Today’s quote comes to us from Lord Erick Pickles (yes, that is not a name you see every day), who has been a Tory Minister in the UK Government and a host of other positions.
Currently, Lord Pickles is the UK’s Special Envoy for Post-Holocaust Issues. And he is incensed (as he should be) by the fact that, according to Albert Tait’s article for the London Telegraph:
A Holocaust memorial exhibition has been banned from Parliament because it is too political – despite pro-Palestine activists being allowed to campaign there.
Parliamentary authorities blocked the exhibition from being held in Westminster Hall earlier this month because it did not meet criteria for being politically neutral.
But in July last year, activists from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign were allowed to hand out leaflets from a stall in the same place.
Lord Pickles’ reaction?
“Considering the timing of it, that we have just commemorated the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camps [in] Nazi Germany, I was frankly astounded…
“Dealing with the questions of anti-Semitism, I mean, after all, Westminster Hall is where Churchill laid in state. Westminster Hall is where he received many honours.
“There was perhaps no greater fighter against anti-Semitism than Churchill. He would be appalled by this decision.”
Lord Eric Pickles is awarded Quote Of The Day honors because what he said is absolutely correct, and the “Parliamentary authorities” who made this decision are – this is the nicest description I can come up with – hypocritical jerks. What I assume they are, anti-Semitically speaking , I can’t prove. But I would bet money on.
And sadly, these days the disgraceful actions noted above are not just some one-and-off anomaly. In much of Europe (and – incredibly – in a number of colleges and universities across the United States) it, more and more, is standard operating procedure.
Back To The Future? Let’s hope not.
