Struck by this from @debmattinson& #39;s & #39;Beyond the Red Wall& #39;: "The nod to Trump led to a spontaneous chant of ‘Let’s build a wall& #39;....‘We’ll build a wall around London!’ shouted one and everyone cheered...keeping Londoners in their place would be a very desirable outcome indeed."
I& #39;m struck by the depth of feeling against & #39;London& #39;, the intensity of the visceral feeling it reportedly provoked. This intensifying of cultural-right hatred of London seems like a distinctive feature of recent years, becoming ever more rhetorically prominent.
Conservative phobia of the cosmopolitan metropolis is neither new nor unique to the UK. But the anti-London version feels more intense and absolute than it used to be, tellingly occluding any conservative appreciation of London as seat of the institutions that embody nationhood.