04 November '10
In an interview with the London Jewish Chronicle (17 September 2010) the distinguished barrister and Lib Dem former MP Lord Carlile, the son of Polish Jews who converted to Christianity, blamed Lib Dem life peer Baroness Tonge’s perceived antisemitic comments regarding Israel as helping to cost Nick Clegg’s Lib Dems two London seats (Hampstead and Kilburn; Islington South and Finsbury) during Britain’s General Election last May. Condemning as “completely outrageous, inexcusable and incomprehensible” her call for an investigation into claims that the IDF was harvesting body parts from Haiti earthquake victims, Lord Carlile, a strong though not uncritical friend of Israel, also warned that “there is evidence of charitable funding collected in this country being channelled through to Hamas and possibly to other Islamist organisations” by British-based front organisations and that much more should be done to stem the problem. Lord Carlile felt quite rightly – that Nick Clegg and Lord McNally, the Lib Dem leader in the upper chamber, were tardy in dealing with Lady Tonge’ outbursts.
Once upon a time, the Liberal Party was a fount of philosemitism. During the 1830s, 1840s, and 1850s, when the ultimately successful campaign for the right for professing Jews to sit in the House of Commons was in full swing, Liberal politicians and public figures were in its forefront. Their stance was exemplified in the noble words of Lord Macaulay, who observed in 1831:
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