We live in deeply censorious and illiberal times. Few events have illustrated this more clearly than the response to the Harper’s cancel-culture letter. When a group of public figures – including major authors like JK Rowling, Margaret Atwood and Salman Rushdie – wrote an open letter expressing their despair at a growing culture of intolerance that is stifling debate, there was an immediate backlash, complete with demands to ‘cancel’ the signatories.
