“One of the primary lessons to be taken from politics over the past decade is that for lots of voters, cultural insecurity matters as much as economic insecurity.” That aperçu, culled from a column by Matthew Goodwin in last weekend’s Sunday Times, is a précis of all that it is essential to know about current politics. Practising politicians who wish to remain in practice for any length of time should set their grannies to unpicking “Thou God seest me” from family samplers and embroidering those words instead, to hang prominently on the wall.
It’s not the economy, stupid – it’s the culture. It seems no time since establishment commentators were intoning complacently – some of them are still doing so today – “Thank heavens the culture wars that are crippling America will never gain any traction in Britain.” That dinosaur delusion ignored the evolving reality that culture wars are global: only Antarctica has escaped belligerent status.
