Don’t Mention the Cold War: Lord Robertson’s Basil Fawlty Moment

ACA International Correspondant Oliver Meier and Ian Davis discuss European tactical weapons in NATO Watch.

The German government's effort to remove the remaining US nuclear weapons from its and European soil were ridiculed in a briefing note, Germany opens Pandora's box published earlier this week by the Center for European Reform in London. While reading the briefing co-written by Franklin Miller, George Robertson and Kori Schake, we were reminded of the BBC television sitcom, Fawlty Towers. The guests at the hotel were typically comic foils to Basil Fawlty's anger and outbursts. None more so than in the episode, ‘The Germans’, when Basil, suffering from concussion and with a party of Germans staying at the hotel, makes the prudent decision not to mention the war, but of course he cannot help it (“Listen, don't mention the war! I mentioned it once, but I think I got away with it all right”), and his constant chatter drives one of the Germans to tears.

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