I am sure we’re all growing increasingly concerned about the so-called culture wars: society is becoming more and more divided, with those on the political left and right now almost completely at odds. Last night I watched this Channel Four documentary on the rise of the far right from last year. I found it an extremely difficult watch, and it made me very uncomfortable indeed: like it or not, the reactionary right is on the rise in the UK, with many desperate people being charmed – many would say fooled – by it’s simplistic, tribalist, ‘us vs. them’ narrative.

However, watching it I couldn’t help worrying that I could be accused of displaying similar traits. A couple of days ago I wrote that I was worried about increasing numbers of people jumping onto sociopolitical bandwagons, and claiming membership of minorities which they didn’t really belong to for political purposes. I realise that that could be seen as reactionary or intolerant, and not that dissimilar to the guff being spouted on the documentary I was watching. What I wrote might well feed into the culture wars now ripping us apart.

Let me just assure you, that wasn’t my intention at all. Of course, people have every right to be who they feel they are and live as they want; nor do I have a right to make assumptions or judgements about people I don’t know. It’s just that I can’t escape this growing feeling that disability is becoming increasingly politicised, and that ‘being disabled’ has somehow now become politically trendy. While I don’t have any solid, objective data, I get the increasing impression that more and more people are now identifying as disabled when they previously may not have, just as more and more people are now playing around with gender norms. I don’t want to gatekeep, but as someone born with a physical disability and who grew up among severely disabled people, I can’t help finding that extremely galling.