Tim McLoughlin

This morning I picked up from Twitter rumours that Tory Cannock Chase MP Aidan Burley was seen texting and dozing while at a talk given by a Holocaust survivor. If true, that is disgusting and disrespectful in the extreme. When will these people learn?



This is the same Tory MP that was sacked from his junior minister role at the Department for Transport only two months ago after taking part in a Nazi themed stag do where he was responsible for hiring replica Nazi uniforms and toasting the Third Reich.



Attending a talk by a Holocaust survivor might have been an opportunity to redeem himself. I'm shocked and saddened by Burley's contempt.

UPDATE: we know that Burley didn't ask his allotted question at PMQs yesterday and wasn't in Parliament. Was he in Poland?

On this centenary celebration day for the Scouting movement, I thought it pertinent to raise the thought of what might have been. I can recall reading in William L Shirer's excellent The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich as a youngster that had Operation Sealion been successful, Lord Baden Powell would have been arrested. Did the Nazis really think that the scout movement was a threat?