"Mr Les Dobrovolski, 69, was approached by a group of young men handing out George Galloway’s Respect/SWP literature… After refusing to take a leaflet and telling the men he would never vote for George Galloway, Mr Dobrovolski says he was followed by one of the men and pushed to the floor. The man then stamped on his hand before dropping a Respect leaflet on him and running off." – as reported on Harry’s Place, and by nobody else.

Labour turning a horrible, apolitical mugging into a Galloway-bashing photo op, anyone? No, I’m sure they’d never do anything so underhand. Cough. (obviously, in the unlikely event that the Respect link *isn’t* made up, it’s disgraceful, and in either case the people responsible for the beating thoroughly deserve one themselves).

Meanwhile, this piece is a nice bit of sanity on the whole Respect/Galloway thing; the Muslim-hating self-labelled Decent Left should probably give it a read.

As well as defending the Islamic elements for Respect from the appalling slanders they’ve been subjected to, and slating Galloway for being an unprincipled egomaniac, it also bashes Melanie Phillips (non-physically, of course, and quite right too: SBBS is strongly opposed to violence against journalists. This is also why we dislike the US Army).

Update: Lenin has done more digging on the Les Dobrovolski story. Unsurprisingly, the Respect connection is indeed an entirely untrue, made-up smear. In conclusion, vote Labour.