While George Galloway’s portentous declaration of “a shifting of the tectonic plates” was the sort of hyperbole he specialises in, his sweeping victory in the Rochdale byelection does carry some lessons for other parties, and not reassuring ones.
It is not the first or even the second time Galloway has swept aside his former party Labour by claiming to be the only candidate who can properly represent the interests of Muslim voters, rolling into town with a mass of eager volunteers and a platform based less on policy than on his fiery rhetoric.
