4/11/2005|||111321059989119149||||||
NOT QUITE A RAINBOW COALITION

A Times interview with Oona King, the mixed-race, pro-war, anti-Bush Labour MP who faces a challenge from Saddam's favourite left-winger, George Galloway:

“I have lots and lots of people saying they won’t vote for me because I’m Jewish. And it is very shocking, but it’s also hilarious in some sense. Growing up (in North London), it was the black side of me that always attracted racist comment because that was the visible bit. Though at school, because the kids knew my mother was Jewish, I did get called ‘yid nigger’ sometimes. But now, well, being black is really cool in Britain. Being Jewish? Oh no! I’m always losing out on one side or the other.”

There's another troubling quote lower down, a reminder that New Labour still has more than its share of cranks:

She refers to herself as “most definitely on the Left of the party”, yet is strongly Blairite in her defence of private-sector involvement in public services — and then goes on to say: "There are a lot of old-style left-wing people in the party who call me a Nazi . . . God, I shouldn’t say that, scrub that . . . but actually they do call me it, so no, don’t scrub that. They say I’m extremely right wing because my concern is not who delivers a fundamental public service, but that the service gets
delivered."

King was pelted with eggs at a Jewish war memorial service yesterday. Normblog and Harry's Place have more details.

|||Clive|||http://clivedavis.blogspot.com/2005/04/not-quite-rainbow-coalition-times.html|||4/11/2005 10:09:00 am|||||||||
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