Alun Davies, who represents the Mid and West Wales Region in the Welsh Assembly on behalf of the Labour Party, took the invective being directed against the Liberal Democrats for joining a coalition government, to a new level this morning, when he tweeted that he believes members of the party are ‘Quislings’.
Referring to the proposal to increase the recommended membership fee of the Liberal Democrats to £60, Mr. Davies wrote: It costs £60 to be a Quisling?!
Wikipedia says of the word:
Quisling is a term used to describe traitors and collaborators. The term was most commonly used for fascist political parties and military and paramilitary forces in occupied Allied countries which collaborated with Axis occupiers in World War II, as well as for their members and other collaborators.
The term was coined by the British newspaper The Times in an editorial published on April 15, 1940 entitled “Quislings everywhere” after Vidkun Quisling, who assisted Nazi Germany after it conquered his own country so that he could rule the collaborationist Norwegian government himself. The editorial asserted: “To writers, the word Quisling is a gift from the gods. If they had been ordered to invent a new word for traitor…they could hardly have hit upon a more brilliant combination of letters. Actually it contrives to suggest something at once slippery and tortuous.”
The term was used by the then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Winston Churchill during an address to both houses of Congress in the United States of America on the 26 December 1941. Commenting upon the effect of a number of Allied victories against Axis forces, and moreover the United States’ decision to enter the war, Churchill opined that; “Hope has returned to the hearts of scores of millions of men and women, and with that hope there burns the flame of anger against the brutal, corrupt invader. And still more fiercely burn the fires of hatred and contempt for the filthy Quislings whom he has suborned.” It subsequently entered the language, and became a target for political cartoonists.
It continues: In contemporary usage, “Quisling” is synonymous with “traitor”, and particularly applied to politicians who appear to favour the interests of other nations or cultures over their own.
Mr. Davies, who himself defected from Plaid Cymru to Labour is well-known for his robust interventions in the Assembly chamber and for a vitriolic turn of phrase when writing on Twitter. However, this is the first time that he has compared Liberal Democrats with Nazi sympathisers and national traitors.
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Err there is no refernce to the Liberal Democrats being called Quislings on his Twitter feed so why the asumption that he is referring to the Lib Dem party? You are only linking it because of the mention of £60 membership. Feeling guilty are we??!!
Alun Davies sounds like a right cock!
he’s obviously not saying anything about Labour’s support for the neo-con Bush regime and it’s subsequent morphing into one-and-the-same then?
when you see him don’t think so much as our Attlee/Churchill act but more his Vichyness!
It might just be that he’s upset because it cost him a lot more
“He (Alun Davies) has gained a reputation for public speaking and campaigning on local and national issues, from the availability of broadband and access to public transport, to poverty, deprivation and the improvement of public services.” (Website of the National Assembly for Wales.)
Fine words – so fine they demand an answer to the question: Why did Alun Davies use such a derogatory word to describe fellow Welsh men and women?
On what facts does Alun Davies rely to use such a derogatory term?
Especially when there is no factual basis for Alun’s argument that the Liberal-Democrats are traitors because they work, in the best interests of the country, with another democratically elected party.
Alun Davies should withdraw his remarks – and with haste.
Felix, I do not think there is any doubt what he was referring to when put into the context of the discussion on Twitter at the time, that this is the only £60 being discussed and given Alun’s history on twitter and elsewhere. If you think otherwise then you are being naive.
Felix’> your comment invites the obvious question. Assuming arguendo you are correct, that Alun Davies use of the term ‘quislings’ on his twitter feed did not refer to the Liberal-Democrats then who was Alun Davies referring to? The comment was outrageous regardless of who Alun Davies was applying it too, but let’s hear it from Alun Davies himself, who then was he referring to if he was not referring to the Liberal-Democrats?
Most people probably assume that he is taking about the membership fee for an exclusive drinking club in the Bay frequented by the political elite where SA is £5 a pint. You really want to start worrying when he calls you ‘ the running dogs of the imperialists’. Doesn’t he realise that the only people in Wales who have ever heard of Vidkun Quisling are the small gang who used to attend my old A level evening class when one of the papers was entitled ‘European Fascism’? I tested the knowledge of Quisling on an informal focus group down the local yesterday. They had all heard of Ducklings and Goslings but were stumped by Quisling. Poor old Vidkun what self respecting Norwegian Fascist would want to be compared to the Liberal Democrats!
To be fair to Davies, coalitions are a new phenomenon in Wales, and his party has never had any experience of them. His party have never, for example, formed a coalition with a nationalist party thereby giving them credibility where none existed before.
Oh wait.