It wasn’t so long ago that signs in British windows read:
No Blacks. No Dogs. No Irish.
And that was considered acceptable.
Things change because people make them change.
In the wake of Glastonbury, we are watching a concerted effort — by politicians, parts of the music industry, and a well-organised pro-Israel lobby — to deplatform musicians who dare to speak. To undermine their legitimacy. To silence them while refusing to engage meaningfully with the questions they raise.
Art has always had a role in democracy. It helps us understand who we are, what we do, and who we want to become. That role doesn’t disappear because it makes powerful people uncomfortable.
Mo Chara of Kneecap now faces terrorism charges. Not for violence. For performance. For a stencil, a spray can, a blouse (pronounced bluez) — and the audacity to make people feel something.
That’s a page straight from the Grunge playbook. Raw, direct, impossible to ignore.
As Irish artists are ostracised for questioning the international silence on Gaza, Britain reaches back into its oldest habits — using the law not to protect people, but to protect itself from being heard.
Incompletely intolerable, Keir Starmer
Bis.
