Culture wars (pt.93)

+I accidentally caught a bit of a Church of England Ash Wednesday service from Truro cathedral yesterday on the car radio. Thankfully I was nearly home so wasn’t subjected to much of it. But being the start of Lent and 40 days of abstention I wondered how this might be observed by that devout Christian, Donald Trump. What is he going to give up? All the stuff at the beginning of the service was about us miserable sinners, which almost sounded like sin is our natural condition and we can be redeemed with a bit of prayer. This kind of talk I think explains why so much child abuse has taken place in the church and perhaps religion more widely. It’s natural. Be sorry afterwards, or at least make out that you are. A source of morality indeed.
 
+Another old, if not ancient institution is the Imperial War Museum. In today’s culture wars a museum with this name is surely an anomaly. If Jeremy Corbyn had been Prime Minister I’m sure it would have been renamed the Peace Museum. But it is now the subject of the culture wars as so-called ‘the Lord’ Ashcroft’s collection of VC and other medals is to be removed as his 15 year loan of them to the museum expires. This is causing some confected outrage. One right-wing propaganda outfit which doesn’t need to be named is upset that families won’t be able to see their ancestors’ medals. If they were going to be so upset one wonders how the great military man 'Lord' Ashcroft got his sticky mitts on them in the first place. Ashcroft himself needn’t moan either. I can’t remember what he did in say the Falklands war to acquire so many medals. But I can see the attraction to him of having them—I can imagine him hoping some of their memory will rub off on him with his name plastered all over the place. As regards this new right-wing front opened up against the museum, the trustees need to see it off. They’ll need new space for the wars Col. Starmer would have us join. Mind you, I would have no objection to the ‘imperial’ being removed. It’s clearly anachronistic.