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George Galloway reacted angrily today after the Twitter account of a Bradford brewery and venue asked him if he was “still a thing”.
The notoriously good-tempered Respect politician, who recently threatened to sue Guardian writer Hadley Freeman for comments she made on Twitter, responded: “what does that mean? And should you as a licensed premises in my constituency really be writing that?” He added that the tweet was “most unwise” and that “you’ll be hearing from me after the election”.
At this point, @BradfordBrewery noted that as parliament is now dissolved, Galloway is now a candidate and Bradford wasn’t “his” constituency. The account invited him in for a coffee, but Galloway replied: “no. Your premises are a constant source of complaints to me. I will be in touch about those in due course”.
The conversation did not get better from there.
Eventually, Galloway blocked the Brewery – much to their delight, as the manager explained to Buzzfeed that being “#blockedbyGalloway” is seen by some people in Bradford as a badge of honour. “In Bradford there’s a running joke of the hashtag #blockedbygalloway,” said Matt Halliday. “If he loses an argument on Twitter he blocks you, so half of Bradford has been blocked by him. People have been coming in to the pub and saying ‘if you’re not blocked by Galloway, you’re not in the inner circle’. We’re now in the inner circle!”
Halliday added that it was unlikely the brewery was a “constant source” of complaints to Galloway, as it had only been open six weeks. Still, Louise Mensch was there to pour oil on to troubled waters.