Keir Starmer has said we face the greatest threat to our national security since the cold war. Such hyperbole helps nobody

Is Vladimir Putin another Adolf Hitler? The western world seems to think so. In which case is Donald Trump another Neville Chamberlain and Ukraine another Czechoslovakia? Is history bunk, or is it a wise old man leaning on the gate as Europe storms into its latest crisis?

Godwin’s law holds that the longer a political argument continues, the nearer it gets to Hitler. This reductio ad Hitlerum distorts the issue under discussion and diminishes the exceptional horror of Hitler and the Holocaust. A variant of Godwin’s law goes further. It asserts that having to call Hitler in aid means that you have already lost the argument.

Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist