Hats off to Jack

WHAT made Jack Straw, a man normally so in tune with the Asian community that the majority population in Blackburn feel they are being excluded, make his comments about Muslim women wearing veils yesterday?

The political cynics immediatley linked it to John Reid's recent speech asking Muslim families to keep a close eye on who their children associate with to make sure they don't become terrorists. As with any statement any senior Labour figure will make in the weeks to come, it will almost certainly be presented as a leadership pitch.

I know Jack quite well and have sat through various meetings he has been out, as well as joining him out on the road when he has been campaigning during election time - as a reporter, by the way, not as some Labour Party stooge.

He's a good MP, and one of the few to reach the highest levels of government without abandoning the needs of his constituency. The famous story in Westminister is that, while once in Washington discussing some high-level foreign issue, he took a phone call from his local paper's lobby correspondent (when they still had one) to discuss concerns about wheelie bins back in Blackburn.

During the 2005 election, when various groups arrived in Blackburn to try and kick out Jack on the anti-war ticket (they failed), protests seemed to follow Jack wherever he went. One evening, he was doing a live debate on Five Live from a community centre in an Asian area of the town. The protestors outside (several dozen, none local), were getting noisy and his security people decided to whisk him away through a back door - but he still made sure I came along with him to do an interview he'd promised.

This, to me, only serves to show a) what a pro he is when it comes to dealing with the media and b) how, despite outside influences, Blackburn still backed Jack. the 2005 election result also showed that people respect Jack as a local MP first, and even where they disagree with him on policy, they know he will be open and talk about it.

To that end, I believe his column in the Lancashire (once Evening) Telegraph last night was an attempt to start a debate. To raise an issue which has obviously concerned him for some time. And I think he did a very good job in presenting the case that intergration is a two-way street.



If you look at the papers today, and indeed the paper he wrote in yesterday, you'd think Jack was TELLING Asian women to take off their veils. Not so. He said he asked women to take them off so they could speak face to face. And most, he said, happily did so.

However, he also said he respected the right of women to wear a veil, and he certainly didn't say he'd refuse to talk to them if they kept it on. A point which seems to have been lost by the 'pundits' (also known as gobs in the media) who were quick to condemn him.

One such group is the Muslim Public Affairs Committee - which spent much of the 2005 election campaign failing to get support to get Jack out. Their woman (without veil) was on TV shouting that Jack was 'a joke' and what he said was 'offensive.' But she failed to say why it was a joke or offensive. Unlike Jack, she was just a shallow soundbite.


As, indeed, was Salim Lorgat, left, an Asian councillor in Blackburn. He said people would be 'shocked'. He didn't say why. Nor did he mention he was Lib Dem councillor, whose party is, as a rule, the laughing stock of Blackburn as it jumps from bandwagon to bandwagon.

The interesting comments come from the Muslim Council of Great Britain, which appears to welcome public debate on the issue, and points out the veil issue causes divides within the Muslim community.

But the hypocrisy of some Muslims appearing in vox pops has been staggering.

Faiz Patel is quoted in the Telegraph as saying: "I thought we lived in a free country with free will."

It is, well done.

But then he goes on to say that: "I would not want my wife to remove hers in public."

Surely that's her choice, pal, not yours. Cos, after all, this is a free country, with free will. And if Jack wants to ask women to remove the veil, then he can. He also has no problem with women keeping them on. Unlike Mr Patel, he's giving women a choice.