Alan Duncan’s diaries inspire – but he could do much more
Brexit has moved the Conservative Party well to the right of British politics, but there remained elements prepared to stand for justice in Palestine. These people mattered, as they could potentially help build a broad consensus in favour of better British policies towards the Middle East.
In January 2017, Crispin Blunt was Chair of the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee, at which time it launched a no-holds-barred inquiry into UK policy towards the Middle East Peace Process. Unfortunately, Blunt lost his post in August of that year, and the inquiry was quietly shelved.
Another person who has spoken up for the Palestinians is Sir Alan Duncan, Foreign Office minister from 2016 to 2019. In early April of this year, he published his diary “in the Thick of it”, about his experiences during this period. Apart from disparaging two PMs and a host of former colleagues, Duncan was supremely critical of his government’s willingness to do the bidding of Israel lobbyists. I wrote an article reviewing Duncan’s diary and examining a hitherto unreported aspect, i.e. his relationship with Jeremy Corbyn and the labour left who were at the time “in the thick of an endless pro-Israeli smear campaign”.