Gerald Kaufman

rdf:langString Gerald Kaufman

rdf:langString Leeds, Yorkshire, England

rdf:langString gerald_kaufman

rdf:langString right

rdf:langString Gerald Bernard Kaufman

rdf:langString Kaufman in December 2003

rdf:langString The Right Honourable Sir

rdf:langString Chair of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee

rdf:langString Minister of State for Industry

rdf:langString gerald-kaufman/451

rdf:langString Office established

rdf:langString It is time to remind Sharon that the Star of David belongs to all Jews, not to his repulsive Government. His actions are staining the star of David with blood. The Jewish people, whose gifts to civilised discourse include Einstein and Epstein, Mendelssohn and Mahler, Sergei Eisenstein and Billy Wilder, are now symbolised throughout the world by the blustering bully Ariel Sharon, a war criminal implicated in the murder of Palestinians at the Sabra and Shatila camps and now involved in killing Palestinians once again.

rdf:langString Kaufman in a speech given to the House of Commons, during Israel's military operation codenamed Defensive Shield in April 2002

rdf:langString for Manchester Gorton

rdf:langString for Manchester Ardwick

rdf:langString Gerald-Kaufman/Manchester-Gorton/247

rdf:langString Sir Gerald Bernard Kaufman (21 June 1930 – 26 February 2017) was a British politician and author who served as a minister throughout the Labour government of 1974 to 1979. Elected as a member of parliament (MP) at the 1970 general election, he became Father of the House in 2015 and served until his death in 2017. Born in Leeds to a Polish Jewish family, Kaufman was secretary of the Oxford University Labour Club while studying philosophy, politics and economics at The Queen's College, Oxford. After graduating from Oxford, he worked as a journalist at the Daily Mirror and the New Statesman and as a writer at BBC Television. Again becoming active in the Labour Party, he served as an adviser to Harold Wilson during Wilson's first tenure as Prime Minister before being elected to the House of Commons himself at the 1970 general election to represent Manchester Ardwick. Kaufman served in the Labour government at the Department of the Environment under Harold Wilson and at the Department of Industry under James Callaghan respectively. After the government was defeated at the 1979 general election, he was a member of the Shadow Cabinet in the 1980s. When the Manchester Ardwick constituency was abolished in boundary changes, he successfully contested Manchester Gorton at the 1983 general election. Later in his career, he served as an influential backbencher as chair of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee from 1992 to 2005 and was knighted in 2004. Despite criticism during the 2009 parliamentary expenses scandal, when he was found to have made excess claims to the parliamentary fees office, he continued to serve in the House of Commons and was the UK's oldest sitting MP at the time of his death in February 2017. Known for his forthright views expressed over his political career, Kaufman was an outspoken opponent of fox hunting and advocate of Palestinian statehood; and he famously described his party's 1983 general election manifesto as "the longest suicide note in history". A strong critic of the state of Israel, he called for economic sanctions against the state and denounced the state for committing atrocities (which he phrased as war crimes) against the Palestinian people and their nation.

rdf:langString Speaker

rdf:langString mr-gerald-kaufman

rdf:langString gerald-kaufman

rdf:langString Gerald_Kaufman

rdf:langString Gerald Bernard Kaufman