“Banter” can be translated into German as “Frotzelei”, giving someone “banter” meaning: teasing someone, playing around. And this is how Nigel Farage now classifies what he is said to have said repeatedly to some of the classmates of his youth, over many years. “Hitler was right”, “gassed them”, “Jews are stupid”, “Sieg Heil”: it was all a long time ago, says Farage, it was all just “banter”.
