Wes Streeting says the volume of homophobic abuse since becoming Britain’s first openly gay Defence Secretary has been extraordinary. Yet his appointment was also treated as almost unremarkable. Progress and backlash are happening at the same time. Britain can move forward and backwards at the same time. Wes Streeting becoming the country’s first openly gay Defence Secretary is a striking example. In one sense, his appointment passed with remarkably little.

A growing political argument says lesbian, gay and bisexual people must choose between an LGB identity and the wider LGBTQ+ movement. People can disagree over sex and gender policy. But who benefits when disagreement is turned into permanent hostility? Lesbian, gay and bisexual people do not all think the same thing about sex, gender, trans rights or the organisations that claim to speak for them. That should not be controversial. A community is not a.

Reform UK has put social housing back at the centre of the immigration argument with proposals that would give greater priority to people born in Britain. But what would that mean for British citizens born abroad? The difficulty appears when the slogan is applied to real people. Birthplace and citizenship are not the same thing. A British citizen born overseas who arrived as a child, worked, paid tax, raised a family and spent decades in the UK could be.

As Britain becomes increasingly divided by politics, identity and hate, Dolly Parton leaves us with a different message: you can disagree without dehumanising, accept people without being the same, and use success to help others. Britain spends a great deal of time being told who it should fear, resent or blame. Political identity is increasingly treated as a test of character, disagreement becomes betrayal, and social media turns the sharpest insult into.