by Brendan O’Neill, Spectator
I see even national treasures aren’t safe from the petulant, punitive tantrums of the irritant left. Witness the travails of Maureen Lipman. Two actors you’ve never heard of have flounced out of a stage production with Dame Maureen, citing her views as the cause of their ideological pant-wetting. And what are her criminal beliefs? She supports the existence of a Jewish state.
Dame Maureen will be appearing in Right Before I Go at the Soho Theatre in London in a few days’ time. It’s a play that draws on real suicide notes left by public figures and everyday people. Its aim is to illuminate suicide’s horrors. No sooner had Lipman’s involvement been announced than the keffiyeh clowns of the thespian left were spluttering into their seven-quid matcha teas.
The first to sashay away in a flourish of cheap outrage was Gerard McCarthy. He was in Hollyoaks once apparently. He said he could not in good faith appear alongside Ms Lipman given the views she has “repeatedly expressed regarding Israel and Palestine”. Oh Lord, grant me the confidence of a bit-part actor getting on his high horse over a dame who’s been entertaining the nation for six decades.
The next to exit in a juvenile huff was Iz Hesketh. No, me neither. With Lipman on board, I feel this production no longer “aligns with my own personal values and beliefs”, said Hesketh. Nothing will “ever change” if “we don’t stand by our morals when it matters”, Hesketh continued, as if this were a modern-day march on Selma rather than the tinny bleating of D-list luvvies so vain they won’t even breathe the same air as those they disagree with.
It’s the narcissism of the Lipman spurners that is most alarming. Imagine if we all scarpered from situations that did not perfectly align with our “personal values and beliefs”. Workplaces would collapse. Social life would come to a standstill. I’m writing this article in a cafe. Perhaps I should ask if anyone in here believes a man can become a woman, given such intellectual voodoo offends my reality-based beliefs. Should I leave for the good of my self-esteem?
Read also: I’m an alleged National Treasure. I won’t be bullied by actors over my views on Israel by Maureen Lipman, Telegraph
The shameful attempt to ostracise Dame Maureen Lipman and other Jewish artists who refuse to disavow Israel by Stephen Pollard, Jewish Chronicle
Quote of the day: ‘National treasure schools pompous pipsqueak nobody has heard of. Excellent.’ – Ian Acheson