Vox Pop | Are the culture wars over?

“I welcome the pause in hostilities – but there are clouds on the horizon. Prominent Reform UK and Conservative leadership hopefuls oppose institutional attempts to address British colonial history. With one eye on leveraging the issue for political gain and the other on resisting Caribbean calls for slavery reparations, their disinformation campaign will continue along the lines of Kemi Badenoch’s inaccurate claim that Britain made little or no money from colonialism. These figures are assisted by the same hostile press, where there has been no changing of the guard.”

“Waking on 5 July to the news that Labour had won the election, I realised that my entire museum career has taken place under a Conservative government. I’ve never known museums as anything other than a kind of war zone, a constant fight against a slow, unstoppable swing towards right wing ideology, against devastating cuts to the arts sector and rampant anti-progressive rhetoric. So, I would love to say that the culture wars are over. But ask anyone with a minority status, or who works with disenfranchised and marginalised people, and sadly, we still see that as a far-off dream. If you are feeling optimistic, I would never take that away from you – we need that energy. But while the playing field may have changed, we are yet to see what this means in any tangible sense. For queer people, young people, people of colour, women, refugees and low-income families, the battle rages on.”