Tyrannical minority has made disdain for ordinary things into a political tool

ago, the elites now propagating this nonsense were still, albeit awkwardly, aware that they could not dismiss the tastes of ordinary people. In fact, it was perceived as egalitarian for upper middle class people to embrace them. Accents were dropped, we became a “class-less” society, and otherwise sanctimonious politicians supported surprisingly libertarian policies on things like gambling and drinking designed to more easily enable people to do what they like to do.

Now the “virtuousness” of a position gives moral credibility to the most outrageous elite nannying, from “reformulating” people’s diets by stealth to open bans on popular items. And it is intensifying. Why? Partly, because political disagreements are morphing into cultural prejudices. Remainers think Brexiteers are not just ignorant politically but backward in how they live. Witness the hatred of “gammons”, the florid-faced men Leftists like to laugh at on Question Time, deemed to drink too much and exist on an unhealthily English diet.

But also because we have too few protections, culturally and politically, against the intolerance of minorities. There can’t be 5 per cent of people who desperately wish the government to ban wood-burning stoves, and considerably more who quite like the idea of having one in their sitting room. And yet a ban materialises.

Who has the energy to stand up to the tyrants of everyday life? It may be exhausting, but someone will have to. The consequence otherwise will be not just a narrowing of choice, but the progressive degradation of a way of life built on individual preference and its replacement with a culture in which appearances matter more than anything else.