Sky Views: Take heed of PM's warning over 'dirty word'
Saturday 6 October 2018 11:22, UK
Adam Boulton, editor-at-large
Lost in the excitement of dancing to Abba, Brexit, and the promise of an end to austerity, there is an important section which has been overlooked towards the beginning of Theresa May's speech to the Conservative conference this year.
"Getting things done requires working together - within parties and beyond them," the prime minister said.
"When our politics becomes polarised, and compromise becomes a dirty word, that becomes harder," she added.
She told the packed hall she'd noticed that "in the last few years something's changed for the worse… Rigorous debate between political opponents is becoming more like a confrontation between enemies".
Mrs May wants the Conservatives to appeal broadly and she wants to suggest that her main opponent, Mr Corbyn, is somehow unacceptable.
Nonetheless, I think that Mrs May is on to something and that all sides should heed her warning.
There is a particular danger that those who believe they are most progressive, the most inclined to defend minorities, may in fact be becoming the most intolerant.
Times have changed. It seems the power of the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements is too strong to resist.
I am thinking of the punishments handed out recently to two journalists.
The Talkradio presenter Julia Hartley-Brewer has been banned from next year's Labour Party conference after sending out a tweet drawing attention to the official "safe space" in Liverpool attached to a five-second video of her sitting alone in the room going "Boo!".
The second story is more serious and I'm surprised it has barely been reported in the UK. Ian Buruma, the recently appointed editor of the prestigious New York Review Of Books, lost his job after he published an essay by Jian Ghomeshi, a Canadian former talk show host who was acquitted of sexual harassment charges in 2016.
The piece was part of a section in the literary magazine headlined The Fall Of Men. In his article Ghomeshi says he had faced accusations from "several women". In fact they were from almost 20.
He writes that he had felt "suicidal" and suffered "enough humiliation for a lifetime" thanks to "the power of contemporary mass shaming".
In a statement after Buruma's departure, the publishers cited "failures" in presentation and editing of the piece and acknowledged the validity of criticism from readers who had expressed "considerable concern".
Not everyone agreed. Over 100 NYRB contributors including Ian McEwan, Colm Toibin and Joyce Carol Oates sent a letter finding it "very troubling… repellent though some may have found this article" that it resulted in Buruma's "enforced resignation".
The NYRB has always purported to value free speech, and claims "a long history of publishing controversial and unpopular pieces".
Famously, the magazine championed Norman Mailer's campaign for the release of a convicted killer called Jack Henry Abbott and published some of Abbott's own writing. Weeks after his release, Abbott murdered again.
Times have changed. It seems the power of the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements is too strong to resist. In particular it's thought that University Presses were threatening to withdraw the book adverts on which the NYRB depends for its commercial success.
Rather than encouraging exploration of ideas as they should, it seems that universities are stifling it.
It's no surprise that the craze for "safe spaces", trigger warnings and "no platforming" all started on campuses.
Perhaps it is significant that Buruma, who is a distinguished author in his own right, is Anglo-Dutch and that many of his prominent supporters in the letter were not American.
With no disrespect intended, Hartley-Brewer is a provocateuse who likes a bit of publicity. I don't think many people would have noticed her tweet if it wasn't for the ban.
Whether you find her video funny, silly or just juvenile, the Labour Party's words of condemnation are surely over the top.
"Julia Hartley-Brewer had no right to use our conference to mock disabled people, so she will not be welcome next year. We received multiple complaints about [her] behaviour during the conference, including from Disability Labour, and she caused considerable distress to vulnerable groups, including to delegates with conditions including Asperger's autism and anxiety disorders."
Who breaks a (social) butterfly upon the wheel? Labour made its distaste for the mainstream media apparent this year. In his speech Jeremy Corbyn boasted that the party now has an alternative weapon to get its message out - social media, where you can say what you like, without criticism or analysis - kinda like Hartley-Brewer did.
You don't have to read the NYRB or listen to Talkradio, but surely free speech matters and neither Buruma nor Hartley-Brewer should be prevented from doing their jobs.
Sky Views is a series of comment pieces by Paste BN editors and correspondents, published every morning.
Previously on Paste BN: Ian King - Can the Chancellor wring tax revenues from tech giants?