PALTAN: BOX OFFICE BATTLE

Kemi Badenoch has decided to be out and proud as a culture warrior. “It is meant to be pejorative, but I love the title the left-wing media give me”, she told her Washington DC audience last week. “I believe in tradition. And if we don’t defend our culture, who will?”, the Conservative leader said, even declaring herself to be “descended from warriors”.

Since most people don't want a culture war, British politicians usually blame the other side for starting them. Even now, while embracing the label, Badenoch will return to her earlier complaint that the term is a ‘dog whistle’ to delegitimise conservative voices. Labour Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy had used her very first speech in the role to declare that “the era of culture wars is over”. Badenoch’s appetite for the cultural argument illustrates why unilateral disarmament of cultural conflict is challenging. So how could we ‘call off’ the culture wars - or at least defuse unconstructive arguments about identity?