Speaking on the BBC’s Daily Politics, Breitbart London’s James Delingpole said that there are historical analogies that can be made to Nazism, and that is the liberal left’s war on free speech.
“I would defend the use of Nazi analogies under certain circumstances,” said Mr. Delingpole, and referred to Leave campaigner Michael Gove comparing pro-Remain economic experts to Nazi propagandists in the run-up to the referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union (EU).
“He was making a very intelligent point. He was talking about the paper Hitler commissioned called ‘The Hundred Authors Against Einstein’ so that was a specific historical analogy.”
But in reference to former Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown tweeting a comparison of the 17.5 million people who voted for Brexit as “brownshirts” – who were the precursor to the Nazi SS – said “I don’t think that quite works. That was the democratic will.”
“There are occasions when the Nazi analogy is used, particularly by the left, to slag off people they don’t like.
“Anyone mildly to the right of centre they call Nazis.”
“I think actually the interesting thing about Nazi Germany is that it happened in a country that invented Beethoven and Schubert. These were civilised people.
“Yet over a period of five years they were effectively taken hostage by this party which was originally a joke.
“So there are lessons from history that we need to be mindful of,” pointing specifically to “the liberal left’s war on freedom of speech.”
When his fellow Daily Politics guest Green co-leader Jonathan Bartley raised the Breitbart editor’s use of his ‘Eco-Nazi’ analogies, Mr. Delingpole said:
“The Hitler era is rich in green analogies because Hitler’s Germany was the kind of paradigm of Green values.
“Himmler wanted to feed the SS on organic food only until someone explained to him that organic food cannot be produced on a mass scale.
“Goering wanted to put people who abused animals into concentration camps.”