The grandstanding against the Hay Festival is short-sighted 

When the country’s largest literary festival parts ways with its main sponsor, it is not usually a cause for rejoicing among writers, performers, and the sorts of people who like to go to literary festivals. It is usually a disaster for the festival. Yet when on Friday the Hay Festival sacked (yes, it was that way round) the investment fund Baillie Gifford as its main sponsor, it was felt that a mighty blow had been struck against injustice.

The decision was the result of a campaign that took exception to the colour of Baillie Gifford’s money, seeing the company as part of a disaster-capitalist enterprise that profits from the destruction of the planet by investing in fossil fuels, and that indirectly supports Israeli aggression against Palestinians.

The singer Charlotte Church, the stand-up comic Nish Kumar and the politician Dawn Butler (Hay’s not as narrowly literary as it once was) have all recently pulled out of the festival as conscientious objectors. On Friday, Hay took fright and caved abjectly. ‘In light of claims raised by campaigners and intense pressure on artists to withdraw,’ its chief executive Judy Finch said, ‘we have taken the decision to suspend our sponsorship from Baillie Gifford.