London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 09, 2025

‘Cancel culture a reflection of rightwing papers’ intolerance,’ says David Olusoga

‘Cancel culture a reflection of rightwing papers’ intolerance,’ says David Olusoga

Historian taking part in debate at Hay festival says he is labelled an activist to ‘delegitimise’ his voice
Historian and TV presenter David Olusoga has said that rightwing newspapers characterise him as an activist and critical race theorist to “delegitimise” his voice, despite there being no basis for these claims.

Olusoga, whose work has explored black Britishness and the legacy of empire and slavery, said that people “feel perfectly comfortable making these comments about me without being able to point to a single reference or footnote in my books”. He said that in reality he is “an old-fashioned empirical historian who fundamentally tells stories and tries to create empathy and a public understanding of history”.

He told an audience at Hay festival: “Why the need to describe me as a critical race theorist? Why the need to describe me as an activist rather than a historian? These are all about delegitimising people’s voices.”

Olusoga was speaking as part of a debate on “how cancel culture has become a blood sport”, but said that the phrase did not capture his experience, since it is usually attributed to students, who he thinks are falsely accused of fomenting “cancel culture”, when in reality it reflects “a growing intolerance” in rightwing newspapers.

He was also asked for his views on the response to historian David Starkey’s comments that slavery was not genocide. Starkey subsequently resigned from his post at the University of Cambridge’s Fitzwilliam College.

Olusoga said he was “conflicted” because while what Starkey had said was “appalling” and “inaccurate”, he felt “it’s sad that somebody who is a great historian was getting into those debates”.

He blamed Starkey’s tone on the influence of the Moral Maze, BBC Radio 4’s provocative show that has run since 1990, for “elevating opinion over expertise”. “It’s taken some who have great expertise away from that expertise and into that carnivalesque world of commentary,” he said.

The panel was hosted by the editor of Prospect magazine, Alan Rusbridger. The former Guardian editor said he had observed during his six years as principal of Oxford University’s Lady Margaret Hall how the increasingly polarised and vitriolic tone of public debate had resulted in a “growing fear” among academics that “one misplaced word or tweet” would lead to a “pile-on”.

Prof Jonathan Bate, who was also on the panel, said that how controversial issues are discussed varied in different countries. While in the UK there is “a great deal of heat” around trans issues, this is not so fiercely debated in the US, where he teaches at Arizona State University. “The hot button in the States, for entirely understandable reasons, is race,” he said.

Speaking generally, he worried that “history goes in cycles and an age of liberation is followed by an age of puritanism” and that the current mood of polarisation was “bringing us into a new puritanism”.

Fellow panellist and comedian Shazia Mirza said that when she started out in comedy 15 years ago, death threats were “considered serious” but that social media had made them so commonplace that they were considered “a badge of honour” among comedians.

“If you get a death threat or hate mail it’s considered that you’re doing well, it means you’re making people react, people are talking about you; you’re having an effect on people,” she said.

She added that although people say that comedians such as Jimmy Carr, Louis CK and Ricky Gervais have been cancelled, in reality “it’s a myth”. “They are definitely not unemployed, they are still working, earning millions.”
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×