— Jewish Labour Movement (@JewishLabour)
August 29, 2019
The Reichstag building suspiciously caught fire in 1933, which was used by the Nazis as a pretext to suspend the parliament indefinitely and with it many of the rights afforded to citizens by the Weimar Constitution.
This allowed the Nazis to begin their rule of Germany without challenge. There were no parliamentary sessions held for the following 12 years of Nazi rule.
The hashtag #Reichstag was trending on Twitter after the government announced the move to suspend parliament yesterday, with many drawing the parallel.
At the same time, author Philip Pullman published a tweet suggesting Boris Johnson should be hanged from a lamp post, alluding to the fate of dictator Benito Mussolini.
Mr Pullman tweeted that “When I hear the name ‘Boris Johnson’, for some reason the words ‘rope’ and ‘nearest lamp-post’ come to mind as well”.
Mr Pullman has since deleted the tweet and apologised, stating: “I don't advocate hanging Boris Johnson.”
