What a load of old Wieners

A court in Vienna has sentenced British historian David Irving to 3 years' imprisonment after he agreed before the court that he did actually suggest, in 1989, that there were no gas chambers in Auschwitz. He has since admitted this statement was incorrect, but cannot deny that, yes, he did say it. So off to the slammer with him.

As this eccentric, mistaken and possibly mildly demented historian spends his first night in jail, the good burghers of Austria may wish to reflect on the fact that, big holocaust or medium-sized holocaust, they helped make it happen, the cowardly turds, while David Irving's countrymen were being killed for the virtues they now say they espouse. For centuries Austria has been a hotbed of anti-semitism - in fact public life there is even today filled with people of hardline right-wing (if not neo-nazi) credentials like Jörg Haider.

Taking revenge like this on some hapless daft old English pseudo-academic has got to be up there among the great contenders for "Hypocrite of 2006". That's what you get like when you eat deep-fried pork chops all day.