Burning Man and the Republicans

Grover Norquist, a leading voice of American conservatism, is cross about the date of the Republican Party convention. He tweets: ‘Which idiot put the GOP convention the same time as ‘Burning Man’ in Nevada? Is there time to change this?’

Burning Man, in case you didn’t know, is a festival in Nevada where ‘freethinkers’ flock in their tens of thousands to spend a few days being individual. Money is not allowed, natch. It attracts thousands of British trendies — ex-public school types, on the whole, trying too hard to carve an artsy identity for themselves. They come back considerably more smug than they left, if the ones I know are anything to go by. 

How appalled they would be to know that the deeply unfashionable American Right is as fond of Burning Man as they are. Grover is a passionate defender of gun rights, an anti-tax crusader and tea party activist.