If you want a glimpse of progressive authoritarianism, look no further than the music industry. Two musicians, in successive weeks, have spoken out against the excesses of trans ideology.

First of all Christian Henson, co-founder of Spitfire Audio, Britain’s leading sound library studio and software audio creator. Henson had the audacity to voice his concerns of what damage the trans ideology is doing to children. He tweeted: ‘As a parent I can no longer keep my mouth shut about this. I’m in full support of [Graham Linehan] and [J.K. Rowling]. Please look into this. If you have young children its in the post if you have autistic children its probably already on your doormat [sic].’

Henson’s support of women’s rights activists Linehan and Rowling, both of whom have been ostracised from the creative industries for their gender-critical opinions, was soon followed by a bluenose statement from Spitfire CEO Will Evans. Evans, oblivious to the irony, announced that Spitfire ‘are committed to building an inclusive environment’ while in the same breath announcing Henson would be taking a break. This was accompanied by the magical disappearance of his tweet and twitter account.

Next, it would appear, the music militsiya came for Craig Potter, keyboard player of Brit Award winning indie rockers Elbow. ‘It seems Mermaids sh-t the bed yesterday in court. Good. They are danger to gender non-conforming, gay and lesbian kids’, Potter tweeted, with splendid use of the past participle.

Potter was referring to the Mermaids vs. Charity Commission and LGB Alliance tribunal case. Mermaids, a trans activist group, are appealing against the charity status awarded to the LGB Alliance, a support group for gay, lesbian and bisexual people. The court case has spectacularly backfired. Debates, including whether biological men can be lesbians, reveal the shallow ideological waters in which the little mermaids swim.

Mysteriously, Potter’s tweet and Twitter account then disappeared. Just like that. Interesting that Potter does not appear to have been given any public support from his bandmates, and also worth noting that the band’s singer Guy Garvey has been rather outspoken politically over the years. Having riled against Brexit and Trump he’s also declared his support for the Labour party. Talking politics is OK, apparently, so long as they’re progressive.

In both cases one wonders whether whoever may have suppressed these tweets actually disagrees with the supposed wrongthink. If they do, perhaps they are in support of the brutal surgery and treatment of children suffering gender dysphoria (or being misdiagnosed as such).

Fortunately real small-p progress is being made back here in reality. ‘Gender critical’ voices are winning court cases against employers who are trying to silence them. And in July, the Tavistock clinic, the UK’s only dedicated gender identity clinic for children and young people, was told to close its doors.

Yet music industry figures continue to mute dissenters like a game of real life whack-a- mole. They sing from the hymn sheet of ‘diversity and inclusion’, but the melody sounds a lot like ‘obedience or exclusion’. With such restrictive thinking, it’s no wonder we get so much insipid, dreary, and heartless music.