Cowardice, Not Hypocrisy, Leaves UK book festivals in turmoil
The decision by the Hay Festival, the Edinburgh International Book Festival, and now the Borders Book Festival to end their sponsorship deal from asset manager Baillie Gifford, following sustained pressure from the occasionally anonymous campaign group ‘Fossil Fuel Books,’ has been widely condemned as hypocritical.
Critics, rightly concerned that the very existence of these book festivals is in jeopardy, argue that no one is entirely pure and no money is completely clean. This has led to widespread finger-pointing in the literary and media worlds about who and what has the largest carbon footprint (books, for example, have a relatively large carbon footprint). Many others point out that Baillie Gifford, with only 2% invested in fossil fuels and much more in clean energy like Tesla, is the wrong target. B&G, they say, are part of the solution to climate change, not the cause. And indeed, there is substance to all these arguments. They are not wrong.
However, amidst the uproar, the deeper dynamics and vital lessons of the situation are being overlooked: a pervasive cowardice and crisis of purpose in the arts themselves. To put it simply, the activists have been successful because they were met with silence and defensiveness.
This is the crucial point I made on Andrew Doyle's TV show this week, in the spirit of constructive reflection. You can watch by clicking on the following link: (Ignore their headline, I didn’t write or say it):