Gerald Kaufman

The Right Honourable Sir Gerald (Bernard) Kaufman (born June 21, 1930) is a British Labour Member of Parliament who was a government minister during the 1970s.

Beginnings and Ministerial Career

Born in Leeds and educated at Leeds Grammar School, Kaufman graduated with an MA in philosophy, politics and economics 1953 at the University of Oxford (Queen's College). He was assistant general secretary of the Fabian Society from 1954 to 1955 and a political journalist on the Daily Mirror (1955-1964) and the New Statesman (1964-1965). In 1965 he became a Labour Party press officer, and was eventually a member of Prime Minister Harold Wilson's informal "kitchen cabinet".

In the 1955 General Election Kaufman had unsuccessfully contested Bromley Parliamentary constituency, and in the election of 1959, Gillingham. He was elected MP for Ardwick in Manchester in 1970 and has represented the Manchester Gorton constituency ^*since 1983.

He was a junior minister throughout Labour's time in power from 1974 to 1979, first in the Department of the Environment (1974-1975) under Anthony Crosland, then in the Department of Industry under Eric Varley (Minister of State, 1975-1979).

In opposition, he was the Shadow Environment Secretary, (1980-1983), Shadow Home Secretary (1983-1987) and Shadow Foreign Secretary (1987-1992).

He famously dubbed the Labour Party's left-wing 1983 election manifesto ^* "the longest suicide note in history". In 1992 he went to the back benches and became Chair of what was then the National Heritage Select Committee.

Influential Back-Bencher

As Chairman of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee Kaufman's style of strong cross examination and withering remarks to witnesses has gained some renown. They are evident in particular when he alleges cultural elitism. In 1997 in committee Kaufman criticised the then Chief Executive of the Royal Opera House Mary Allen over her inability to account for cost over-runs of a costly lottery funded refurbishment of the venue that would result in both fewer seats and the costly cancellation of scheduled performances, and condemned her low public standards - an event that contributed to her tendering her resignation.

Kaufman has never voted against the Labour Government but his speeches are not uncritical as in his position on the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

He was awarded a knighthood for services to Parliament in the Queen's Birthday Honours in 2004.

Outside Parliament

Kaufman is the writer of books and articles. Some are political - How to be a Minister (1980), is an irreverent look at the difficulties faced by ministers trying to control the civil service, in much the same vein as the television series Yes, Minister. Some are cultural - "Meet Me in St Louis" is a study of the 1944 Judy Garland film. He also wrote scripts for the 1960s television satire That Was The Week That Was.

Kaufman is an outspoken opponent of hunting with hounds. In 2004 he was assaulted by a group of pro-fox hunting campaigners and claimed that he was subjected to anti-Semitic taunts. These he said he found ironic as he had recently been accused of being a self-hating Jew by member of the Board of Deputies of British Jews.^*

Kaufman appeared twice on the topical panel show Have I Got News For You, both of which were memorable. His first appearance, in 1993, saw him accusing - in jest - the studio crowd of being "a rigged Tory audience, just like it was a rigged Tory electorate" - after Ian Hislop asked the audience if they hated Jeremy Paxman, in response to Kaufman's claim that most people did. The response was muted to Hislop's question, allowing Hislop to accuse Kaufman and his party of being "completely out of touch!".

Kaufman's second appearance, almost exactly nine years later, was remarkable not for what he said, but for the fact that it was the last to feature Angus Deayton as host before sex and drugs revelations prompted his dismissal. Kaufman is therefore the last guest to have been introduced by Deayton.

Kaufman is unmarried.

Kaufman on Jews, Israel and Zionism

Kaufman, who is himself Jewish is a leading member of Poale Zion, an international Zionist-socialist Jewish group affiliated to the Labour party in Britain. Nonetheless, he has become one of the leading Jewish critics of Israel. He frequently accused Sharon's government of having a poor human rights record, and of failing to solve the security problems faced by both Israelis and Palestinians. Kaufman has called for economic sanctions and an arms ban against Israel, citing the success of such measures against apartheid South Africa ^*," target="_blank" >and Sharon a 'war criminal' 2002 conference of the Zayed Centre for Co-Ordination and Follow-up, an organisation whose website was subsequently banned and closed for its anti-Semitism. In 2002 he created a BBC television documentary, The End of the Affair, where he characterised his own Jewish upbringing in the nicely-wrought antithesis 'orthodox, but loving', and in which he risked further allegations of anti-Semitism when he referred to orthodox Jews as 'infesting' Jerusalem, and suggested that Israel might be ready to commit mass suicide by detonating an atomic bomb [http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/cta/progs/02/end_affair/30aug.ram" target="_blank" >^*.

Relations with Muslim community in Gorton

Some, however, have suggested ^*that Kaufman's attitudes to Israel may have been as much determined by his local political situation as to his angst over his Zionist past. There have been repeated attempts to unseat him by those hoping to capitalise on the large and growing Muslim population in his constituency of Gorton. At one point the Labour party expelled a number of Muslim members. A later Labour party enquiry found that these disenfranchisements were unconstitutional. Kingsley Purdam, 'Democracy in Practice: Muslims and the Labour Party at the Local Level', in Politics, (2001), vol. 21(3), p. 150 et seq. In the meantime, Kaufman maintained his candidacy and despite his refusal to condemn the Iraq war kept his seat in 2005 with a respectable majority, perhaps because of his efforts to engage with concerns of his Muslim constituents around the Kashmir dispute.

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