A Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords has declared that post-Brexit Britain will be “reminiscent” of Nazi-era Germany, saying that people are “crying” themselves to sleep in fear of what the country will look like after leaving the European Union.
In the latest example of fearmongering from the EU loyalist Liberal Democrats, Lord Tony Greaves, Baron of Pendle, used a debate on Boris Johnson’s Brexit withdrawal bill in the House of Lords to proclaim that the United Kingdom in 2020 is “reminiscent” of Nazi Germany in the 1930s.
“I am fearful that on January 31st some things may happen in some places which could be reminiscent of things happening in Germany in the early 1930s,” Lord Greaves claimed in comments reported by The Telegraph.
“I am particularly concerned about what the Government is doing about prevention of discrimination in the transition period,” he went on, adding: “I am worried about this because there is that sentiment amongst a hostile minority of the population.”
“Many, many people in this country… who are full of dismay, distress are crying at night when they go to sleep, they are crying in the morning when they wake up and all they get from the unfeeling, hard-headed Tories is moans,” Lord Greaves complained.
In response to the Lib Dem peer’s outlandish statements, Baroness Williams, a Home Office minister, suggested that “To compare January 31st to Nazi Germany, I think, is rather a step too far.”
The Liberal Democrat peer later insisted that he was not comparing the United Kingdom to Nazi Germany but rather to the Weimar Republic, which ended in 1933.
“What I am saying is that some of the conditions which exist in this country are similar to conditions which existed in Germany between the wars, before the Nazis came to power and took over,” said Lord Greaves, as if this would be substantially less hyperbolic.
“You can think that’s right, you can think it’s wrong, but I believe that that is the case,” he insisted.
In October, David Chalmers, a Liberal Democrat candidate for Torridge and West Devon, also compared post-Brexit Britain to Nazi Germany, saying: “We have to stop this — just as we stopped the Nazis in Germany and their sympathisers in this country at the time from destroying this country in the 1930s.”
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