Stephen Fry And David Cameron: Catholic-Haters Together

Gerald Warner writes:

Stephen Fry (he is the bore that is a permanent fixture on your television screen but is not Jonathan Ross or David Attenborough) has delivered an insulting attack on Catholics and Poles which grotesquely misrepresents historical fact and which, if levelled at almost any other targets, would probably be characterised as a “hate crime”.

Fry, who joined Labour luvvies in signing an open letter protesting against the Tories’ alliance in the European Parliament with the Polish Law and Justice Party, said on Channel 4 News: “There’s been a history, let’s face it, in Poland of a right-wing Catholicism which has been deeply disturbing for those of us who know a little history and remember which side of the border Auschwitz was on”…

That is beyond outrageous. It slanderously suggests that Auschwitz was run by Polish Catholics, not by German Nazis. “A little history” is right. Just how very little history Fry knows is demonstrated by that crassly ignorant statement. Auschwitz was on Polish soil, ergo it was a Polish institution? As for which side of the border Auschwitz was on, it was actually in Upper Silesia which had been annexed to Germany in 1939. It might, of course, be argued that the Poles built Auschwitz – if slave labour counts.

The first prisoners in Auschwitz were Polish intellectuals and members of the resistance. Altogether, 150,000 Catholic Poles were murdered in Auschwitz, including Saint Maximilian Kolbe. Between two and three million Catholic Poles were killed in the Second World War. Polish pilots fought in the RAF in the Battle of Britain.

Note Fry’s insidious use of the dog-whistle term “right-wing Catholicism”: the propagandist employment of the phrase “right wing” has recently been expounded by several bloggers on this site. Catholicism is neither “right-wing” nor “left-wing”: it professes certain moral precepts that are unchanging and non-negotiable at the behest either of focus groups or pressure groups.

Fry further exposed his Tupperware view of politics by dismissing the Conservatives’ regrouping in the European Parliament as relating to manoeuvres that nobody is interested in. Sorry, but in the real world as distinct from the luvvies’ bubble that Fry inhabits, many of us are enormously interested in what can be done to frustrate the encroaching power of the EU upon our national sovereignty and liberties.

Fry’s protest was related to the “Conservative Pride” conference event that the director of Stonewall boycotted in protest at a representative of the Law and Justice Party attending the Tory conference. If Stonewall thinks it can dictate the Conservatives’ guest list – and their wider European agenda – that is the fault of Dave, after his disgraceful denunciation of Margaret Thatcher over Section 28 (but patently with a view to disowning her more generally). There was a time when Conservative pride was about maintaining the independence and liberties of Britain.

In attacking Catholics, Fry is taking his cue from Dave, who voted for the enforced closure of Catholic adoption agencies. Dave need not be surprised if Catholic voters reflect on that next year when they stand with pencils poised over ballot papers. But more immediately shocking is the demonising of our gallant Polish allies from the Second World War and the indefensible attribution to them of one of the worst crimes of the 20th century.

"There was a time when Conservative pride was about maintaining the independence and liberties of Britain"? When, exactly? Certainly not under Margaret "Single European Act" Thatcher.

But here in the constituency containing the old Irish Catholic stronghold of Consett, the remarkable Recusant village of Esh, and Ushaw College, Catholic voters will be able to do a lot more than "reflect" next year.