It's almost like a new religion in that it has catchisms of states that you must believe,

whether it be from the river to the sea or trans women or non-binary are valid or we're all racist.

There's a whole sort of bundle of beliefs that go together and that gives them a sense of a secular church.

The pioneers of my art form were old women and I refused to kind of just stay silent.

I think a lot of women are just being bullied and harassed. They're leaving the professions,

whether it be trans gender critical debate, racism and symptoms, but it could almost be anything

because it's a way to shut down

original thinking. It's highly authoritarian and it's about sort of like stifling down any dissent.

Hello, welcome back to the Brendan O'Neill show with me, Brendan O'Neill, and my special guest this week, Rosie Kay. Rosie, welcome to the show. Hello, hello, it's lovely to be back. Thank you. So good to have you back on. While I was logging on, I thought to myself, this is an issue that you used to hear a lot of discussion about in the old days. I'm old enough to remember

when you would switch on Channel 4 and there'd be a discussion about this topic or you'd

suddenly read about it in the press. And it's the question of artistic freedom. Freedom in the arts,

whether how far artistic freedom should go, whether we have it or not, why it's important. I remember

discussions like that all the time.

You see it less frequently these days, except when it comes to you guys. You have launched an

initiative called Freedom in the Arts, which is all about defending the right of artists to

freedom of expression, self-expression, and the freedom to create work that they want to

create. Fascinating initiative, and I guess we should just kick off by asking you what made

you set this up and what your aim is with this group. So some of your viewers and listeners will know

that I went through my own very painful cancellation

almost exactly four years ago and I spoke out and went public about what I thought was

both harms to women and children around trans ideology but also wider the threat to freedom in the arts

and to self, well, freedom, artistic expression.

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