Luciana Berger

Luciana Berger was a member of the National Union of Students executive from which she resigned, in her words, 'because of a continued apathy within the National Union of Students to Jewish student suffering. In the words of a report distributed by NUS: "Anti-semitism is a very light sleeper indeed."^[1]

Berger was also a member of the Union of Jewish Students and had campaigned for Muslim organisations Hizb ut-Tahrir, Al Muhajiroun and the Muslim Public Affairs Committee to be banned from campus.^[2]

Imagined connections with Euan and Tony Blair

David McKie writes:

a Sunday Telegraph story on April 17 headed: "Labour should have fought back on immigration, says Euan Blair's girlfriend". This was based on an interview by deputy political editor Melissa Kite with a "strikingly beautiful" 23-year-old postgraduate London University student called Luciana Berger, who recently resigned from the executive of the National Union of Students accusing it of turning a blind eye to anti-semitism.

In the interview, Ms Berger - repeatedly described, Melissa Kite contended, as a future Labour leader; she did not tell us by whom - was strongly critical of Labour's stance on immigration and condemned the party's portrayal of Michael Howard in election posters as Fagin and a flying pig. Though Melissa, unlike the headline writer, stopped short of describing Luciana as Euan's girlfriend, she said they had been "romantically linked". "Rumours of a close friendship with Euan Blair," she mused, "have elevated an admirable stand against anti-semitism from a campus dispute to the stuff of national debate."

McKie notes that he had:

a feeling that if Luciana was not in fact Euan's girlfriend there wouldn't be very much left of the story. And sure enough, the following letter appeared in last Sunday's Telegraph. "You published a story headed 'Labour should have fought back on immigration, says Euan Blair's girlfriend', which described Luciana Berger as my girlfriend. Luciana Berger is not, and has never been, my girlfriend - Euan Blair, University of Bristol". ^[3]

Notes

1. ^ Luciana Berger Why I had to resign The Guardian Education, 15 April 2005.
2. ^ NUS, NUS representative addresses government committee on campus incitement Press Release, undated, but prior to March 2005 when Berger resigned her position.
3. ^ PAUL PALMER Luciana and an affair that wasn't, Evening Standard (London), Apr 21, 2005.
4. ^David McKie 'The spirit of Meilyr lives on' The Guardian Thursday May 5, 2005.