If I have to choose, I will obviously prefer a world that isn’t frying itself to an early death. Book festivals matter, but there needs to be a planet on which to have them.
Having said that, I was surprised when Greta Thunberg cancelled her appearance in Edinburgh [on account of who and what Baillie Gifford, the sponsors, sponsor]. I would rather she did what happened a few years ago, when she travelled to Davos and told the gathered politicians and other important people what she thought of them and their behaviour. Cancelling an appearance in a worthy huff isn’t always the best look, and if it matters to her – and it clearly does – checking before accepting the invitation would have caused less upset.
But I thought that would be it.
And then a group of authors made the demand that unless Baillie Gifford clean up their act, or the Edinburgh Book Festival sever relations with their sponsor by next year, they will boycott the festival.
I didn’t know what to say, so said nothing at first. Thankfully Charlotte Higgins wrote in the Guardian, and that made me feel a bit better. She had looked into things, in a way I’m not really able to.
After that, I was gratified to find a couple of letters on the Guardian letters page, where the writers expressed things so much better than I could ever hope to. My childish way of thinking of the fifty signatories threatening a boycott, was along the lines of the cool kids at school who decide what’s what. I haven’t come across a full list of the fifty, but since not all those who have been mentioned are household names, I suspect I might not know them. One of them is someone I had been hoping to go and hear this week. Now, alongside my general decrepitness, I have lost what interest I had.
To quote the anonymous letter writer, ‘if the writers were serious about collective action instead of virtue signalling off the back of Greta Thunberg’s cancellation, they should be offering solutions not ultimatums, and campaigning on behalf of book festivals not against them.’
I hope with all my heart that they haven’t killed off most of our book festivals by their actions.
The Occasional Bookwitch 
Well, this is part of the report that prompted Thunberg to cancel.
“… On 31 December 2022, two per cent of Baillie Gifford’s total investments were in companies which make at least five per cent of their money from the oil or gas industries, while 0.3 per cent were in firms which profit from the mining and sale of coal.
Baillie Gifford’s total investments were worth £223bn at the end of 2022. Based on this number, The Ferret calculated that Baillie Gifford had approximately £4.5bn invested in companies involved with oil and gas, and around £670m in companies involved in the sale and mining of coal at that time…. ”
As seen here, £4.5Bn is diddley-squat in the investment world.
I don’t actually have any investments with or through BG, but looking at those percentages, I’d say that there are better candidates for cancelations.
[ In the variety of … SRI, ESG, Carbon Reduced etc, etc investment funds, 5% is a significant figure ].
However, Greta Thunberg has the ignorance and arrogance of youth, so it’s all black or white to her. I’ve no particular complaint about her decision. The authors.. ? Yes, looked a bit knee jerk. I guess not a single one ever buys their milk in a plastic milk bottle ?
Just as a small footnote, though. I’ve focused on certain specifics here. However, the broad way in which you’ve written your post, in particular the accusation of virtue signalling, does somewhat give the impression that maybe you’re not bothered about where the sponsorship monies come from, so long as your beloved book festivals keep rolling along ?
Sorry Andrew, didn’t see this until now.
The words ‘virtue signalling’ were quoted from the letter in the Guardian. I felt it was well put.
My first sentence above tells you how I rate the survival of Earth and book festivals. Just because one thing is really important, doesn’t mean I can’t worry about something else close to my heart as well.
As for arrogance, well…
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