During the period of austerity that followed the financial crash, new antagonisms rooted in shifting material reality began to emerge, while older antagonisms rooted in class and culture evolved and became gradually more acute. The ongoing fragmentation of society during these years became normalised. Some on the left continued to persevere with accounts of unity, but increasingly they seemed to be talking about temporary truces and concessions between irreconcilable fragments rather than the incorporation of all groups of working people in a grand project of solidarity. The traditional focus of left-wing social and political analysis – the class system and its foundation in economic exploitation and political exclusion – receded further into the background.

Action was moving at speed from universalism to particularism; from things all people share to things specific to distinct cultural groups. Old-fashioned ideas around collective life and shared identities, goals, ideals and beliefs were discarded. Those who clung to such ideas were mercilessly mocked for their inability to understand or appreciate the scale of human diversity and the true course of progress. Those at the centre could never understand those on the margins. Those born with white skin could never understand those born with black skin. A heterosexual man could never understand the plight of a homosexual woman. Only those who had fully lived and experienced a marginalised identity should be allowed to ‘speak their truth’.

The entire idea of community – the product of material functions, practical alliances, sentimental attachments, histories of trust and shared interests, and once a crucial foundation stone of the left – became contentious. Community was reframed as ‘imaginary’ rather than material and practical. People who long ago agreed that they had little choice but to get on together were persuaded that they had every reason not to.

The politics of anti-racism was transformed. Since the 1960s, anti-racism had sought to overcome segregation and break down barriers through education and the enforcement of equality through legislation. All races needed to acknowledge that racial distinctions were illusory. The colour of one’s skin did not and should never matter. All impediments to integration should be removed and forms of overt and covert discrimination should be mercilessly eliminated.