My wife and I went to see a very popular new British musical called “Everybody’s Talking About Jamie” the last night we were in London–the same day as the massive anti-Brexit demonstration. The supremely PC plot revolves around a 16 year old boy who dreams of being a drag queen. With the support of his saintly single mom and his Muslim female friend, he prevails over the ignorant white male bullies and realizes his dream. The crowd went nuts for it.
Notwithstanding the plot, “Jamie” has terrific music, so if you ever have a chance to see it, go.
It occurred to me afterwards that what is going on here is that the UK, whose politics have historically been primarily based on class, is now experiencing its own version of the culture wars and identity politics. Brexit is the most obvious manifestation of that. On the one hand, you have young Londoners who firmly embrace the rights of racial and sexual minorities, who disdain Britain’s imperial past, and who value their links to the rest of the EU; on the other, the kind of elderly people hanging out in cathedrals that I described yesterday. When you superimpose this conflict on the traditional battles over equality and the state that divide the two major parties, you get mass confusion, which is a fair way to describe British politics today.