Lessons in Courage: How I Fought Back Against Cancel Culture and Won

By Nick Buckley

Nick Buckley MBE came to international attention in June 2020 when he was fired by the board of The Mancunian Way, a charity he had founded, for criticizing the far-left policies of Black Lives Matter. He then mounted a successful fightback that resulted in his reinstatement and the resignation of the board who had fired him.

Buckley had spent two decades preventing youth crime, homelessness, and antisocial behaviour in the UK’s toughest neighborhoods. In 2019 he was awarded the MBE for his work with Mancunian Way, which promotes early intervention and personal responsibility. Buckley was a social campaigner for issues that keep people in poverty feeling victimized. But when he found himself cancelled, he felt his life was destroyed. Slowly becoming poisoned by the toxicity of self-pity, he decided he needed to give himself a good talking to. He was lucky. It had been his career to give people a good talking to, and he was good at it. He took his own medicine and got his life back within weeks.

In Lessons in Courage, Buckley argues that in our febrile cultural climate we increasingly need people to be courageous and to do what is right, not what is convenient or acceptable to fashionable ideologues. Buckley sets out a series of lessons learned throughout his life, not having realized that he was in training for a life-defining battle. These are the tough but inspiring lessons he wants to offer the next person to face an angry and intolerant mob and to others who self-censor or hold back for fear of drowning in turbulent waters.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Academica Press
• Release date: Nov 30, 2021
• ISBN: 9781680537468

Book preview

‘I was too cowardly to do what I knew to be right, as I had been too cowardly to avoid doing what I knew to be wrong.’

-Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

Introduction

Cowardice, betrayal, and revenge are not the themes of many non-fiction books today. But this is not an ordinary non-fiction book. It is a journey into the need for more personal responsibility, through the lens of the recent ramping-up of identity politics in the UK.

The year 2020 opened my eyes to the full extent of the danger of identity politics. I saw the damage we are inflicting upon ourselves in the name of diversity, inclusion, and equity. The question I had to ask myself was ‘what was I going to do about it?’

I am no writer. I have not been to university. I do not think of myself as an intellectual. Yet I have a cabinet full of awards for the work I have done over decades. Accredited certificates do not make the person, however. Life experience makes the person.

I have had a life like no other. I came from nothing. I was nothing for decades. In some ways, I am still nothing. But this amazing country gives people unlimited opportunities to change their life outcomes. Eventually, I learnt how to grasp some of these opportunities on offer. It only took thirty years for me to learn. Some people are slower than others. Others do not learn at all.

The title of this book evolved over months over which it was written. The more I wrote, the more the content reflected what I was feeling inside. The more I looked inside, the more the word ‘cowardice’ came to the fore. I looked at my country and saw cowardice. I looked within myself and saw the same. I changed the title of the book and continued writing.

I realised that I had to make the book interesting to the reader, otherwise no one would read it. I know I cannot rely on my literary skills and would be foolish to try. But over many decades people have been interested in the things I say and the stories I tell. I can hold an audience. I have no fear of public speaking. I decided to write as I speak and to use my personal and professional experiences to make my points and draw the listener forward. This book is a journey into how I think, how I feel, and why I do what I do. It is a psychoanalyst’s birthday present.

What should we do when we see our country making huge mistakes and going down the wrong path? Protesting on the streets does not work. Moaning about it does not work. Accepting it does not work. The answer is to do something productive that initiates change. What this actually means is another matter completely.

This book is my attempt to be part of the solution. I simply explain the issues and offer easy steps that people can take to be part of the solution. We are the majority. Common sense belongs to the majority.

The term ‘silent majority’ should not exist, for it is a codeword for cowardice. The majority and the minority all should be heard, and one side should never be silent. A silent majority have usually been silenced on purpose. It is not a natural state of affairs to withhold your opinions and ideas. There is always a reason behind the decision. It may be laziness or genuine ambiguity, but what if it is not?

What if it is something more sinister? What if the reason that the majority are silent is because of fear, intimidation, or coercion.

How has our great country found itself in such a position of cowardice? When did we become so pathetic and cowardly as British people? When did we all become afraid?

Is this inevitable in a country where life has become too comfortable for the vast majority of the populace? Do we need a deadlier version of Covid-19 to remind us of what we have and what is important in life?

Accepting personal responsibility is the way for individuals to find meaning in their lives, and the only way they can improve them. The country is crying out for more adults and fewer spoiled, whinging babies.

Over this book’s ten chapters, I try to explain my thinking. I explore my own cancellation, the projects I have directed, and the stories of people I have met along the way.

This may not be the story you want to read. But it is my story: a Mancunian tale.

‘During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.’

- George Orwell

Chapter One:

An Unexpected Death

Lesson 1: To misrepresent the truth is cowardice

Have you ever killed a person?

Snatch his or her heart right from the chest? Held it in your hand, as you gazed upon it still beating, and then tightened your deadly grip until it beat no more? I have. Some say the death was deserved. Some say it was purely an accident. I know better for I was there. It was suicide. It was my suicide.

In June 2020, I became slightly famous in the United Kingdom. I was sacked from the charity I had founded nine years before. I did such a good job at the charity that six months previously I had received an MBE from the Queen, in the 2019 New Year’s honour list. There is a plethora of reasons why a successful CEO may be fired from a charity: financial mismanagement, inappropriate behaviour, sexual misconduct, and criminal convictions. None was relevant to my case.

My ‘crime’ was much darker, more sinister, and more unforgivable. I had a personal opinion and I dared to express it. ‘Jesus Christ,’ I hear you shout. ‘You did what!’ Yes, you understood correctly. I voiced my opinion based on two decades of experience. How little did I understand about modern society and the recent changes within it. I had not received the memo. I still believed I lived in a free and open society. I was wrong.

I had never really heard of Black Lives Matter until May 2020. I do not think many other people in the UK had, either. I know none of my family and friends had. I asked them. The death of George Floyd in America was a tragedy captured on video and shared with the world. He did not deserve to die as he did. He lay on the ground with a police officer kneeling on his neck. It was a horrendous piece of footage, especially listening to his last words. Suddenly, we had protests on the streets in British cities for the death of a career criminal 4,000 miles away.

Floyd’s death happened in a foreign country, with a different police force. The UK protests made no sense to me. The only way I could explain it was as the latest fashion craze, a new American pastime jumped the pond. I decided to google Black Lives Matter to see what I could find out. It was easy. Their website popped up on my screen and I began to read. It was immediately obvious that this was a political organisation, not just an anti-racist slogan.

I visited their website several times over the coming weeks and began to listen to what they were saying. Several stated aims jumped out at me. Defund the police. Overthrow capitalism. Disrupt the Western nuclear family.

Defund The Police:

This aim shocked me.

This has to be the craziest idea I have heard. The premise seems to be that if we decrease the number of police, then crime will decrease accordingly. The presence of police seems to create the crime.

I have spent two decades working in inner city communities. I have never met a single adult who has stated that they want to see fewer police in their neighbourhood. Not one. Before I set up my charity, I worked for a decade for Manchester Council in the Crime & Disorder Team. I worked with young people to stop them from getting involved in crime. I supported victims of antisocial behaviour and crime. I engaged whole communities to feed into local policing priorities. I directed state resources to reduce crime. I understand crime, its causes, and its drivers.

In this role, I had responsibility for the most diverse neighbourhoods in the city. I worked in Hulme, Moss Side, Cheetham Hill, and many other areas. I have spoken to thousands of residents and can categorically say that no one there wants to defund the police. In fact, they want more police. One of the things I was constantly asked for by communities was CCTV monitoring. Everyone wanted CCTV on their streets or in their neighbourhoods. No one ever asked for CCTV to be removed. And let us not forget who has to follow up on incidents captured on CCTV? The police. I remember tense arguments with community groups when we needed to relocate cameras to new areas. Residents wanted the cameras on their street in perpetuity. I would want the same in their position. It makes perfect sense. Fewer police and resources mean more crime.

The people who suffer the most from such policies are the poor and vulnerable in society, especially in the inner cities. Organised crime sees the void as a good business opportunity and sets up protection rackets. Criminals police the streets. Vigilantes act as judge and juror. Welcome to a Mancunian ‘Mad Max’ dystopia.

Conclusion: Stupid Idea

Overthrow Capitalism:

This aim also threw me.

I understood the police-related aim. The police allegedly kill unarmed black men, so, the argument goes, if we remove the police no more black men will be killed by the police. It is a stupid and moronic thought process, but I can follow the so-called logic.

The only people I know who want to overthrow capitalism are Marxists and communists. I am not sure what the differences are! Anarchists do as well, but they are mainly idiots and want to burn everything down to the ground. My question is what does capitalism have to do with the death of black people by the hands of the police? Nothing. It is obvious that this issue is merely a Trojan Horse to sneak in a dangerous ideology.

Not everyone has a good understanding of recent history. We tried communism many times last century, it never worked, ever. We tried it in different countries. On different continents. With people with different skin colours. With people who had different religions and cultures. It never worked. Russia, China, Cambodia, Angola, Vietnam, Ethiopia, Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea, and more. Estimates for deaths caused by internal repression in these countries reach 100 million. Some people dispute this figure. But when you are debating in the tens of millions, the point has already been made.

Capitalism is not perfect; it has many flaws. But it has given us the world we live in today, which is absolutely amazing. Compare today to 200 years ago, when many people in Western Europe were little better than serfs, child mortality was very high, and absolute poverty was the norm. It was a daily fight to stay alive. Today we still have work to do in the West. We need to continue to raise up people in our countries and around the world. But to believe we live in a country so terrible that we need to tear it down and start again is sheer lunacy. We gave Marxism and communism a bloody good go. Unfortunately, it failed every single time because of one problem. Me and you. Once you introduce human beings into the utopia of a Marxist vision, it turns into a living hell. As a species, we are far too flawed for utopia. We are greedy, selfish, self-centred, power-hungry, resentful, and narcissistic. We could never allow a wonderful idea like Marxism to flourish. One of my favourite quotes is attributed to Genghis Khan, ‘It is not enough that I should succeed, but that everyone else should fail.’ I know many people who live by this code.

The UK has never voted for the far left or the far right. Look across to Europe, where they have historically had parties with extreme political views. We have always rejected lunatics at the ballot box – we see through them, we reject them. It is good news that BLM UK has applied to become a political party. They can ask the British public, or black British people, what they think. The lack of public support is going to shock them. But let’s be honest about why they are registering to become a political party. If I had to register to get my hands on over a million pounds in donations, then guess what I would do? Gravy train ahead for a small handful of Marxists – soon to be lefty capitalists.

I judge how successful a country is by the number of people who are literally dying to get in, compared to the number literally dying to get out. I will leave the maths for you to do later.

Conclusion: stupid idea.

Disrupt The Western Nuclear Family:

This aim confused me.

I do not claim to be an intellectual. I have not been to university. I am just a poor kid from a council estate in Manchester. I recognised all the words in the BLM statement. I knew they were English words. I even knew what they all meant, as individual words. I did not have to look any of them up in a dictionary. Promise.

My problem was that I had never seen those five words strung together before, in this particular order. It was a new phrase to me. I took my time and gave it some thought. Disrupt can mean drastically alter or destroy. Western implies Europe and North America. The nuclear family means father, mother, and children as a unit. The only meaning I could discern was that they want to delegitimise the family unit.

This means communal responsibility for raising children. I disagree with the African proverb, ‘It takes a village to raise a child.’ It takes a parent to raise a child, it takes a village to socialise the child. The proverb is not about destroying the family unit, it means supporting parents when needed with an extended family. Eliminating fathers and experimenting with the emotional development of children cannot be right. Hardly anyone in the world has ever opted for communal child rearing. A few thousand people tried it in the last century, such as on kibbutzes in Israel, which failed as an idea. If it was a productive and beneficial way to raise children, we would already be doing it.

One of the biggest problems I see in our society is a lack of fathers in the home and involved in their children’s lives. Any policy that ‘disrupts’ fathers in the home is a bad policy and needs to be resisted. As I write this section, Black Lives Matter’s website has removed this stated aim. I can only guess that the supporters of the organisation love their children dearly and this aim has not gone down too well. Parents probably feel they can do a better job of raising their children than strangers or neighbours. I would agree with them.

Conclusion: stupid idea.

After reading the website for the first time and thinking about what I had learned, I decided to write a blog. I wanted to highlight my concerns regarding this political organisation. Other people could make up their own minds. I wrote 650 words and published it on Medium, an open online platform online. It took me thirty minutes to write it.

I advertised the article on my personal LinkedIn account and waited for a discussion. I purposely refrained from advertising it on Twitter – the first time I had ever made such a decision. I must have realised that the article could be controversial in the current climate. It is obvious now that it was controversial, but at the time I still thought I was free to express my views.

What did I say in the article? My main points were factual. Black lives do matter. Why have we imported a problem that is not relevant to the UK? Black Lives Matter is a Marxist organisation, based on its own website. Communism had been tried previously and left behind a 100 million dead.

I ended the article with two points. I highlighted real issues in the UK that, if tackled, would improve the lives of black British people. I wanted to warn people if they marched under Black Lives Matter banner, they were pawns in a great Marxist game. And if they did not know of the organisation’s aims, then they were simply ‘useful idiots.’ Not my phrase, but Lenin’s.

Let me emphasise – I should have polished my article, so it expressed my points more clearly and concisely. If I knew it was going to reach national attention, I would have employed a ghost writer! But what do I know? I failed my English ‘O’ Level five times and finally passed on the sixth attempt. The best invention in my lifetime is the spell-check facility on computers.

Have you ever placed dominoes upright, in a long line next to more dominoes? The idea is for you to knock over the first domino, and then watch the chain reaction. Each domino tips forward and hits the next, which then makes that domino tip forward. This hits the next in the sequence, and so on. It is a wonderful thing when it works. I remember watching the children’s TV show Blue Peter as a child. Professional teams tried to break world records. The most frustrating part is the painstaking act of setting up with extreme care. Suddenly, an accident happens and the dominoes start to fall prematurely. The chain reaction starts before you are ready. What do you do? I know exactly what you do, I have been there. You panic. You try to stop the chain reaction by knocking away some dominoes in the hope this acts like a ‘fire break.’ But this usually activates other dominoes, as your fat hands wave about frantically. Sometimes, the domino you whacked away flies through the air and crashes into others. It is a nightmare, and over in seconds. This is exactly what happened to me. I knocked over a domino online. A chain reaction started. It could not be stopped.

My article triggered one social justice warrior, who triggered another two. They then each triggered four more, and so on. The catalyst to this reaction was when the article was copied and posted onto Twitter. The mob had to have its say. No ‘fire break’ could be found – I know, I looked. An online petition to have me fired was created by a family member of a former employee whom I had recently dismissed. An alternative motive for the petition? Who knows? It gained 450 signatures, which at the time felt like the whole world speaking against me.

A new volunteer at the charity read the article and was offended. He spoke to me. I explained my points, but he could only see the ‘institutional racism’ endemic across the UK. I was now obviously part of it. He resigned from his position. He emailed the