Galloway wins in one of the biggest By-election shocks in history.

George Galloway has pulled of one of the biggest political shocks in history  winning the Bradford West by-election with a majority of 10,140.

Bradford West by-election, 2012: [11]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Respect	George Galloway	18,341	55.9	+52.8
	Labour	Imran Hussain	8,201	25.0	-20.3
	Conservative	Jackie Whiteley	2,746	8.4	-22.7
	Liberal Democrat	Jeanette Sunderland	1,505	4.6	-7.1
	UKIP	Sonja McNally	1,085	3.3	+1.3
	Green	Dawud Islam	481	1.5	-0.8
	Democratic Nationalists	Neil Craig	341	1.0	-0.1
	Monster Raving Loony	Howling Laud Hope	111	0.3	N/A
Majority			10,140	30.9	+16.7
Turnout			32,905	50%	-14.9%

General Election 2012

Election	Political result		Candidate		Party	Votes	%	±%
General Election 2010 [12][13] New boundaries Turnout: 40,576 (64.9%) +8.9		Labour hold Majority: 5,763 (14.2%) Swing: +2.9% from Con to Lab		Marsha Singh	Labour	18,401	45.3	+5.6
				Zahid Iqbal	Conservative	12,638	31.1	−0.2
				David Hall-Matthews	Liberal Democrat	4,732	11.7	−7.4
				Jenny Sampson	BNP	1,370	3.4	−3.5
				Arshad Ali	Respect	1,245	3.1	+3.1
				David Ford	Green	940	2.3	−0.7
				Jason Smith	UKIP	812	2.0	+2.0
				Neil Craig	Democratic Nationalists	438	1.1	+1.

This was not just a bad night for Labour it was also one for the other main parties and it can't just be shown (as it will by the media) as general disillusionment  by the large Moslem component of the constitutive. 

Indeed the Guardian  states

 It appeared that the seat's Muslim immigrant community had decamped from Labour en masse to Galloway's fundamentalist call for an immediate British troop withdrawal from Afghanistan and a fightback against the job crisis.

But I imagine many of those voting may be second or third generation and they are not immigrants. Shame on the Guardian for making this all they had to use was Muslim Community.

Clearly for want of a major analysis from journalist on the ground Galloways call for withdrawal from Afghanistan had some resonance . But Labour failure to stand up for the poorest members of our society was also a factor.In some ways this result resembles Jim Sillars  1988  Glasgow Govan by-election victory.Where the Poll tax and Labours lukewarm opposition was an issue.

Labour were hopping to win big in the UK in the May elections. It just be that where there another alternative to the other main parties those who feel that they have been let down by all three may just chose another.