Visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp

I have just returned from my first visit to Poland as Prime Minister and while there I visited Auschwitz, the notorious Nazi concentration camp.

Now that I have done so, I have a new understanding of the burden of memory. Distance from the Holocaust in time and geography does not lessen but increase our obligation to remember and to resist.

The murder of six million Jews and countless Roma, Poles and other Eastern Europeans, gay men and lesbians, trade unionists, disabled people and political and religious opponents of the Nazis is a terrible indictment not only of the absolute evil of the perpetrators, but of the moral blindness of all those who looked aside.

That is why we can never pass by on the other side when we see another suffer - each and every instance of injustice and persecution and discrimination calls on us not to stand by, but to stand up.

British people stood up against the evils of fascism with a bravery and resilience unsurpassed in other nations and I am incredibly proud to announce today a new award of recognition for the extraordinary acts of courage of a number of British citizens who rescued others from the evils of the Holocaust.

Their families and the Holocaust Educational Trust have been campaigning to bring these British Holocaust heroes to public attention and I am delighted that we will be able to honour their sacrifice and service in this way.

Gordon Brown

Keep Jacqui the Goon for comedy's sake

I don't know if I'll ever forgive myself for saying this but I'm not convinced that it is time for Jacqui Smith to go. The Home secretary has jumped from the frying pan into the fire, then into the saucepan, the grill, the barbecue, steamer, broiler, fondue, kettle, deep fat fryer, cauldron, griddle, toasted cheese and ham sandwich maker, the slow cooker and the George Foreman. Wow! what a lot of junk I've got to cook stuff in that I never use.

Anyway I have been hypothesising about what would happen if she were to be sacked or if she resigned. Firstly I would have less to get angry about and subsequently write about. She is a one woman disaster and from my point of view is a dream come true because she provides me with gaff after gaff with which to criticise the current mess that is our government.

The difference between Smith and other cabinet ministers is that she gets caught. She gets caught because not only is she ignorant of the rules, but by now she has to be convinced that they don't even apply to her anyway. If she goes then the potential is that the gaffometer will go back down to an almost respectable level as her sneakier colleagues actually play politics and people might start to think that the government is OK!

We cannot afford (literally) for this to happen. If Labour win another term in office then we're done for and I'm off to Zimbabwe for a more stable economy and I'm taking my cooking implements and appliances with me. However if she stays then she will continue to show up this government for what it really is...a joke. Politically, it will probably serve the PM and others quite well to keep her too. After all if you have made mistakes or want to do something without being seen because it will be unpopular, illegal or immoral it is always handy to have a clown running about to divert attention. I'm sure that there are those in power who are delusional enough still to presume that they can win another term so for them she has to be pure gold.

The last thing I want to say is that I actually enjoy having her where she is. When all the rage and anger subsides, she's actually seems to be quite a funny and light hearted character. Granted, she's helped to spend our money on nothing but her own gain and most of her policies would have been lauded by the Nazi party in Germany circa 1930s but she doesn't smile like a vampire and she is the kind of person who provides a bit of light hearted humour in an otherwise grey world. She's the character who's bra flings off in true Carry On/Barbara Windsor style when she walks into Westminster or slips on banana skins left by the opposition. So if she does go I find myself in the compromising position of saying that she will be sorely....

Mosley's feelings hurt by coverage of his sado-masochistic orgies

Motor racing boss, Max Mosley has been complaining about his treatment at the hands of the press to MPs in a committee which is investigating press standards, privacy and libel laws despite a £60k payout from the courts against the News of the World.

Asked about the day the News of the World article had been published about him last July, Mr Mosley told the MPs: "It's very difficult to describe if something like that happens completely out of the blue... I had been doing this for 45 years and there had never been a hint and nobody knew."

He added that he had been "outraged", saying: "If someone takes your goods you have got some chance of replacing them. If someone takes your dignity, you have got no chance of replacing it."

He also said; "What's really appalling is for my family. Can you imagine seeing pictures like that of your father? It's just appalling. It's not even talked about outside the circle. Nobody knew. My closest friends didn't know. My wife didn't know."

Now call me crazy but if this old chap had exercised a modicum of self-control in the first place and kept his trousers on, surely his family would've been spared the humiliation they are now subjected to. He would also have maintained the good reputation he claims to have worked so hard to build and he would also not be having to go through the hardship of defending his honour in the courts. In Fact, the obvious advice for anybody with real concerns about any of the issues above should be to avoid sado-masochistic orgies all together...would it not?

What he seems however to be quite happy to do it seems is deny any responsibility for his own actions in any of this and to blame the media for drawing the public gaze upon his bare white arse doing things he probably shouldn't be doing at his age and in his familial and professional position. If you ask me, he's successfully mounted a bit of a "tree falling in the woods" argument; if nobody is there to hear it - does it really make a sound? And if someone is there to hear it falling in one direction but it falls in another, then it should be ignored.

The answer for poor, whining Max is that unfortunately if you are a famous and influential tree then there will always be someone waiting around to see if your going to fall in any direction. He can't be that niaive can he? I don't think so. What this Q&A session reveals is a dishonest, manipulative old fox with a thirst for revenge and a propensity for shirking responsibility....Hey, shouldn't he be working for the government!!!

The Week's Shiny Bits

Funny things happen in politics every day. Some things make you feel frustrated, some things laeve you confused, some things make you mad and sometimes, only sometimes things really make you smile. This week has presented the whole spectrum of feelings for me.

Frustrated...with the refusal and silence of Thabo Mbeki over the elections and violence in Zimbabwe. Frustrated also by a pittyful show of gesturing and posturing by world leaders. Everyone seems to be very keen to condemn Mugabe but as usual, nobody seems to be in any rush to actually do anything...Quelle surprise!!!

Confused...by the Nelson Mandella concert in London last night. I think the idea was actually brilliant but I was enraged by the decision by the TV channel that aired it to intersperse the music with inane interviews by inane presenters with inane artistes (some of whom could hardly string a sentence together and I would be very surprised if they were even aware of things like the Sowheto uprisings). I was enraged by the fact that every time someone farts on TV on Saturday night, they bring out the same prepubescent looking slip of a lass (Fearn Cotton) to jump all over the place, ask crap questions and oversell the occurrence almost to the point of orgasm. Surely this style of presentation would be better suited to children’s TV, QVC or ITV’s This Morning. Coincidentally I believe that’s where the other presenter of the evening cut his teeth.

I was also perplexed as to why poor Nelson was sat in what appeared to be a darkened tent on his own except for the company of Gordon Brown!!!???.... possibly one of the most boring men on the planet. What I mean to say is that Nelson, 90 years old and celebrating his birthday at a massive rock concert in possibly one of the most exciting places in the world was sat with possibly one of the most boring people in the world, a failing politician who probably only wanted to be there for his own image or to pester him for some kind of overt sign of public support, affection or endorsement. It would be like popping into Macky Dee’s or Thornton’s with your personal trainer or watching sex on TV with your parents; it just isn’t fun.

Disheartened...by stories from Italy that they re proposing to fingerprint every gypsy in the country so that they can keep control over them in some way. I find it a wholly shameful thing that what the Italians are planning to do is absolutely reminiscent of what the Nazis did to the Gypsies and the Jews before they made them wear badges, put them in ghettos and then liquidated them (ghettos then inhabitants). Where’s the condemnation from the leaders of Europe and the rest of the world on this one? Bloody nowhere!!!

Happy...about the resignation by the crook Wendy Alexander. It is bout time she went for the good of the country. Lets hope that her boss takes a positive lesson from her example and does likewise...sooner rather than later.