My first recollection of Phil Woolas was him looking sheepish as he took a grilling from Joanna Lumley on the issue of Gurkha rights. I remember thinking then that he looked sleekit (that's crafty or sly to my non-Scottish readers). So it was with just a little bit of pleasure that today two High Court judges have ordered a re-run of this year's General Election campaign in his Greater Manchester constituency of Oldham East.
Woolas won his seat by the slender majority of only 103 votes over Liberal Democrat rival Elwyn Watkins. Today Woolas was found guilty of knowingly making false statements about Mr Watkins in campaign literature. The court heard that Mr Woolas actively stirred up racial tensions in his campaign literature by suggesting the Lib Dem candidate had pandered to Muslim militants, and had refused to condemn death threats he said he had received from such groups.
I for one am looking forward to making the trip down to Oldham to campaign on get Elwyn Watkins elected. Here is that Phil Woolas video in full.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcdeK27Y65s]
