Freedom of Speech — House of Lords, 2021-12-10
Topic: Civil Rights
Elizabeth Sanderson (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Cashman. I, too, thank the most reverend Primate for tabling today’s debate. As we have heard, the threats to freedom of speech in today’s world come in many and varied forms. I shall speak about the challenges in one area, and that is literature I was prompted to do so after reading an interview recently with Dame Rose Tremain, one of our best and best-loved writers, who has said that she is not sure whether she will write another novel. This is not because of her age—I hope she will not mind me saying that she is now in her eighth decade—nor is it because of her health. Indeed, this is a woman who refused chemotherapy after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer because it could have damaged the feeling in her hands which could have left her unable to write. Yet now, here she is, a couple of years on from that diagnosis, with one further novel under her belt but unsure whether she will ever write again because of the climate we have somehow found ourselves in, a climate which not only threatens our freedom of speech but in this instance, it seems, our freedom of thought and imagination as well Dame Rose is a writer famous for inhabiting various different characters from a transgender man to a European immigrant, books that arguably she would struggle to have published nowadays because now, as she says: "There’s a whole debate about … whether we’re just constrained to write about ourselves ... Supposing Dickens had only written about himself … I feel a bit stuck as to what I can be allowed to write. What pathway can I take? How can writers like me, who have always gone elsewhere, find the next subject? I keep searching in my mind … and thinking, ‘No, that won’t do, that won’t do.’ So whether I’ll find anything to write about is, I think, now a moot point." Noble Lords heard her—she said "what I can be allowed to write." So who decides that? The publishers would argue that, ultimately, the market decides although, as we know, it is not that simple anymore. Once again, in this, as in so many other areas of life, we come back to social media. I, too, agree with the most reverend Primate’s point about those previously unheard, but we must also take account of the damage done when storms are whipped up and reputations torn to shreds in in just a matter of hours. When American Dirt, a best-selling novel by Jeanine Cummins, was deemed racist by the online mob, reviewers felt compelled to back-track on their earlier praise, while the author’s tours had to be cancelled after threats of serious violence Rachel Rooney, a successful children’s author, has said that her career is now over after she dared to write a book, My Body is Me!, helping children to understand and accept themselves rather than simply assuming they have been trapped in the wrong body. Such is the vicious nature of the current debate on this issue, as we have heard across this House today, that Rooney was accused of promoting terrorist propaganda and, after two years of online smears, has effectively been drummed out of publishing. Perhaps it should not come as a surprise that Sir Kazuo Ishiguro has warned that young writers are now self-censoring and less willing to take risks because they want to avoid being targeted by online lynch mobs Others will argue that this is simply the old guard failing to catch up with the prevailing ethics of the current generation, but I do not agree. We should worry about the real-life consequences of this online intimidation. As David Shelley, CEO of Hachette, told our own Communications and Digital Select Committee: "I have not seen an instance of so-called cancel culture or people getting exercised by anything that has not originated from Twitter, Instagram or one of a few big tech platforms." What to do in upholding freedom of speech in this context? Personally, I do not think the answer lies in sensitivity readers, a phenomenon popular in the US and now over here, whereby people vet manuscripts for problematic language or stereotypes. It definitely does not lie in an older generation of writers feeling forced into hanging up their boots. Surely the answer, at least for the industry, lies in seeking out wider views and more authors from diverse backgrounds. Change is happening—not quickly enough, but at least it is going in the right direction. Certainly, some of the best novels I have read in recent years have come from newer voices; they have enriched and improved my understanding of the world. Surely, that is what literature is for Sir Kazuo Ishiguro also said, this time in his Nobel speech: "Good writing and good reading will break down barriers." As the most reverend Primate the Archbishop of Canterbury says, it should help us to disagree well. In my view, it should certainly encourage greater empathy, not lead to immovable judgment. That is why I want to read Kiley Reid and Kamila Shamsie—but I also very much hope to read a new novel by Rose Tremain.