They Do Things Differently There

The assorted stall-holding and newspaper-vending sectarian Leftists up (for Durham is all four of a cathedral city, a county town, a market town and a university town) from Tyneside and elsewhere for the Gala could not, and never can, understand.

The Cuban flag hangs from the balcony of something called the Royal County Hotel. The Morning Star is prominently advertised while being distributed for free amidst the trade union banners with their scenes from the Bible and their tributes to the Fallen of the two World Wars, many from villages in rock solid Labour seats that are vastly rural.

The Mayor opens the day in full regalia, coming to the platform preceded by a full civic procession of aldermen in gowns and gloriously funny hats, with staffs of office. And medals and decorations. MBEs, OBEs, military medals, Police medals. The Police are very much in attendance all day. As an integral part of the whole event.

After the speeches by Jeremy Corbyn, Len McCluskey, Owen Jones and the rest comes a service in the Cathedral, which is packed to the doors for the occasion. Not even the Catholics or the Methodists, although that would confuse the outsiders enough, but the very Church of England, and that in all its pomp and circumstance. Well, of course.

I am not surprised that they cannot understand all of this. They are in the same boat as the Southern media. This is a foreign, and yet not a foreign, country; Another England.

It makes no sense at all to people formed by the public schools, Oxbridge and London. Any more than to those formed in cadres of the sectarian Left, perhaps even of the mainstream urban Left outside areas of heavy mining influence such as South and West Yorkshire.

But that is what makes it interesting. That, as well as its sheer size and its improbable longevity, is why it deserves to be universally known even among people who would never dream of attending it. Wimbledon is. The Henley Regatta is. Today's Orange events are. Why not this?