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Edinburgh International Book Festival forced to cancel partnership with sponsor

The Edinburgh International Book Festival has had to end its 20-year partnership with a sponsor after being targeted by pro-Palestinian protestors who object to its investment links with fossil fuels and Israel. The festival organisers said the pressure from activists has become “intolerable“.

I know a little bit about this because when I started my new job back in 2018 and was able to select my own pension investment company I hunted around for one with 0% invested in fossil fuels. It may be different today but 5 years ago there was practically no choice at all and the single company I could find that offered investments with 0% going to fossil fuel companies was Baillie Gifford; the very company sponsoring the Edinburgh International Book Festival and targeted by activists for investments in fossil fuels. Naturally I was quite astonished by this. Obviously Baillie Gifford have more investments than just mine but overall the company invests only 2% in fossil fuels which is far lower than most others.

Baillie Gifford’s full response is on the Edinburgh International Book Festival website but here’s an excerpt:

“Baillie Gifford is a long-term investor with high ethical standards and a complete focus on doing what is right by our clients. The assertion that we have significant amounts of money in the Occupied Palestinian Territories is offensively misleading. Baillie Gifford is a large investor in several multinational technology companies, including Amazon, NVIDIA, and Meta. Demanding divestment from these global companies, used by millions of people around the world, is unreasonable and serves no purpose. Much as it would be unreasonable to demand authors boycott Instagram or stop selling books on Amazon.

“Nor is Baillie Gifford a significant fossil fuel investor. Only 2% of our clients’ money is invested in companies with some business related to fossil fuels. We invest far more in companies helping drive the transition to clean energy. 

People no longer think for themselves, instead preferring to join the mob but maybe this is nothing new. Humans have long been vulnerable to mob rule; just look at the Salem Witch Trials of 1690. What is scary now is the mob has become global and massive in scale and reach thanks largely to the technology these dimwits object to yet happily use themselves.

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Rachel M

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4 responses to “Edinburgh International Book Festival forced to cancel partnership with sponsor”

  1. Katrina Avatar
    Katrina

    Modern dimwits have indeed super-dimwitted themselves, thanks the to the technology and mining they so despise. I would like to see mining reduced, too, but we use very little in our lives that hasn’t got components made up of extractions from the earth, or utilised resources from the surface of the earth, so it’s incredibly difficult to be too sanctimonious about it. I wish we could not need these things, but unless we go back to primitive living, we do. We can only be mindful as we can about reducing harm to our environment, because the sad reality is that as long as humans are in the world, we will have an impact on it that is bigger than other animals have.

    I’m finding that protestors now seem to be largely made up of zombies out for blood from anywhere they can get it, and the cause of the protest is irrelevant.

    Reply
    1. Rachel M Avatar
      Rachel M

      And yet none of them ever call for a tax on meat and dairy … That’s one of the easiest and most impactful things we can do to reduce our emissions. Ironically, the authors who signed the petitions against Baillie Gifford are probably happy to sell their books on Amazon.

      Reply
      1. Katrina Avatar
        Katrina

        Precisely. They don’t want to do anything that they may actually have to make a considered sacrifice for. I agree 100% that not one of the authors would boycott Amazon.

      2. Rachel M Avatar
        Rachel M

        Yes, it’s the common climate change excuse where people say, “Ban everything except that thing I like to do.”

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