Good(ish) news from Bonn

Normally I pay next to no attention to the European People's Party (EPP), with our without our own Tory Socialists in it. Their congress (without TS) would have left me absolutely cold - even colder than I am now because it dares to snow in December. Most of their resolutions are silly beyond parody, such as this one about climate change and the need to do something about it, the something, undoubtedly, being more taxation, more money going to tyrannical kleptocrats and more regulations to hamstring our economy.

However, it was pointed out to me that there was also an emergency resolution, undoubtedly pushed for by members of more or less right-wing parties from former Communist states. This one is, indeed, of interest and is unlikely to be well received in the higher echelons of the EU nomenklatura.

Entitled Totalitarian Communist States, it states inter alia:

The European People's Party:

welcoming the European Parliament's Resolution on European conscience and totalitarianism

1. emphasizes this time to be very important for the remembrance of the historic truth, democratic perspective and democratic culture in Europe;

2. is appalled over the fact that some, especially centre-left European governments did not giveadequate attention to this matter;

3. strongly condemns the fact that in some member states there is a systematic encouragement of adoration of the communist dictators, as for an example in the capital city of Slovenia - Ljubljana, where one of the main streets was this year named after the leader of the communist regime, marshal Josip Broz Tito;

4. is concerned about the fact that the President of Slovenia has awarded Mr. Tomaž Ertl, former Chief of secret communist police UDBA, on the eve of the democratic-changes-event last week, with a national acknowledgement. UDBA for Slovenia meant the same as Stasi in East Germany or Securitate in Romania;

The Resolution goes on to point out that the problem is not that Communism and Communist leaders are praised by small groups but that this is a policy adopted by states and governments. In other words, they are not over-reacting but stating important facts.

Just imagine if some German city had decided to name a street after Adolf Hitler or Hermann Goering or award some posthumous medal to Heinrich Himmler. One cannot even begin to think of such an event.

Which reminds me of a most peculiar bit of news. A gang of thieves stole the infamous iron sign that adorned the gates to Auschwitz (the camp liberated by President Obama's uncle), Arbeit Macht Frei. The theory is that it was stolen by Holocaust deniers to prove somehow or other that Jews were not murdered there in large numbers or, maybe, not at all.

The Holocaust is possibly the best documented horrific event or series of events in the twentieth century. Compare the amount we know to the difficulties people have had when trying to work out what happened in the Soviet Union or in China. Yet people go to the most incredible lengths to deny it. Truly weird. Unless this turns out to be a stupid joke carried out by drunken yobs with an even weirder sense of humour.