If you were to compile a short list of basic political do’s and don’ts, “Don’t applaud a Nazi” would be pretty high up, right? Che Guevara T-shirts are cool. But swastikas? Don’t go there. So how did our entire House of Commons get it wrong?
Well, my own list of political maxims, more strategic than tactical, would include “Study history.” Or nowadays “Study history, don’t erase it.” And it’s pretty clear that none of them realized if someone fought the Russians during World War II he wasn’t on our side. Unless he was Finnish or Polish before 1941, an aside on which I would not want to quiz these Solons.
