Over the past few years Jacqui Smith and I have hosted more than 20 ‘For the Many Live’ events all over the country. Two of them have been in Liverpool. We have been looking forward to another one with the new Culture Secretary, Lisa Nandy, as out special guest on 22 September at the Philharmonic Hall in Liverpool. But it is not to be. We’ve been cancelled.
On Friday morning, I noticed a tweet from someone urging the Philharmonic to cancel the event, on the basis that eight years ago, my then publishing company had published a book by Norman Bettison, former chief constable of Merseyside. The tweet had very little reaction, so I didn’t think much of it.
Two hours later I had a message from the event’s promoter which read thus:
“Bad news - just had a call the from Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. Following a Twitter pile on based on your autobiography of Norman Bettison, with Hillsborough support groups and families threatening to disrupt the event, the Chief Exec of the venue has said the show can't go ahead. Deposit will be refunded.”
Now, I left Biteback six years ago, in June 2018. I have covered issues related to Hillsborough on my radio show many times over the last 14 years and have never been anything less than supportive to all those were affected by that terrible tragedy. I’ve done interviews with people in Liverpool who lost family members. Had the Philharmonic actually bothered to get in touch with me, I could have explained that to them.
The Liverpool Philharmonic is in receipt of public funds. I understand they have received £2-3 million in recent years, with more allocated between now and 2026. How odd, therefore, that they would cancel an event in which Lisa Nandy, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, is the main attraction. They even suggested to my promoter that they were doing Lisa Nandy a favour by removing her from controversy. If I know anything about Lisa Nandy, it’s that she wouldn’t want to bow to a couple of miscreants on Twitter. What a shame the Philharmonic Hall didn’t show any backbone at all.
Given the level of ticket sales so far, we were looking forward to an audience in excess of 250. Perhaps the Philharmonic would like to apologise to all the hotels, whose booking will now be cancelled. To the restaurants, who will be slightly less full. I’m sure the Liverpool economy can survive the loss of several tens of thousands of pounds of income, but the businesses affected won’t thank the Philharmonic for their spinelessness.
During my career in publishing, I published 600 books, many of them controversial, by authors on the left and right, and by many people who had been involved in scandals. I disagreed with many of the authors, but it was not my job to censor them. Publishing books is all about freedom of expression. Even when it’s uncomfortable. No one is forced to buy a book. Just as no one is forced to buy a ticket or even listen to a podcast or radio show I host. But to seek to prevent others from doing is a sign of where our public discourse has got to. Where organisations like the Philharmonic are so cowed by a couple of Twitter trolls that they give in to the mob at the first sign of trouble. They should be very ashamed, anyone seeking to book an event with them should bear in mind their utter lack of backbone.
Essentially, Lisa Nandy, Jacqui Smith and I have been cancelled. I see on Twitter that people on the left deny this, and say that we are perfectly able to hold the event elsewhere in the country. What a pathetic argument. They know they’ve done a wrong thing, which is indefensible. And if that’s the best defence they have, it tells us all we need to know.
Liverpool is a great city, full of character and some wonderful people. I’m looking forward to attending the Labour conference as usual in September, unless of course the Twitter trolls would like to ban me from the whole area, as well as the Philharmonic.
