Materialist Left

Not endorsing the comment, but yeah the ballot initiatives are incredibly bleak if you’re on the Dem left. Any progressive victory on those ends (outside of data centers) can be counted on your fingers. We still need to do more to push the culture leftward

There are still plenty of people who think the likes of me are exaggerating the extent to which woke ideology has infiltrated our governing classes and cultural institutions. But that’s because they’re simply not paying enough attention. Take the National Poet of Wales. You might imagine the position would be occupied by someone called Dafydd Jones or Rhys Williams. But no. The current holder is Hanan Issa, a Welsh-Iraqi poet who became the first Muslim to hold the title in 2022. A milestone of enormous significance, naturally, to the identity-politics and diversity brigade. Last week, she was supposed to read a specially commissioned poem in front of the King and Queen at the ceremonial opening of the Senedd in Cardiff. But there was a problem. Her poem was rejected. Why? Because instead of writing something appropriately apolitical for a historic ceremonial occasion, she’d produced an ideological tract about Gaza, fascism and so-called trans healthcare. If you want to read this literary masterpiece, it’s been published in the Morning Star. Of course it has. I’ve read it. It’s truly dreadful. And while I don’t know what criteria were used to appoint Ms Issa in the first place, the whole episode raises an uncomfortable question about the priorities of our cultural institutions: are we celebrating literary excellence, or are we more interested in ticking diversity boxes? Because when identity becomes a qualification in its own right, there’s a danger that merit becomes an afterthought. And don’t take my word for it - judge for yourselves: morningstaronline.co.uk/arti…