This week, the Edinburgh Book Festival has joined the Hay Literary Festival in abandoning its sponsorship deal with the investment group Baillie Gifford, due to the firm’s investments in the oil industry and its supposed links to the war in Gaza.
The decision to ditch Baillie Gifford comes after a campaign by Fossil Free Books, whose leading organisers include the ‘anarchist gardener’ Ellen Miles.
I know literary folk love to say they’re writers not fighters but you might’ve thought they would have shown a little more courage defending free speech
The chair of Edinburgh Book Festival, the BBC TV journalist Allan Little, explained that:
‘Our team cannot be expected to deliver a safe and sustainable festival this August under the constant threat of disruption from activists. This was a pragmatic response to that reality.’
I’m not quite sure what he was afraid of – perhaps being pelted with begonias? If the Festival was really worried they could have always asked the police to help out with some anarchist weeding.
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