Nazis in London

Tory MP David Wilshire has compared MPs under fire for their expenses claims to Jews under the Nazis:

Mr Wilshire wrote: “The witch hunt against MPs in general will undermine democracy. It will weaken parliament - handing yet more power to governments. Branding a whole group of people as undesirables led to Hitler's gas chambers."

This is an inane thing to write;  it would be grossly offensive if it were not so stupid. David Cameron has quite rightly called on Wilshire to withdraw his comments.

For a chilling view of what real Nazis looked like in Westminster, see this video, which forms part of a new Discovery Channel series on Wartime London (Wartime London with Harry Harris - Nazi funeral from Wolfstar on Vimeo):

This is from the funeral of the German ambassador, Leopold von Hoesch, who died in April 1936. Hoesch himself was not a Nazi; but his funeral featured a swastika-draped coffin and crowds of onlookers giving Nazi salutes, as the funeral cortege made its way down the Mall escorted by soldiers of the Coldstream Guards. This took place a month after German troops re-occupied the Rhineland, in defiance of the Treaty of Versailles; seven months after the introduction of the Nuremberg Laws; and three years after the opening of Dachau concentration camp.