Thursday, April 30, 2009

Gordon Brown and Decency

Ruth Gledhill - Times Online - WBLG: Brown to honour 'heroes of the Holocaust'

Gordon Brown, on a visit to Auschwitz today, has revealed that he will tomorrow in the House of Commons announce a new award for British heroes of the Holocaust.

Last week was the Jewish Yom Ha'Shoah commemoration, which marks the religious commemoration of the Holocaust. Research that will be done annually for this day was published for the first time this year and showed the extent to which criticism of Israel can be a cover for anti-Semitism, even when that criticism is legitimate.

Gordon Brown has long wanted to visit Auschwitz. His father, a minister in the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, belonged to a church group which supported the foundation of the state of Israel.


I think the problem with Gordon Brown is that, although he moves like Iago as a politician, he is a fundamentally decent and educated man who sees life within a moral compass. Perhaps more so than Blair, and I think more so than Cameron or Clegg. (Among the Tories, I would cite David Davies and Anne Widdecombe as among those who are concerned with what is right as much as what is politic).

The problem is he is just an awful Prime Minister. It's a real tragedy.

Btw. Anyone can make missteps on the Holocaust - see this report in Haaretz on a problem for Yad Veshem.

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