Lord Sacks decries ‘culture of prima donnas’ in UK politics on Newsnight

Author and former Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks lamented the “culture of prima donnas” influencing Britain.

Appearing on the BBC’s flagship programme Newsnight, Lord Sacks discussed Brexit and politics with presenter Emily Maitlis.

“We’ve become a nation of individualists,” he said. “We’ve forgotten that the team is bigger than the players and the game is bigger than the team.”

“Instead we have a culture of prima donnas and very loud and angry extreme voices because they are the things that get picked up in our culture,” he added.

Lord Sacks also spoke about what he perceived as the moral obligation to seek reconciliation to heal wounds.

“There is a moral imperative to be flexible with people who will meet you half way. That’s how we got the Northern Ireland peace solution,” he said.

“There has to be a willingness on both sides but that has to be preceded by the cultivation of respect on both sides. That used to be part of British culture.”

When asked what he believes must change to solve the Brexit deadlock, he replied: “What can’t be solved by insight and imagination will be solved by exhaustion.”

He added: “People will in the end resolve to agree to something nobody’s terribly enthusiastic about and politics begins the day after that.

“No solution is going to be benign and utopian. It’s going to be messy and a little bit sordid and we are all going to feel diminished thereby.

“But that happens on one day and the next day you wake up and say ‘okay we are. Britain, what do we stand for?'”