Harry a Nazi?

I liked this column from the London Telegraph on Prince Harry’s “Nazi” outfit:

One reason why the English-speaking democracies were just about the only advanced nations not to fall for Nazism or Fascism is that they simply found it too ridiculous. Bertie Wooster’s famous riposte to the Mosleyesque Sir Roderick Spode could speak for the entire anglosphere: “The trouble with you, Spode, is that just because you have succeeded in inducing a handful of half-wits to disfigure the London scene by going about in black shorts, you think you’re someone. You hear them shouting, ‘Heil, Spode!’ and you imagine it is the Voice of the People.

“That is where you make your bloomer. What the Voice of the People is saying is: ‘Look at that frightful ass Spode swanking about in footer bags! Did you ever in your puff see such a perfect perisher?'” That’s why British party stores stock Nazi outfits – because they’re a joke, and we made them one. So when prissy Krauts want to ban Prince Harry’s party gear they should go suck an old bratwurst.

Alas, tyranny doesn’t always come with a self-evidently hilarious dress code. And the soft, supple, creeping totalitarian inclinations of our present-day rulers are sometimes harder to resist. If I had to pick the single most revolting remark from this bogus Reichsfuror, it would be this: “I think it might be appropriate for him to tell us himself just how contrite he now is.”

That’s Michael Howard, the leader of the supposed Conservative Party. What’s conservative about demanding people submit to public self-abasement? Wasn’t it the Commies who used to insist you recant on TV and then disappear into re-education camp?