Seditious Literature

Britain's literary heritage, particularly that famous libertarian tradition which would crop a publisher's ears for printing anything insufficiently patriotic, has been celebrated in appropriate fashion for Hitler's hundred and thirty-fourth birthday with the arrest of a beastly Frenchman. The invader is foreign rights manager (a suspicious title in itself) for a publishing house that itself puts out books in foreign; so he was duly pounced on by the plod and interrogated for several hours about his political opinions, although it seems he is Caucasian enough to have been spared the ultimate sanction so far. Whether by direct collaboration with the Élysée Un-French Activities Committee or in a characteristically subtle punt at appeasing the hard right on its own account, the best police force in the world also seized the traitor's phone and computer, ordered him to return for a further dose of British justice next month, and demanded that he name names of anti-Macron elements from his employers' catalogue of authors. The founder of one British publishing house commented that as a result "international publishers and authors - many of whom use their positions in the media spotlight to highlight societal issues - will think twice about visiting the UK," which of course is all to the good.