A gag is no cure for this cancel culture

The left’s new puritans hold convictions that brook no discussion. But without debate, how will warring tribes ever reconcile?

The Sunday Times

It is a sign of the confusion of the liberal left that even the group of 152 writers who signed a letter to Harper’s magazine in defence of the principle of free expression ended the day unable to agree even on their own letter. The author and trans activist Jennifer Finney Boylan signed up but then apologised for doing so when it turned out that JK Rowling, a writer accused of transphobia by the trans lobby, was a fellow signatory. This precious reaction prompted a pithy response from Malcolm Gladwell, another signatory, who said: “I signed the Harper’s letter because there were lots of people who also signed the Harper’s letter whose views I disagreed with. I thought that was the point of the Harper’s