I was wrong: coronavirus didn’t kill the culture war

Idon’t think I have ever written such a spectacularly mistaken column as when, on this page three months ago, I predicted that the coronavirus would put an end to identity politics. With the economy in freefall, I breezily averred, culture wars would seem unbelievably petty.

“When a million more people are on the dole, does anyone think it will be a priority to publish gender pay gaps? When a generation of children is going unschooled, will anyone be fussed about universities having received bequests from the wrong 19th-century donors? ”

Boy, did I get that wrong. Identity politics has become a substitute religion – a collection of precepts that

Woke activists have responded to Covid-19 as medieval cultists responded to outbreaks of plague

have been lifted out of the realm of rational debate and sacralised. And what could be more natural, in a time of pestilence, than to seek solace in faith? Woke activists have responded to Covid-19 as medieval cultists responded to outbreaks of plague: by emphasising their purity; by excommunicating those who fall short; by toppling idols.

As often happens, atheists and agnostics put up with a great deal of turbulent behaviour, partly out of politeness and partly because of the intimidating fervour of the cultists. I am afraid this madness has a long way yet to run.