The Guardian declares war on street parties: ‘a front for a middle-class nationalism that celebrates austerity’

Barely a week goes by without the Guardian declaring war on a seemingly harmless food type. According to the paper tea-drinkers possess ‘the worst possible English trait, up there with colonialism‘, HP sauce is the condiment of the establishment and barbecues are simply borderline-racist.

Now they have a new enemy in their sights: street parties. Although tens of thousands happily gathered at the Mall today for a street party to mark the Queen’s official 90th birthday, according to the paper this is simply not a case of ‘harmless’ fun.

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Instead — in a piece entitled ‘The Queen’s birthday has unleashed a pernicious new patriotism’ for the Guardian — the writer Dawn Foster says such parties are ‘a front for a middle-class nationalism that celebrates the cruelty of austerity’:

‘The coming weekend will feature an assault course of men in red trousers telling you how “jolly good” it is that “our Liz” has reached the age people in her income bracket often do, as they wave paper Union Jacks.