The so-called culture wars are driving a deeper and deeper wedge into politics. Yet, society remains relatively unscathed.
Most folk can happily align with the winning philosophy first unveiled in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure: “Be excellent to each other”.
All the polling shows that the overwhelming majority of voters want enough money to live on, a health service they can rely on, and potholes filled swiftly. The proportion of people who get negatively het up about the lives of minorities – be they transgender, asylum seeker, both, or anything else – is mercifully and vanishingly small.
The fact that there are loudmouths at the top of politics unconvinced by that polling is appalling for those who have to live with the pursuant persecution, real or perceived. But, if a gap opens up between the priorities of the politicians and those they seek to represent, then the whole of democracy becomes imperilled. That’s bad for everyone, and worse for those who rely on the protections democracy delivers.
That may sound over the top. And yet.
Lib Dem Wera Hobhouse brought new legislation to the House of Commons that would protect people from sexual harassment in the workplace. It included a new obligation on employers to prevent harassment, and new protections for employees from clients and customers who are also creeps.
It’s self-evident to most folk that a waitress ought to be spared a customer’s sexist comments, and a young executive trying to make their way shouldn’t have to worry about the inappropriate advances of a client for fear of losing a contract. But not to this UK Government.
Having backed the bill through the Commons, they have crumbled under the influence of so-called free speech advocates concerned that their right to have sleazy dinners, like the notorious Presidents Club event in Mayfair, and make “un-PC” comments within earshot of those who would be offended might be impinged.
The legislation is set to be undone in the House of Lords. The government could make time to get it through. Instead, they will stand aside and let unelected peers with agendas out of all proportion to their authority talk it into oblivion.
Basing policies on 4% of schools is bad maths, Rishi
And, so, to toilets. The Whitehall Department for Education will issue guidelines shortly to schools in England on single-sex spaces and dealing with pupils who question their gender. This is in response to a frankly woeful report by the right wing Policy Exchange think tank – the very people who underpinned the Liz Truss ideology that proved so dopey, it couldn’t survive contact with reality for more than six weeks.
The researchers trumpet that they sent information requests to over 300 schools, but around half ignored the fishing expedition. The entire report is based off information from just 4% of England’s schools.
The prime minister professes that he loves maths: he could’ve dismissed the report’s rubbish numbers and told the researchers to, at best, go back to school and, at worst, get in the bin. Instead he said: “These are really sensitive areas” and promised new guidelines.
Some schools do not have single-sex changing rooms. This is likely because they don’t have any changing rooms at all, or a single space, at most. If the government is truly concerned about the lack of changing facilities, they ought to fund new ones.
Many schools are switching some facilities to gender neutral toilets – cubicles which close and include a sink, not some sort of free for all. Invariably, that’s an inclusive space, in addition to single-sex loos. If it’s anti-woke to be obsessed with teenagers’ toileting habits, then count me woke.
Most voters don’t identify as either woke or anti-woke
Most people, however, do not identify as either woke or anti. They just think people should be able to work without fear of sexual harassment. And, since teenagers mainly use school loos for vaping these days, what sign is on the toilet door may matter, but ought not to be at the top of the political agenda.
Democracy is endangered by this dissociation, but it also offers the route out of it. Just as Jeremy Corbyn’s outlandish ideology was only properly banished once put to the electoral test in 2019, so the anti-woke agenda must face the same fate.
There’s a scenario in which Labour squeaks the next general election, and the Tories switch leader to someone like Kemi Badenoch, a politician apparently convinced her route to power runs through single-sex toilets (and whom, as equalities minister, can choose to support or not the sexual harassment in the workplace legislation).
Voters would get to give their verdict on her agenda and that of her fellow politicians at the following election (potentially fairly swiftly, if it’s a hung parliament) and one has to hope that they will seize the opportunity to dump on it.
Once that job is done, our politics can begin to chart a route out of the sewer and back to something the public can be proud of, rather than holding their nose at the very thought of it.
James Millar is a political commentator, author and a former Westminster correspondent for The Sunday Post
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