George Galloway won a landslide victory in the Bradford West byelection this week with more than 56% of the vote. The constituency often bucks national voting trends - but the result has stunned Labour, who held the seat for nearly 40 years. The Conservatives lost a bigger proportion of their vote than Labour and the Lib Dems lost their deposit, so it was an unhappy night for all the major parties.
It rounded off a bizarre week in Westminster that began with a cash-for-access scandal which emerged in the Sunday Times after a classic newspaper sting operation. There followed a less-than-sure-footed response from Downing Street, which was matched by its handling of a potential fuel tanker strike. The result was an outbreak of panic-buying of petrol across the country and fury from motorists.
And as if this wasn't enough, front pages have been dominated by the unforseen consequences of George Osborne's tax rise on hot pies and pasties. This led to party leaders join a race to be photographed in Greggs the bakers.
To make sense of all of this: Simon Jenkins, Polly Toynbee and Toby Helm join Tom Clark.
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