Cancel THIS
First published: Watson R (20250 Cancel THIS The New Conservative 29 August
Cancel THIS is surely the book we have all been waiting for. It is hilarious – mostly – and instructive. I say ‘mostly’ because, at times, you must pinch yourself to be reminded that for over two years the citizens of the world went mad with mask mandates and one-way systems in pubs, while the ruling classes dreamed up and implemented even more mad ways to grind us down and prove to themselves that – yes – people were largely conformist. With a virtually non-existent threat to their health, the people of the world could be made to leave their jobs (some never to return to them), stay indoors, cover their faces with a useless piece of cloth, show a vaccine passport to leave and enter the country and discuss – without laughing – whether a scotch egg constituted a meal.
But not everyone, and Mike Fairclough, author of Cancel THIS was one of those who didn’t. Mike was part of the rebellion by 0.0023% of headteachers in the UK who objected to the rollout of an untested experimental genetic therapy to schoolchildren. In fact, at 0.0023%, he was the only one of 43,500 headteachers in the UK to raise any objections. He is also known for teaching schoolkids how to shoot, skin rabbits and cook over an open fire. Strangely, his CBE seems not yet to have been awarded. Of course, Fairclough is probably a far-right racist, despite being married to a South Asian lady. He plays that trump card early in the book.
The most redeeming feature of Cancel THIS is that it is short. However, its size does not mean that it is not packed with good sense and good humour. The book is described by the author as ‘part survival guide, part rebellious handbook, and a salute to the dissidents, oddballs, and anyone who’s ever been told to shut up and behave’. I am proud to be associated with his target audience and to count many dissidents and oddballs among my closest circle of friends.
In twelve concise chapters, Fairclough demolishes a series of woke myths including toxic masculinity, white privilege, climate change alarmism, trigger warnings and digital ID. Prefaced with what looks like a relevant AI generated image and caption, each chapter nails some home truths such as: ‘women love real men’; ‘gender ideology is the intellectual equivalent of licking batteries’; ‘being white doesn’t make you privileged’ and ‘people talk about Britain like it’s a malignant tumour’.
There follows a series of four or five Top Rebellion Tips which have genuine potential. They could be used by any of us to undermine the endless stream of bollocks that issues from the mouths of the perpetually offended. Thus, make ‘mate’ your pronoun, start a ‘problematic pride’ parade, eat meat and drive a car, teach your kids sarcasm (aka ‘taking the piss’) and create a ‘host a migrant’ challenge for virtue-signalling celebs.
I especially like Fairclough’s challenge to ‘turn offence into a competitive sport’ by seeing who can be most offensive in a ‘safe space’ without getting cancelled. Having worked until recently in a UK university, for the rebellious type in such corporate bodies I know there are endless opportunities.
While Fairclough manages to maintain his sense of humour throughout, when you reach chapter 12 on Questioning Medical Interventions, you realise that this is no joke. Fairclough made his views on the Covid-19 vaccine for children clear in The Daily Telegraph in 2021. That alone is remarkable, given The Daily Telegraph showed no guts whatsoever regarding the Covid-19 narrative and, especially, regarding Covid-19 vaccines. For his trouble he was the subject of a complaint to the Counter Extremism Division and reported to the anti-terror programme PREVENT. As Fairclough says, expressing concern about a potentially harmful medical intervention with no known effectiveness for a highly vulnerable group at no risk of contracting or suffering badly from Covid-19, you were categorised alongside ISIS.
Everyone who raised objections at that time about the Covid-19 vaccines and about puberty blockers has been vindicated, but they have received neither thanks nor recognition. And they went through Hell to get where they are now. This is the point in the book where I realised, humour aside, and with hindsight on the Covid-19 years especially, being right was not what mattered to our state, it was being aligned with whatever the latest propaganda was. This is a message that must not be forgotten and it is because of this message and the fact that our government no longer – and possibly never did – work in our best interests that books like Cancel THIS are important and necessary. Buy it, believe it and live it.
If you like it: buy me a coffee