And now the Mother of All Parliaments will wash your mouth out with soap…

Earlier this year, a veteran member of the European Parliament from Britain’s Conservative Party, made news when he stood up to British Prime Minister-in-waiting David Cameron’s alliance with right wing Polish politician Michal Kaminski. That MEP, Edward McMillan-Scott, accused Kaminski of being a “fascist” with “anti-Semitic, homophobic, and racist links.” 

As it happens, there seems to be evidence that lends considerable support to all of those assertions. And how has the likely next leader of the United Kingdom rewarded the courage of this stalwart of his party who has served for a quarter century? A gold watch perhaps? No, he has given him his walking papers, kicking him out of the Conservative Party. 

Such is the character of the man who, according to this week’s polls, is the heavy favorite to move to 10 Downing Street after the next general election. It reveals much about him as a man and about the kind of party he wants to run. So much for a system that thrives on debate and cherishes honesty. 

Of course if the only way to cover up the flaws in your record are with lies or enforced silence, I suppose silence is a better choice, even if it is not necessarily the one you would expect from a former flack like Cameron. In this case however, the silence speaks volumes … not only about Cameron but about the flock of sheep who now run his party … and one can only hope this public political execution has the same effect on the British electorate that ill-considered beheadings have done in times past. 

Whatever happened to perspectives like that of an on-again, off-again Tory from the last century who said: “The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end; there it is.” (And do you think Cameron would have made it above the rank of State Secretary for Snooker and Other Silly Games in a Churchill government?)

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