Joanna Cherry rails against cancel culture at Edinburgh Festival as the SNP MP is flanked by security guards with guests forced to go through metal detectors – but only two trans activists turn up after comedy club tried
- The SNP MP appeared at the Edinburgh Festival event surrounded by security
- Attendees were forced to go through airport-style security checks
Joanna Cherry railed against cancel culture yesterday as she appeared at her Edinburgh Festival event surrounded by security guards.
Attendees were forced through airport-style security, with bag searches and metal detectors, whilst guards flanked her during her ‘In Conversation with…’ event.
The SNP MP said she was shocked by the lack of protesters at the controversial talk, after declaring The Stand comedy club had tried ‘cancelling her’.
The Fringe show only went ahead after Ms Cherry threatened to sue the club, whose staff were reportedly refusing to work the event in protest at her gender critical views.
But just two protesters bothered turning up outside the venue, and no one spoke out against the nationalist politician when offered the chance to do so during the show.
Ms Cherry used the event to decry the ‘cancel culture’ that stifles debate, and warned that the problem needed to be solved before Scotland could ever consider becoming independent.
The ‘disappointed but not surprised’ politician also accused her critics of running scared after audience members were given the chance to challenge her views on gender – but no one spoke up.
SNP MP Joanna Cherry appeared at her Edinburgh Festival event surrounded by security guards. The Fringe show only went ahead after Ms Cherry threatened to sue the club
Just two protesters bothered turning up outside the venue, and no one spoke out against the nationalist politician when offered the chance to do so during the show
Attendees were forced through airport-style security, with bag searches and metal detectors whilst guards flanked her during her ‘In Conversation with…’ event
She also criticised The Stand, who hastily reinstated the show after her legal threat, warning that if debate about issues such as gender recognition reform (GRR), the country was ‘done for’.
She said: ‘One of the reasons why I have pushed back so hard against the “no debate” culture in the debate over women’s rights and trans rights and the potential clashes is that I felt that if that “no debate” culture was to affect other areas of our political discourse, our country would be done for.
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon says she has ‘no regrets’ about bringing in controversial Scots transgender law and ‘would vote for it again tomorrow’ and claims the UK government is ‘terrified’ of Scottish independence in Edinburgh Fringe appearance
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‘[The Stand] pandered to people who wrongly want to paint lesbians and feminists like me as bigots and transphobes.
‘So they created a problem which they then had to set up massive security against.’
During the talk, the SNP MP told the audience that she was a victim of ‘homophobic abuse’ from within the SNP over her opposition to The Scottish Government’s planned gender reforms.
The SNP/Green government at Holyrood wanted to make it easier for people to legally change gender by lowering the age limit and remove medical involvement to allow people to ‘self-declare’ their gender.
Explaining her stance afterwards, Ms Cherry said: ‘My objection is not to equal right for trans people, my objection is to giving any man the right to self identify as a woman with minimal safeguards.’
The Edinburgh South West MP revealed she was concerned for her safety ahead of the event, and was ‘surprised’ no one wanted to challenge her.
She said: ‘Very rarely will anyone who’s on the other side of the argument to me actually come and debate and address the issues.
‘They just want to scream “bigot and transphobe” or “no debate” and shut the debate down.’
Ms Cherry continued: ‘If a woman like me, who is quite a powerful women with a platform, fears for her safety because of speaking out about these issues, how much more threatening it is for a working class woman or a woman who’s vulnerable for some reason?
‘I think it’s a disgrace in modern Scotland that lesbians and feminists like myself are not able to speak in public without security measures put in place.
‘That needs to be addressed by the leaders of all political parties because something’s gone very wrong with our public discourse in Scotland.
Members of the public arrive to see Ms Cherry during her show In Conversation With… at the Grand Hall, New Town Theatre, during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Ms Cherry used the event to decry the ‘cancel culture’ that stifles debate, and warned that the problem needed to be solved
‘I want to see it put right and I want to see it put right before the nation moves on to be an independent nation.’
It comes following Nicola Sturgeon’s interview at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival where she declared she had no regrets about the controversial Gender Recognition Reform Bill.
The former Scottish First Minister defiantly said she would vote for the transgender rights law ‘tomorrow’ if it came back to Holyrood.
The law, which makes it easier for transgender people to change their legal gender from as young as 16, was vetoed by Rishi Sunak after being passed by the Scottish Government.
In a wide-ranging discussion for Iain Dale’s All Talk show, Ms Sturgeon said: ‘I don’t have any regrets about the way I handled it … (I) would vote for it again tomorrow…
‘I’m a feminist, I have been a feminist all my life, I will be a feminist till the day I die. Women’s rights matter to me more than most other things.’
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