Nobody does tradition like the British. That’s a message that has gone around the world in this solemn week of mourning after the Queen’s death. And it sounds like bad news for liberal aspirations for social change. Yet if modern Britain remains the most tradition-oriented of the major liberal democracies, ours is also among the most socially liberal societies that has ever existed.
Britain is a society transformed since 1952. I cannot see these as seven decades of retreat from past glories but, rather, as years in which Britain become a kinder, gentler and freer society. The changes were most profound for gay people who could be open about who they loved and for women who wanted to follow a career even if they got married. Ethnic minorities had almost no presence in British public life across the first half of the Queen’s reign. At times, we forget that the big culture clashes of a previous generation have been settled on broadly liberal foundations. Social inequalities have been more stubborn.
