Oh yeah, if Labour were in power now doing the same thing, the Conservatives would be giving no end of lectures about "mortgaging our childrens' future" to create a weird society where the state actively pays people to stay indoors apart from a ritual every Thursday where they are encouraged to come out and clap for the NHS.

Nope. I have a book written by a Nazi on my book shelf, a fact I'm sure the mob on here will love.

Albert Speer's 'Inside the Third Reich'. Fascinating read, even if he does bend the truth to minimise his culpability.

Self preservation even applied to some of Hitler’s inner circle. This is different to a book that tries to say that the holocaust never happened. What would you say if the same book was in the possession of Corbyn, not so understanding I bet.

I'm no expert on David Irving, but my understanding is that the book on Gove's shelf (The War Path) doesn't contain any element of holocaust denial, even if it does attempt very slightly to reduce some of the commonly held 'raving lunatic psychopath' element from Hitler's character. Most reviews seem to cast it as a decent if unremarkable 2nd part to the biography. And it seems his views on the holocaust only turned idiotic after this was written.

The criticism aimed at Gove is petty. It was largely driven by Owen Jones ffs, which should tell you a lot. Another pathetic example of "It Really Doesn't Matter". Many, many people have Mein Kampf on their shelves, Mao's Little Red Book and feck knows what else. I almost exclusively follow left-wing media online, and only a couple of right-leaning media. It gives me a wide view of how events are perceived.

Had I seen it on Corbyn's bookshelf I'd dismiss it in the same fashion. I dislike Corbyn's views for many reasons, but reading a biography by someone who later became a holocaust denier wouldn't be one of them. It's a bit like watching a Harvey Weinstein movie and enjoying it, or singing along to 'Another Rock n Roll Christmas'.

Do they? I mean, don’t get me wrong I’ve read biographies of Stalin and Mao, but I’ve never had any interest in reading their writings. It’s not like these (e.g. Mein Kampf) are books that you stumble across in Waterstones or that normal friends and family get you for your birthday.

While historians with a interest in the area have legitimate use for it, who else is reading Mein Kampf? Apart from the obvious, but even now I’d like to think there aren’t many, many of them.

I've read it, a friend's copy. And yes I've seen it on many bookshelves. With a modern mindset I found it cliched and dull. It was purely out of historical interest - around the same time I read Speer's book, and many more by the likes of Martin Gilbert, Antony Beevor, Max Hastings, James Holland and others. I tend to go through phases - WW1, WW2, Victorian Britain, ancient Britain, ancient Romans, Greeks, Persians, Egyptians, etc, etc... There are some truly wonderful historical books out there. Some less so.

The point is that having a book written by someone who later became a bit nutty is only worth commenting on as a matter of interest: "didn't he go a bit batsht loony?". Unless you genuinely think Gove saw it and thought, "great stuff, he's now a holocaust denier, I could get on board with that"?

I’ve seen my share of bookshelves but I don’t ever recall seeing a copy anywhere other than in news reports. And I feel like it is the sort of thing I would recall.

Anyone been looking back at the Prof. John Ashton timeline of events? He basically said exactly what would happen on Question Time back in early March, and was of course ridiculed, especially when he was found to have Labour connections. Many right wing social media accounts jumped straight on him. One described him as a 'loony hardcore Corbynista lefty', so of course, the smears gained traction. There was the usual anti-semitic smear, various pastings in the tabloids, and calls not to politicise the situation. They also got him on the old 'labour activist' smear when he appeared on Panorama. Anyway, turns out he was bang on. It's an interesting rabbit hole to disappear down. Start with Question Time on March 12, then look at social media and news articles from after the show. This article from a month later gives a decent roundup of what happened, there's a clip from his appearance on QT, too. https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/p ... ssion=true Here are some tweets from the show on March 12. Have a look at some of the replies. It's 'the public have had enough of experts' in a nutshell. Also check out Fiona Bruce's face of disdain when he mentions care homes in the second tweet's video. https://mobile.twitter.com/bbcquestiont ... 9689631745 https://mobile.twitter.com/bbcquestiont ... 8089369601

Anyone been looking back at the Prof. John Ashton timeline of events? He basically said exactly what would happen on Question Time back in early March, and was of course ridiculed, especially when he was found to have Labour connections. Many right wing social media accounts jumped straight on him. One described him as a 'loony hardcore Corbynista lefty', so of course, the smears gained traction. There was the usual anti-semitic smear, various pastings in the tabloids, and calls not to politicise the situation. They also got him on the old 'labour activist' smear when he appeared on Panorama. Anyway, turns out he was bang on. It's an interesting rabbit hole to disappear down. Start with Question Time on March 12, then look at social media and news articles from after the show. This article from a month later gives a decent roundup of what happened, there's a clip from his appearance on QT, too. https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/p ... ssion=true Here are some tweets from the show on March 12. Have a look at some of the replies. It's 'the public have had enough of experts' in a nutshell. Also check out Fiona Bruce's face of disdain when he mentions care homes in the second tweet's video. https://mobile.twitter.com/bbcquestiont ... 9689631745 https://mobile.twitter.com/bbcquestiont ... 8089369601

I don't think she's showing any targetted disdain towards care homes. Remember this is nearly 2 weeks before lockdown. She just looks like she's thinking, "here we go again! He's banging on about care homes now". I just find that particular clip very prescient now we know the extent to which it has ripped through care homes.