Piers Morgan came under fire again, this time from a guest during the latest instalment of Piers Morgan Uncensored. The outspoken journalist and broadcaster was talking about actor Alan Cumming handing back his OBE.
On Wednesday, February 1, the TalkTV star was back on our screens for his regular hour long current affairs debate show. Discussing Alan Cumming's decision to give back the OBE presented to him in 2009, Piers welcomed guests Nigel Biggar and Bonnie Greer to get their thoughts on the topic.
Cumming, returned the award as he said he'd recently 'changed his mind'. The Scottish actor revealed his decision was made after his eyes had been “opened” over the 'toxicity' of British Empire and how profits had been made at the expense of indigenous people.
READ MORE: Talks to 'bring back to life' city's former Debenhams building
During the discussion, which was reported on my the Express, viewers learnt that guest Nigel Biggar had his book on colonialism cancelled in 2021 by the publisher Bloomsbury. He said a group of “woke” junior employees had complained. Telling Piers the group protested against anything they didn’t agree with, people above them in senior management agreed to their demands.
The conversation continued but Pier's wasn't impressed when Nigel continued with 'a rant on the issue of wokeism'. The show host said: “That is the problem isn’t it in this culture, you’ve got these very young woke employees who buy into all these narratives. Then they think it’s completely right to work for a publisher, supposedly supporting free speech in a democratic society like Britain and they think it’s fine to actually try and get that author cancelled because they don’t agree with some of the stuff you’ve written.”
Fellow guest on the show, Bonnie Greer, joined in the conversation. The American-British playwright and novelist objected to the way Piers used the term “woke”. She said: "Can I just say something, woke, I’m so unhappy about that name being taken over.
“We [Nigel Biggar] were talking about history, woke was a signal to people escaping from slavery. They used the word on the underground railroad that was one of the signals to let them know they were in a safe house.”
Interjecting, Piers told viewers the word began in the 60s within the black music community in America. He said: “It was established as a way of expressing a bigger awareness of social and racial injustice, I completely sign up to that, by that definition and woke. What’s happened to the word? It's been hijacked by people who are now behaving like fascists.”
As Bonnie tried to argue her point, she told the presenter as he was aware of the history of the word, he should use it correctly. Adding: “Because you know that, you shouldn’t use it the way you use it, because you know that." Scolding the presenter, she added: “You shouldn't do it, you know better.”
Bonnie told Piers he has the power to inform people about where the word came from as he told his guest he’s written a whole book about it. She added: “Then you shouldn’t use it! You shouldn’t use it that way.”
Piers Morgan Uncensored continues weekdays on TalkTV from 8pm
READ NEXT
