Bigots, not poet to blame for launch furore

Having forced the cancellation of the launch of the poetry collection darkness is where the stars are by patrick jones at Cardiff Waterstones last Wednesday, emails of support have been pouring into us at Cinnamon Press, with blogs and vlogs appearing world-wide, so it was a shock to read a BBC article quoting an inflammatory email from Gerry Johnson, MD of Waterstones, particularly as Mr Johnson had reassured me that he would desist from sending the inflammatory on Friday evening. The email blamed patrick and Cinnamon Press for events that led to the cancellation, implicating Cinnamon Press in bad faith by changing the nature of the agreement with Waterstones.

So let’s set the record straight. patrick has been sending emails to several organisations for years, engaging in debate over a range of contentious political issues. None of this had anything to do with the launch and patrick’s communication with Christian Voice was of an ongoing nature and began long before any event was planned. To conflate this long term debate with deliberate provocation is inaccurate and unacceptable. No one associated with Cinnamon Press informed Christian Voice about the launch.

It was both disappointing and distressing to see the recalled email quoted by the BBC, particularly as it contains the very shaky allegation that ‘provocative action... was taken without prior discussion with the store or their consent and altered the nature of the pre-agreed event.’ If this wasn’t so outrageous it would be laughable. The ‘agreement’ in question was a couple of informal emails agreeing a date and that Cinnamon Press would turn up with refreshments and introduce our poet, which is exactly what we did, only to find we’d travelled for five hours for nothing. At no point was there any mention that the poet needed to keep quiet about the content of his work. Why would an author need Waterstones’ consent to continue a discussion begun months or years before and which made no reference to the launch? It is extremely bad faith to suggest that patrick and Cinnamon Press changed anything or gave grounds for the cancellation. We turned up in good faith having been told the day before by Waterstones that they were expecting protests, but had no intention of bowing to these or allowing the protesters to prevent the launch.

We remain adamant that the only people to blame for all of the furore are those members of Christian Voice prepared to threaten violence and acts of public disorder. By shifting the focus to trying to blame the poet the real issue is being lost. The real issue being that Christian Voice are being allowed to trample free speech with their threats and are continuing to threaten the venues that patrick reads at. Over the years patrick jones has corresponded with many organisations with whom he strongly disagrees and on every other occasion the result has been mature, if passionate, discussion, not threats. Anyone suggesting that patrick or Cinnamon Press are in any way to blame is simply handing these unsavoury bullies ammunition.

Patrick will be reading at Y Ddraig Goch Cafe, Eastgate Street, Caernarfon, LL55 1AG (opposite Weatherspoons pub) on November 21st 7.30 p.m. and at the Welsh Assembly at noon on December 11th in committee room 24, despite continued threats – please come and support him if you can and if you can’t be there then buy a book – annoy a bigot :)

Buy a book - annoy a bigot

The campaign to support patrick jones' fantastic poetry collection, darkness is where the stars are, continues - yesterday we had a mention in the New Yorker as well as on some fantastic blogs (thanks to Pink Triangle and all the other brilliant bloggers).

We also attracted cross-party political support with a great interview from Lorraine Barrett A.M. (Labour) and Peter Black A.M. (Liberal Democratic) organising a reading at the Welsh Assembly for patrick on December 11th. We also had a lovely message of support from Dafydd Elis-Thomas A.M. (Plaid). Christian Voice have taken the offensive against the Lib Dems (bet they're scared :)) without realising that right thinking people of all persuasions (and all faiths) don't want to be associated with bullies who threaten violence and want a repressive theocracy. (The politicians, poets and people of Wales plus all their wonderful supporters world wide are never going to let it happen, Mr Green)

So we are marching on with the campaign to persuade Waterstones to reschedule the launch and with the aim of making this great poetry collection a best seller - poetry topping the charts would make the whole thing worthwhile so please buy the book - annoy a bigot :)

darkness is still where the stars are

One of the things that really rattles me about vitriolic, bullying groups like Christian Voice is the way in which otherwise sane and sensible people feel that they have to take a balanced position between the competing views. I can see where this comes from - it's a sound rule of thumb that we generally debate rationally across disparate views, but the idea that we should give equal weight to the views of those spreading hatred and using tactics of intimidation is madness and I'm not happy to have my views weighed equally with theirs.

Well, that's got that off my chest - on with the issues.

I spoke with Gerry Johnson this morning and it's really sad that we can't agree on all the issues over the cancellation of patrick jones's launch, but we did get some agreement. We both think censorship is wrong and this means that Waterstones will continue to sell the book.

Where we part company is on how to respond to the threats of bullying bigots. I do understand that Mr Johnson has to take the safety of his staff seriously and that he has a duty of care, but I don't think the cancellation was commensurate with the threat. We know now that Christian Voice were planning some leafleting and maybe a bit of shouting - the event could have withstood that. Mr Johnson rightly points out that things happened quickly and that he didn't know the scale of the threat, but he didn't just cancel with the rider that we could review later - he is adamant that the event will not be rescheduled. I may never persuade him otherwise, but I will continue to stand by my view that this is not necessary or reasonable. It gives far too much ground to those who use unscrupulous tactics, even threaten unlawful action. It may well be a matter for the police, but it is not a matter for capitulation.

Mr Johnson insists that Waterstones is not a public body but a private company and therefore there are no rights to the space - absolutely right, but his company made a commitment that involved Cinnamon Press in costs and then pulled out offering no recompense. And the idea that we should only defend public spaces from those threatening disruption or even violence simply doesn't convince me.

But even more deeply I'm disturbed by the fact that Waterstones still seem to be blaming patrick jones and that goes back to my original point about how mad it is to allow ourselves to believe that hateful views deserve equal weight and respect. I hope I'm wrong about this, but Gerry Johnson did say to me today that patrick had admitted sending faxes to Christian Voice and someone wrote to me earlier to say that Waterstones claimed that , "shortly before the event took place, the author deliberately took provocative action to create a furore around the publication of his book."

This is a terribly twisted version of the claims that Stephen Green is making. In fact patrick jones has a long history of political activism and campaigning for minority, civil and human rights. This has brought him into conflict with Christian Voice's 'down with that kind of thing' mentality several times over the years and as part of a recent and ongoing debate (patrick generously talks about trying to chat and debate with these closed minds) patrick had sent some of his poems, including one that protested against female genital mutilation. The correspondence did not allude to the launch at Waterstones.

To call this ongoing engagement 'provocation' is unacceptable. Anyone who disagrees with Stephen Green is provocative by their mere existence from his perspective, but that is not reasonable or sane. Even if Gerry Johnson cannot bring himself to reschedule the launch I would be deeply appreciative of some indication from Waterstones that they do not concur with Christian Voice's inflammatory blame of patrick jones.

I do want to stress that the issues that separate us from Waterstones are really not that huge - I'm glad the book is still on sale there and particularly grateful to the staff at the Cardiff branch for their support, but I don't want Christian Voice to get away with any chipping away at free speech and civil society. patrick jones should be promoting his work - it's brilliant and what else should he do with his book? Only Christian Voice are culpable here - not Cinnamon Press, not patrick jones and not Waterstones. But Waterstones do have it in their power to do even more...