The BBC forgets the Jews and identifies Labour leader Anas Sarwar by colour
The BBC’s biography on new Labour leader for Scotland Anas Sarwar (born 14 March 1983) says he’s “the first minority ethnic leader of a major political party in the UK”. He isn’t.
Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, KG, PC, FRS (21 December 1804 – 19 April 1881), was a Conservative Party leader who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He was an ethnic Jew.
It was not until the Jews Relief Act 1858, also called the Jewish Disabilities Bill, that Jews seeking to become MPs did not have to swear the Christian oath of office. The bill allowed “any Person professing the Jewish Religion, [to] omit the Words ‘and I make this Declaration upon the true Faith of a Christian'”.
Other Jews have led major parties. Michael Howard, Baron Howard of Lympne, CH, PC, QC (born Michael Hecht; 7 July 1941), served as Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition from November 2003 to December 2005.
This is how Labour Party attacked Howard and another Tory MP Oliver Letwin (also Jewish) in 2005 – you might see hints of Fagin and get a load of those Jewish pigs:
And there’s Ed Miliband (born 24 December 1969), Leader of the Labour Party and the Leader of the Opposition between 2010 and 2015. His mum and dad were Polish Jewish immigrants. In April 2018 – irony of ironies – Jeremy Corbyn fanboy Owen Jones called out “antisemitic dog-whistles” aimed at Miliband, which included “smearing his dad as ‘the man who hated Britain’, and harping on about the weird “north London intellectual”.
So well done Anas Sarwar. But you’re not the first.
Update: the BBC has changed the bio. It now says, Mr Sarwar “is the first non-white leader of a major political party in the UK”. Non white? Are all Jews white? Do all whites see Jews are white? Isn’t being Jewish to belong to an ethnic group? Are Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews less white than Ashkenazi Jews? Is the BBC looking at skin colour only when it sees a politician, including one whose father Mohammed Sarwar was the UK’s first Muslim member of parliament?
On ethniticity, the UK Government says:
In England and Wales, there are 18 ethnic groups recommended for use by the government when asking for someone’s ethnicity. These are grouped into 5 ethnic groups, each with an ‘Any other’ option where people can write in their ethnicity using their own words. These groups were used in the 2011 Census of England and Wales.
So which group is the one for Jews? And should all MPs first be identified by their skin colour before a word on their policies is mentioned?
Posted: 28th, February 2021 | In: Key Posts, News, Politicians Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
