Harriet Harman, who has served as Labour Member of Parliament since 1982 (the longest-ever continuously serving female MP in the House of Commons), was hushed disgustedly by BBC’s Andrew Neil after she tried to tell a vile, anti-Semitic joke, saying she thought the host would find it “perfectly alright.” Instead, the host told her to “be quiet.”
The panel on Neil’s This Week Thursday night had been debating whether Adolf Hitler jokes were acceptable, and Harman said that in the past she had been called a “humorless feminist” for objecting to jokes that were “offensive and hurtful.” She then proceeded to tell one such joke, which she said appeared in “a Guy’s Hospital rag magazine back in the day and people like Andrew say that these things are perfectly alright.”
Harman continued: “…How do you get 100 Jews into a Mini – one in the driving seat, 99 in the ashtray,” adding, “And that is not funny.”
But Neil, stunned, stopped her, saying, “…That you would dare to think what I would think about that because you have no knowledge of that at all.”
When Harman tried to fend for herself, Neil told her to “be quiet.”
Although the MP clearly used the joke as an example of something she did not deem appropriate, Neil remained offended that she would imagine himself enjoying such a terrible joke. He later tweeted: “What was wrong was 1) Even to tell that so-called joke on live TV. 2) Claim I would like the joke. Appalling on both counts.”
Simon Johnson, chief executive of the Jewish Leadership Council on Friday morning said: “I cannot recall being so disappointed in a politician. Harriet Harman must surely know better than to repeat a vile Holocaust joke, irrespective of the point she was trying to make. “She must apologize and do so quickly. It is a staggering error of judgement.”
