Article by Joanna Williams.
Excerpt:
Paddington is, we are told, a representative of diverse Britishness. But this is bizarre. Unable to name real historical heroes, including the many Brits of migrant backgrounds who have made their mark, the cultural elites resort to celebrating a fictional character. It’s as if these people are unable to make the case either for British values or mass migration and so hide behind poor old Paddington.
Perhaps the very attraction of Paddington as a national symbol over, say, Shakespeare or Churchill, rests on the fact that he is made up. Real people exist within a particular time period and tend to reflect that era’s values. Real people often have messy personal lives – few of us are unambiguously good or bad. But moral purity and all manner of values can be ascribed to fictional bears. They never disappoint.