The Times today ran a front page, editorial and page 4 article on Labour peer Baron Ahmed of Rotherham.
In an interview with a Pakistani TV station, Lord Ahmed has allegedly blamed his prison sentence for dangerous driving in 2009 on a Jewish conspiracy, brought about because of his work in support of the Palestinians. He appears to have believed a Judge was sent from London to sentence him as a result of pressure from Jews.
As so often with such arguments, the facts are somewhat different. The judge who sentenced Ahmed, Mr Justice Wilkie, was the Presiding Judge of the North East Circuit. Encouragingly, in its editorial The Times demonstrates that it actually grasps that what often appears to be merely conspiracist nonsense actually has a political impact :
"There will not be lasting peace in the Middle East with a just settlement between a sovereign Palestine and a secure Israel while conspiracy theories about the Jews are disseminated. Inoculating young and impressionable British Muslims from the theocratic hatreds of al-Qaeda requires the confronting of hoary anti-semitic myths. How shameful, how scandalous that a British parliamentarian should be promoting them."
