No, Sir Keir, It's Not "Just" a Culture War

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has accused the Conservative Government of being “tangled up in culture wars”. Speaking at the Civil Society Summit yesterday, Starmer explained that the reason the Tories are struggling is their “divisive” agenda and anti-woke “McCarthyism”.

This view is extremely convenient for the centre-left which Starmer represents in that it allows them to turn a blind eye to the extremists on their own side – the ones waging the war on our culture. This means Starmer can blame the division and toxicity they are creating on his political opponents instead. While entirely dishonest, it’s a clever political strategy.

The problem for Starmer is that not all of us have the memory of a goldfish. Some of us remember him saying this:

In fairness to him, after a thorough investigation and extensive consultation, the man who will likely be Britain’s next Prime Minister ultimately concluded that a woman is, in fact, an adult human female. This is something he could have ascertained by consulting a GCSE biology textbook. Although given some of the highly questionable concepts now being taught at British schools, this may be unmerited optimism on my part.

In any case, no one in their right mind had any doubt that Starmer knew what a woman was all along. What the incident showed is that he was pandering to the extremist culture warriors on his own side. And not for the first time:

However, there is little to be gained by pointing out Starmer’s flip-flopping, cowardice and hypocrisy. It’s too easy and, besides, I regard his premiership as an unfortunate inevitability. Like a winter flu, his arrival is close to certain and will need to be endured with a stiff upper lip and several whisky-heavy hot toddies.

What is interesting about this story is what people like Starmer give away every time they use the term “culture war” with open derision. If you watch carefully, you can see the body language and tone designed to convey a simple message: “This stuff is an irrelevant distraction from the serious business of government”.

This is an amazing tell: