John Swinney's 'robust debate' claims ring entirely hollow in the face of Edinburgh festival deplatforming

As someone formerly of the arts in Scotland, routinely asked by outsiders “why has Scotland gone mad?” I refute Swinney’s claim that we are.

Under Nicola Sturgeon’s pursuit of gender self-ID, supported by a complicit arts culture, neither inquiry nor debate were permitted. Any questioning of the SNP’s proposal to change the meaning of the words ‘woman’ and ‘man’ in Scottish law would have you deplatformed from your local poetry open mic session quicker than you could say “Isla Bryson”.

Despite agreement with much in Swinney’s speech – the importance of healing divisions, of defending freedom of expression – it rang hollow. Enlightenment values have long left a majority of Scotland’s artistic and literary institutions, with the cultural atmosphere so censorious and difficult to navigate that many, myself included, have stopped trying to.

It would be false and unfair to say this atmosphere is supported by every creative writer and artist. But, with only a few exceptions, they’re very quiet.

The general consensus appears to be that where an issue is difficult – whether gender self-ID or Israel/Palestine – we must accept the most authoritarian take possible from activists, and allow any dissenting voices against the self-identifying ‘progressive’ side to be pilloried, mocked and economically sabotaged. On Saturday, Swinney’s own event at Edinburgh’s Stand comedy club was disrupted by such activists.

How else to explain the silence from Scotland’s artists to the no-platforming of two Jewish comedians at the Fringe this week? Rachel Creeger and Philip Simon had their shows cancelled at Whistlebinkies over supposed ‘safety’ concerns raised by staff.

Creeger’s show, Ultimate Jewish Mother, is not political (not that it should matter). Her only ‘crime’ appears to be her race, and the fact that, due to rising anti-Semitism (can anyone seriously deny this?) she needs extra security.

Simon faced a double-cancellation, with his show at Banshee Labyrinth also deplatformed due to comments on social media supporting Israel’s right to exist, attending a vigil for the Israeli hostages, and pleading we not forget what happened on October 7.

Such heinous acts, according to Banshee Labyrinth, mean his "views and actions align with the rhetoric and symbology of groups associated with humanitarian violations”, which, presumably, they imagine Simon will enact upon his Fringe audience.

It's ludicrous. But on certain issues, with Israel/Palestine and the ‘gender wars’ being the most obvious, perfectly ordinary viewpoints are twisted erroneously by people seemingly incapable of critically analysing anything other than cereal packets.

High on the undoubted virtue of having an important cause (ending war) or a ridiculous one, successfully reframed as righteous – redefining “woman” to include “some men if they say so” – such activists can be frighteningly relentless. An arts world lacking courage has no chance against them.

The Edinburgh International Book Festival (EIBF) soldiers on, despite the antics of Fossil Free Books (FFB) last year.

FFB are a group of activist-writers who sabotaged the EIBF’s sponsorship from Baillie Gifford by threatening disruption to events. Baillie Gifford holds a tiny number of investments in fossil industries and Israeli-owned businesses and was therefore, to these activist-writers – some of whom are invitees to this year’s festival – not sufficiently pure to accept sponsorship from.

The 2025 programme – now with increased funding from Scottish taxpayers via Creative Scotland – features many great writers, but not a single ‘gender-critical’ feminist. This despite many successful books having been written on a subject clearly of public interest, with the most obvious being The Women Who Wouldn’t Wheesht anthology, a Sunday Times bestseller, many of whose authors live in the capital. Space has been made, of course, for such women’s literary detractors.

Another undeniable success story in Scottish non-fiction, who you won’t find at EIBF either, is cultural commentator Darren McGarvey, whose debut Poverty Safari won the Orwell Prize in 2018. Follow-up The Social Distance Between Us was published to great acclaim, and his third title, The Trauma Industrial Complex, hits next week. He has a Bafta-award winning BBC series under his belt, and is an active campaigner on social justice issues surrounding class, addiction and poverty.

I took private pelters from some for platforming McGarvey in my former events series circa 2016. It was clear McGarvey’s class, his directness and, yes, his then-common willingness to have online arguments, were more important to some writers and gatekeepers than his undeniable talents and important subject matter.

While we disagree frequently, and the issues we write on differ, I know of many in Scotland’s literary world who, if they’d had their way, would have denied McGarvey a literary career.

So, to recap: we’ve an artist class dominated by those with – at best – a partial belief in freedom of speech; a festival running scared of an important political issue in Scotland; venues whose ‘values’ don’t seem to ‘align’ with platforming Jews, and a seeming reluctance to address the issue of class despite endless hectoring about ‘inclusivity’ and ‘diversity.’

There’s barely any discussion in the arts about this; that job’s been left to opinion columnists and occasional essayists. Defensiveness abounds, excuses given, personal ‘hurt’ prioritised over robust conversation.

Not very enlightened.

Swinney said: “When we come together to protect and support our creative industries, we create a virtuous circle that will benefit us for years.”

But having watched the ‘culture wars’ created by arts-activists destroy much of the literary world I loved, I’d prefer the self-identifying ‘virtuous’ of Scotland’s arts to retrain as florists or bank managers.