Comment on Richard Flanagan wins Baillie Gifford prize but rejects £50,000 over sponsor’s fossil fuel ties
steeznson@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
This Baillie Gifford controversy is nuts. They are one of the largest investment companies in terms of backing renewable energies and they invest way fewer funds than their competitors in fossil fuels.
Arts festivals like the Edinburgh Book Festival have been browbeaten by these grandstanding authors into removing them as a sponsor but the only repercussions we’re going to see is the event being reduced in scale in coming years. The government is not going to step in and take their place and there’s no viable alternative source of money other than the private sector.