Our Eternal Virtues

Half a dozen years after the Windrush scandal, with victims still uncompensated, the perpetrators still unpunished and the hostile environment still very much in force, plans are afoot for a grateful nation to clap itself on the back yet again over its traditions of acceptance and tolerance. Similarly, with the National Health Service well into the terminal phase of the three-decade war waged upon it by the neoliberals and their far-right allies, there is already talk of "75 years of pride" in those whom the country refuses to pay, equip or keep safe. With the Coronation set to make this year a record-setter in Ruritanian rah-rah, it is only fitting that the celebrations should extend to such equally inalienable aspects of Britishness as blithering self-righteousness and rank hypocrisy.