We need to reclaim the word ‘Nazi’

You can tell a lot about a person by their reaction to traffic wardens. Those of a mellow, reflective bent may find their minds drifting to the Beatles’ affectionate pursuit of Lovely Rita, the meter maid. Otherwise, the sight of ticket wardens in sensible shoes and with expressions of fixated intent prowling our city centres can trigger a more visceral response. They’re more than jobsworths. They’re traffic Nazis!

If you’ve been habitually stung by plastic pouches left under the wipers you may see no problem in that. Just as spectres of the Third Reich are summoned to blast grammar Nazis or lockdown Nazis, isn’t this the best way to describe extreme and unnecessary enforcement? And it’s only a word. Should it even matter?

Yes. It should. Since words matter. Not least in the language of the Holocaust. The singular and bleakest moment in human history, when all the rules of civilised engagement were warped, distorted and rebranded in a monstrous ideology which dispatched six million Jews to their deaths.