EU fanatics will never understand the Proms

They flooded the Royal Albert Hall for the Last Night of the Proms with EU flags, and declared it a success. If you hand out 20,000 flags, as the Remainers did, it cannot fail to be conspicuous. “Standing up for Europe,” declared the Labour peer Andrew Adonis, “and a Britain which is great by being open, tolerant, welcoming – and international!”

It always was, the Proms, and it always will be. The two-month long festival celebrates European musical culture, from Hildegard of Bingen (born 1098) to Roxanna Panufnik (born 1968), who were both performed last week. It does not celebrate the European Union, however much the likes of Adonis would like it to. So when the noble lord thunders (a journalistic verb that describes all too well his increasingly angry contributions to public debate) that “England is musically at the heart of Europe”, he is telling us nothing the world does not already know.

The New Yorker magazine’s judgment that the Last Night is “parochial” also misses the point. There is no festival of music less parochial. But all festivals have traditions, and the Proms signs off each September with an explosion of benign patriotism, blending affection with self-mockery; a very British compound. No wonder the New Yorker doesn’t get it.

The Last Night is an end-of-term jamboree, which finishes with the audience singing much-loved songs that speak to British folk of Britain.

To others, as well. As the audience is at least a quarter-full each year with overseas visitors, who clearly enjoy waving a variety of flags and appear to be word-perfect in the songs, there is no malice in it, and quite a lot of fun.

Adonis and his gang of fanatics have never understood the distinction between Europe and the EU. European culture has brought us, among other delights, the Berlin Philharmonic, whose miraculous performance of Beethoven’s 7th last week transported listeners to a place among the stars. The EU has brought us Martin Selmayr, the “monster of the Berlaymont”. It isn’t hard to recognise the difference.

There is more than one way to politicise culture. At the South Bank Centre, which is an unpleasant place to visit these days, with its layabouts and drug dealers, a cultural revolution is well advanced. The appointment of Madani Younis as a “creative director” will do little to halt the tanks of relativism.

Younis, 36, formerly of the Bush Theatre, has already fired his first shots. “I’m looking forward to joining [the team]… to develop impactful, forwardlooking, cross-artform collaborations”. Three cherries there: a repetition of “forward”, “cross-artform” and, the clincher, “impactful”. Language is supposed to clarify. Those words are as murky as a stagnant pool. “Impactful”! That’s a new one.

The new boy’s responsibilities at the UK’S largest arts centre involve literature, dance and “performance”. To go by his endorsement of the performances he has admired in recent years, South Bank audiences may be in for a bumpy ride.

He praised a poetry evening as “the most culturally democratic space I go to in London”. Of another show he said: “you’ll walk away looking so damn cool”. A book he enjoyed was “kind of like a testimony”, while a lady cellist was “the artist of our times, man”. As Isaiah Berlin used to say to Karl Popper.

Beginning to get the picture? For confirmation that this chap is engaged on a social mission to re-educate the unbelievers, consider this: what we need is a “rupture in culture”. By achieving that, “we reveal our true humanity to each other”.

We don’t, actually. But by spouting such balls we might get an Arts Council grant. Greatness in sport is rarer than we sometimes think, and it still takes some believing that Alastair Cook is a great cricketer.

The facts, however, are stubborn. He has played more Test matches than any other Englishman, made more Test runs and more Test centuries. He also holds the England record for Tests as captain.

He is not a Hobbs or a Hammond, a May or a Compton, but his achievements are, in an odd way, all the greater. He was not blessed with great natural talent, yet he retires from international cricket this week as a giant of our game, with hymns of praise ringing in his ears.

Cook, as people have noted, is a modest man, and modesty is a wonderful trait in a sportsman. Too many high achievers are braggarts. But you don’t make 12,000 runs in Tests, as an opening batsman, if you lack certainty in your ability. Cook and his mentor, Graham Gooch, have been the most durable English opening batsmen of the past half-century.

He’s only 33, and has a lifetime ahead of him. A lifetime without doing the thing at which he was not only best suited, but also suited to be the best. “How are you gonna keep ’em down on the farm now that they’ve seen Paree?” It won’t be a problem for this singular young man.

European culture brought us the Berlin Philharmonic. The EU brought us Martin Selmayr. It isn’t hard to recognise the difference