MPs holidays

Apologies for my absence but even MPs have to go on holiday - though not for the "3 months " which the press accuse us of. Mine was a more modest fortnight on in Hungary. A hangover from the Communist times is that many Hungarian factories own a holiday home which groups of employees can book up.

Thus I found myself with my wife's extended family and two other families crowding in to a bungalow on Lake Balaton. In traditional Hungarian style the kitchen was in a separate outhouse and meals were eaten together outdoors with large quantities of home made wine.

On the subject of politics, which I couldn't resist broaching, there seemed to be a divide between the older and younger generation. The younger ones have embraced the "changes" while the older ones are unenthusiastic about either Communism or capitalism. I should say that this is based a straw pole of about 12 out of a country of 10 million people.

Back in Budapest I found to time to visit the "House of Terror"

This was the former HQ of both the Nazi and then Communist Party in Hungary. Now a museum it is a moving memorial to all who suffered and died under these two oppressive systems which have so much in common.

It should not have come as a surprise that many Nazis joined the Communist Party as soon as they realised that the war was lost.