Speech at Contrarian Prize ceremony at Alon Zakaim gallery – 23 October 2024
Introduction
Good evening everyone
I am delighted to see you all.
This gathering always draws an eclectic crowd. There are key figures here from the arts, academia, charity, politics, the media, finance, business and dance music all drawn by the idea of championing British contrarians.
I would like to begin by thanking Alon Zakaim for hosting us in his wonderful gallery. He is a leader in impressionist, modern and contemporary art placing museum quality works in private collections worldwide. It is wonderful to be surrounded by this collection of photographs of the “Greatest” by Chris Smith. Now I am named after Muhammad Ali. No I really am! My aunt was a fan and struck an agreement with my mother that if he secured victory in the Rumble in the Jungle against George Foreman, then I would be named after him. He won the fight on 30 October 1974, and I was born the very next day. Alon thank for your generosity and to your team led by Ben Springett for their professionalism in making this event happen.
They say you get by with a little help from your friend so I must thank Lucy Beresford, the highly acclaimed psychotherapist and podcaster, for compering this evening, Elli for taking photos, Oli for managing the AV and Irina on the door.
Now I’m delighted that we are joined by the seasoned political journalist and broadcaster, Adam Boulton. Always at the top of his game and never afraid to take on the powerful. Let’s take a look (video plays).
Silencing of dissent
My five-year-old niece is a fan the street artist Banksy, so like a good uncle I took her and her siblings to an exhibition here in London over the summer. As we meandered through the works I looked up and noticed a quote emblazoned on the wall, “The greatest crimes in the world are not committed by people breaking the rules but by people following the rules.“ It made me think. It’s not always pretty, but here in Britain we are free to speak our minds. That privilege, the ability to say what you think, indeed the ability to say anything at all, is not one enjoyed in many other parts of the world. In August, the Taliban issued a diktat which deems women’s voices to be potential instruments of vice and forbids them from singing or reading aloud in public.
Jimmy Lai, the pro-democracy advocate, who opposed the introduction of Hong Kong’s national security law which silences dissent is now languishing in solitary confinement in prison at the age of 77.
Despite us having no such restrictions on expressing our views here, so few speak up, when it really matters. I am not talking about keyboard warriors spouting off on social media under the anonymity of pseudonyms, or columnists who monetise their confected outrage. I am referring to those who stand up for what they believe when the stakes are high and the personal risk is great.
Individuals like the inaugural winner of the Contrarian Prize, Michael Woodford, who was summarily fired as CEO of the Japanese behemoth, Olympus, for trying to investigate a $1.7 billion fraud within the company. He was forced to flee Tokyo fearing for his life.
Institutional failure
I set up the Contrarian Prize in 2012 because I was fed up with obsequious, spineless people securing advancement whilst those who took a stand got shafted. We had witnessed the parliamentary expenses scandal, a police cover-up over the deaths of over 90 people at Hillsborough football stadium and the systematic abuse of children by the presenter Jimmy Saville. Why had no one spoken up?
Now, over a decade since the Contrarian Prize was established, wrongdoing and cover-up within institutions still appears as inevitable as death and taxes. The Post Office scandal and the Grenfell Tower tragedy are two cases in point. The former, saw 900 sub-postmasters prosecuted for stealing because of incorrect information from an errant computer system leaving names sullied, families destroyed, careers ruined and lives lost. An inquiry into the the latter, revealed a string of failures across both government and the private sector resulting in a tower block becoming a death trap which cost 72 lives. In both cases, people must have known the truth but kept schtum.
For the first time in the history of the Contrarian prize, all five of the shortlisted nominees are whistleblowers. It’s sobering. Not only do they lay bare the Kafkaesque-nature of a number of our leading institutions, they illustrate something profound. When they came to a fork in the road, they could not be silenced or bought off because their conscience was more important than their career. They are contrarians not of choice but of necessity.
In that sense, they are different from those individuals who challenge the prevailing orthodoxy because they are driven by an idea, a cause, an ideology. Martin Luther, who in 1517 condemned the practice of worshippers paying the Catholic Church for the redemption of their sins and paved the way for the Protestant Reformation, is an example. So is Milicent Fawcett, who campaigned for women’s suffrage saying “I cannot say I became a suffragist. I always was one.” Some people are born contrarian, others have contrarianism thrust upon them. This prize has, over the years, recognised both types.
The polarised discourse
Going against the grain on grounds of principle is becoming increasingly difficult, because in an ever more polarised world, it is challenging to work out where the grain actually is. The pro-European former Conservative Cabinet minister, David Gauke, has become a contrarian not through choice, but as a result of his former party moving so radically in the opposite direction that he no longer feels at home in it. Leftist feminists including Germaine Greer and JK Rowling are now dismissed as pariahs by their erstwhile compatriots for succumbing to dangerous “rightwing ideology” because of their stance on trans women being prevented from entering female only spaces.
A torrent of tribalism, exacerbated by social media, has now gripped us where feeding the lust of the baying mob overrides the ability to express an opinion others find offensive. In this new world, groupthink has squashed individual reason, positions are advanced on the basis of emotion not evidence, ideas are secondary to identity, civility has given way to aggression, self-righteousness supersedes empathy and emotional safety is more important than expanding your mind.
Hail the Contrarians
The Contrarian Prize was established to recongise those who rail against such nonsense.
All nominations come from the public via the website for individuals in British public life that have demonstrated independence of thought, courage and conviction in their actions, made a personal sacrifice for their beliefs, and introduced new ideas into the public realm or had an impact on the public debate.
There are no corporates or philanthropic foundations behind this prize. The costs are funded by a handful of individuals including myself which is in keeping with the ethos of maintaining its independence.
The winner of the prize is invited to deliver the Contrarian Prize lecture which provides a platform to engage in a public conversation encouraging debate.
The prize itself is represented by an iconic sculpture designed by the renowned pop artist, Mauro Perucchetti. It is entitled “The Three Politicians”, the one who does not see, the one who does not hear and the one who does not speak.
Contrarians do exactly the opposite because they could not live with themselves if they didn’t. So hail the awkward squad, who eschew personal comfort to take a stand. Thank heavens for them.
“The greatest crimes in the world are not committed by people breaking the rules but by people following the rules.” Bansky was right.
Thank you
ENDS
Please click onto any of the links below for the 2024 event:
2024 Introduction video - Contrarians challenge the status quo
2024 Nominations video
2024 Prize-giving ceremony video
2024 Prize-giving photo gallery
