Generally speaking, British voters haven’t taken to the Waffen SS

I am still not sure quite why the Conservative Party is determined to ally itself in Europe with the Waffen SS and Poland’s vigorous and exciting “No Yids or Queers” party. It has no need to do so. I assume Mr Cameron is at least mildly anti-SS and, while he might not in general like homosexuals or foreigners, has no wish to behave particularly nastily toward them. The Tories are in danger of making themselves look every bit as ridiculous over Europe as they looked in 1996, if for very different reasons. The party’s new allies, the Polish Law and Order Party and the Latvian Freedom and Fatherland Party (that has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?) are, from everything I can gather, at the least rooted in fascism, nor do they seem particularly quick to renounce fascism. It is not the slightest use Eric Pickles insisting that Latvians who fought for the Waffen SS – who were honoured by the party in question – were merely patriots and that to argue otherwise is a Soviet slur, because it is simply not the case. Further, presentationally, the words “Waffen SS” have, historically, tended to have a negative impact upon the British voter. The man in the street associates the phrase – perhaps wrongly – with all manner of bother, all kinds of horribleness. Also, it is the sort of phrase which sits uncomfortably with the notion of “caring Conservatives”, even caring Conservatives who are going to freeze the wages of everybody except bankers as soon as they take office. How did they allow themselves to get into this position, then? Either through stupidity or principle, one supposes. I am not sure which of the two is worse.