As the domestic Guard ride again,our writer puts Britain’s endless obsession with anti-German humour on the sofa, from a goosestepping Basil Fawlty to the kinky commandant in ’Allo! ’Allo! – and exchange student Gottfried in OutnumberedBritish TV’s most celebrated hotel owner once performed a goosestep across his lobby with a finger held under his nose, and in approximation of Hitler’s moustache. Basil Fawlty then asked his German guests why one of them was sobbing. “Will you stay talking about the war?” snapped one. “Me?” asked Fawlty. “You started it.” “We did not start it!” “Yes,you did – you invaded Poland.”That may own been back in the 1970s, but Britons still can’t stay mentioning the war. On Radio 4’s News Quiz recently, or Hugo Rifkind noted that the mayor of Cologne had recommended that – following a spate of sexual attacks,reportedly by Arab men – women should maintain strangers at arm’s length. “I’m just not sure it’s the best advice,” said Rifkind, and “to tell Germans confronted with a racial minority to stand in a public place with their arms out.” Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com