Are the British becoming less liberal in their attitudes to homosexuality? | Barbara Ellen

The number of people believing there is nothing wrong with gay sex has fallen for the first time since the Aids crisis. The British Social Attitudes survey puts it at dipping from 68% in 2017 to 66% in 2018, leaving a third of the population in some way opposed. NatCen, who conducted the survey, said that, while further polling was advisable, “liberalisation of attitudes does seem to be slowing down”.

The findings coincide with the first decrease in more than a decade of people comfortable with pre-marital sex. On the plus side, last week also saw the Commons victory for gay legislation in Northern Ireland. Still, what a hammering same-sex couples have had recently – everything from attacks on buses to Ann Widdecombe (the Aunt Lydia of Brexit, anyone?) pondering how science could “produce an answer” to gayness. In this context, is the NatCen survey indicative of new attitudes, or yet more evidence that people are feeling bolder about expressing previously veiled prejudices?

Part of the problem seems to lie with gay sex in particular, rather than gay people generally, the bizarre phenomenon of almost “enforced asexuality”, where gay people (or anyone non-straight) can be accepted, even celebrated, but only so long as the “sex stuff” is played down to the point of being undetectable. This often seemed to be the “problem” with the late George Michael – that he was an actively sexual gay man, and didn’t care who knew it. To a certain hetero mindset, it seems there are two distinct groups – cultural gays (acceptable), and sexual gays (unacceptable!). Some people pride themselves on “tolerating” what they perceive as cultural gays, but then recoil from evidence of their sexuality. Perhaps that’s when they start pompously opining to people with clipboards about non-acceptance – as though somehow their homophobia had been forced upon them by gay people who just had to go and spoil everything by having sex.

The day might come when gay people are surveyed about their distaste at heterosexual sex (“unnatural in the eyes of God!”), when gay people are as unhealthily obsessed with policing straight sex as certain straight people are with policing gay sex. Then again, I doubt it. Certainly, it’s depressing that, even today, people think they have a right to condemn the gay sex they’re never likely to have – and for that squeamishness to affect the safety and happiness of others on a daily basis.

While this bizarre disconnect has long been an issue, it seemed to be under control. Now the figures are starting to move even slightly the other way, things seem more ominous, if only because they may hint at more illiberal attitudes lurking beneath. In 2019, it’s high time the overtly and covertly prejudiced got over their issues with gay sex – to accept that gay people are sexual beings, not asexual toys for straight people to play with, and project on to.

Sweatshirt let Diana hide from the paparazzi in plain sight

A top worn by Princess Diana has been sold at auction in the US for more than £40,000 – about 10 times the expected price. Diana gave the garment to her friend and personal trainer, Jenni Rivett, who’ll use the proceeds to help a Malawian family.

Just a sweatshirt with the Virgin Atlantic logo on it, it presumably went for so much partly because it was Diana’s “anti-paparazzi” top. She would put it on every time she went to the gym to deter paps from photographing her – they’d just get the same shot every time. So it wasn’t just any old top – it was Diana’s customised pap-repellent.

It wouldn’t do to overstate Diana’s aversion to the paparazzi – in life, she enjoyed (and endured) a complex, symbiotic relationship with the media. However, the top ruse was clever, and it’s perhaps significant that it was gym-based. In one incident, a secret camera was rigged inside a gym, to take aerial shots of Diana working out with her legs splayed. Grim.

Today, you hear occasionally of celebrities pulling the same stunt – wearing the same outfit repeatedly so that photographs of them become less valuable. While this may be difficult for the modern, fashion-conscious celebrity, Diana had discovered the answer to being papped – instead of ducking and diving in hats and shades, just wear the same boring top.

Firsts for all dishonours the students who work hardest

Who’d have imagined that commodifying university education – to the point where a student “clientele” could demand customer satisfaction in the form of stellar results, leading to widespread grade inflation – would lead to trouble? Oh hang on.

The universities regulator, the Office for Students, has found that first-class degrees were awarded last summer to almost three out of 10 graduates at English universities – almost double the amount of firsts in 2011 (the year before fees trebled).

At first I wondered if some of this could be because students are working harder to justify the cost of their degrees. However, it transpires firsts and 2:1s are being achieved by 70% of those who scored three Ds or less at A-level. Erm, sorry, young people – even allowing for academic improvement on the 70%’s part, it all looks a tad suspicious. There’ll still be people who richly deserve their top degrees, although the outside world would be hard-pressed to tell them apart from the others. What are employers supposed to do – focus on A-level results, and ignore the inexplicably elevated degrees? What then is the point of a degree?

There are calls for greater clarification and transparency from the universities involved. Good. That said, universities have long been caught between a rock and a hard place: tasked with maintaining academic standards, while hamstrung by funding, and judged on ratings from student clients, some of whom may feel that a first is something they’ve already paid for before they open a book.

What a mess, and one that’s been tirelessly flagged since fees were introduced more than two decades ago. The lesson here is that grade inflation helps nobody – it’s an insult to deserving students, past and present, and makes laughing stocks of modern graduates. Slowly but surely, the very concept of higher education is being debased.

• Barbara Ellen is an Observer columnist