‘Culture wars’ are rarely just about culture. The government’s recent obsession with the British Empire is about politics, not history. It is the latest episode in a long-running trend by which governments use the coercive power of the state to choke off dissent.
Last week the culture secretary, Oliver Dowden, summoned of the leaders of cultural institutions to a ‘summit’, allegedly to warn them against ‘rewriting history’ by moving statues that celebrate imperialists and slavers. This is obviously problematic in a democracy, but it becomes much more concerning when seen in context.
The trend began almost a decade ago when Michael Gove, then education secretary, revised the national curriculum, mandating that the First World War be portrayed as a “just war” against “the ruthless social Darwinism of German elites”, effectively outlawing criticism of British leaders or policy.
