Iain Macwhirter Iain Macwhirter

Trans activists will regret picking on Joanna Cherry

Joanna Cherry (Credit: Getty images)

Another feminist getting no-platformed in Scotland is hardly news. Poets, writers, students, academics, comedians and, of course, film-makers have become inured to being cancelled north of the border if they stray from the dogma that trans women are women. Normally this kind of thing happens in the shadows, without publicity. People just find, like the poet Jenny Lindsay, that their livelihood disappears. Cancellation is the standard operating procedure for the handful of trans activists who seem to have a stranglehold on Scottish cultural life and education institutions. But this time they took on someone willing to fight back. 

The SNP MP for Edinburgh Central, Joanna Cherry, refused to go quietly when the Stand Comedy Club, which was founded by the SNP MP for Edinburgh East, Tommy Sheppard, cancelled her booking at this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe. She was due to appear at the popular venue as part of an ‘In Conversation’ series, which included the film director, Ken Loach, and Jeremy Corbyn.

Written by
Iain Macwhirter

Iain Macwhirter is a former BBC TV presenter and was political commentator for The Herald between 1999 and 2022. He is an author of Road to Referendum and Disunited Kingdom: How Westminster Won a Referendum but Lost Scotland.

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