RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: Will the sick cowards who covered up the rape gang scandal ever be punished? Don't hold your breath
This one is long overdue and, for once, welcome. Let's hope that it throws a retina-scorching searchlight on those responsible. Not just the vile Stone Age sexual predators, but the evil politicians, social workers and police who deliberately turned a blind eye to the industrial-scale abuse of young white girls because they were terrified of being accused of 'racism' and 'Islamophobia'.
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EUAN McCOLM: Book festival is doomed thanks to the cowardice of its chief...but women still won't wheesht
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It was Ms Sturgeon who remained silent while trans activists hurled abuse and threats at nationalist politicians (and anyone else, for that matter) who dared dissent from the 'transwomen are women' orthodoxy. Of course, a proper literary festival would find spaces for both the former First Minister and the women whose campaign against her crank plan to let men self-identify as women hastened her political demise. Another writer conspicuous by her absence from this year's festival line-up is Jenny Lindsay, whose book 'Hounded - Women, Harms, and the Gender Wars' tells the shocking stories of women whose lives were torn apart by trans activists after they dared assert their sex-based rights. Ms Lindsay was, until six years ago, a leading figure on the small but vibrant live poetry scene. 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Of course, nobody is entitled to a booking at the book festival but it seems strange that there is no space for Mr McGarvey, a relentless pain in the establishment backside, while there is room for a trans identifying male 'poet' whose most recent performance was a topless protest during which he demanded 'give us wombs and give us t*****s'. In common with Jenny Lindsay, Susan Dalgety and Lucy Hunter Blackburn, Darren McGarvey has no interest in rubbing along nicely with the charlatans currently dominating the Scottish cultural world. His recent album, released under the name of his rapper alter-ego Loki, 'Not Funded by Creative Scotland' is a brutal and often hilarious critique of the cosy arts scene, where individuality of thought is treated with the greatest suspicion. The Edinburgh International Book Festival has a long and illustrious history as an event at which great, provocative thinkers presented - and defended - controversial ideas. Under the cowardly leadership of director Jenny Niven, those days are over.
