Having a laugh with the Holocaust 26 January 07

Former Communists are not renowned for their sense of humour. So it was probably a bad idea for Spiked Online, the anti-environment outfit staffed by former Revolutionary Communists who have since turned to the libertarian far-right, to start a spoof eco-column, poking fun as all the silly things us tree-huggers do and say. The column is supposedly authored by an Ethan Greenhart (geddit?). One recent edition asked: "How can I stop my friend starting a family?" (ouch, my sides are splitting), whilst another effort asked: "What is the most ethical way to commit suicide?" (laugh? I nearly died.)

But the Commies have outdone themselves with this month’s gruesome offering – a column mocking the Nazi Holocaust. “Is it ethical to commemorate just one Holocaust?” hilariously suggests that the gas Zyklon B (used to gas Jews in Auschwitz and other death camps) must have been a threat to insect life in the surrounding countryside. I quote: “You have to wonder about the mentality of the Nazis when they could so liberally use an insecticide without giving a second thought to what the long-term effects might be on the surrounding countryside… BILLIONS of insects will have perished in Poland as a result of the Nazis’ irresponsible use of Zyklon B. But do we ever hear about these poor, pathetic creatures in commemorations of the Nazi Holocaust? We do not. We insist on referring to the Nazi Holocaust when it should be Nazi HOLOCAUSTS: these evil men massacred insects, birds and trees, in greater numbers than they massacred Jews, lesbians, gays, transsexuals, Roma and differently-abled people.”

Are you in stitches? No, I thought not. I’m no fan of political correctness, but if I’d lost members of my family to the Nazis, I doubt that I’d be feeling tickled, particularly as the spoof column goes on to suggest that readers should carry a pack of streaky bacon to the services for Holocaust Memorial Day.

None of this would matter if these were just a bunch of daft students with no influence and nothing better to do than pen unfunny tirades on the internet. But Spiked Online’s editor Mick Hume (formerly editor of Living Marxism magazine) is also a columnist with the Times, and its various front groups such as Sense about Science and the Institute of Ideas are experts at achieving media coverage and good PR for themselves and their unpleasant extremist agenda without letting busy journalists have any idea of their real background. So have they gone too far this time with mocking the Holocaust? I sincerely hope so.