Thursday 6 May 2010

Phil Woolas' No Longer Covert Racism?

Looks like the possibility of having his cushy political career snatched from his grasp in the election may have driven Phil Woolas to loose it, fully revealing his less-than-liberal political stripes and attack his election opponents in something called 'The Saddleworth and Oldham Examiner'. [for images see: Part 1 & Part 2] 45,000 copies of this 8 page election address masquerading as a newspaper have been distributed across his Oldham East and Saddleworth constituency, largely in predominantly white areas of Oldham according to the Muslim Public Affairs Committee, which is campaigning against him. In return for the organisation's opposition to his re-election, Woolas appears to have accused them in the pages of the 'Examiner' of issuing death threats against him and has used images of Al-Muhajirun to smear them with.

He has also gone after the Liberals, his nearest rivals, accusing them of 'a stitch up' over plans to build a mosque on “the last green space of Waterloo Street” and accepting donations from a 'mysterious' Saudi Arabian billionaire sheikh. On top of all that he warns that this type of politicking "led to the riots", referring to the 2001 riots. Yet it appears that it is Woolas' barrel-scraping politicking that if anything is likely to provoke further 'racial' tensions in Oldham. Still, it'll be worth it if he can hang on by his (dirty) fingernails.

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