over the last year, and particularly in the Labour Party, anything seems possible.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64263/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Parveen Akhtar has received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council and the British Academy.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Timothy Peace has received funding from the European Commission.</span></em></p>After 12 years, the anti-war party is shutting down, raising questions about what the future holds for its firebrand leader.Parveen Akhtar, Lecturer in Political Science, Aston Centre for Europe, Aston UniversityTimothy Peace, Lecturer in Politics, University of StirlingLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/393402015-04-21T05:18:47Z2015-04-21T05:18:47ZHas George Galloway met his match in Bradford West?<p><em>Hot Seats is a series in which academics report from the UK’s marginal constituencies. Parveen Akhtar is in Bradford West.</em></p>
<p>Labour has won Bradford West at every general election since 1974. But in 2012, Respect Party maverick George Galloway was swept into power with a 10,140-strong majority in a by-election called when Labour MP Marsha Singh stood down for health reasons. </p>
<p>Galloway received <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/idea/parveen-akhtar/british-muslims-and-local-democracy-after-bradford">more votes</a> than all the other candidates put together. He had overwhelming support among young people and women, who saw him as their ticket to a <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-923X.2012.02352.x/epdf">better Bradford</a>. The local Labour Party was <a href="https://theconversation.com/labour-candidate-hands-back-the-poisoned-chalice-of-bradford-west-38147">mired in clan politics and patronage</a>, and Galloway promised an end to that. </p>
<p>His 2015 opponent, Naz Shah, campaigned and voted for Galloway in 2012, but claims she became disillusioned with his performance in office. She was selected as the parliamentary candidate by the local Labour Party after its first choice, Amina Ali, <a href="https://theconversation.com/labour-candidate-hands-back-the-poisoned-chalice-of-bradford-west-38147">backed out of the seat</a> 72 hours after being selected in an unhappy melée of local community and Labout Party in-fighting. </p>
<p>Shah caught the public imagination by writing about her difficult <a href="http://urban-echo.co.uk/exclusive-bradford-west-labour-candidate-naz-shah-reveals-all/">personal life</a>. She grew up poor and at times destitute after her father left her pregnant mother and two children for the neighbours’ 16-year-old daughter. Shah was then sent to Pakistan by her mother, who feared for her safety; there, she was forced into an arranged marriage at the age of 15. Her mother, meanwhile, suffered abuse at the hands of another man, who she ended up poisoning to death. </p>
<p>Shah’s journey into politics is a <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/mar/09/bradford-west-labour-candidate-naz-shah-childhood">far cry</a> from the PPE-at-Oxford template of the traditional upper-middle-class career politician. With this powerful story and the Labour Party political machine behind her, she is Galloway’s only credible opponent in the election.</p>
<h2>The clash</h2>
<p>It was no surprise, then, that the first <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/04/09/george-galloway-respect-bradford-west-general-election-2015_n_7031662.html">hustings</a> at the Carlisle Business Centre in Bradford West attracted national and international media attention. </p>
<p>Galloway clearly saw himself as the main attraction. Proclaiming himself “an orator and parliamentary debater of note”, he certainly brought the soundbites. UKIP candidate Mohammed “Harry” Boota got it in the neck: “there’s something unnatural about a man like you standing for a party like UKIP. It’s like watching a bear dancing.” As for the Conservative Party candidate, George Grant, he was dismissed as “part of the toffs’ brotherhood”.</p>
<p>But Galloway was not entirely the centre of attention. Yes, the media was there because of him – but there was also serious interest in Shah. She came out swinging, referring to Galloway as the “absentee MP”. His response was equally fierce. </p>
<p>First, Galloway claimed that on February 22 2015, a day after failing to secure her selection as the Labour candidate in Bradford West, Naz Shah asked Respect if she could stand as their candidate in Bradford East. The second was that Shah had <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/apr/09/george-galloway-naz-shah-forced-marriage-nikah-bradford-hustings">lied</a> about the age at which she had been forced into a marriage in Pakistan. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78587/original/image-20150420-25721-yvuh4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78587/original/image-20150420-25721-yvuh4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78587/original/image-20150420-25721-yvuh4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=789&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78587/original/image-20150420-25721-yvuh4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=789&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78587/original/image-20150420-25721-yvuh4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=789&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78587/original/image-20150420-25721-yvuh4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=991&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78587/original/image-20150420-25721-yvuh4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=991&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78587/original/image-20150420-25721-yvuh4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=991&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Fighting on all fronts.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/atoach/6862399224/in/photolist-rRWnwH-p2EcbE-bspAd1-dfxfRU-bHqVev">Tim Green/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Shah did not deny the defection claim; instead, she insisted that her suggestion had been made in jest, and that she had a whole Whatsapp conversation on hand to prove this. The issue of the marriage, however, has sparked furious exchanges between the camps – and threats of legal action.</p>
<p>Nobody could accuse Shah or Galloway of being scrupulously scripted and on-message at the hustings; both delivered dramatic performances. But the real surprise of the night came not from the prospective parliamentary candidates but the audience and their enthusiasm for real engagement. </p>
<p>The hall was full to capacity, with more than 250 people present, many of whom had to stand for the two-hour proceedings. Slips of paper with questions from the floor were piled high before the chair. </p>
<p>Many of them hinged on local concerns – in particular why Bradford schools are so good at being <a href="http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/11877822.Bradford_school_in_special_measures_after_damning_Ofsted_report_criticises_weak_governance_and_poor_exam_results/">poor</a> – but then there were the questions about disability and austerity, investment in business and innovation, and tuition fees. There were plenty of questions around international issues too: the banking crisis, radicalisation, Syria and the Middle East. “We want to hear about your policies,” Shah was told, while Galloway was quizzed about his voting record in parliament.</p>
<h2>Dogged loyalists</h2>
<p>Galloway still has a following in Bradford West, and, as he is <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/apr/09/george-galloway-says-his-labour-opponent-tried-to-join-his-party">fond of pointing out</a>, it’s an international one: “They’re watching this contest from Manhattan to Gaza, from Mirpur to Baghdad. They’re watching the result of this election all over the world.” </p>
<p>But on April 13, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/oct/25/bradford-respect-party-councillors-resign-george-galloway">former Respect councillor</a> Mohammad Shabbir released a <a href="http://cllrshabbir.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/press-release-councillor-mohammad.html?m=1">statement</a> announcing that he had joined the Labour Group within Bradford council. He stated that “Respect (George Galloway) is a party of one and sadly it will remain so.” </p>
<p>Still, the “party of one” retains a loyal – and loud – band of followers. At the end of the first hustings, an apparent Respect supporter who had heckled from the side-lines throughout asked Naz Shah a question as she was leaving for the night:</p>
<p>“Who will be dancing in the streets if your party wins – the Israelis or the Palestinians?” </p>
<p>“Human beings will,” she replied. </p>
<p>“Your leader’s a bacon-eating Zionist!” came the reply.</p>
<p>Shah responded: “Half of England eats bacon. I can’t decide my policies by that.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/39340/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Parveen Akhtar does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Bradford West’s candidates are locked in a grandiose, mudslinging back-and-forth of character assassination. Who’ll come out on top?Parveen Akhtar, Lecturer in Sociology, University of BradfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/398832015-04-08T13:54:47Z2015-04-08T13:54:47ZPoliticians need to be taught how to tweet … and so do the rest of us<p>In one of my <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-the-social-media-campaign-war-no-one-is-safe-and-nobody-wins-38507">previous articles</a>, I likened social media to a war zone during elections. If this is the case, then the Respect Party candidate in Bradford West is a the political equivalent of Rambo. A one-man army, all oiled up and with a <a href="http://barristerblogger.com/2014/08/08/george-galloway-prosecuted-inciting-racial-hatred/">proclivity for verbal fights</a>, George Galloway last week proved once again that while Twitter is a great way to engage with your potential constituents, sometimes it’s best to stay clear of the platform, particularly if you have thin skin.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://twitter.com/BradfordBrewery">Bradford Brewery</a> made somewhat of a snarky comment asking whether Galloway was “<a href="https://twitter.com/BradfordBrewery/status/584324565037375488">still a thing?</a>”. Arguably, any respectable politician would ignore such jibes, but on a list of things Galloway is unlikely to say, “no comment” ranks quite highly. After saying that the brewery had been “unwise” to make such comments, the hopeful MP made what could be viewed, as it was by the brewery, some tweets of a threatening tone. He then went on to block the Bradford Brewery’s account. This is the equivalent of running away from a fight.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"584326103210319873"}"></div></p>
<p>All in all, this was much ado about nothing. The brewery gained a bunch of <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/11517022/George-Galloway-Twitter-row-brings-sales-spike-for-Bradford-brewery.html">free advertising</a> and Galloway simply added to the list of things with which <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQA2X4yvK_g">the public mocks him for</a>. However, there is a lesson to be learnt here.</p>
<h2>The young and the reckless</h2>
<p>The important thing to take away from this incident is that politicians of all parties probably need better social media training. It’s common practice that they receive traditional media training such as how to behave in front of a television camera but in today’s social media age, the importance of knowing how to not only correctly use social media, but also get the best out of it is increasingly important.</p>
<p>A case could be made that this is only an issue for politicians over a certain age and that when people of my generation begin to raise to the top ranks of political parties that we’d be all au fait with how to correctly use social media as a politician. </p>
<p>I’d like to think so, but if cases like that of <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-22083032">Paris Brown</a>, the youth police and crime commissioner who resigned after her past Twitter activity came to light, are anything to go by, I feel my generation will require even more social media training to stop us getting into unnecessary online squabbles or saying stupid things. With <a href="http://www.lawyermarketing.com/blog/a-quarter-of-young-people-regret-social-media-posts/">29% of young people thinking they have made social media posts that could affect their future careers</a> and the inevitably higher percentage of of actually career threatening posts out there, my generation’s future politicians will have a lot of deleting to do.</p>
<p>Of course in 20 years time we may all become so jaded when it comes to online scandals that being a faultless Twitter user may not be a requirement for politicians. Hear me now and quote me later: there will come a time when <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/02/19/anthony-weiner-disgraced-over-sexting-scandal-still-tweeting.html">a politician getting caught tweeting out a dick pic</a> won’t even raise an eyebrow.</p>
<h2>Infographics: better than green screens</h2>
<p>Moving away from the graphic and into the graphical, fancy election graphics such as <a href="https://vimeo.com/13097526">holographic houses of parliament</a> or <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3g25DKZOSOo">fancy maps</a> were once a toy just for traditional media. But these days, infographics are the go-to tool to display data and statistics in an interactive way online, allowing us to personalise our experience to make it more useful and relevant.</p>
<p>If you’re like me and you love going into the minutia of polling, <a href="http://fivethirtyeight.com/interactives/uk-general-election-predictions/">fivethirtyeight.com </a> has an excellent election forecast map that illustrates not only the likely outcomes in every constituency, but also how simple infographics can be an effective tool in conveying data online. And for those of a betting disposition the man behind the website, Nate Silver, made almost <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/science/grrlscientist/2012/nov/08/nate-sliver-predict-us-election">perfect predictions for the US 2012 election</a> and so it’s excellent source for second guessing what the final numbers will be come May 7.</p>
<p>Another infographic driven website is <a href="http://www.voterpower.org.uk/">voterpower.org.uk</a>. Here, anyone can look up how powerful their vote really is and have it shown to them in a clear and illustrative manner. For instance, knowing that in my local constituency, <a href="http://www.voterpower.org.uk/stroud">we have roughly 2.89x more power than the average UK voter</a> due to it being a marginal seat, could help encourage people to go out and vote knowing they actually could make a difference. Obviously this site could have the opposite effect in safe seats such as Knowsley where there voting power is roughly <a href="http://www.voterpower.org.uk/knowsley">100x weaker than the average UK voter</a> and hence could lead people not to vote.</p>
<p>Both these sites among many others highlight how online media is an increasingly important tool during elections. Not only does it allow for smaller news sites to display interesting data driven stories with vastly smaller budgets than that of traditional media, but it also grants the public an additional platform from which to access this sort of information in an easily digestible way.</p>
<p>Television no longer has a monopoly on graphical data and this election cycle, the public should look towards the internet for innovative new ways to understand the election and learn how their vote does, or in some cases, does not matter.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/39883/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
In one of my previous articles, I likened social media to a war zone during elections. If this is the case, then the Respect Party candidate in Bradford West is a the political equivalent of Rambo. A one-man…Steven Buckley, PhD student, Journalism & New Media, Cardiff UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/386782015-03-11T17:30:47Z2015-03-11T17:30:47ZThe local candidate taking on George Galloway for Labour’s lost seat<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/74503/original/image-20150311-24194-qww5eg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Can Naz Shah win Bradford back from Respect?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Facebook</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A number of <a href="http://lordashcroftpolls.com/2015/03/ashcroft-national-poll-con-34-lab-30-lib-dem-5-ukip-15-green-8/">recent polls</a> have shown the Conservatives slightly ahead of Labour or the two main parties <a href="https://yougov.co.uk/news/categories/politics/">level pegging</a>.</p>
<p>All these results are within the range of sampling error, but at the very least they suggest that Labour will not get an overall majority in the House of Commons and may not even be the largest party. It is therefore important to the party that it gains every seat it can. And Bradford West is one particularly high-profile target.</p>
<p>For many years this was a safe Labour seat but it was captured by George Galloway for the Respect Party in a 2012 by-election.</p>
<p>In the 2010 general election, the Labour vote generally held up better in constituencies with a large proportion of <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2010/feb/22/muslim-voters-labour">Muslim voters</a>. But Galloway particularly appealed to Muslim voters who harboured resentments about the way Labour candidates were selected.</p>
<p>These were the voters who objected to the role of a hierarchical clan system known as biraderi in the process. This system of kinship, which originated in Pakistan and rural Kashmir, sees community gatekeepers promise to deliver block votes in return for influence. Many voters, particularly <a href="http://www.redpepper.org.uk/bradfords-revolt/">younger people</a> and women, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-31600344">felt disenfranchised</a> by such a system.</p>
<p>Biraderi appears to have been in operation in Bradford for some time and Galloway saw an opportunity. He took 55.9% of the vote in his by-election. Beating him in 2015 was never going to be easy so it was important that the selection of the Labour candidate went smoothly. To win back the seat, the Labour candidate would need to win broad support.</p>
<p>Initially, there was turmoil. Much to her surprise, Amina Ali, a Labour councillor from the London borough of Tower Hamlets, was chosen as the candidate. An all-woman shortlist had been imposed and this was seen by clan leaders as an attempt to exclude Imran Hussain – the candidate defeated by Galloway in 2012 – because he was associated with clan-based politics.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/politics/article4365716.ece">Some observers felt </a> that the local team had opted for Ali precisely because she was an outsider with less chance of winning, the aim being to punish the Labour leadership for barring the favoured male candidate. Ali would have been the first Somali woman to contest a parliamentary seat in the UK, but within 72 hours of her nomination, she had stepped down, saying that she could not move her children to West Yorkshire without massive disruption to their education.</p>
<p>The Labour leadership then had to intervene and Naz Shah, a local resident with an <a href="http://urban-echo.co.uk/exclusive-bradford-west-labour-candidate-naz-shah-reveals-all">appealing back story</a>, became the candidate. Shah was born and raised in Bradford and is bringing up her own family there. She suffered a childhood of real deprivation and anguish. First, her father abandoned the family, forming a relationship with a much younger woman. Then her mother found a new partner who abused her. Eventually, her mother killed her abuser and served 14 years in prison.</p>
<p>If Labour wants to show that it can select candidates who have experienced real hardship and have personal experience of the effects of violence against women, it could not have made a better choice.</p>
<p>This does not mean, however, that it will recapture the seat from Galloway and Respect. Shah may offer a fresh perspective at a time when parliamentarians stand accused of being out of touch with reality and the needs of their constituents, but she has a fierce battle ahead of her.</p>
<p>Not only is Galloway coming to the fight with the confidence of a man who secured a 36.6% swing in his last campaign, he knows where Labour’s weaknesses lie in the wake of this very public saga.</p>
<p>However worthy Shah – or indeed Ali – may be, the imposition of candidates has not gone down well locally in Bradford. Some Labour supporters may now <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-31749227">switch allegiance</a> and campaign for Galloway instead. </p>
<p>All told, Bradford West is a very unpredictable contest – which is the last thing Labour needs at this stage in the campaign. However, it is an example of the way in which many contests will be decided by largely local considerations.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/38678/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
A number of recent polls have shown the Conservatives slightly ahead of Labour or the two main parties level pegging. All these results are within the range of sampling error, but at the very least they…Wyn Grant, Professor of politics, University of WarwickLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/381472015-02-27T12:36:07Z2015-02-27T12:36:07ZLabour candidate hands back the poisoned chalice of Bradford West<p>Amina Ali had only been the Labour Party parliamentary candidate for Bradford West for three days before she tweeted her intention to <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/feb/25/labour-candidate-chosen-to-face-galloway-resigns-after-three-days">stand down</a> on February 25. While the tweet was later deleted, the next day she released a statement confirming her withdrawal from the contest. </p>
<p>Her explanation invoked personal reasons, but that was met with scepticism: the incumbent MP, Respect’s George Galloway, <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/generalelection/george-galloways-labour-opponent-in-bradford-west-amina-ali-resigns-as-candidate-ahead-of-general-election-10069560.html">chalked</a> Ali’s resignation up to Labour Party infighting.</p>
<p>Social media was ablaze with rumours of Machiavellian tactics, and the night of the long knives. But all the focus on personalities takes away from the real problem in Bradford West: the major parties have systematically failed to engage properly with minority communities, and have relied instead on self-appointed gatekeepers. </p>
<h2>You scratch my back …</h2>
<p>In 2012, Labour’s Imran Hussain <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2012/mar/30/george-galloway-bradford-west-byelection">lost the seat</a> to Galloway, who swept into power with a stunning majority of more than 10,000. </p>
<p>What Galloway called the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17606453">“Bradford Spring”</a> in his 2012 victory speech was, according to him, the work of young Muslims of Pakistani descent rising up against a local political establishment <a href="http://www.palgrave.com/page/detail/british-muslim-politics-parveen-akhtar/?K=9781137275158">dominated by biraderi</a>, a system of kinship common in South Asia, especially strong in the rural Kashmiri communities from which the majority of Bradford’s Pakistani population is descended. </p>
<p>Biraderi networks can function as a system of welfare, helping individuals and families connect and share resources in times of hardship. Indeed, it was through chain migration, facilitated by kinship networks, that a significant population of Pakistanis ended up in urban centres in the UK in the first place. </p>
<p>Biraderi networks provided a buffer for new migrants, helping them find work and accommodation. By the 1970’s, these networks were embedded in the British political system in time for mainstream political parties to start courting minority votes after years of <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=lTohAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA70&lpg=PA70&dq=benign+neglect+british+politics+pakistan&source=bl&ots=P4fWrhD6jl&sig=PdLbHFosVrbQvsKW1_1ugjQXiU0&hl=en&sa=X&ei=jWTwVJiEAuL-7Abn7YGACA&ved=0CCwQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=benign%20neglect%20british%20politics%20pakistan&f=false">benign neglect</a>.</p>
<p>But instead of engaging with minority communities at the grassroots level, mainstream political parties have instead focused on building relationships with community leaders. In the case of Pakistanis, this was often with biradari elders. The relationships that resulted were pure patronage: prospective parliamentary candidates conferred status and local positions of influence on biraderi leaders or “clients”, who in return delivered community votes in solid blocs. </p>
<p>Many Pakistani communities traditionally observe a high standard of deference towards biraderi elders, and this lends itself to mass electoral mobilisation, as individuals (and families) take their lead on who to vote for from the elders.</p>
<h2>… I’ll scratch yours</h2>
<p>This system held sway for many years among the pioneer immigrant generation in concentrated areas such as Bradford – but cracks have now started to emerge. </p>
<p>Biraderi’s patriarchal and hierarchical nature has led to a number of Bradford’s British Pakistanis, especially young people and women, to feel increasingly disenfranchised from a local politics dominated by what has been termed locally as the “biraderi brigade”.</p>
<p>This is what made Galloway’s promise to curb the influence of biraderi in local politics such a key part of his 2012 by-election victory. Defeat came as a shock to the highly complacent local Labour Party, which had expected to sail to victory in Bradford as it had done in all the previous elections there. </p>
<p>Ever since Galloway’s spectacular victory, Labour has mounted a centrally planned effort to reclaim the seat. Ed Miliband paid a visit and vowed to clean up politics in the city. An <a href="http://www.asiansunday.co.uk/who-will-rid-bradford-of-the-biraderi-stain/">all-women short-list</a> was imposed – meaning Imran Hussain, who became the top target for Galloway’s anti-biraderi campaign, could not stand again. </p>
<p>This backfired somewhat when Hussain was selected as the official Labour Party candidate for the neighbouring constituency of <a href="http://www.asiansunday.co.uk/the-common-good-the-bradford-biraderi-and-the-westminster-ugly-of-british-politics/">Bradford East</a>, standing against Liberal Democrat MP David Ward. </p>
<h2>Too little, too late?</h2>
<p>With Ali’s departure, the poisoned chalice is up for grabs once more. Miliband will once again make a trip up to Bradford on February 28, exactly one week after the party had thought it had wrapped up the selection process. But the effort may be too little, too late.</p>
<p>After decades of patronage, a generation of British Pakistani young people is disillusioned with the political process, a sentiment which matches young people in British society more widely. And in Bradford and places like it, people are doubly disillusioned – both with politicians in general and with the kinship networks deeply embedded in and entwined with local politics. </p>
<p>MPs and candidates will appear and disappear, be selected and step down, but the structural factor of patronage politics desperately needs to be addressed if younger British Pakistanis are ever to re-engage with politics. And that will require more than Miliband taking a Saturday afternoon stroll around town.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/38147/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Parveen Akhtar has received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council and the British Academy.</span></em></p>Decades of patronage politics have left Bradford’s Labour party terminally complacent.Parveen Akhtar, Lecturer in Sociology, University of BradfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/374862015-02-11T15:52:18Z2015-02-11T15:52:18ZBritish MP exploits vague defamation law to sue Guardian journalist<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/71733/original/image-20150211-25679-1h1tdoh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Galloway is the master of the chilling effect.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/brokendrumphotography/3184599409">Vince Millett</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Maverick MP George Galloway has announced he is <a href="https://twitter.com/georgegalloway/status/565140176025161728">suing Guardian journalist</a> Hadley Freeman over an accusation she made about him on Twitter, following his appearance on a recent edition of Question Time.</p>
<p>Galloway had argued that his anti-Israel stances on a number of issues have not spilled over into anti-Semitism. Freeman disagrees, although she has since deleted the tweet saying as much.</p>
<p>Galloway’s lawsuit against Freeman comes on the grounds of defamation, a precarious area of law when it so strongly intersects with public debate on controversial issues. </p>
<p>Before we decide about their spat, consider first a more routine case. Imagine a man, we’ll call him Joe, who bears a grudge against Dr Bright, his town dentist, for keeping him waiting too long for his root canal surgery.</p>
<p>Dr Bright is neither famous nor well known for anything at all. He’s just the local dentist. Incensed, Joe runs around hanging notices on buildings and trees, writing on his Facebook page and telling the townspeople that Dr Bright has been secretly administering cyanide to his patients.</p>
<p>Defamation laws include both libel, if written, and slander, if spoken. Joe has done both. Such misinformation could harm or entirely ruin Dr Bright’s career. Dr Bright is therefore entitled to show loss of earnings in court as part of a damage award. </p>
<p>There are two important things to note about Joe’s conduct. First, he is in no sense aiming to promote public dialogue on the current state of dental medicine. Second, Joe has not voiced a mere opinion, a sheer value judgement, about Dr Bright. He has not simply told people he thinks Dr Bright is a bad dentist, he has spread false allegations about an objectively verifiable fact.</p>
<h2>Bad opinion is not bad fact</h2>
<p>What, then, has Hadley Freeman done? Most would agree that not all criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic. Jewish Israelis, and their friends, publicly criticise the Israeli government every day. Nor is it seriously disputed that some criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic, as witnessed in many <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the-israeli-palestinian-conflict-spills-into-europe-with-protests-anti-jewish-slogans/2014/07/30/36ca8d41-b5a4-4790-9b53-c94e75da4ba6_story.html">recent incidents</a> throughout the world.</p>
<p>Most debate about Israel or about Jews does not take place at those extremes though. It takes place in a vast and murky middle. Unsurprisingly, the question as to whether a particular criticism of Israel, or indeed of Jews, counts as anti-Semitic is not a matter of sheer fact. It is a matter of interpretation and judgement, upon which reasonable people may – and emphatically do – disagree. </p>
<p>That is the kind of debate that is necessary for democracy to thrive, and which is undermined when courts allow themselves to stray from the proper function of protecting plaintiffs from damagingly false allegations of fact, and instead appoint themselves guardians of political decorum. </p>
<p>If a journalist brands David Cameron a racist, believing that his policies have an unfair impact on people from minorities, would we argue Cameron ought to be entitled to collect damages for defamation? </p>
<p>In this particular case, the organisation Media Lens has jumped to Galloway’s defence, asking if Freeman could cite examples of Galloway’s anti-Semitism. But any example she could cite would probably persuade some and not others. Even if an overwhelming majority were unpersuaded, a highly popular opinion does not create an objectively verifiable fact.</p>
<h2>The big chill</h2>
<p>But Freeman deleted her tweet. So what’s the problem? In fact, that’s the biggest problem of all. Decades ago, free speech scholars identified the “chilling effect”, which gives the law a double edge whenever it strays into the realm of public debate on controversial issues of the day. </p>
<p>Under current law, judges retain the power to police public debate. Most British and European lawmakers would insist that such a power is very narrow and certainly doesn’t hamper free and open discussion. But that’s exactly where the chilling effect kicks in. As long as the law maintains only a hazy line between, on the one hand, verifiable allegations of fact and, on the other hand, expressions of opinion, speakers and writers remain unsure about what they may and may not say.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/71741/original/image-20150211-25672-kl4st2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/71741/original/image-20150211-25672-kl4st2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/71741/original/image-20150211-25672-kl4st2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=126&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/71741/original/image-20150211-25672-kl4st2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=126&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/71741/original/image-20150211-25672-kl4st2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=126&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/71741/original/image-20150211-25672-kl4st2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=159&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/71741/original/image-20150211-25672-kl4st2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=159&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/71741/original/image-20150211-25672-kl4st2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=159&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Freeman backs down.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Twitter</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>They end up self-censoring to stay on the safe side. In Freeman’s words, they delete tweets “to save a day in court”, which might indeed turn out to be a costly one. No one manoeuvres the chilling effect better than Galloway, who warned in a later tweet that “any traceable person who repeats her defamation will be added to the legal action”. In a mature democracy, that kind of taunt ought to be a paper tiger. Our law instead allows it to loom as a menacing diktat.</p>
<p>The UK and Europe have never adopted the so-called <a href="http://www.expertlaw.com/library/personal_injury/defamation.html#3">public figure exception</a> to defamation law, which would further promote public debate by creating a stronger presumption of freedom for speakers when they are discussing high-profile politicians, or other persons who have visibly entered the cut and thrust of politics.</p>
<p>One rationale for that doctrine is that someone like Galloway has broad and immediate access to influential media and public fora, within which he can more than adequately respond to such criticisms, without having to run to the courts to defend himself. That is, crucially, what our forlorn Dr Bright lacks.</p>
<p>In addition to tightening the distinction between fact and opinion, the time is long overdue for lawmakers to undo the absurdity they have created – and the real damage caused to all citizens’ prerogatives of democratic participation – when they equate a journalist’s controversial allegations about a George Galloway with Joe’s controversial allegations about Dr Bright.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/37486/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eric Heinze does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Maverick MP George Galloway has announced he is suing Guardian journalist Hadley Freeman over an accusation she made about him on Twitter, following his appearance on a recent edition of Question Time…Eric Heinze, Professor of Law, Queen Mary University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/369902015-01-30T12:54:54Z2015-01-30T12:54:54ZQuestion Time: serious political debate or a popularity contest for needy egos?<p>The BBC’s long-running political panel show, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006t1q9">Question Time</a> sets out to be topical, relevant to its audience and spiced with a dash of controversy. So, as you’d expect, when it was broadcast from Wrexham, producers brought in Peter Hain and Plaid Cymru MP, Rhun ap Iorwerth, to provide the Welsh flavour with arts and culture minister Sajid Javid added to give us the government’s point-of-view. And – always a good bet for a dash of controversy – we had Germaine Greer celebrating her 76th birthday. Making up the numbers was Telegraph blogger Kate Maltby – although what she was drafted in to provide was not clear. </p>
<p>But controversy is a modus operandi for QT, and the news that the pugnacious pro- Palestinian Respect MP, George Galloway, has been approached to be a guest on the February 5 programme to be broadcast from Finchley brought forth a perhaps predictable outcry. </p>
<p>The Jewish Chronicle highlighted Galloway’s refusal to <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/feb/21/george-galloway-debate-israeli-oxford%20">debate with Israelis</a> and the fact that Finchley was home to the UK’s largest Jewish population. Local MP, <a href="http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/128947/bbc-attacked-over-provocative-george-galloway-question-time-appearance.">Mike Freer</a>, was quoted as saying the BBC’s decision was “deliberately provocative”.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The BBC can’t have done it by accident. Given what’s going on in the world it is a slap in the face for the local community. It lacks sensitivity.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Also pencilled in for the show is the shy and retiring Janet Street Porter. Sparks, as they say, may fly.</p>
<p>On one level, Galloway’s appearance, if it takes place, will hardly be a surprise. He has appeared on the programme six times since 2010. On two separate occasions he has appeared with the other habitual raisers of hackles, Nigel Farage (a whopping <a href="http://www.cityam.com/205477/nigel-farage-has-made-more-bbc-question-time-appearances-anyone-else-decade-following-clash%20">13 appearances since 2010</a>) and David Starkey (also six).</p>
<p>It is Starkey, actually, whose recent appearances have garnered the most publicity. When he and Galloway appeared together in in February 2014, it was the historian who hit the headlines when he <a href="http://www.jomec.co.uk/blog/wp-admin/%20https:/www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hqi33mhXwgo">volunteered the view </a> that that violence, not consent, should be the <a href="http://www.jomec.co.uk/blog/wp-admin/%20http:/www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/02/07/david-starkey-rape_n_4743433.html">measure of rape</a>. </p>
<p>In 2012, Starkey brusquely told an audience member that if he couldn’t recognise propaganda from fact he “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1D6Tfpo1RQ">shouldn’t be at a programme like this</a>”. And, just two weeks ago, in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo massacre, he accused Islam of being “backward” and referred to Mehdi Hassan, political director of the Huffington Post, as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYDOrzoye-c">Ahmed</a>. </p>
<p>In fact, there was a point early on in this edition when Starkey’s boorish approach to debate threatened to reduce the proceedings to farce. Each guest appeared to shout over each other while the increasingly visibly tired David Dimbleby struggled to maintain control. </p>
<p>It occurred to me then that all this resembled nothing more than a diluted imitation of Prime Minister’s Question Time, which is, as a matter of tradition, a weekly reminder of how base and degraded British democracy can be. Speaker <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/feb/02/speaker-john-bercow-control-mp">John Bercow’s</a> estimation of PMQ’s as a “litany of attacks, sound bites and planted questions” seemed a pathetically apposite description of what I was watching.</p>
<h2>Scientists need not apply</h2>
<p>There have been many who have called for an end to the programme which was first broadcast in 1979 and originally chaired by Robin Day. <a href="http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2013/10/why-has-question-time-become-just-a-repository-for-needy-egos/">Lloyd Evans</a>, in the Spectator in 2013, wrote that it was no longer the honest debating chamber that it once was, but rather an “unseemly gold-rush for applause” where “the panellists were a set of needy egos” and the audience, “composed of wonks and party activists posing as disinterested voters”.</p>
<p>Science writer Martin Robbins put it beautifully <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/science/the-lay-scientist/2013/jun/14/bbc-question-time">in an article in The Guardian</a> which was helpfully accompanied by a graph illustrating that stars from The Apprentice and Dragons’ Den have made more appearances on Question Time than “all the scientists in the world put together”. Robbins wrote that Question Time was failure when it came to providing informed debate. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The bulk of panelists are drawn from the same upper-middle-class, upper-middle-aged pot of journalists, lawyers and politicians, and are often profoundly ignorant on topics outside of that narrow culture. Science, sex, the internet … attempts to tackle anything outside their world result in bewildering exchanges that confuse more often than they inform.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Question Time has currency because it is the most watched political programme on British television and, as <a href="http://www.newstatesman.com/broadcast/2012/11/there-bias-bbc-question-time">Phil Burton Cartledge</a> points out, an appearance on the show by a politician or a commentator is a signal that they should be taken seriously. </p>
<p>But how long will that continue to be the case? The problem is that the programme should be about debate and information but it descends all too often into travesty. This is due largely to the ambition of a few notorious guests who are routinely asked to appear. Being controversial, difficult or rude seems to guarantee a return ticket. This, obviously, means serious discussion is not necessarily the main objective.</p>
<h2>That’s entertainment</h2>
<p>It should be acknowledged that for all the criticism, it appears that the audience much prefers the verbal jousting a “Starkey versus Galloway” bout is guaranteed to provide. </p>
<p>The much-trumpeted appearance of Nigel Farage and Russell Brand on the same show in December led to a huge increase in viewing figures. That show <a href="http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-f3ee-Farage-and-Brand-raise-BBC-viewing-figures#.VMpcZkesV8E">reportedly</a> had an extra million viewers more than the previous week. It rated as that particular Thursday’s second-highest watched show with 3.4m people sitting down to watch.</p>
<p>It is certainly true (to an extent) that both Brand and Farage have altered the political landscape and that their populist approach is proving to be immensely attractive. That is why they appear on the programme. The question is whether this is to be celebrated in an age where the newspaper-reading, web-surfing public are more inclined to be more interested in who is sleeping with whom? </p>
<p>A study by academics at the University of Bristol’s <a href="http://intelligentsystems.bristol.ac.uk/">Intelligent Systems Laboratory</a> analysed the choices made by readers of online news and found, according to <a href="http://mediapatterns.enm.bris.ac.uk/WhatReadersWant">lead researcher Professor Nello Cristianini</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Significant inverse correlations between the appeal to users and the amount of attention devoted to public affairs. People are put off by public affairs and attracted by entertainment, crime, and other non-public affairs topics. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Maybe Question Time, despite its more than occasional forays into farce and drama, still has validity as a medium which draws in viewers who would normally eschew political programming?</p>
<p>Whatever your view, Question Time in 2015 is far removed from its staid three-party roots of 1979. But then so is the UK. The producers of the programme have tried to embrace modernity with the acknowledgement of celebrity culture and the adoption of social media – viewers can now text or tweet while watching, using the red button on the remote to access a selection of comments which run along the bottom of the screen. </p>
<p>Let’s not forget also that it is one of the very few programmes which allows politicians to be directly addressed by the electorate. It has its faults quite obviously and the observations of Martin Robbins are persuasive, but for all that I say we should be glad it still exists.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/36990/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
The BBC’s long-running political panel show, Question Time sets out to be topical, relevant to its audience and spiced with a dash of controversy. So, as you’d expect, when it was broadcast from Wrexham…John Jewell, Director of Undergraduate Studies, School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, Cardiff UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.