Britain | The long march

Boris Johnson’s government wants more patriotic cultural institutions

Grandees are appalled at ministerial interference

Wiping away the dirt

DAYS BEFORE he retired at the end of 2015, Neil MacGregor addressed colleagues and friends at the British Museum. As they raised their glasses, he quoted T.S. Eliot: “For last year’s words belong to last year’s language. And next year’s words await another voice.” A few years on, however, the commanding voice in museumland is not his successor as director of the British Museum, nor is it another grandee. It is the government.

This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “The long march”

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