Jenny Tonge

is someone I always liked when we were in the House of Commons together.  Not so her views.  Jew-hater.  Well, she's not the only one, and there are plenty of them in the Labour Party.  She was sacked by Menzies Campbell as the party's health spokesman, for Jew-hating remarks, and now she has made some more of them and has resigned from the party altogether.  As she is a LibDem, I would ask - why bother?  It's not a proper party anyway, it's a kind of franchise organisation.  But she has, and I think her decision is an honourable one.  If Jew-hating is not part of the LibDems' policy platform (how could anyone tell?) and she is a Jew-hater, she should resign.  Well, she has, and now a spokesman for the Board of Deputies of British Jews  expresses dismay that someone who holds such "vile" views should be a member of the House of Lords.  There I part company with him.  I believe the second chamber should be elected, but that aside, people should not be members of it on the basis of the views they hold.  And a cross-bencher, which Tonge now is,  has no party line.  People may be offended by the views Tonge expressed, but being offensive is very much to be supported.  Hein?