The Right Dishonourable

Depending on who you ask, cancel culture is the greatest threat to Western civilisation, a reckoning for the terminally crass, or an overhyped problem that can’t even destroy JK Rowling’s career. Our own Jazza argued that it can’t even be defined satisfactorily.

What isn’t disputable is that some internet types have taken to organising boycotts against certain artists for having the wrong opinions. Some of the candidates are obvious, although Harry Potter fans have been noticeably reticent about fully abandoning Rowling – they love the books too much.

It is often said that voters do not read political manifestos. They are, after all, long. Plus once you start reading them you realise that you will have to weigh the upsides and downsides of each party. This is a big ask when your vote statistically doesn’t matter.

Yet manifestos are important politically. A bungled manifesto pledge on funding social care is often seen as what undid Theresa May during the general election campaign in 2017. Manifesto commitments also enjoy easier passage through Parliament, since the Lords don’t contest them by convention.

Few people have cared as deeply about the rise and fall of Donald Trump as Sam Harris. The podcaster, philosopher and professional atheist has spent Trump’s presidency speaking to everyone he can about truth, free speech, science, technology, violence and other lofty topics.

Harris’s podcast is among the most interesting you could listen to, both in its guestlist and content. Even the episodes of him monologuing in cerebral twists on the famous ‘mad as hell’ speech make compelling listening.

An old editor of mine once warned me off writing ‘man gets job’ stories unless there was a good reason. But ‘woman loses job’ stories are inherently more interesting, particularly if they concern a rupture at a leading newspaper.

I am not talking about opinion editor Bari Weiss’s exit from the New York Times earlier this year, although there is plenty of overlap. This time it’s about the Guardian’s Suzanne Moore, who yesterday announced her relationship with the progressive title had come to an end.