A British lawmaker who attended a stag party where guests were dressed up as Nazis and toasted the Third Reich has lost his post as an aide and been placed under investigation by British Prime Minister David Cameron.
Aidan Burley, 32, has been sacked from his role as a parliamentary private secretary (PPS) to British Transport Secretary Justine Greening, the Conservative Party said yesterday.
A PPS is chosen by the minister and acts as their point of contact with backbenchers.
It is the first step towards the ministerial ladder and they are expected to vote with the government.
Burley, a lawmaker in Cameron’s center-right Conservatives, represents Cannock Chase in west central England.
He has expressed his “deep regret” at the “inappropriate” actions of others at the party in the French Alpine ski resort of Val Thorens.
EMBARRASSING
British stag parties, which are held before a man gets married, are typically jovial and boozy nights out, often with the groom-to-be in embarrassing fancy dress.
Burley was photographed sitting next to the stag, who was wearing an SS uniform.
The Mail on Sunday newspaper, which published a picture of the man giving a Nazi salute, said Burley refused to discuss allegations that he had hired the uniform.
“Aidan Burley has behaved in a manner which is offensive and foolish,” a Conservative Party spokesman said in a statement.
“That is why he is being removed from his post as PPS at the Department for Transport,” the spokesman said.
“In light of information received, the prime minister has asked for a fuller investigation into the matter to be set up and to report to him,” the spokesman said.
APOLOGY
Burley issued an “unreserved, wholehearted and fulsome apology” over the party in a letter to the Jewish Chronicle newspaper earlier this week.
“What was happening was wrong and I should have completely dissociated myself from it. I had a choice, and I made the wrong choice not to leave. I apologize for this error of judgement,” he wrote.
The Mail on Sunday said in its editorial: “Aidan Burley MP is an idiot.”
The editorial commented that the “pin-striped” old guard of Conservative MPs “may not have known an iPod from an earplug, but they could be trusted never to attend a Nazi-themed stag party.”
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the