Basil Fawlty, Newspaper Publisher, i.e. WTF? Moment of the Day If only Rupert Murdoch would put on such a performance, well, in public for a change. Richard Desmond, the owner of the Daily Express, brought a business meeting to a standstill yesterday after he goosestepped around a boardroom and accused all Germans of being Nazis. On the day his newspaper announced that it was switching its support from Labour to the Conservatives, Mr Desmond indulged in a display of behaviour described by a witness as the "most grotesque outburst of slander and racism" he had ever seen. ... He then criticised Conrad Black, the embattled former chairman of the Telegraph Group, before reverting to faux German, asking if the Telegraph members of the West Ferry board were looking forward to being run by the Nazis. Mr Deedes said: "That's not very helpful." He pointed out that Axel Springer made the reconciliation of Germans and Jews a publishing principle and that the group's staff were required under their contracts to support the state of Israel. Mr Desmond replied angrily: "They're all Nazis." Mr Deedes said the remark was "thoroughly offensive" and asked him politely to sit down so that the meeting could start. Mr Desmond told him: "Don't you tell me to sit down, you miserable little piece of shit." Witnesses said his voice rose and he became enraged, launching into a stream of abuse - both personal and general - peppered with four-letter expletives. Mr Deedes eventually managed to make himself heard and said: "I'm not sure this meeting is going to be productive." Witnesses said there was a moment of calm before Mr Desmond renewed his attack with more references to the Nazis. He goose-stepped up and down the room, holding two fingers to his upper lip - in a Basil Fawlty parody of Hitler's moustache - and giving stiff-armed Nazi salutes. Now, I'd expect this sort of behavior out of Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter during their frequent weekend trysts at their mountain aiere (lair?) in the Alps, Berchtesgarten II, where cross-dressing sadomasochism, pretending you are a Valkyrie, flagellating Colmes, and of course, frequent tickle-fights are the orders -- "Orders that are only being followed" -- of the day.