Commons Column 20th November 2007

Do you remember the great classic film, Cabaret, with Liza Minelli in the lead role? A new stage version has just opened in London which I was fortunate to see a few weeks ago. It is a brilliantly entertaining portrayal of the social changes occurring in 1930s Berlin as the Nazis rose to power.

The new version doesn’t romanticise the truth. It doesn’t have a happy ending. It is chilling.

Leaving the theatre, all I could think of was how decent ordinary people could have let such awful things happen in their midst. How could they have turned a blind eye? I suppose most of them did not realise what was really happening – until it was too late.

A few days later, I was invited to the inauguration of a new Rabbi in one of our local synagogues. The police were outside as we left. During the service some local men had driven past and thrown eggs at the synagogue. Apparently it has happened before. Worshippers were warned not to stand around talking outside but to go straight to their cars and leave.

I was shocked. It was another chilling experience.

We must not turn a blind eye. We must not say that throwing eggs is not a crime. We must recognise that this wickedness is happening here and now in our own community – and stop it.

Once again, I ask myself how can decent ordinary people use their democratic vote, as hundreds of them have done recently here in Epping Forest, to support a political party that advocates racial and religious hatred.

Whatever problems we face in our modern society, throwing eggs at peaceful worshippers, whatever their creed or colour is not going to make things better.