Alan Duncan’s diaries
JVL Introduction
In the Thick of It: The Private Diaries of a Minister by Alan Duncan were published in April to the delight of those (almost everyone!) who love the exposure of pompous politicians who take themselves too seriously.
What is extremely unusual about these memoirs is that Duncan is a strong defender of Palestinian rights.
Here Jonathan Coulter explores what Duncan revealed to us about the politics surrounding this issue – and what he failed to explore.
CAMPAIN, publishers of the original article, invite you to add your comments on their website and/or below.
This article was originally published by Campain: time to end misrepresentation on Wed 9 Jun 2021. Read the original here.
Alan Duncan’s diaries inspire – but he could do much more
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It is ironic that Chris Williamson was suspended from the party for saying that Labour have apologised too much (regarding the allegations of A/S), and he was obviously alluding to Jeremy Corbyn. I don’t actually know how many times Jeremy apologised altogether during his tenure as leader, but it was probably only about half-a-dozen times during the course of four-and-a-half years. If that! And THAT is part of the problem – ie that the perception can end up being WOTT, and then he – Jeremy – gets criticised for THAT erroneous perception, in this case by elements of the left. And then, at the same time, he is criticised by Blairites and pundits et al for not apologising enough!
The reality is that he was in a no-win situation, and was constantly being pressurised to apologise by the malevolent forces ranged against him, and if and when he refused to apologise – as in the Andrew Neil interview, for example – he is then just further vilified and condemned and demonised.
It seems to me that there are a fair few commentators on the left who are quick to criticise, but what they DON’T do is put themselves inside Jeremy’s shoes.
Great article Jonathan.
Politicians seem too corrupt or cowardly to end these Israel lobby groups subverting our democracy. Perhaps the only solution would be some form of independent legal action for the harms inflicted?
It surely can’t be allowed to continue.
Surely Duncan’s great faults in regard to Israel/Palestine can be traced to those of the traditional Tory/FCO ‘Arabists’ well portrayed, analysed and indicted in James Barr’s A LINE IN THE SAND (Simon and Schuster 2011 ) and in Richard Aldington’s expose of Lawrence ‘of Arabia’ ( also Barr, P 15 etc – check his index on p 447) . These people (let us not forget Gertrude Bell – see e.g. Barr p 9 )) were and are rational imperialists. Their ‘love’ for the feudalist oppressors of Saudi and the Emirates is based on geopolitical and especially geoeconomic calculation. They do not regard Israel as (Ronald Storrs, see also Barr pp 23-4,28, 40-2, 100) hoped, as ‘a loyal little Ulster’ (what a foul oxymoron) – but their reservations are based on a conceivably longer-term view of the needs of capitalist imperialism. On the late W.Churchill, see also Charmley (CHURCHILL, THE END OF GLORY, Hodder 1993, passim but esp chapters 25-6), A spoon of many leagues’ length is required to make even limited common cause with these ‘gentry’, as exampled e.g. by Gaitskell’s appalling and mendacious budget. The late Fred Halliday declined from an apparently principled and materialist analyst of the greater Middle East (ARABIA WITHOUT SULTANS, Penguin, ca 1970) to a bagman for Blair’s criminal war against Iraq (even his 1991 piece carefully omits US encouragement of Iraqi repossession of ‘Kuwait’ through Ambassador April Glaspie), and uncritical deplorer of the ‘terrorism’ of Arab resistance (Chomsky in Said and Hitchens: BLAMING THE VICTIMS); such are the pressures that characterize (I cannot write ‘plague’ for such a profitable ‘surrender’) centrists and reformists, however high-faluting their ideologies.
It would be illustrative were Duncan to be cross-examined on the appalling “Abraham pact”.
Thanks for an article that recognises the poisonous influence of the Israeli government in British politics. It is a scandal that a foreign government conspired with British politicians to destroy elected members of Parliament, including the Leader of HM’s Opposition. Imagine if this had been any other foreign government!
We the people need to shout this type of thing loud and clear, it is great exposing this stuff here but. Incisive article, thank you.
very good article
The writer hoped Duncan would show some empathy for Corbyn who was ‘in the same boat’as far as attacks from tbe Israel Lobby.. Erm – He was an oil trader and a leading Tory and here is more evidence that Corbyn (or the movement behind Corbyn) scared the sh** out of them, so all and any weapon against Corbyn is vallid as far as they are concerned and Zionist contol is preferable to ‘Corbyn’s threat of nationalisation’.
@rc What can I say in defense of Alan Duncan? Well firstly, nobody’s perfect.
Then he has really stood up for the Palestinians, and shown courage in doing so. When he made his RUSI speech of 2014, he must must have realized he was risking his political career. How many other MPs, of any persuasion, are prepared to do that?
And he has shown he is capable of changing his views, as he did on Brexit. Maybe he will become less antagonistic towards the Labour left. We all need to take time to engage with, and properly understand, erstwhile political opponents.
Dissapointing Dunc. I did not expect better of him. I should thank Dunc for speaking up for the Palestinians. It is astonishing that Dunc was in a minority in our Parliament. In times past, I believe that a large proportion of the English Establishment liked the Arabs. Whatever that meant I am unclear. Now the Esablishment is Zionist, inclusive of most Conservatives but also of top-down conformist Sir Keir Starmer and his oppressive starmtroopers. It is indeed a corruptiion of our so-called Great British Democracy.
I said that Alan Duncan could do much more for the Palestinians, so I am glad to find that he has joined the advisory board of a new organisation called the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (https://www.icjpalestine.com/). ICJP is “an independent organisation of lawyers, politicians and academics who support the rights of Palestinians and aim to protect their rights through the law”. The Director of ICJP is Crispin Blunt, MP, who has a long record of standing up for Palestinian rights and who, like Duncan, is fed up to the teeth with British complicity with Israel’s crimes. An interesting range of other figures are also involved.
I wish ICJP much success. At the same time, I stand by my comments about Duncan’s posture towards Labour opponents. If he is serious about helping the Palestinians, he should focus single-mindedly on this objective, and be prepared to set aside sectarian concerns of the British political scene. As stated in Matthew 6: 24, no-one can serve two Masters.
Mondoweiss has just published an updated version of this article that mentions Duncan’s joining ICJP: https://mondoweiss.net/2021/06/alan-duncans-political-diary-inspires-but-he-could-do-more-for-palestine/.