Sometimes, it’s helpful to receive the occasional reminder that incompetent politicians and toxic identity politics are not the sole purview of the United States.
As it happens, our allies across the pond are just as capable of stoking pointless factionalism among minorities and white residents as our own homegrown politicians.
The politician providing us this example today is British far-left Parliamentary candidate George Galloway, whose different letters sent to his Muslim and Caucasian constituents are going viral for all the wrong reasons.
As seen in this post on the social media platform X, which has already garnered 2.3 million views, Galloway sent two different campaign letters to voters in the town of Rochdale, the Parliamentary seat for which he was campaigning.
The letter sent to Rochdale’s white voters emphasize his support of Brexit, his ability to define a woman, and his belief in law and order, ending the letter by promising to “make Rochdale great again.”
GEORGE GALLOWAY HAS DIFFERENT CAMPAIGN LETTERS FOR WHITE AND MUSLIM HOUSEHOLDS IN ROCHDALE 😭😭😭😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/swSsfQxf2t
— saad 🇬🇧 ⸆⸉ (@crowndefensx) February 29, 2024
In stark contrast is Galloway’s letter to the Muslims of Rochdale, who, according to a Guardian profile of the man, comprise 30 percent of Rochdale’s population.
In that letter, he begins with the Arabic phrase “A’Saalam o Aleukum,” meaning “Peace be unto you.”
From there, he trashed the British politicians who support Israel over the Palestinians in the Gaza conflict, insisting he has “fought for Muslims at home and abroad all my life.”
He then tells his Muslim constituents that they “have a unique opportunity” to “stop supporting Genocide, stop supporting Israeli aggression, and stand with Palestine,” before closing with another Arabic phrase, “Wa’ Salaam o Aleukum” (and upon you be peace).
Most users on X were not convinced by this transparent attempt at pandering.
One user commented “Not surprising. He’ll be whatever helps him get what he wants,” and another concurred, saying “That’s the dedication to pandering that wins elections.”
Not surprising. He’ll be whatever helps him get what he wants.
— Becky (@frogwillwalk) March 1, 2024
That’s the dedication to pandering that wins elections
— Nao! (@hard4TRUMP) March 1, 2024
Despite how he presented himself in his letter to the white residents of Rochdale, for Galloway, this was essentially a single issue campaign,
As his Guardian profile reported, he appealed almost exclusively to the Muslims who are overwhelmingly on the side of the Palestinians rather than Israel in the Gaza conflict.
Moreover, Galloway apparently has a long history of supporting far-left causes.
He saluted Saddam Hussein for his “courage” back in 1994, took a job on an Arab television network possibly linked to Syria’s dictator Bashar al-Assad, and quoted Chinese dictator Xi Jinping approvingly while chair of his Workers Party of Britain in 2019.
Of any of the letters Galloway sent to the citizens of Rochdale, then, the one sent to the Muslim citizens has the greater chance of being sincere.
But, as we all know, with both letters he’s really only telling certain groups of voters what he knows they want to hear.
The one to the white citizens of Rochdale nods to the fact that Britain has been in rough shape for some time.
Like the U.S. currently, they’ve been in the throes of a cost of living crisis at least since Covid, and the island has been swamped with third-world immigration coinciding with a boom in crime and violence.
The one to the Muslims citizens, while possibly more reflective of Galloway’s true beliefs, is still at bottom shameless pandering, appealing directly to their connections in the Middle East.
There is no real truth to these letters, just a shameless stretch for extra voters.
It’s a tactic we in the U.S. are all too familiar with.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.