This is a rallying cry. Childish activists who forced end of Edinburgh International Book Festival-Baillie Gifford sponsorship deal must be opposed – Susan Dalgety

As a group of women gathered in an Edinburgh wine bar on Thursday night to celebrate the publication of The Women Who Wouldn’t Wheesht, their book which chronicles Scotland’s women’s rights campaign of recent years, news started to filter in of a crisis at Edinburgh International Book Festival (EIBF).

Jenny Lindsay, a renowned poet, had tears in her eyes as she scrolled her social media feed to learn that the festival had ended its 20-year partnership with Edinburgh investment firm Baillie Gifford, following intolerable pressure from climate ‘campaigners’. She was distraught. And angry. Literature is her life.

She was just emerging from a five-year hiatus in her own career after being hounded out of Scotland’s cliquish literary scene because of her sex-realist views. The news that another group of activists, which includes at least one of her most vociferous critics, seems hell-bent on destroying one of Europe’s foremost book festivals was too much.

Jenny Niven, director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, had wanted to retain Baillie Gifford as a sponsor (Picture: Ian Georgeson)

She swore, and then took to social media to defend the book festival’s director: “… sending huge support to Jenny Niven, whose steadfast neutrality on deep cultural schisms is precisely what has been needed in Scotland for some time. She did not deserve this, and neither did EIBF.”

‘This is nuts’

Some commentators were less circumspect. Award-winning journalist Gethin Chamberlain described the situation as “breathtakingly stupid, counterproductive and really quite sinister. Well done, you created such a toxic environment that a book festival – a book festival! – felt it had no choice but to part company with a firm that’s consistently supported the arts. Idiots.”

Conservative MSP and author Murdo Fraser simply said: “This is nuts.” Feminist writer Julie Bindel went to the heart of the matter when she wrote, “empty posturing by a load of pretentious kids that don’t give a damn about anything except looking good”.

Book Festival ends Baillie Gifford sponsorship amid 'intolerable' pressure

What exactly is it that the “pretentious kids” are so angry about? Furious enough to threaten to disrupt Edinburgh’s annual book festival unless its major sponsor, Baillie Gifford, pulled out. An open letter from the campaign group Fossil Free Books – which according to its website is a collection of “workers for a books industry free from fossil fuels and fossil fuel finance” – argues that Baillie Gifford invests up to £5 billion in the fossil fuel industry. And that the company has a further £10 billion invested in companies with direct or indirect links to Israel’s “defence, tech and cybersecurity industries, including Nvidia, Amazon and Alphabet”.

Unreasonable demands

Baillie Gifford, whose support over the last 20 years has been essential to EIBF’s survival, insists that the firm is not a significant fossil fuel investor. “Only 2 per cent of our clients’ money is invested in companies with some business related to fossil fuels. We invest far more in companies helping drive the transition to clean energy,” said partner Nick Thomas.

And he dismissed the activists’ demand that Baillie Gifford ditch its investment in technology companies, including Amazon, as “unreasonable and [serving] no purpose" and adding, with more than a hint of understandable impatience, “much as it would be unreasonable to demand authors boycott Instagram or stop selling books on Amazon”.

Why boycotting Book Festival over Baillie Gifford sponsorship and Gaza war is wrong – Gavin Francis

But being “unreasonable” is today’s activist’s special skill. It was unreasonable of Jenny Lindsay’s literary colleagues to try and destroy her career, simply because she believes in biological sex and they don’t. It was also unspeakably cruel, and smacked of the worst kind of playground bullying. But that didn’t stop them from hounding her out of the city she loves.

It was unreasonable of Scotland’s most powerful literary society to tell bookshops not to sell books by gender-critical writers, as Literature Alliance Scotland did, until last weekend when poet Magi Gibson revealed their crude attempt at censorship on her website. The society has since apologised, and its chairperson has resigned, but the damage had been done. Scotland’s literary establishment, at the behest of trans activists, viewed women writers such as JK Rowling as legitimate targets in a culture war stirred up by spoiled children.

Fragile planet

And it is unreasonable beyond any doubt for a collection of ‘book workers’ to threaten Scotland’s literary culture simply to make an immature political point. Destroying Edinburgh’s book festival will not stop the climate emergency. The activists would do more good for our fragile planet if they were to ditch their iPhones.

The mass production of smartphones makes a significant contribution to deforestation and water pollution in the global south, the very communities the activists claim they support. And while they are about it, if they really want to hit the tech giants they hate so much, they should close down their Insta accounts, owned by Meta, Mark Zuckerberg’s company. And refuse to allow their books to be sold on Amazon.

But of course they won’t, because their activism is nothing more than a petulant performance by a bunch of largely middle-class kids who have grown up believing they are the centre of the universe. And for far too long, politicians desperate for the ‘youth’ vote and an arts establishment keen to be seen to be down with the kids have pandered to these spoilt brats. It has to stop.

A mature, healthy society is one where debate is celebrated, not closed down. Where contested theories, such as gender identity, are regarded as interesting philosophical talking points, not codified in law and promulgated in schools. And where all literature – good, bad, indifferent, written by people with left or right-wing political views, or none at all – is allowed to flourish.

As Wigtown Book Festival posted on social media on Thursday night, the ending of Baillie Gifford’s partnership with the Edinburgh festival is a “disaster not just for book festivals but for the whole UK cultural sector. And to no end.” It is time to say no to the children.