Who first committed ‘cultural appropriation’?

Culture clashes

The pop star Adele was accused of ‘cultural appropriation’ for adopting a Jamaican hairstyle for the online Notting Hill Carnival. Who first committed this alleged sin? The concept has been traced to a paper presented by Canadian art historian Kenneth Coutts-Smith at a symposium of the International Association of Art Critics in Lisbon in September 1976 — he used the terms ‘cultural colonialism’ and ‘historical appropriation’. His earliest example didn’t involve black cultures, however, but the Medici adopting an ‘idealised view of Roman Republican Virtue’ in the construction of Florence.

Bags of rubbish

The mandatory charge for plastic bags is to be doubled to 10p and extended to small convenience stores. Before the charge was introduced in 2015 the quantity of plastic used to supply British shoppers with single-use bags was estimated at 61,000 tonnes. How does that compare with other uses of plastic? Quantities in tonnes:

Bottles | 947,000

Construction industry | 800,000

Packaging film | 759,000

Pots, trays and tubs | 441,000