Galloway’s big win in Rochdale could be a fork in the road for British politics
BY-ELECTION results are not necessarily the most perfect indicators of likely general election results, but George Galloway’s stunning victory in the Rochdale contest highlights factors which have an important national significance.
As the victorious candidate said, it is a victory for the Palestinian people and for Gaza. But it is also a powerful blow against the consensus politics of the Establishment “parties of government.” It reflects the deep crisis of legitimacy that decades of neoliberalism, austerity and war have produced.
As the mainstream media suppressed coverage of the Rochdale campaign, local issues joined with a heightened sensitivity to global politics to produce a thoroughgoing rejection of Westminster-style politics.
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ANDREW MURRAY surveys the political landscape in one of Britain’s most controversial by-elections in years, and talks to the frontrunner – George Galloway – about the ‘perfect storm’ brewing for Labour