James Purnell

James Purnell MP (born 2 March 1970) is a well connected zionist and free marketeer. He is a leading member of the new generation of Labour MPs, often referred to as the "Primrose Hill Gang". Other prominent members include Ed Miliband and David Miliband, Douglas Alexander, Ed Balls and Pat McFadden. Despite being a leading Blairite, Purnell is popular amongst supporters of Gordon Brown too, and his pre-ministerial CV includes a stint as a PPS at the Treasury. He is a Labour Party MP for Stalybridge and Hyde, first being elected at the 2001 general election. He was educated at Balliol College, Oxford.

In 2004, in the government changes following the resignation of David Blunkett, he was appointed an Assistant Government Whip. Following the Labour Party's third successive General Election victory in 2005, he was appointed to the position of Minister (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State) for Media and Tourism (covering broadcasting, creative industries, tourism and licensing) in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. In 2006 he was moved to be Minister for Pensions, replacing Stephen Timms. He was the minister in charge of seeing through the legislation that liberalised England and Wales' alcohol licensing laws. On 28 June 2007, he was appointed to secretary of state for culture media and sport, a cabinet position in Gordon Brown's government. Redress editors write: "As such, he will have an oversight role over the British Broadcasting Corporation and the rest of the British media."

Career

• 1989-1992: a researcher to Rt. Hon. Tony Blair MP during his time as Shadow Employment Secretary.
• 1992-1994: After graduating, he went to Hydra Associates.
• 1994-1995: a Research Fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research on their media and communications project.
• 1995-1997: Head of Corporate Planning at the BBC from 1995-97.
• 1997-2001: returned to work for the Prime Minister Tony Blair as Special Adviser on culture, media, sport and the knowledge economy from.
• 2002-2004: Chair of Labour Friends of Israel.
• In May 2005 he became Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
• in 2006 he became Minister of State for Pensions Reform at the Department of Work and Pensions.
• in June 2007: secretary of state for culture media and sport in Gordon Brown's government.

The Guardian reports:

Few people outside Westminster would be aware that, despite being only 35, Purnell has been at the heart of the most influential media policy decisions of the past decade. The blueprint for a converged media and telecommunications regulator was set by Purnell in his mid-20s incarnation as research fellow for the Institute for Public Policy Research; the policy foundations for the BBC's leading role in the digital age were laid when he worked for Birt as the BBC's head of corporate planning in the mid 1990s; and the legislation that set up Ofcom, cleared the barriers to a monolithic ITV and paved the way to digital switchover, was a product of his work and that of Ed Richards when they were Downing Street advisers.

Now, mirroring the path from ideas to implementation taken by Richards when he switched from a senior position at No 10 to a senior position at Ofcom, Purnell has completed the transition from thinker to doer. "For me it was wanting to move from an advisory role to doing something," he says of his decision to stand for parliament.

Zionist credentials

Purnell is amongst those arguing that some criticisms of Israel are anti semitic. For example in a letter to Prospect he argued:

not all criticism of Israel is antisemitic. But some is. As the (non-Jewish) chairman of Labour Friends of Israel for the last two years, I have been shocked by the occasional demonisation of Israel that I've encountered. Israel's government makes mistakes. So do the leaders of the Palestinians. But some people are trying to turn Israel into a global villain, the new pariah regime to take the place of apartheid-era South Africa.

I find it hard to reconcile that image to the reality on the ground-Israel is a democracy, suffering terrorist attacks, surrounded by countries that don't recognise its existence, the victim of well-funded terrorist organisations that preach antisemitic hate. The Palestinians deserve a viable state, and are suffering real poverty and hardship. There is suffering on both sides-neither can solve this problem without the other.

So when some people talk as if Israel is entirely to blame, I ask why. The only answer I can find is that there is something deep in our cultural memory that makes us disposed to blame Jews. That tendency was put in its box by the Holocaust. But today it re-emerges-occasionally, but persistently. I would call it passive, or unexamined, antisemitism.

So not all criticism of Israel is antisemitic. But some is, and we should be very wary of it.

In other words all those campaigning (from the left) for a boycott of Israel are anti-semitic, though as Purnell himself admits his judgment is rather based on an absence of any other option ('the only answer I can find'). It is as if the left have looked at the occupation of Palestinian land and had their analysis almost unknowingly overpowered by some mysterious prejudice 'deep in our cultural memory'.

Affiliations

• Labour Friends of Israel – served as chairman from 2002 to 2004.
• Social Market Foundation
• Compass, speaker at their conference in June 2006.
• Portland PR: He declares that he has done 'speechwriting' work for BSkyB under contract from Portland PR, run by former downing Street adviser Tim Allan, who was Purnell's flatmate.

Contact, References and Resources

Contact

Website: www.jamespurnell.org.uk

Resources

• Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: James Purnell MP
• TheyWorkForYou.com - James Purnell MP
• 'Blairite' Purnell rises to top job under Brown, IC Wales, 24 Jan 2008.