Why on earth shouldn’t Angela Rayner go to the opera? | Martin Kettle

Dominic Raab’s attack on the Labour frontbencher’s attendance at Glyndebourne says more about our class-ridden approach to culture than it does about her

It wouldn’t happen in Germany, and certainly not in Italy. It wouldn’t cause as much as a raised eyebrow in the US or even in Russia. Only in Britain would a political leader going to the opera stir a controversy.

The fact that the opera was at a country house in the Sussex countryside, with a black-tie dress code is part of the story, of course. That the politician in question is a Labour figure, a woman and working class probably even more so.

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