There's been a lot of talk in the press recently about cancellations, threatened cancellations and walk-outs. With this in mind, I thought I'd put on record the ways in which some people have tried to cancel me or even succeeded in cancelling me.
Labour Against Antisemitism try to get me cancelled from the BBC.
In the blog now headed:
"Saturday, 9 August 2025
UPDATED most recent update: Aug 24 2026 - see Postscripts 1 and 2 - plus some thoughts on LAAS now, plus thoughts following comparisons with Jason Arday + comments on Alex Hearn, replies to 'Rubie', 'Bert', Josh Howie and Saul Faust. It's the story of how 3 directors of Labour Against Antisemitism - and friends - have dealt with people they object to (me and another person)"
https://michaelrosenblog.blogspot.com/2025/08/two-facebook-articles-adapted-talking.html
I describe how one former director of Labour Against Antisemitism put out a tweet in which he tried to 'no platform' me from the BBC. He didn't succeed.
Other examples:
JW3
I was booked by the Jewish Community Centre, JW3. To be clear, the centre approached me, offered me a fee and a date and proposed a double act with the beat box performer, Shlomo. The gig was agreed. It was then proposed that the gig should be delayed. I agreed. I never heard from JW3 again.
Charity
I was booked to do a charity gig at the Wigmore Hall in London, with the broadcaster Jon Sopel. It was a commemoration of the Kindertransport children who were looked after in the Lake District. I was a narrator along with Jon. We rehearsed the show, but then, a few days before the show, I was told that they would have to drop me.
Anne Frank Trust
I was commissioned by the Anne Frank Trust to write a poem to commemorate Anne Frank. As I had been on a panel with Anne Frank's cousin, and had made a half-hour radio programme about the tree-planting that schools and other institutions do in memory of Anne Frank, I was very happy to accept the commission. I wrote the poem, and then 'post hoc', some people objected and even suggested that if I had been in Amsterdam at the time the Frank family found a secret refuge, I would have betrayed them. I've never heard from the Anne Frank Trust since.
Show Racism the Red Card
Show Racism the Red Card is an anti-racist charity. They asked me to judge a children's poetry competition. Some people objected on Twitter (as it was then). I was dropped from the competition and I've never heard from them since.
Jewish Book Week
Several times over many years, Jewish Book Week (its former name) booked me to do readings, interviews and poetry competition judging. The last one I did was for a reading from my children's book about my father's cousin 'Please Write Soon', which told his experiences during WW2. It was picketed by Jonathan Hoffman and some others, bearing placards with the words 'No platform for Corbyn lackeys'. Jonathan and one or two others bought tickets for this children's event. Half way through, someone - I think it was Jonathan - stood up and shouted, 'Why do you support Jeremy Corbyn?'
As you can tell, this had nothing to do with the event and nothing to do with children. Jonathan and the others were escorted from the event, security were called and the police provided a 'police number' to go with their action.
Jewish Book Week did not cancel me. We came to a mutual agreement that JBW would not approach me to do readings again. My motivation to agree to this is that I don't want to go places where I'm not welcome and I don't want to cause problems for Jewish Book Week. However, the net effect is of course a cancellation.
Jewish Renaissance Magazine
I was approached by JR magazine to host a poetry show for the magazine's anniversary family gala day. This event was picketed by Jonathan Hoffman who was handing out leaflets to people going into the event. These purported to tell the true and tragic story of the life and death of Dr Pete Newbon. In retrospect, I would suggest that these leaflets were libellous in that they ascribe blame where there is no medical or legal justification for doing so. Jonathan waited for me outside the venue (a London college) while I was doing the gig and was still there when it came for me to leave. The organisers very kindly escorted me out of another exit. I am not cancelled by JR magazine.
Goldsmiths University of London
This applies to a group of Jewish members of staff and not me alone. The college commissioned a KC (QC at the time) to investigate antisemitism at the college and write it up as an official report. The KC found examples of antisemitism, described them and pointed the finger at management for not dealing with them at the time.
In response, the college set up an 'Action Plan' and created two committees. One is external and 'advisory', the other is internal and has been set the task to deliever mandatory antisemitism awareness training. That was a year ago and neither committee has delivered that training.
A group of Jewish members of staff (the 'ad hoc group') appealed to management querying why we were excluded from the process by which this Action Plan was put in place. We were told that it was because, in their words, 'we own the plan'. Since then we have had several meetings with individuals - strictly not consultation meetings - in which we have said that we want to be included in the process, so that the plan can be revised, and that we have one clear request, that antisemitism awareness training should not be hived off and treated separately from anti-racism training. Our involvement at this level or of this kind has been refused.
Further to this, the college made a commitment that the organisation of Holocaust Memorial Day should be 'led by Jewish members of staff and students'. HMD 2026 was not led by Jewish members of staff and students. We have objected to this and been rebuffed.
We have written to the external 'Advisory' board and never received a reply.
In short, we have been cancelled - no reason given.
If I might anticipate a comment on what I've written here, to the effect that our Ad hoc group doesn't represent all Jewish members of staff, might I say the following:
We have never pretended we represent all Jewish members of staff. That's why we call it an Ad hoc group.
It's not possible to ascertain who are the Jewish members of staff because neither the college or us have put out a 'round robin' calling on Jewish members of staff to come forward to be consulted on any of these matters.
This takes the matter onto another level. By not choosing to consult with Jewish members of staff via some kind of 'round robin', the college has in effect cancelled all Jewish members of staff at the very moment they claim they are implementing an Action Plan to deliver antisemitism awareness training. If I was being satirical, I would suggest that such training needs to start with the management who have set up the Action Plan to deal with antisemitism.
More general efforts to get me cancelled
Many times, when people advertise gigs where I'm due to appear, people publicly post tweets on X, where they say anything from the plain abusive, to libellous. Mostly, the people at the venues tell me that they ignore such attacks. However, I have no idea whether these have a drip-drip effect, in which venues make choices down the line based on wanting an easy life and not having to negotiate public attacks.
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What I read in the press is condemnation of cancellation. This is a legitimate position to take. However, I only read of cancellations going one way, the ones usually cited as being allegedly motivated by antisemitism or 'wokery', or both. I don't think I've ever read any mention of the kind of cancellations or attempted cancellations that I'm talking about in this blog.
How do I interpret this difference?
I see what's going on with this one-sided objection to cancellation as not being about the principle. It is, as I see it, a one-sided objection.
I look forward to those who say they object to cancelling 'per se', taking up the principle on my behalf, and including it in their objections.
