Cancel Culture's New McCarthyism Is An Attack On Freedom

‘Even the Oscars have turned into a snorefest of left-wing sermons’

- Leo McKinstry Daily Express columnist 

FATHER Ted is one of the comic masterpieces of modern television. As one of the programme’s writers, Graham Linehan should now be enjoying all the rewards of his wonderful creation.

Instead he is an outcast, shunned by the industry he once enriched. In an emotional interview with the BBC, he declared that he has been “completely cancelled” by his enemies who “took everything from me”.

And what was Linehan’s offence? Like a dissident in the Soviet Union or a heretic during the rule of the Puritan witchfinders, he was deemed to have affronted the cherished dogma of the zealots.

The vilification stemmed from his decision to speak out in defence of women’s rights which are under attack from transgender ideologues. He became the target for “a huge army of trolls and misogynists”. He and his wife are now divorcing, showbusiness friends have deserted him and a proposed musical version of Father Ted has been scuppered.

For much of its history, Britain has been a beacon of freedom, but as his case tragically shows, parts of our culture are beginning to resemble George Orwell’s 1984, complete with thought crimes and orchestrated hate sessions. The enforcers of the fashionable orthodoxy like to prattle about diversity, yet they demand absolute conformity of opinion.