Heritage Police

Austria's government is seeking to deter far-right pilgrimages to Hitler's birthplace by installing a police narcotics unit in the building. The site is close to the German border, so the area is also frequented by traffickers of non-political drugs; and it is assumed that the police will be able and willing to detect any illegal neo-Nazi displays which may happen to take place under their noses. Presumably this will have the self-evidently beneficial effect of forcing the far right to continue its incursions into the mainstream, where the adoption of policies that might cut down its share of the vote would be just as immoderate and unsensible in Austria as in the rest of the civilised world and Westminster.