Slow blogging, so to share some links that have resided in the bookmarks waiting for a rainy day:

"The Daily Mail made one of its first campaigns against admitting Jewish refugees fleeing pogroms in Eastern Europe. It supported Mosley’s fascist black shirts in the 1930s including the notorious headline ‘Hurrah for the Blackshirts’. It supported appeasement with Nazi Germany and its owner Lord Rothermere willingly met Hitler and openly expressed admiration for Mussolini.

In July 1933 Lord Rothermere, owner of the Daily Mail, attacked in its pages the ‘clamorous campaign of denunciation’ being against the Nazi regime. He stated that under Hitler: ‘Something far more than a new government has arisen among the Germany. There has been a sudden expansion of their national spirit like that which took place in England under Queen Elizabeth’. He alleged that prior to Hitler coming to power: ‘Israelites of international attachments were insinuating themselves into key positions in the German administration.’ On 1 October 1938, after the Munich agreement, Lord Rothermere telegrammed Hitler ‘Frederick the Great was a great popular figure in England. May not Adolf the Great become an equally popular figure? I salute Your Excellency’s star which rises higher and higher.’ On 28 March 1938, when the anti-semitic policies of the Nazi government were well known, the Daily Mail wrote regarding Jews attempting to flee that regime: ‘To be ruled by misguided sentimentalism would be disastrous. Once it was known that Britain offered sanctuary to all who cared to come, the floodgates would be opened and we would be inundated by thousands seeking a home.’ At that time Jews could leave Nazi Germany and refusal to admit them directly cost the lives of thousands or tens of thousands of German Jews. A Daily Mail editorial in 1940, when Britain was at war with Germany, and Hitler’s anti-semitic regime had been in power for seven years, attempted to pin a moral responsibility for their treatment on the Jewish people themselves writing that ‘They should be careful not to arouse the same resentment here.’"

- from London Mayor Ken Livingstone, 22 February 2005.

More:

"Four days before the 1924 General Election Rothermere decided to publish what became known as the Zinoviev Letter [which] urged British communists to promote revolution through acts of sedition. The letter, later discovered to be a forgery, contributed to the defeat of Ramsay MacDonald and the Labour Government.

[...]

Rothermere became increasingly nationalistic in his political views and in 1929 joined with Lord Beaverbrook to form the United Empire Party. Rothermere urged the Conservative Party to remove its leader, Stanley Baldwin, and replace him with Beaverbrook. He also argued for a reform of the House of Lords to make it possible for peers to be elected to the House of Commons. This dispute divided conservative voters and this enabled the Labour Party to win the 1929 General Election.

Lord Rothermere disposed of his shares in the Daily Mirror in 1931. He now concentrated on the Evening News and the Daily Mail. In the 1930s Rothermere moved further to the right and gave support to Oswald Mosley and the National Union of Fascists. He wrote an article, Hurrah for the Blackshirts, in January, 1934, in which he praised Mosley for his "sound, commonsense, Conservative doctrine".

Rothermere also had several meetings with Adolf Hitler and argued that the Nazi leader desired peace. In one article written in March, 1934 he called for Hitler to be given back land in Africa that had been taken as a result of the Versailles Treaty.

Rothermere and his newspapers supported Neville Chamberlain and his policy of appeasement. He was therefore devastated when war broke out between Britain and Germany in 1939. Lord Rothermere died on 27th November, 1940. "

Again:

Adolf Hitler, letter to Lord Rothermere (7th December, 1933)
I should like to express the appreciation of countless Germans, who regard me as their spokesman, for the wise and beneficial public support which you have given to a policy that we all hope will contribute to the enduring pacification of Europe. Just as we are fanatically determined to defend ourselves against attack, so do we reject the idea of taking the initiative in bringing about a war. I am convinced that no one who fought in the front trenches during the world war, no matter in what European country, desires another conflict.

Lord Rothermere, telegram to Adolf Hitler 1st October, 1938)
My dear Fuhrer, everyone in England is profoundly moved by the bloodless solution to the Czechoslovakian problem. People not so much concerned with territorial readjustment as with dread of another war with its accompanying bloodbath. Frederick the Great was a great popular figure. I salute your Excellency’s star, which rises higher and higher."

Wrapping up with Red Ken again:

"After the replacement of David English as editor of the Daily Mail on 10 July 1992 a party was held in the building of Associated Newspapers. Two accounts of this have been published. In An Unlikely Hero: Vere Rothermere and How the Daily Mail Was Saved, prepared in cooperation with the most senior managers of Associated Newspapers, the author states the following: ‘when David [English] retired as editor of the Daily Mail in order to take over as chairman of Associated Newspapers, he gave a party wherein he and all his editorial staff dressed up like Hitler and various members of the Third Reich. A memorable appearance of the newspaper’s drama critic Jack Tinker as Goebbels brought the house down.’ (An Unlikely Hero p171)

Associated Newspapers has disputed some aspects of this account stating that only five persons in Nazi military uniform were present and David English considered the spoof in ‘poor taste’. It does not state who the five were, whether they are still employed by Associated Newspapers, or dealt with the issue of whether Jack Tinker, who was extremely senior writer, made an imitation of Goebbels. What is clear even from Associated Newspaper’s own admissions is that people in Nazi military uniform were present at a party with the most senior management of Associated Newspapers, they were not asked to leave, no apology was made, and no action taken against them."

The leopard never changes its spots, apparently. Looking forward to a defence of the glorious record of the Daily Mail (now with an "oirish" edition), if anyone should be so stupid courageous as to do so.

* Yes, that's Daily Mail owner Lord Rothermere in the photo.