Don’t Menshn The Nazis

As if the Sun’s crass front page claim that the then seven-year-old Princess Elizabeth was giving a Nazi salute were not trashy enough, there has clearly been a move to get every last Murdoch contributor to say how wonderful the “World Exclusive” is. And over in a reassuringly expensive corner of Manhattan, (thankfully) former Tory MP Louise Mensch has leapt at the chance to show her undying loyalty to Creepy Uncle Rupe.

(c) Doc Hackenbush 2014

Sadly, she has also taken the opportunity to show a woeful ignorance of modern history, but then, she did read English Language and Literature at Oxford. Even so, she might have been expected to know that the late Duke of Windsor had been suspected of having Nazi sympathies, and that he had travelled to meet Adolf Hitler - against the wishes of the British Government - at his Obersalzberg “retreat”. In 1937.

On top of that, as she was repeatedly told but chose to ignore, the full horror of what the Nazis were up to was not known outside Germany at the time the film in the Sun’s scoop was taken. But hey ho, absolute loyalty to Rupe and all that: “Wonderful journalism by @thesun showing how the loathsome Edward VIii exploited our Queen when she was a child” she trilled. Yeah, making her wave to the camera.

Could that loyalty be expressed in an even more grovelling way? You betcha, says Sarah: “Absolutely clear public interest journalism. Proud to write for @TheSun” declared Ms Mensch, before giving her personal endorsement to Sun managing editor Stig Abell. “Beat that rest of world @TheSun #journalism @StigAbell extraordinary stuff”, she enthused. But for there to be public interest, the public would have to be interested.

And what interest would there be in this? You’ll love the excuse: “there is no embarrassment to Her Majesty as an innocent child, the dreadful Edward VIII is exposed”. Right. Let’s take this nice and slowly. The year is 2015. The Windsors visited Hitler, with the Duke allegedly giving a Nazi salute, in 1937. That’s 78 years ago. There has been no “exposure” of anyone. His sympathies are universally known.

Well, maybe not in Mensch land, where the story had been upgraded: “Not only public interest journalism even a duty to report @thesun clear as day”. They had to do it! It was their duty!! After that, what could she do, except fawn a little more? “.@StigAbell congratulations. World-beating public interest journalism”. That would be “world-beating” as in “race to leap from gutter to sewer in one go”.

But hey, she’s serious! “There is no paper in England who would not have published that. End of. Historic moment”. Historic moment in the decline of the Sun, you mean. Ms Mensch could do a lot worse than follow her own advice after that grovel-fest: “after tomorrow considering actual twitter break”. Bit late now: anyone and everyone knows her knowledge of recent history is not unadjacent to zero.

And never forget this: they allowed her to become an MP.