Why Britain isn’t following Europe rightwards

My father was fond of telling anyone who would listen that Britain would never entertain fascism because we all had a sense of humour which enabled us to see the ridiculousness of its hastily fabricated myths and legends. By contrast, mainland Europeans had no sense of humour at all and would happily follow any strutting oaf in a spittle-bedecked uniform. So, while the Germans had Hitler, the Spanish Franco and the Italians Mussolini, the closest we came was Roderick Spode and his Black Shorts, a hilarious creature who P.G. Wodehouse modelled on the scarcely less risible Oswald Mosley. It is a comforting notion and yet, much as with his other cherished beliefs, to the effect that people from the Caribbean were ‘always cheerful’ and that the BBC’s Robert Dougall made all the news up when he was live on air, I did question its rectitude, even at quite a young age.

Just this week, however, I had cause to remember my dad’s explanations as almost the entirety of mainland Europe swung very sharply to the right, while we seem intent on ushering in the most left-wing government we have seen since about 1964, if not 1945.