It’s time to end elite dominance of heritage

Theukgovernment is one of very few in the West standing up to cancel culture and identity politics, and in an intelligent manner, too. In the case of contentious history, as culture secretary Oliver Dowden has written, there is no sense in tearing down statues or airbrushing the past. The aim instead should be to “retain and explain”, and the new Heritage Advisory Board is a sensible development that should remind museums and other cultural organisations of their responsibilities to safeguard the nation’s heritage.

It is positive, too, that ministers are clearly seeking to reverse what has come to look like a Left-wing takeover of many public sector organisations. It has been frustrating that, even under Conservative governments, these positions have been filled almost exclusively by a narrow group of people often holding elite metropolitan views that are out of sync with the majority of the population. The Government is also expected to amend regulations to ensure separate lavatories for men and women are installed in new buildings or those being developed, to protect the “security, dignity and safety” of women.

Boris Johnson has shown you can build a new majority through amix of economic populism and cultural conservatism – not social conservatism, per se, but patriotism and a very British commitment to common sense.