Remember the Holocaust
This weekend sees the 61st anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz extermination camp, which is also Holocaust Memorial Day. This is a day which officially commemorates all victims of genocide -not just the Jewish, Gypsies, mental patients and others who died at the hands of the Nazi regime, but all others who have been the victims of racially motivated mass murder and "ethnic cleansing" from the Armenians to Dafur.
From time to time I meet people who think we make too much of this. I don't think we emphasise it enough. There are at least 88 people in Cumbria who showed this week that they need to have a better understanding of the events which lead to the holocaust - the 88 people who voted BNP in the Brampton by-election for Cumbria County Council on Thursday.
Most of the electors who took part in the Brampton by election voted for the excellent Conservative candidate, Laurence Fisher, who was duly elected. Well over 90% of Brampton voters cast their ballots for mainstream democratic parties. However, it is disappointing that even a single vote was cast for a bunch of extremist, thuggish cretins.
In 1920, the National Socialist German Workers party (the NSDAP or Nazis) was a tiny group of hard-right thugs, remarkably similar to today's British National Party and motivated by the same kind of primitive prejudice. Those who voted for it could be forgiven for not appreciating that they were starting a chain of violence which was to result in tens of millions of deaths. Those who vote for the BNP today have no excuse for not realising what can happen when you vote for that kind of extremist.
Sixty years ago, one of the most advanced and civilised countries in the world perpetrated one of the most revolting acts of mass murder. If we keep alive the memory of what happened and why, there is less chance that we or our children and grandchildren will make similar mistakes in the future.
From time to time I meet people who think we make too much of this. I don't think we emphasise it enough. There are at least 88 people in Cumbria who showed this week that they need to have a better understanding of the events which lead to the holocaust - the 88 people who voted BNP in the Brampton by-election for Cumbria County Council on Thursday.
Most of the electors who took part in the Brampton by election voted for the excellent Conservative candidate, Laurence Fisher, who was duly elected. Well over 90% of Brampton voters cast their ballots for mainstream democratic parties. However, it is disappointing that even a single vote was cast for a bunch of extremist, thuggish cretins.
In 1920, the National Socialist German Workers party (the NSDAP or Nazis) was a tiny group of hard-right thugs, remarkably similar to today's British National Party and motivated by the same kind of primitive prejudice. Those who voted for it could be forgiven for not appreciating that they were starting a chain of violence which was to result in tens of millions of deaths. Those who vote for the BNP today have no excuse for not realising what can happen when you vote for that kind of extremist.
Sixty years ago, one of the most advanced and civilised countries in the world perpetrated one of the most revolting acts of mass murder. If we keep alive the memory of what happened and why, there is less chance that we or our children and grandchildren will make similar mistakes in the future.
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