Conservative Future outrage
22 06 2007
An outrageous and disgraceful posting appeared on Kings College London’s Conservative Society’s official blog this week, immediately following the sad news of the wonderful Piara Khabra MP’s death.
The blog describes itself as carrying “an array of articles from current affairs to political agendas, from Conservative Future to society news and events.”
On Wednesday 20 June 2007, the Chair of KCL Conservative Society, Arleen Ouzounian, made the following observation (at 11.06am):
“2 months ago to the day, I reported that Ealing had been forsaken, but not lost, by 2 out of the 3 MPs in the Ealing area (Piara Khabra due to illness and Andrew Slaughter due to eloping with his mistress, Hammersmith and Fulham). Today I can confirm that Piara Khabra, Britain’s oldest MP of 82 years, has died whilst being treated for liver problems in Hammersmith Hospital.”
She then goes on to say that,
“hopefully there will be a byelection called within the next three months and Ealing will finally be given an injection of Tory blood. Feels like Christmas has come early!”.
Speaking to TMP on the post, Julian Bell, Khabra’s parliamentary aide, said:
“Its dispicable that somebody would show such callous disrespect at this sensitive time. We are deeply saddened by such comments.”
The post, which suggests that Conservative Future has some growing up to do, was subsequently amended in light of the uproar it caused. To read the original post for yourself, click here (to read the amended version, click here).
[...] just make a rule not to talk about any by-election ever on this blog. I think that the people at Conservative future might consider doing the same. I don’t know whether to be sad or [...]
The spirit of RecessMonkey’s post was much lower than the one it refers to, Arleen obviously wasn’t referring to Piara’s death with the Christmas comment, she was referring to the prospect of a Con Gain. Even if she wasn’t the thoroughly decent and kind person that she is, do you really think she would be daft enough to say something like that? She loves campaigning and there’s a by-election on her doorstep, good for her to be excited by the prospect. This episode, and I hope it doesn’t grow more than this, shows two of the worst aspects of blogging - the potential to blog quickly without stepping back and thinking how it could be interpreted (she quickly realised herself that she hadn’t expressed condolences and duly amended her post), and the tendency of bloggers to go for cheap shots and damage people’s reputations. Putting a picture of someone up, under a scum headline, is below the belt.
Samuel, you have a point though I am pleased to see there is no picture here and TMP has obviously had the good sense to find out what those close to Khabra think. But, however nice and good natured Arleen is, this is a demostration of very bad jugement indeed and surely should be condemned without question. Whatever she meant, its ths spirit of her post that is all wrong. Hopefully she will learn from this unfortunate event.
If you’d read Arleen’s earlier post on the state of Ealing’s parliamentary representation, you’d know just what she meant by the phrase. Addressing the issue of Khabra’s protracted illness, she showed the respect and compassion that one would expect from such a committed Christian as Arleen. The same is true of the passing away of other figures whom Arleen has respected and mourned, and whose deaths were marked on the blog.
This time, an unfortunate phrase - removed due to some early misinterpretation - has diverted attention from the fact that we, particularly Arleen, share in the grief through which Khabra’s family is going. Whether or not we agree with his politics, we all recognise Khabra’s great contributions to his country: having been the last MP to serve in the Second World War increases that sense of poignancy.
That Labour bloggers are concentrating their fire on Arleen for a single poorly-chosen and unintended phrase threatens to undermine the decorous respect and applause that he deserves. The fact that their first instinct is to attack a message of condolence for a single phrase suggests that perhaps Arleen is not the one being insincere. If you want to see someone playing down the sadness of the situation, I suggest you look in a mirror.
Oliver and Sam, your excuses will not wash - even the amended version - ” Ealing had been forsaken, but not lost, by 2 out of the 3 MPs in the Ealing area (Piara Khabra due to illness and Andrew Slaughter due to eloping with his mistress, Hammersmith and Fulham)” - is remarkably ungracious and in completely the wrong tone, coming as it does at this time.
You say Labour Bloggers have “diverted attention from the fact that we, particularly Arleen, share in the grief through which Khabra’s family is going” - that is wholly unconvincing in light of her original post, which remained on that website for at least two hours, I beleive, before it was changed.
You call it an “unintended phrase” - if so, why did she say it? She’s not stupid. Its appalling behaviour and Labour bloggers are right to expose and condemn it. Period.
As each hour that passes more and more people are saying as this is a by election the Labour HQ will not impose an all women short list. A decision could come as early as this weekend (Sunday).
Some of the facts set out in the briefing prepared by the Sikh Federation (UK) that was sent to Labour’s NEC early this year included:
There is a target for women representation of 40% of all Labour MPs there is no target for ethnic minority representation despite the extremely low numbers in the House of Commons.
Is the absence of a target for ethnic minority representation by the Labour Party defensible?
The NEC was advised the greater priority was to address the large shortfall of ethnic minority MPs and pointed out the London Region of Labour had already achieved women representation of 37.6%.
It was also pointed out the NEC no longer had any ethnic minority representatives and most if not all MPs that have come from all-women short-lists for the last ten years, since the 1997 election have been white.
Given these facts the Labour Party and the NEC could be accused of failing ethnic minorities if they choose to give preference to an all-women short-list rather than an open short-list in constituencies like Ealing Southall.
The decision by the NEC in Ealing Southall could have far-reaching consequences in other constituencies with large numbers of ethnic minorities. Younger people are increasingly questioning the policies and practices of the main parties and they are well placed to influence the traditional Labour vote.
It is our strongly held view that Labour should select an ethnic minority candidate in the Ealing Southall constituency where the ethnic minority population is 64.7%.
We have argued and the past and present Labour Party Chairs have agreed that the likes of the electorate of Ealing Southall would like to see ‘people like them’ as their elected representatives.
The Sikh Federation (UK) is on record to say we would like to see a well educated and British born practising Sikh in the Commons, which would be a first.
One excellent candidate would be:
Dr Harkirtan Singh-Raud OBE
He is a senior Lecturer at Liverpool John Moores University and has been Head of Combined Science, taught Chemistry, Biochemistry and science in schools. His research field covers the area of race, gender and diversity. He is nationally recognised in his field and was awarded the OBE for service to Education and to Diversity.
He is a very active Labour Party member who has been recognised as an excellent candidate to become an MP. The only difficulty is he lives in Manchester where he hopes to become an MP. Would he be prepared to move South and would Labour be prepared to impose someone from outside? They have done this in the past and seeing the local Labour Party is divided an outside candidate like Harkirtan Singh, who is also Chair of the Oxbridge Sikh Alumni, may be the ideal compromise.
Sikh Federation (UK)
info@sikhfederation.com
Femi
They are entitled to respond to this post however the manner which they have done so has been dispicable. It was a genuine mistake, if you know Arleen personally like the rest of us do you will know this. You cannot say that given that you don’t know her. She is genuinely sorry and has great compassion as a coimmitted Christian.
It was a mistake - a few posts are acceptable, a witch hunt is not. Much less such a personalised one
Chuka’s article about the Labour Deputy leadership chimes with what I feel that the Labour Party has found the confidence to debate again. I am surprised that Gordon Brown is not offering Harman the job of Deputy Prime Minister but am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
I do not agree that the Benn campaign lacked substance but agree that congratulations are due to Jon Cruddas especially in relation to social housing which is now firmly on the governments agenda.
The response from the good bloggers of the Guardian confirms an old adage. The Guardian is a newspaper wittten for Trots by Social Democrats. If a few more of these purists got involved with real politics Jon Cruddas would have won.