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Nick Clegg sacks 'Jihad Jenny' Tonge but doesn't withdraw the whip. Why the hell not?

By Damian Thompson Politics Last updated: February 12th, 2010

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Baroness Tonge – “Jihad Jenny” – earlier this week told the Jewish Chronicle that there should be an investigation into claims that Israeli relief workers in Haiti were harvesting the organs of the dead. And now Nick Clegg has sacked her from her job as Lib Dem health spokesman in the Lords. But he hasn’t withdrawn the whip.

Why the hell not? Says Clegg: “My view is that a number of things Jenny Tonge has said are irresponsible and offensive but I do not believe she is anti-Semitic or racist. If I did, she wouldn’t be a Liberal Democrat.”

I will leave readers to make up their own minds whether calling for an investigation to determine the truth of a version of the blood libel is anti-Semitic. But I couldn’t help chuckle at Clegg’s naive belief that there’s no room for racists in the Liberal Democrats.

Well, maybe now there isn’t. But there’s a long tradition of Liberal activists quietly playing the race card on the doorstep. “I don’t for a moment believe that the black couple in Number 17 are cannibals,” they might say. “But, just to reassure the other residents, don’t you think there ought to be an independent investigation into the matter?”

Tags: Baroness Tonge, Haiti, IDF, Jihad Jenny