Coalitions.

Everywhere you look nowadays there seem to be cracks emerging in every institution. This is called in this country of increasingly small means a 'crisis', when other European countries have sensibly enshrined these contingencies into solid political structure. Horse trading we brand it and with its overly flexible reliance on the moral compass of politicians horse trading it is. However the civil service will still run, hospitals will remain open and policemen will not be set on fire.

One question that has disappeared in all this kerfuffle is the question of culture. More to the point it is the question of whether the English/British have a culture worth speaking of. This seems to have been proven to be absolute nonsense by the totally assumptive way most people have got to grips with the election debates. Culture isn't necessarily what you create, rather for 99% of the people it is how they live; how they live has been the most important talking point of this election. Tax cuts, single mums, the Big Society etc have all appeared in normal, prosaic and decidedly unartificed conversations. For most of the 00's we despaired with our post-imperial hangover that stretched for far too long, whilst other countries began to ease themselves out of that self-indulgence. We decided that the French must be superior culturally, their vast reserves of class and style wafting over the channel in a government supported push to show off that huge cultural reserve. Yet, the French culture of looking at themselves is nothing about being reflective; it may appear to be inwards looking yet it looks away and disengages - helping to ignore the untidy elements of culture that accompany its vast problems with racism and inequality. Perhaps the notion of looking at such 'complete' cultures is a total fallacy and we should be less prepared to believe that what we have is somehow not culture.

This is where the Imperial part kicks in. We assume that it isn't culture because we have it, as if its some sort of base level 'normal', whereas any other is not 'normal'. Isn't this the very definition of culture? A definable difference in lifestyle, society or politics that is assumed to be acceptable. We have a culture but perhaps for all its flaws it is a culture that increasingly looks inwards and finds some appalling things. It is the mark of a strong culture that they can be addressed and humanely dealt with. Our culture is not there yet but navel gazing may be a strong first step.