There is a memorable scene in the American medical drama House in which the eponymous, acerbic doctor of that name, played by Hugh Laurie, is introduced to a Canadian. “I thought I’d detected the whiff of maple syrup and socialised medicine,” House barks at him. Socialised is the term certain Americans use to denigrate versions of health care that don’t depend on the size of your wallet. And the main reason they like the adjective is that it hints at what they fear: socialism. It isn’t just Americans who are averse to socialism nowadays. When tributes were made to Bob Crow, the trade union leader who died suddenly on Tuesday, and they described him as a socialist champion of the working class, it was one of the few occasions in recent years when the word had