Blues show true colours

DAVID CAMERON has appointed a series of Jewish politicians to his first fully Conservative government.

The unveiling of the new ministerial positions this week means there are more Jews around the cabinet table than at any time since Margaret Thatcher’s Tory administrations of the 1980s.

Mr Cameron has pledged to deliver his party’s manifesto in full, meaning pre-election promises on protecting religious slaughter and supporting a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict should be kept.

The departure of the Liberal Democrats from power can be expected to have a considerable effect on the new government’s approach to Israel.

During last summer’s Gaza conflict, the Lib Dems’ then-Business Secretary Vince Cable sparked a cabinet row with Tory colleagues by pushing for a ban on arms exports to Israel.

Dr Cable lost his Twickenham seat in the early hours of Friday morning, and on Monday his job was handed to Sajid Javid, whose address at the Union of Jewish Students last December was said to be one of the most pro-Israel speeches ever given by a British minister.

Nick Clegg, who quit as Lib Dem leader on Friday morning after overseeing the loss of 49 seats, had backed Dr Cable last August and had joined Ed Miliband in leading political opposition to Israel’s actions during Operation Protective Edge.

Israel’s campaign had been “deliberately disproportionate” and amounted to “collective punishment”, Mr Clegg had said.

In the event that hostilities in the Middle East were to resume, the new