Edinburgh international book festival is putting books above sponsors (reluctantly)

In response to unrelenting hounding from 'Scotland’s cliquish literary scene' The Edinburgh International Book Festival has cut ties with Baillie Gifford. Of course this “clique” contains over 700 writers and publishing industry professionals who have called for exactly one change in the festival. A change that can only do good in the long-term.

Much of the backlash takes issue with the idea that activists have taken a book festival and made it political, but that view fundamentally misunderstands any literature post 1800s. Literature is a gateway for political opinion. To disregard this fact is in a way tearing writers down, simplifying and dumbing down their work. To dismiss writers at a book festival is nonsense.

This is not to say writers on the opposite side shouldn't be given a voice, but instead to say when the majority speaks we hear them.

So-called Feminist writers have taken massive upheaval with the whole issue calling activists "childish" and "self centred". Completely disregarding how Baillie Giffords work affects women everywhere. Their ties to the fossil fuel industry and their negative effects on climate change disproportionately affects women, especially poor women. Their ties to Israel who are committing atrocious acts of violence against Palestinian women everyday. To call yourself a feminist but to have no empathy for women who aren't in your position of privilege is the most hypocritical thing you could do.

To say this change will have a massive impact on writers is one hell of an overstatement. The festival will go ahead. The writers will be spotlighted. And the promise of protests has been neutralised by meeting activists' demands. The only difference is the festival will continue to highlight a diverse range of voices instead of allowing their politics to push out many of them.