There was a national lesson from Bradford West, but it wasn’t what we thought. The usual suspects argued that Labour needed to shift Ed Miliband and/or the party’s position on the deficit. But George Galloway barely mentioned those subjects. He didn’t have to. His politics didn’t win because it fit the Westminster paradigm; it won because it was rooted in the heart and soul of Bradford.
First, Galloway’s priorities spoke to the constituency. He talked about the decline in manufacturing, the “hole in the ground” that was supposed to have become the town’s shopping centre – and presented an alternative vision of his own. Labour’s campaign in contrast was – as admitted by field worker Sean Dolat in this excellent post – negative and hollow. As in Scotland, Labour focused on smashing the Tories even though they weren’t the main challenger.
Content from our partners
