I have no problem denouncing political violence whether it comes from the Left or the Right. In a democratic society there is no excuse for political violence no matter how noble or how correct your cause. I hold this view because as someone once said ‘Jaw jaw is better than war war’ and also because some of the greatest societal advances have come through peaceful action. Peaceful action by the likes of Dr Martin Luther King Jr and by sympathetic members of Parliament brought about the Civil Rights era in the United States and the electoral reform in the UK of the 19^th century respectively. These were big changes and were achieved mostly without the use of political violence.

But according to the Spectator, denouncing the ‘wrong’ kind of political violence can get anyone, including a Scottish poet. Jenny Lindsay was ‘cancelled’ by the left wing mob who have stirred up so much hatred against her and her views that even the Scottish Poetry Library now lives in fear of attacks by violent leftists like Antifa.

Ms Lindsay has had work engagements cancelled, friends from the art world abandon her and even Scottish PEN fail to protect her right to speak freely. So what was her ‘crime’ that has caused so much ire to be directed towards Ms Lindsay. It was, as you could well imagine, no ‘crime’ at all. What she did was to contact a magazine in June 2019 to politely complain that one of their contributors had advocated violence be done to Lesbians attending Pride celebrations because of the view held by some in the Trans activist movement that the decision by some Lesbians to not want to sleep with transwomen was ‘transphobic’ and deserved a violent response.

Ms Lindsay said in her communication with The Skinny magazine:

‘Hello! One of your commentators here advocates violence against lesbian activists at Pride. I find it extraordinary that such views are given an airing in The Skinny.’

Looks pretty reasonable a comment to me and will probably look reasonable to others. However, this comment and complaint kicked off what can fairly be described as a witch hunt against Ms Lindsay.

If you read the whole Spectator article and I would strongly advise that you do, you will find that the Left has gone out of their way to isolate Ms Lindsay and ‘punish’ her for not wanting Lesbians to be physically attacked at Pride by the more violent elements of the trans community, a group that the Trans commentator Rose of Dawn calls ‘Trantifa’. Ms Lindsay has lost the vast majority of her income because of her cancellation and it should be remembered that poetry is not exactly the biggest earner in the world. Ms Lindsay has been destroyed financially and has had her personal relationships seriously damaged by this witch hunt. The more violent members of the cult of trans have managed to silence a poet for speaking out against political violence and have also, as you will see from the Spectator article, threaten the Scottish Poetry Library. I’m not a great consumer of poetry but I support the right of poets to speak as they see fit and I also support the right of poets and anybody else for that matter, to denounce political violence no matter where it comes from.

What has happened to Ms Lindsay is extremely worrying and unjustifiable. This is because it shows just how much influence the far Left and especially the violent far Left, which is the group that the ‘Trantifa’ types belong to, has in the art world. I’m disgusted to see Ms Lindsay’s friends dropping her in fear of guilt by association with her and I’m disturbed in the extreme to see the art world failing to stand up for the rights of artists to create.