It was built at the height of Islamic power in Europe. A civilisational statement in stone. Geometry, poetry, water, order. Then the tide turned. Catholic Spain pushed south. The Reconquista ended. The Cross replaced the Crescent. History moved.
Empires rise. Civilisations compete. Cultures dominate, then retreat.
Which brings us, improbably, to Gorton and Denton.
Last week wasn’t some glorious Green triumph that will go down in the political history books. In fact I suspect the UK Green movement will go the same way as Greta Thunberg: a burst of teenage certainty followed by adult irrelevance.
The real story in Gorton and Denton is not the Green victory, but the collective yawn. Turnout limped to 47.6%, indistinguishable from the last General Election, which now passes for respectable. More than half the constituency said “sod your politics” and declined to participate in the great democratic ritual.
Run the numbers and it looks even thinner. The newly elected ‘representative’ commands the active support of roughly one in five adults in her patch. That is not democratic legitimacy. It is arithmetic masquerading as authority – otherwise known as electoral larceny.
This is a symptom of terminal political ennui. For decades those in charge have hollowed out politics so completely that the very idea of democratic legitimacy is now a comedy sketch.
For generations Britain has told itself a comforting story: that liberal democracy is culturally neutral. That it floats above religion, heritage, historical memory. That you can dilute the cultural foundations of a society and the political structure will remain untouched.
It won’t....<<<Read More>>>...
