Clinton will warn the Tories about their European isolationism

By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982

William Hague is due to meet Hillary Clinton in Washington today and will be warned by the US Secretary of State that the Tories’ alliances in Europe could undermine a Conservative government’s ability to influence events in the European Union.

It’s interesting that Clinton should feel the need to do this, but it’s not surprising. In the US, Britain is seen as a key bridge between Washington and Brussels, and the fear is that a Tory government’s isolation from the mainstream in Europe would have repurcussions for America’s relations with Europe and President Obama’s internationalist belief that only a co-ordinated response can solve global problems like the financial crisis and climate change.

George Schwab, president of the New York-based National Committee on American Foreign Policy and a Holocaust survivor from Latvia said of the Tory alliance:

“I think Churchill would turn in his grave. It is an insult to the tradition of this great party.”

Meanwhile, one of the most influential voices in the Jewish-American community, Abraham, said America had the “right to raise moral questions”, because the new European Conservatives and Reformists group “legitimises extremism, bigotry, Holocaust denial and Holocaust revisionism”.

In his Guardian column today, Jonathan Freedland is reassured that the US is willing to take this hard line with the Tories. He says:

“We have heard Kaminski first deny, and then admit, that he wore an infamous fascist and antisemitic symbol. We have heard him explain that Poles should apologise for the horrific 1941 pogrom at Jedwabne only once the Jews have apologised for all that they inflicted on the Poles. We know that he began his political journey in a neo-Nazi organisation.”

But, he asks:

“We know all this, yet where is the outrage? Where is the revulsion at David Cameron becoming partners with men who cheer those who fought for Hitler and against Churchill? The Guardian, the Observer, the New Statesman and now the Jewish Chronicle have been shining a light in this dark corner, but from the rest of the media there has been little more than silence.”

With Clinton’s intervention today, as well as that of other American leaders, perhaps the Tories will abandon their indignance at the fair and just scrutiny of their new group and what it could mean for British relations in future.