Our leaders should read history books – but not just ones about the Nazis

If I was in charge of the Home Office I’d employ someone whose sole area of expertise was Hitler’s Germany and whose only job was to keep an eye out for any vague echoes of Nazism, however fatuous, in the working practices of the government or its contractors.

This would have avoided Monday’s controversy over asylum seekers being made to wear red wristbands in order to receive free meals, because being asked to wear ID to qualify for things is exactly like being a Jew in Hitler’s Germany. A chilling echo, as many people commented. I imagine the reason for this policy is that it’s more convenient than asking someone with a not especially good grasp of English to walk around with a form for his entire family; either that, or it was part of a concerted effort by the Conservative government to pave the way for the mass extermination of refugees.

As Julia Hartley-Brewer pointed out, ‘anyone who has ever been to a festival or all-day pop concert where they were required to wear a wristband or anyone who had to show their wristband to get free drinks and access to the all-you-can-eat buffet on their full-board holiday; they were all blissfully ignorant of the horrible crime being perpetuated against them’. But