Elite Deference Shrinks British Liberalism

When political and cultural elites treat public displays of faith as a progressive virtue rather than as claims that interact with secular public norms, routine policies (school uniforms, meal choices, public ritual access) shift without broad public debate. Over time, those small administrative accommodations can reframe what counts as neutral public space and place pressure on free-expression norms. — This frames a mechanism — elite deference to identity claims — that can explain how multicultural accommodation becomes a structural change to liberal civic norms, with implications for other Western democracies.