Oona King

Oona Tamsyn King (born October 22, 1967) is a British politician, and was Member of Parliament for Bethnal Green & Bow until the 2005 election. She is a member of the Labour Party.

Born in 1967 to a Jewish mother (Hazel) and African-American civil rights activist, Preston King, she was educated in Chalk Farm and went on to join the Labour Party at the age of 14. She received a joint degree in Politics from the University of York and the University of California, Berkeley. Her husband is from Italy and Ms. King speaks Italian and French, in addition to English.

Before becoming an MP, King was on the European Parliament's Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee, and worked as a political assistant to Glyn Ford MEP, the Labour Party Leader in the European Parliament, and later Glenys Kinnock MEP. She was selected to represent the seat of Bethnal Green & Bow in 1995. By winning the seat in 1997, she became only the second black woman to be elected as Member of Parliament, the first being Diane Abbott. She has been selected as one of 100 Great Black Britons for this achievement. In her maiden speech, of July 5 1997, she highlighted the influence that her and her parents' ethnic background had:

"For me, racism is not an academic point. My father is black and my mother is Jewish. As a child in Newcastle, my mother was lined up against a wall and stoned because, as her schoolmates put it, she, as a Jew, was responsible for the death of their Lord... I have also been called names such as yid, nigger, wog, half-caste and mongrel. Those are unparliamentary terms, but I hope that my background can be a bridge between two cultures."

As a backbencher, King supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq. That, and the fact her former seat has a large Muslim population, led to the RESPECT Coalition's George Galloway ousting her at the 2005 election. The campaign was beset by tensions and scuffles; during the campaign, she was allegedly targeted by anti-war protesters who slashed the tyres on her car, pelted her with eggs and vegetables and made threats, forcing her to require police protection. Together with George Galloway, she made a plea for calm and restraint amongst local people during the campaign, though she said "I have to say it has not been helped by some of the language used by Respect. Extremism breeds extremism."

King had said of Galloway "What makes me sick is that when I come across someone who is guilty of genocide I do not get on a plane and go to Baghdad and grovel at his feet". Galloway had responded that King was responsible for "the deaths of many people in Iraq with blacker faces than hers". [1] (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/vote_2005/frontpage/4519575.stm) She was unseated by Galloway in the election, losing by 823 votes. In Galloway's victory speech he said of her:

"She's an able person who will be back in politics and in Parliament. It wasn't her defeat, it was a defeat for Tony Blair and New Labour. And I'd like to thank Oona King for her eight years in this constituency and wish her well for what will be her resumed political career."

See also: List of British Jews

External links

• Oona King MP (http://www.oonaking.com/) official site
• Guardian Politics Ask Aristotle - Oona King (http://politics.guardian.co.uk/person/0,,-2919.html)
• TheyWorkForYou.com - Oona King MP (http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/?pid=10341)
• 100 Great Black Britons - Oona King MP (http://www.100greatblackbritons.com/bios/oona_king.html)
• Account of the threats made by Islamic fundamentalists during the 2005 Election Campaign (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/vote_2005/frontpage/4467147.stm)
• War Torn (http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=w050418&s=forsyth042205) by James Forsyth in The New Republic
• Israel can halt this now (http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,975423,00.html) -- an editorial by Ms. King in The Guardian.
• Shock win for Galloway in London (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/vote_2005/england/4520121.stm#) BBC

Preston King

• The Exile And His Daughter - Preston King, scholar, author, draft evader, 40 years in waiting for a pardon (http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1264/is_10_31/ai_69795112) Essence Magazine