This morning I blogged about the claim by Ukip MEP Bill Etheridge that Hitler was a "magnetic and forceful public speaker" who "achieved a great deal".
As I said then, "to the British Hitler's performance always seemed ranting and laughable". Not for the first time, there is something strangely unpatriotic in Ukip's view of the world.
I looked first for an example of a healthy British attitude to Hitler in Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator.
And if that doesn't quite work for the modern viewer, here is a scene suggested by a reader in the comments to this morning's post.
Sir Roderick Spode was P.G. Wodehouse's parody of Oswald Moseley, but here he is clearly attempting to emulate the rhetorical style of the German dictator.
3 comments:
Etheridge is only exceptional in that he draws attention publicly to the admiration people in the trade have for Speer, Goebbels and Hitler's technical mastery of the manipulation of their audience. Push people like Tim Bell (architect of Margaret Thatcher's rallies) and they will admit that they have studied the techniques of the Nazis.
Clips of the perorations of Hitler and Mosley seem over the top now. However, what we do not see is the clever way they built up their speeches from quieter beginnings.
I met David Sutch, then leader of a comedy party, at a by-election. He was affable but not funny, entertaining party troops with his gymnastics. David fed a bunch of surplus tickets to the count to the Liberal agent.
The Monster Raving Loony Party was supposed to be funny but never pulled it off; Ukip claims to be serious...
Not only was Hitler a good orater but he was regarded as hansome by many.
You have been reared on the usual stereotypes,
How else was he so succesasful politically?
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