He was a shadowy figure behind the small (and very upper class) pre-war ultra-right groups “English Mistery” and “English Array” and the “Council against European commitments” (a kind of “stop the war against Hitler movement.) Very much into “back to the land” stuff and I suspect very much more connected to Mosley etc than is now known.

I am confused by someone who generally makes Pope Benedict look like SInead O’Connor appropriating Shankhill graffiti though.

“To such people – as to Jobbik, as to Fidesz, as to Orban, as to Berlusconi – one says the traditional greeting: NO SURRENDER”

He certainly seems to have been pretty strange. Freeman Dyson talks about encountering Lymington at harvest time during the War. Lymington wanted the harvest workers to work in rhythm just like he had seen in pre-war Nazi Germany with Strength Through Joy activities involving Hitler Youth!

The aforementioned Lymington (although admittedly 4 years after he stopped being a minister in the Tory government) actually called for Hitler to bomb every ministry except the one for agriculture on the grounds that all the others were full of urban cosmopolitans.

“Mr Gerrard makes the lofty gesture ………… And he’s being congratulated? Unbelievable.”

I seem to recall that a previous argument lead to him having a dialogue with the editors of this blog. Oh, and lofty gestures are not at all his style.

Nice to know that although apearing on a platform with Hamas is okay as far as Labour is concerned, doing so with a neo-Nazi is not.

I wouldn’t approve of the Tories aligning with Fidesz, either. Their nearest approximate equivalent in Europe would be either of the parties (big on slogans and rhetoric, light on principles, dubious friends and vile policies) that Silvio Berlusconi succeeded in forging in Italy. In fact the Orban/Berlusconi comparison works at a number of levels. Obviously one Berlusconi character in a position of power is one too many; and I from afar am no more looking forward to Orban as PM of Hungary than I delight in Silvio as his equivalent in Italy.

But still, none of the Tories allies in Europe are anything like that. Indeed….the fact they split from the group that Berlusconi’s adoring mobs were in further reflects well upon their choice.

I’m no Tory; but i also see that they have nothing to apologise or explain as regards their European parliamentary allies; and as far as I can see it is quasi-totalitarians (and supremely hypocritical ones to boot) who are making such demands. To such people – as to Jobbik, as to Fidesz, as to Orban, as to Berlusconi – one says the traditional greeting: NO SURRENDER

Morvai wasn’t always an anti-semite and her conversion from liberal human rights lawyer to lunatic nationalist was the result of a single incident – which shows you the danger of having a culture, like Hungary’s, where anti-semitism really is an every day reality.

Mike S is right though – the Tories should sort themselves out over their Euro allies and Labour has every right to call them out.

“Gordon Bennett! is yet another incarnation of “Nearly Oxfordian” “Sandal” and etc etc (to infinity.)

Some British fascist came from the consevative party, others from the Independent Labour Party (ILP).

A couple of low-level types went from labour to the New party and of course Mosley had been both a Tory and a Labour MP. But while the Tories had many fascists actually in the party as well as providing security (and Arnold Leese, criticising from the rabidly racial right could call Mosley’s movement “Conservatism with knobs on.”) The Labour party always resisted attempts (repeated attempts in fact) by the Communist party to affiliate.