Iain Banks - Politics

Politics

A strong awareness of history shows in his writings. He was a signatory to the Declaration of Calton Hill, which calls for Scottish independence.

In late 2004, Banks was a member of a group of British politicians and media figures who campaigned to have Prime Minister Tony Blair impeached following the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In protest he cut up his passport and posted it to 10 Downing Street. In an interview in Socialist Review he claimed he did this after he "abandoned the idea of crashing my Land Rover through the gates of Fife dockyard, after spotting the guys armed with machine guns." He relates his concerns about the invasion of Iraq in his book Raw Spirit, and the principal protagonist (Alban McGill) in the novel The Steep Approach to Garbadale confronts another character with arguments in a similar vein.

Banks is an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society (see Quotations) and a Distinguished Supporter of the Humanist Society of Scotland. He has spoken out in support of Scottish independence.

In June 2010 Banks called for a cultural and educational boycott on Israel following its raid on a flotilla of ships carrying aid to the blockaded Gaza Strip, which resulted in the death of nine protesters. Banks said in a letter to the Guardian newspaper that he had instructed his agent to turn down any further book translation deals with Israeli publishers.

“Appeals to reason, international law, U.N. resolutions and simple human decency mean — it is now obvious — nothing to Israel,” Banks wrote. “ I would urge all writers, artists and others in the creative arts, as well as those academics engaging in joint educational projects with Israeli institutions, to consider doing everything they can to convince Israel of its moral degradation and ethical isolation, preferably by simply having nothing more to do with this outlaw state”.