It Couldn't Happen Here

Aside from god-botherers objecting to a book they haven't read or a film they haven't seen, there are few people in the world whose itsy-bitsy feelings can be hurt so easily as a racist or a not-a-racist-but. A German TV presenter has traumatised these persecuted minorities by calling on those who disagree with them to "make that known, oppose it, open your mouth, maintain an attitude, pillory people in public". The call for repression is all the more hurtful in that many such people have only just plucked up the courage to post their screeds under their own names, and have been tentatively encouraged by positive responses such as likes on social media and arson attacks on refugees.

Germany, which has one of the most generous asylum systems in Europe, took in two hundred thousand refugees last year; and the number is expected to double this year thanks in part to Britain's role in stabilising Libya and the Middle East. Mainstream comment on migrants in Germany is almost entirely positive, in contrast to the nation of Winston Churchill and Viscount Rothermere where a general panic has been unleashed over five thousand people who haven't even entered the country.