Jenny Tonge at discussion entitled, "Is Israel an Apartheid State?". Photo: The Commentator.

In a recent column entitled, “Free schools, frozen yogurt and Jew-obsessed Lib Dems,” with a sub-heading of “The real nasty party,” UK Telegraph Editor Damian Thompson recalled four recent events in which Liberal Democrat parliament members made offensive comments bordering on, if not entirely, anti-Semitic.

“I’m all in favour of banning the adjective ‘swivel-eyed’ – unless we’re talking about the one party that merits it. I refer, of course, to the Liberal Democrats,” Thompson wrote. “This week Sir Bob Russell MP equated the plight of the Palestinians with the Holocaust. And this just after David Ward compared Israelis to Nazis. What is it about Lib Dems and Jews? Remember Baroness Tonge suggesting they were harvesting organs? They go for non-Jewish conspiracy theories, too: Norman Baker, transport minister, has loopy views on the ‘murder’ of Dr David Kelly. What weirdos. Swivel, swivel, swivel. If you look closely, you can see their contact lenses popping out during PMQs.”

The phrase “mad, swivel-eyed loons” came into British lexicon when UK newspapers reported in May that a member of Prime Minister’s David Cameron’s inner circle had described their own Conservative association members in those terms.