I’ve been reading a couple of interesting books recently. The first is Ian Kershaw’s two volume biography of Hitler. Kershaw manages to achieve a coherent narrative which although very comprehensive does not lose the reader in the detail. I’ve just finished the first volume which deals with the period up to 1936. Perhaps the scariest part for me is the way Hitler and the Nazi party destroyed the Weimar republic from within. Although there were external factors such as the depression, Hitler could have been stopped by the other parties. In the end they handed him power in the hope that they could control him. Once he had that power they had signed their own death warrants. In some cases literally.

The other thing that strikes you is just how nondescript Hitler was. True he had a gift for oratory but beyond that very little else. How he came to run a modern european country is astonishing. The casual racism and anti-semitism that was prevelant in society is also clear from the book. Being anti-semetic was almost mainstream in early 20th Century Germany and Austria. Hopefully we have come along way since then, although it is surprising how often you hear remarks like; “I’m not racist but . ..” or hear people expressing support for openly racist parties.

The other book I am reading is ‘Britian after Blair’. This is a compilation of essays edited by Julian Astle, David Laws, Paul Marshall and Alasdair Murray. The essays seek explore the liberal alternatives to Blairism. The book also contains an audit of the Blair era . Whilst there are many things to applaud, there are also many things where blairism has either struggled or failed. The essays, mostly by Lib Dem MP’s seek to map out alternatives to the new Labour agenda. I haven’t finished reading them yet but it is clear that there is a coherent liberal agenda which should have a wider audience than it is currently getting.

Talking of liberalism. Recent comments on my blog, mostly anonymous have led me to consider how comments should be dealt with. My current thinking is not to censor them or require the writer to give their identity. after all if you can’t deal with criticism why be involved in politics. Also i’m sure people reading them can draw their own conclusions from anonymous comments.

so the comments stay. To the person/s who don’t like my grammer etc – You really don’t have to read this if you don’t want to. I really won’t mind if you don’t.