Tam Dalyell the Labour MP for Linlithgow and, as the longest serving MP, the father of the House of Commons, has been quoted in the American magazine Vanity Fair as making outspoken anti-Semitic remarks.   The exact quote was as follows:

In a passage on Blair’s "staunch" support of Israel, Vanity Fair writer David Margolick stated: "The senior member of the House of Commons, Tam Dalyell, even tells me he thinks Blair is unduly influenced by a cabal of Jewish advisers. He mentions Mandelson, Lord Levy and Jack Straw."

He was not misquoted.  Tam Dalyell has since said: "I’m very open about this. I wouldn’t say I’ve been misquoted."

Nor is he repentant.  Mr. Dalyell later told Scotland on Sunday: "Blair and Straw have become far too close to these people and Lord Levy, who is an unaccountable ambassador in the Middle East, is part of this group. They are acting on an extremely Zionist, Likud-nik agenda. In particular I am concerned that some of them are pushing for an attack on Syria, for reasons of Israeli security.

Mr. Dalyell also told the Daily Telegraph that he believed the prime minister was also indirectly influenced by Jewish people in the Bush administration, including Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Ari Fleischer, the President's press secretary.

The facts are that Lord Levy, Tony Blair's Middle East envoy, is indeed Jewish.  Peter Mandelson’s father is Jewish, and the Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has some Jewish ancestry.  However, neither Mandelson nor Straw identifies themselves as Jewish.   Only in Hitler’s Germany would either man have been classed as such.   

Nor are there any Jews in president Bush’s cabinet.  The people Dalyell has in mind are influential but at most second-ranking advisers.   Neither of the neo-conservative big guns, Dick Cheney or Donald Rumsfeld, are Jewish.

The dictionary defines the word cabal as a secret political clique or faction involved in plots or conspiracy.   It is derived from the Kabbalah, the Jewish tradition of mysticism.

Dalyell is making openly racist remarks.  Blair's advisers, who are by no stretch of the imagination unswerving supporters of Israel, are singled out for criticism on the basis of their alleged racial origins.   President Bush is assumed to be influenced by the Jews rather than the more numerous and powerful Christians in his cabinet.  This despite the large numbers of Jews on the political left in both Britain and the US.  I reckon many more Jews oppose Bush than support him.  

In most other countries such a remark would end a political career.  US senator Trent Lott recently, and quite rightly, resigned for making similar remarks.  He had expressed nostalgia for the era of racial segregation.   His exact words were:

 "I want to say this about my state. When Strom Thurmond ran for president" -- as a segregationist Dixiecrat, in 1948 -- "we voted for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had of followed our lead we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either."

When his remarks became public Lott rapidly retracted them and apologised, but he still had to resign.  There is no place for racists in the Republican party.   

Nor is there one in the Conservative Party.   When Conservative MP John Townend said in 2001: “homogenous Anglo-Saxon society has been seriously undermined by the massive immigration—particularly Commonwealth immigration—that has taken place since the war,” he was forced to apologise: ‘I entirely accept that racism has no place in the Conservative party, and am very sorry that ill-chosen words by me may have given a different impression."  He only avoided removal of the Tory whip because he was standing down at the next election.   

Apparently there is still a place for anti-Semitic racists in the modern Labour Party.   Jewish commentators have condemned Dalyell, but so far there has been only silence or an amused tolerance from Labour MPs.   Is anti-Semitism really OK in the Labour party?   

It is time for New Labour to expel this odious man. 

17 May update   

Dalyell is the new rector of Edinburgh University, elected by the students.  Rachel Hunter, the student union vice president seems happy to denounce his anti-Semitism but remains remarkably tolerant of the man.   Her argument seems to be that he didn't really mean it. 

I'm sorry Rachel, but I think he did.   I'd be delighted if you can show me an apology or correction.  I've not found one.  Click here to read the students' thoughts directly.  

1 June update note

Anxieties about a "Jewish conspiracy" go back to the beginning of the 14th century, when French Jews were accused of poisoning wells on behalf of the Muslim King of Granada [Carlo Ginzburg, Ecstasies, English Tr.1990].

30 August 2003

James Normington writes:

My reply:

I certainly hope Dalyell's constituents chuck him out at the next election.  My point was that if Labour keep him in their Party other electors may also decide not to vote for candidates of a Party that contains racist MPs.