Another feminist getting no-platformed in Scotland is hardly news. Poets, writers, students, academics, comedians and, of course, film-makers have become inured to being cancelled north of the border if they stray from the dogma that trans women are women. Normally this kind of thing happens in the shadows, without publicity. People just find, like the poet Jenny Lindsay, that their livelihood disappears. Cancellation is the standard operating procedure for the handful of trans activists who seem to have a stranglehold on Scottish cultural life and education institutions. But this time they took on someone willing to fight back.
The SNP MP for Edinburgh Central, Joanna Cherry, refused to go quietly when the Stand Comedy Club, which was founded by the SNP MP for Edinburgh East, Tommy Sheppard, cancelled her booking at this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe. She was due to appear at the popular venue as part of an ‘In Conversation’ series, which included the film director, Ken Loach, and Jeremy Corbyn. Some members of staff apparently objected to her well-known ‘gender critical’ opposition to Self-ID and refused to work on the show, so the Stand cancelled the engagement.
It seems the ‘no debate’ omerta is finally weakening
Cherry is a prominent lesbian politician. She is also a barrister and chairs Westminster’s human rights committee, so she knows a bit about the law. Cherry has suggested that the cancellation of her show is a violation of the Equality Act. ‘It’s clearly a case of unlawful discrimination,’ she says, ‘and the Stand needs to think if that is something it really wants to do’.
In a remarkable intervention, the Dean of the Faculty of Advocates, Roddy Dunlop KC, agreed and tweeted:
‘It’s plainly unlawful. Is the venue aware that they would be vulnerable to a discrimination claim?’
Unusually, the Scottish broadcast media has also waded in. Like most cultural bodies in Scotland, the BBC has tended to avoid active discussion of the witch-hunt against gender critical feminists. Not this time. The social justice secretary, Shirley-Anne Somerville, when asked on Good Morning Scotland whether she agreed with the Stand policy, ignored the question and complained that ‘two senior SNP politicians have been asked about this on successive days’.
It seems the ‘no debate’ omerta is finally weakening. The results are an eye-opener to listeners who thought this was just an issue about ‘trans rights’. On yesterday’s BBC Drive Time programme the trans newsreader, India Willoughby, went gloriously over the top. Cherry’s cancellation was, she said, a ‘really good day for equality, diversity and love in Scotland’. She then suggested that ‘if the KKK had booked a meeting at the venue…’ they should also have had their meeting cancelled. Willoughby then effectively invited Cherry to sue her for defamation by saying that ‘these people want trans people eliminated’.
Those on the free speech side of the fence tend not to rush to the courts. Nor is it clear whether Cherry will pursue the Stand for discrimination. If you support freedom of expression you have to accept that people will say nasty and even defamatory things about you.
However, the upside is that, in the court of public opinion, activists like Willoughby condemn themselves out of their own mouths. As do those who remain silent, like Cherry’s colleague, Angus Robertson, the MSP for Edinburgh Central. The Stand’s SNP founder, Tommy Sheppard MP, has also refused to speak up. It may be occurring to him that is is not feminists like Jo Cherry who are on the wrong side of history, but his own club.
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