With the unexpected victory (to them) of George Galloway over Oona King last week, there have been some fairly desperate attemps made to explain away this victory. The key factor, as Dead Men Left explains is a belief that:
rational individuals could not possibly have voted for Respect. What both imply is that voters in Bethnal Green and Bow had every reason to be happy with their lot, were they not driven by their irrational urges. Both are slurs, in particular, on the Bangladeshi community in East London.
The most disgusting and insulting “explanation” of Oona King’s defeat has to be the idea that she lost because she was part Jewish and part Black –and the white racists and anti-semitic muslims in her district couldn’t handle that. But, as the following letter, quoted by both The Ghost of Wat Tyler and Jews sans Frontieres:
After Oona King’s defeat, I found comments by Tony Banks and others patronising and insulting to us British-Bangladeshis/Muslims. Contrary to the pathetic excuses they were making for her, we did not vote against Ms King because she was a woman, or because she was black, or Jewish. She was all those things when we voted for her in 1997 and 2001. We voted her out because she did not listen to us on Iraq. If she had done her job and represented her constituents (rather than pursue her personal ambitions by following Blair) she would still be our MP. Simple.
Suber Akther
London
Hear hear.