WEB EXCLUSIVE: An apology to Melanie Phillips

D Short

I don't think this is an apology at all. It is just long-winded, self-serving article by a politico.

And I say that even though I have not read it properly. My boredom threshold is too low.

An apology this: 'I am sorry'.

Ray

D Short - Mr Kawcynski's 'mea culpa' has just provided a wonderful example of how civil servants get awkward reports past MPs - and even past their ministers: make it so long, tedious and arcane that only the stout-hearted can get past page three before nodding off.

Kenneth Perry

I agree with the comments already made. God help Mr Kawcynski's contituents if they seek his aid in a complaint. The Spectator itself might have spared us by giving a short summary of the offence & apology .

Frank Pulley

Pole dancing with Christ knows how many angels on the head of a pin? The man's a fu-il.

Marian C

I agree also with all the above comments. Why 5 pages, when one line would have sufficed; 'Melanie, I'm sorry for what I said'

Bob Grant

Kawczynski, you are a dolt and a buffoon, to say nothing of a disgrace to the Tory party. Stand down immediately.

Ben

Kawcynski's words sound sincere enough - and that's more than can be said of most "apologies". He spared us the customary "I am sorry for any offence that I may have caused", and also gave us an insight to how Parliamentry committees work.

It was not too long ago that another recommendation came from such a committee - to punish Israel with economic measures. Anatole Kaletsky of the Times described it, and supported it. I cannot help thinking that the anti-Israel bent of many MP's and others is motivated by a desire to curry favor with anti-Israeli Arabs. The fact that hundreds of billions of pounds of oil-money are sloshing around in London's City every year must be very enticing to the powerful and ambitious in Britain.

bill

Nothing in this apology makes me want to vote for the author or his party.

Marin

It stands to reason one doesn't sign a document unless one agrees with every line, dot and comma therein. This is why there long discussions are held until documents of these nature are produced. Regarding travel restrictins in the West Bank, I recall they were introduced around 2003, following a wave of terrifying suicide bombings. Can Daniel Kawczynski suggest another ( nonlethal) way of protecting civilian lives? Hypocrisy, hypocrisy, hypocrisy.

Alistair D

What's wrong with you churlish lot? The guy made a mistake in the heat of the moment, and has now apologised and explained how his lapse occurred.

Commondog

This is about as gracious and direct as could have been wished. Anything shorter would have been derided as curt.
Sometimes it pays to call a spade a horticultural implement.

Paul Hill

Should have gone to Southwold..........................ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZz

Joan

An apologie maybe - Questionable - But why does Mr Kawcynski refer to parts of Israel as occupied, if he would really get into the history he would discover quite the reverse. It is Israel who is occupied aided and abetted by Britain and the UN

Ann

'Media' is a plural noun.
He is still a prat (and not only for that reason).

Stanislav Koblinski

Occupied Palestinian Territories

Where are they?

When has "Palestine" ever possessed "territories"?

Stanislav Koblinski

I felt that she had jumped to a conclusion: assuming that because my name was on the report, I agreed with all its suggestions.

I jump top that same conclusion too.

If you didn't agree with it you shouldn't have voted for it. You approved it, that's hy your name was on it.

Do you really take the rest of us for idiots?

Roy

Hope he appreciates that our good and honorable Melanie Philips has her eye on the ball, and so should he.

stanley Jerusalem

90%-selfjustification
9% blather,
1% apology.
And he's one of our representatives in Parliament!
I wonder how long he takes to dress in the mornings?

Barry

I think you lot are being, unwittingly, a bit unfair to this man. He is generally regarded as by far the dimmest MP in Westminster. And I mean by far.

He is really utterly out of his depth there; I can't understand how he was ever selected or got voted in. I feel genuinely sorry for him and am sure he'd be a lot happier if he were doing something else.

stanley Jerusalem

Barry: He is.

Mutch

The simple fact is that Israel shouldn't be there. End of story.

Gautam

By outing him is the dimmest MP in parliament, Barry has done a disservice to all the long-suffering under Labour's calamitous mismanagement over a decade. This man is now destined for elevation to the Labour Cabinet though perhaps for only a few days since the whole Nu-Labour farce is imploding with such endearing rapidity.

Allah be praised for this act of vengeance at least!

Gavin

Mutch: By 'there' I assume you mean the Middle East?

stanley Jerusalem

Mutch:
"The simple fact is that Israel shouldn't be there."

Right children; pick up your round-ended safety scissors and your map of the Middle East and.....

phil

The worst part of all of this is that there should be comments at all (including mine I suppose)-the man has apologised and explained himself to Melanie and anyone who cannot accept a genuine apology has no standing in my eyes -its nothing to do with us ,so castigation from the usual suspects is sad to the extreme -well said commondog and alistair

stanley Jerusalem

Sorry Phil. It felt nothing like an apology.
More like a convoluted morass of marginally irrelevant excuses with a very small and qualified 'sorry' near the end where we might not even have noticed it had we not hoped that it would arrive eventually

phil

Stanley -quote "For this reason, I would like to make a simple apology to Melanie. I was wrong to call into question her journalistic energy or integrity"
can I say "nu"

stanley Jerusalem

Of course you can Phil.
But it doesn't mean anything in this context.Its actual translation is "Well?"

BJ

At least he correctly refers to the continuing humanitarian suffering in the Occupied Palestinian Territories

Byron in Wahroonga

A gracious apology, followed by a clear explanantion of the committee's findings (and errors.) Thank you, Mr. Kawcyznski. Please ignore the Rita Skeeters sniping away on this website. They're so attached to their vitriol.

Lily

What this column demonstrates above all is that it is a complete waste of British taxpayers' money to fund such reports. The MPs are too uninformed to make a meaningful contribution to the debate, or they would be aware that hamas is 'incapable' of recognising Israel. Senior hamas official Mahmoud Zahar has said that recognizing Israel 'contradicts' the Qur’an (‘Zahar: Qur’an forbids recognizing Israel’, Jerusalem Post, 20 April 2007). Perhaps the parliamentarians believe that non-Muslims can persuade Muslims to over-ride the Qur’an by ‘engagement’.

This hamas 'article of faith' was reiterated by the son of a prominent hamas leader in the West Bank - see 'Prodigal son', By Avi Issacharoff, 31 July 2008, http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1007462.html.

The son in question turned his back on the violent hamas brand of islam, converted to Christianity, and migrated to America for his own safety.

If Daniel Kawcyznski was sufficiently familiar with events in gaza, he would know that living conditions there are self-inflicted. Hamas often shoots at border crossings, obliging the food convoys sent by Israel to head back. Roadblocks exist because terrorism exists - no-one objects to the roadblocks in Saudi Arabia or Iraq or elsewhere in the Mideast. Is Israel uniquely expected to facilitate ease of travel to those who wish to murder her civilians?

Martin Hanson

I was brought up to believe that 'media' is plural ("which the media does not always bother to publicise.") It seems that even The Spectator has begun to pander to the great unwashed.

Jonathan Levy

Usually politicians pretend to apologize, and hide it with a lot of fluff. While there's no lack of fluff here, you've also got the real thing, on page one, and more than once:
"I’d like to apologise to her for my reaction..."
"...I am definitely guilty with respect to the latter"
"For this reason, I would like to make a simple apology to Melanie"
"I was wrong to call into question her journalistic energy or integrity"

We ought to give credit where credit is due. As far as apologies from politicians go, this is as good as it's likely to get.

Richard

What a snivveling piece of self justifiction.

It's all the media's fault again for not understanding the pressures poor MPs work under.

It's simple mate - if your name's on the report, you get judged on it.

Kram Ekosum

Long winded YES but exemplary and rather humble. Byron, Lily, Jonathan Levy well said. All you who disapprove of this young "politico" should be ashamed and maybe denied the vote... Shock horror, apparently MPs don't have degrees in astrophysics! Let's change the whole electoral system and have pointy headed, autistic academics instead. It is not news that MPs are uninformed on many issues. Most were only members of the public before they joined parliament. They don't have to sit severe exams to get selected nor elected. The fact that any of you couldn't be bothered to read the "apology" says more about your lack of integrity, wit and sincerity than the author's. God help this country if even Spectator readers are so unsophisticated that their way of passing time involves spewing vitriolic bile.

Clemence de Roch

How exactly is the funding of an additional £800,000 for yet another UN Quango a "laudable feature"? Per capita, the Palestinian Authority has already received, in constant dollars, four times the amount of Marshall Plan aid paid per capita to reconstruct post-war Europe over thirty years. Does the PA have anything to show for it, apart from Madame Arafat's showy Paris lifestyle?

Mark

Some slightly churlish remarks here. The final paragraph puts him at least close to the angels - if not exactly of their number.

My real problem is the idea this guy has that if you refuse to sign a whole report you reject the bits you agree with as well as those you don't Nonsense. Rather as he has done here, you always have the opportunity to make that clear. In fact if what he says about the rarity of dissent on select committees is true (and I
have no grounds on which to disbelieve him) then to do so would be to take the opportunity of a high profile stance on both the positives and negatives as you see them.

Gawain Towler

At least he apologised. Which in itself is a saving grace. Give some credit where credit is due.

He is on the Committee and has been for a while now and thus should be expected to have some in depth knowledge on the situation in Gaza and more generally the whole Levant. None the less he at least has apologised for a statment written in haste. (Well at least the opening paragraph seems to have been in haste - as opposed to the justification).
One feels that it being summer there are no staffers around to provide editorial control.

Joan

I think Lily said it all.Well done.

SG

It was a shame to see two obviously passionate advocates of Israel engaged in such a public spat over meaningless technicalities.

Hopefully the matter is now settled.