What is the Lib Dems’ problem with ‘the Jews’?

The Liberal Democrats have always been a party of contradictions. In the time I’ve been a member, as well as a journalist covering the party, few of its contradictions have baffled me more than the fact that it is called the Liberal Democrat party but it unequivocally fails to support the only liberal democracy in the Middle East.

There has always been a strong link between British Jewry and Liberal parties, but the present day Liberal Democrats are broadly not trusted by the Jewish community. This is despite the best efforts of Nick Clegg and others to rebuild links.

This was brought home to me only a couple of months ago, when I was knocking on doors for the Lib Dems as a council candidate in the London Borough of Barnet. My ward took in part of the Jewish community in Golders Green. One evening a man answered the door, only to slam it very quickly when I told him which party I was from, shouting: ‘I won’t vote for you, you’re an anti-Semitic party.’