Britain put up a statue of its first female MP. You’ll definitely believe what happened next.

LATE LAST MONTH, IN THE MIDST of divisive national elections in Britain, officials from across the political spectrum took a private train to Plymouth, in southwest England, on a rare mission of comity.

They went to the unveiling of a statue of Nancy Astor, the first woman to sit in Britain’s Parliament, on the centenary of her election to represent Plymouth. The statue, like the train ride, was a bipartisan endeavor. Liz Truss—a Conservative, like Astor—was on board the train, as was Shami Chakrabarti, a senior figure in the left-wing Labour Party. “I think that to ignore history, and not to celebrate and mark in some way the advancement of women, including women I disagree with politically, is a mistake,” Chakrabarti told me.