He Couldn't Even

The story goes that, shortly after the Second World War, several German and ex-German orchestra conductors were talking together and someone mentioned the name of Wilhelm Furtwängler. Although a denazification court cleared him of antisemitism and several people testified that he had risked his own safety to protect them from the régime, Furtwängler remained controversial for his decision to stay in Germany as a "non-political artist" under the tolerant eye of the Propaganda Minister. One of the conductors angrily burst out: "Furtwängler! That ghastly old Nazi!" Very gently, someone else said, "Maestro, you really shouldn't say Furtwängler was a Nazi. You really shouldn't say that." The angry conductor quieted down, but was heard to mutter, "Well, there you go. He couldn't even be a Nazi!"

Naturally, there is no particular reason why Fishy Rishi, overpaid Gewinseltenor of the badly-staged, heavy-handed opéra bouffe that is the present Government, should have reminded me of that anecdote. He is, after all, British.