1966_and_all_that
Well-known member
This from today's Guardian
"Much of the focus on so-called 'culture war' issues in the UK is based on confected controversies, a thinktank analysis has suggested, with the debate artificially inflamed by politicians and commentators and then amplified by social media."
The left wing Fabian Society published the report and one of its authors, Kirsty McNeill, a charity executive and former Labour adviser said, "the public deserves better than fabricated fights. The temptations for all political parties are clear. Riling up a base and pointing it at an imagined enemy is much easier than doing the hard yards involved in meeting the prime minister’s ambition to ‘level up’. Equally, ignoring rivals’ attempts to sow division won’t help Keir Starmer assemble a broad and diverse coalition to back his vision of a fairer country."
This view is mirrored in a right-wing report from the Centre for Policy Studies, which argues that while genuine differences of opinion on values existed between Conservative and Labour supporters, the bulk of voters were more exercised by matters such as paying bills.
Andrew Harrop, general secretary of the Fabian Society, said those on the left “must focus their energy not on winning culture wars, but on calling them out”.
He said: “It will not be easy to end the culture wars which have become a valuable tool for cynics on the right. These fake controversies create division between people with shared economic needs and they distract the public from a low tax, low regulation, libertarian worldview that few in Britain support.”
And yet, these are precisely the subjects that create so much feverish activity on this Board: toppling statues, playing Land of Hope and Glory at the Proms. Far better that we should concentrate on the conditions that really cause issues in our society: increasing inequality, tax avoidance, our broken society and how we conduct ourselves on-line.
"Much of the focus on so-called 'culture war' issues in the UK is based on confected controversies, a thinktank analysis has suggested, with the debate artificially inflamed by politicians and commentators and then amplified by social media."
The left wing Fabian Society published the report and one of its authors, Kirsty McNeill, a charity executive and former Labour adviser said, "the public deserves better than fabricated fights. The temptations for all political parties are clear. Riling up a base and pointing it at an imagined enemy is much easier than doing the hard yards involved in meeting the prime minister’s ambition to ‘level up’. Equally, ignoring rivals’ attempts to sow division won’t help Keir Starmer assemble a broad and diverse coalition to back his vision of a fairer country."
This view is mirrored in a right-wing report from the Centre for Policy Studies, which argues that while genuine differences of opinion on values existed between Conservative and Labour supporters, the bulk of voters were more exercised by matters such as paying bills.
Andrew Harrop, general secretary of the Fabian Society, said those on the left “must focus their energy not on winning culture wars, but on calling them out”.
He said: “It will not be easy to end the culture wars which have become a valuable tool for cynics on the right. These fake controversies create division between people with shared economic needs and they distract the public from a low tax, low regulation, libertarian worldview that few in Britain support.”
And yet, these are precisely the subjects that create so much feverish activity on this Board: toppling statues, playing Land of Hope and Glory at the Proms. Far better that we should concentrate on the conditions that really cause issues in our society: increasing inequality, tax avoidance, our broken society and how we conduct ourselves on-line.