BENEATH THE waters of New York Harbour lie my grandfather’s German First World War medals. My mother and her sisters threw them from a porthole of the Red Cross boat that took them on the last leg of their journey from Belsen concentration camp to freedom.

So for me, the Statue of Liberty, which presides over the harbour, is much more than a smart piece of civic art. And there are few words more moving than Emma Lazarus’s poem, inscribed above the statue’s main entrance: “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

The United States of America is a flawed nation. So is every country in the world. Every one has fought ill-advised wars and exported dubious ideas, pursued questionable foreign policy doctrines and suffered internal dissension and poverty. Every one.

Yet unlike almost every other nation, the United States has also been a beacon of liberty. We know this here in Europe because it was to our shores that American boys came to protect one part of the Continent from the totalitarian instincts of the other part. It was here they gave their lives and here they stayed to defend us from ourselves and here from which they departed when their job was done, without retaining a single piece of real estate, save the cemeteries in which they buried their sons.

Now all this would be hardly worth saying, it should be obvious, except for this — more than two years ago Tony Blair was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. And, as The Times noted on Saturday, he has yet to collect it.

The award of the Congressional Gold Medal is an extraordinary honour. It is the highest expression of the appreciation of the American people. Since it was first awarded to George Washington in 1776, it has only been granted 120 times. And just 18 foreigners have been honoured, among them Winston Churchill, Mother Teresa and Nelson Mandela.

As its name suggests, the medal is not the gift of the President. Nor is it a piece of party patronage. It requires the sponsorship of two thirds of the members of the House of Representatives and 67 Senators. This is a gift from the entire American people.

Congressman Richard Baker said of Mr Blair’s award: “This medal attempts to capture for history what most Americans feel in their hearts — Tony Blair is a hero.” This is a commonly held view in the United States, where even those who hate the war in Iraq are deeply grateful for the way the Prime Minister rallied to their side after September 11, 2001.

So why has Mr Blair failed to collect his medal? For a while Downing Street relied on the excuse that the medal had to be specially designed, before being struck by the US Mint. However, by now I could have minted it myself, having built the equipment in my back garden.

There is, therefore, another reason. It is that Mr Blair believes that being seen to receive his medal would be politically disastrous, especially among members of his own party. As one Labour MP put it: “As far as many of us are concerned, if Tony takes that medal it would be like taking an award from Satan.”

And that, of course, is precisely why it is essential that not another moment is lost. Tony Blair must fly to Washington. Our Prime Minister must stand under the Dome of the Capitol and receive his medal from our great ally. And he must do this not just because he deserves it. Which, incidentally, he most certainly does.

He must go because the American people need to know how much we value their friendship. He must go because the tide of anti-American feeling in this country needs to be confronted. He must go because he should be proud, not ashamed, that he said yes when our allies came to call and asked whether, after all the support they have given us, we might reciprocate. He must go because the commitment to spread democracy around the world is a brave and noble one. He must go as a bold statement to the enemies of liberty everywhere that those who defend freedom are bound together and are resolute.

It also occurs to me that Mr Blair’s dilemma provides an ideal test for those seeking to be leader of the Conservative party — we might call it the Medal Test.

Since the War on Terror began, Tories have been torn between their loathing for Mr Blair and the fact that since 9/11 he has done exactly as the best Tory prime minister might have done. When the Hutton inquiry pitched BBC bias against Blair, the party threw away decades of complaints about BBC bias and backed the corporation.

So can a Conservative leader now be found to urge Mr Blair to collect his award? Someone who realises that denying Mr Blair his moment in the sun is less important than taking on anti-American sentiment? Someone who can find the generous words that are appropriate and necessary in the circumstances of a British Prime Minister receiving such a high honour? Is there anyone out there who can pass the Medal Test?

Many years after the war, the Germans offered my grandfather another medal, the German Cross of Merit, for his work against fascism. Many Jewish friends urged him to refuse an honour from such a tainted source. But he was determined to accept. He believed that it was important that the work of those, like him, who maintained a record of the Holocaust should be recognised. In other words, he realised it was about more than him.

When Mr Blair is pressed about collecting his medal, he tends to be modest, saying: “It’s not the biggest thing on my plate at the moment, is it?” Respectfully, I would say this to him. It’s not about you. It’s far more important than that. So I find myself writing words that have been used by others many times, but in a different context.

Go Mr Blair, go.

daniel.finkelstein@thetimes.co.uk

Times Recommends

• It’s the beginning of the affair
• Afghanistan: still a price worth paying
• Heroes of the downtrodden