The revelation that Jorg Haider seems to have been gay has been greeted with lots of “told you sos”, by colleagues at the FT. Apparently the rumours about Haider – a far-right Austrian politician, recently killed in a car crash – were rife in his home country.

But that isn’t what my colleagues seem to mean. I think they are just reflecting the widespread liberal prejudice that there is something about the rituals of the far-right – the uniforms, the macho culture, the youth wings, the songs around the camp fire – that is distinctly homo-erotic. Read more