The hard truth about Britain’s soft power

How hard is your soft power? According to David Lammy, Britain’s soft power is so strong and underrated that he has decided to set up a ‘soft power council’ to show just how hard we are.

Put aside such details as waste and futility for a second. Surely there is something rather embarrassing about boasting about such things? It reminds me of the phrase ‘muscular liberalism’. A person may define the political concept of muscular liberalism. He may even be described by others as a ‘muscular liberal’. But no one should go around declaring themselves to be such a thing, without expecting to be greeted with a chorus of ‘I don’t doubt it, dearie’ and the like.

It was inevitable, from the moment she first appeared, that the diverse woman of colour would be the hero

So it is with boasting about your soft power. If you have to go on about it, the chances are you don’t have it – or that you are losing it.

Only one part of the hubris of Lammy’s initiative (if we can call it that) is that Britain’s soft power seems to be wilting all the time. Occasionally I like to take my head out of a book or glass and watch something on the screen. By now I am probably subscribed to every streaming platform on the planet, because every now and then I like to go on a good old binge. In recent weeks I had two particular beanos. I decided to watch the remake of The Day of the Jackal (Sky Atlantic, Peacock etc) and also Lockerbie: A Search for Truth (Now TV, Peacock). But something struck me as I watched them both.

I had selected them carefully. One reason that I don’t regularly watch drama, let alone domestic TV, is that I am fed up with being preached at by scriptwriters and goaded by casting directors.