Bernie Ecclestone expresses admiration for leadership style of Hitler and Saddam
The Formula One commercial rights holder, Bernie Ecclestone, has stoked up controversy by claiming that Adolf Hitler was a man who "was able to get things done", that democracy has not worked out for Britain and that his colleague Max Mosley would make a good Prime Minister.
Ecclestone had previously stirred outrage when he suggested in 2008 that racist comments on a website about the British driver Lewis Hamilton had "started as just a joke".
Yesterday a spokesman for the board of Deputies of British Jews said: "Mr Ecclestone's comments regarding Hitler, female, black and Jewish racing drivers are quite bizarre. He says 'Politics are not for me' and we are inclined to agree."
Ecclestone, who has been fighting recently to prevent a damaging breakaway by formula one's leading teams, said: "In a lot of ways, terrible to say this I suppose, but apart from the fact that Hitler got taken away and persuaded to do things that I have no idea whether he wanted to do or not, he was in the way that he could command a lot of people, able to get things done," he said.
He added: "I prefer strong leaders. Margaret Thatcher made decisions on the run and got the job done. She was the one who built this country up slowly. We've let it go down again. All these guys, Gordon and Tony are trying to please everybody all the time ... Max would do a super job, he's a good leader." Apparently referring to the fact that the president of the FIA, the sport's ruling body, was the son of Sir Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists, he added: "I don't think his background would be a problem."
He continued: "Politicians are too worried about elections. We did a terrible thing when we supported the idea of getting rid of Saddam Hussein, he was the only one who could control the country. It was the same with [the Taliban.]"
However, he did appear to row back on his earlier comments about the Hamilton jibes when he said: "If they do it again, I will go and find them and make them come and meet Lewis Hamilton." And he backed up Hamilton's controversial decision to move to Switzerland for tax reasons. "I would like to see the people earning most in this country paying less tax as it is an incentive."