Galloway party candidate in Titan sub near miss

A year ago today, the Titan submersible went missing during an expedition to view the wreckage of the Titanic in the North Atlantic Ocean. After a frantic days-long search, not to mention a media frenzy, debris was found showing that the sub had imploded hours after beginning its journey, killing all five passengers onboard. There have since been various stories of people who were set to join the crew in undertaking the doomed mission — but who luckily decided against it.

Not for the first time, and not least given the extraordinary plot twist at the bottom, I find myself staring at the BBC site and asking ‘why have you published this’ https://t.co/VKfh77bx76

— Alan White (@aljwhite) June 18, 2024

The latest is Liverpudlian sailor Graham Padden, who has spoken to the BBC about how he only avoided being on Titan because he failed to raise the requisite $250,000 fee in time. The 62-year-old details his horror at the outcome of the deep-sea dive, though he maintains that he is “still spiritually drawn to the Titanic, the wreck, to all the Liverpool sailors down there”. Only at the end of the piece does the BBC include an intriguing detail: that Padden is standing as a general election candidate for George Galloway’s Workers Party of Britain. Why would he only speak about it now? A cynic can only wonder…