Prince charles, heir to the British throne, spends a lot of time on earnest attempts to influence public policy. But he has never, so far, had the dramatic impact of his younger son, Prince Harry, whose decision to wear a Nazi uniform to a fancy-dress party in Britain may be about to trigger Europe-wide legislation. Franco Frattini, the European Union's commissioner for justice and home affairs, declared to Italian newspapers this week that "eu action is urgent and has to forbid very clearly Nazi symbols in the European Union." Indeed, Mr Frattini plans to put the idea of such a ban on the agenda of the next meeting of European justice ministers, on January 27th. Since that is also the day on which 40 world leaders will be gathered at Auschwitz to commemorate the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp in 1945, the chances of the eu seizing the opportunity to make a grand gesture must be high. But legislation passed at moments of high emotion is rarely well considered—and an Eu-wide ban on Nazi symbols would be no exception to this rule.
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