Christian Calgie and the death of cancel culture

Complaining about “cancel culture” might be the favourite pastime of Nigel Farage and his cheerleaders, but they might soon be running dry of examples – as cancellations are getting harder to find by the day.

Last month, the Daily Express‘s senior political correspondent Christian Calgie was roundly condemned after posting on X that he “cannot wait until my taxes no longer fund Zarah’s salary”, itself a striking remark to make from a lobby correspondent paid as a news reporter, not a commentator. He then doubled down after someone replied to his post saying that he “cannot wait until my taxes fund deporting Zarah”. Calgie replied to this post with “even better”. Zarah Sultana, the former Labour MP and putative Your Party leader, was born in Birmingham.

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Amid a widespread public backlash – joined by almost none of Calgie’s fellow lobby journalists – followed by a bollocking from his Express bosses, he posted an apology for his “inappropriate response to a message on X”, though for not his initial post. He added that he was “taking a break from X to prioritise his mental health” – a curious line from someone who had a few years earlier tweeted a “gentle reminder to people in power” not to “use your mental health… as an excuse for abusing people”.

Still, Calgie’s “mental health” seemed to recover rapidly: he was back posting on X within three days, and evidently back at work almost as quickly, boasting just days later that he had “just got Reform to commit to a serious crackdown on Motability”, the scheme helping disabled people get access to cars.

Calgie’s colleagues from outside the Express seem just as happy to welcome him back, too: last Saturday he was happily on the Sky News sofas, doing the paper reviews as if nothing had ever happened. Cancel culture just ain’t what it used to be.