What is usually known as culture is a set of symbols enabling people on the inside to recognise and dislike those on the outside. British culture is obviously an oxymoron, a label for the most uncultured pursuit imaginable, such as reading the Daily Mail, getting drunk and loudly voicing contempt for anything that smacks of culture. Multiculturalism, on the other hand, usually indicates a craven willingness to be polite when some of the population ship their daughters into forced marriage or get their brothers to murder them if they resist.

Simon Blackburn is professor of philosophy at the University of Cambridge.