Galloway defeated New Labour, not Oona King

Here's a slightly sneery article on Galloway's election victory on Thursday. Lenin, over at the tomb is in good cheer regarding much of the election. Me, I found it a bit of a damp squib except for the Galloway result. But look how the Guardian and the BBC are trying to belittle what was a great success for the anti-war movement:

Mr Galloway has been criticised for ruthlessly targeting a seat with a high Muslim vote rather than hitting out at Mr Blair in his Sedgefield constituency.

This is a seat with a large number of anti-war voters and one that had a pro-war MP. The only other places for anti-war voters to go was to the Lib Dems (who seem to have supported the war once it was on and support the occupation now) or the Greens whose sectarianim has mean that little has been heard from them througout the campaign. Anyway, look how Jeremy Paxman chose to address Galloway:

in a morning confrontation with Jeremy Paxman...[George Galloway] repeatedly refused to say whether he was "proud" of having unseated one of the few black women MPs.

Eventually, he said: "All those New Labour MPs who voted for Mr Blair and Mr Bush's war have on their hands the blood of 100,000 people in Iraq, many of them British soldiers, many of them American soldiers, most of them Iraqis.

"That is a more important issue than the colour of her skin. So don't try and tell me I should feel guilty about one of the most sensational election results in modern electoral history."

He accused Mr Paxman of "insulting" his new constituents by ignoring the result.

"They chose me. Can't you find it within yourself even to congratulate me?" he asked, before terminating the interview.

Paxman has widened the net of allegations against Galloway from focused anti-semitism to a more generalised racism. Paxman seems not to have noticed that his own belittling of the Muslim communities of Bethnal Green and Bow has more than a whiff of racism to it. Paxman should also note that the litigious George Galloway received increased damages from the Telegraph group when the Telgraph's barrister falsely accused him of anti-semitism.