Professor Norman Fenton: An Anatomy of Cancellation
Source: "Galileo Galilei before the Inquisition" by Cristiano Banti, created in 1857 (Palazzo Pitti, Florence, Italy
Few of us can remain unmoved when first acquainted with the story of the 17th century astronomer Galileo Galilei. His defence of heliocentrism - the idea that the Earth revolves around the Sun – brought the wrath of the Catholic Church’s Holy Office of the Inquisition upon him. In 1616, the Inquisition declared heliocentrism to be both scientifically indefensible and heretical, and after trying Galileo in 1633, found him "vehemently suspect of heresy". It sentenced him to house arrest (which lasted to his death), his heliocentric books were banned, and the scientist – who Albert Einstein called "the father of modern physics--indeed of modern science altogether" – was ordered to forever abstain from holding, teaching or defending heliocentric ideas.
In our modern era that claims to champion scientific reason and empirical evidence as the basis of knowledge -- indeed, that is its very self-definition -- the story of the cancellation of Professor Norman Fenton exposes a harsh reality. Like Galileo, Fenton’s crime was not falsehood but truth backed by inconvenient evidence. His experience reveals a modern inquisition where institutions—academia, media, and shadowy government units—collude to silence dissent. The pursuit of scientific conclusions, we learn, can lead to professional ruin even in an age when there is no moral monopoly of truth being enforced by religious authority and divine revelation.
Professor Fenton—a mathematician of international repute previously at the Queen Mary University of London— has been cancelled by a relentless campaign of character assassination, de-platforming, and forced resignation, echoing the fate of historical dissidents like Galileo. The experience of Professor Fenton forces each of us to ask ourselves: How have we emerged from an age of religion, magic and superstition?
A Scholar’s Descent into Heresy
Norman Fenton built a distinguished academic career including over two decades at Queen Mary University. With over 400 peer-reviewed publications and expertise in Bayesian theory, risk analysis, and medical statistics, he is an academic with world class stature. Yet, his scepticism of establishment narratives—first on climate change, then on Covid-19—transformed him from a respected professor into an official pariah.
Fenton’s troubles began in 2015 when he presented, along with two other mathematicians Hannah Fry and Sir David Spiegelhalter, the BBC documentary “Climate Change by Numbers”. He was asked to scrutinize the United Naton Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC 2013) Summary for Policymakers (SPM) claim that it was “95% certain” that over 50% of global warming was human-caused. As a mathematician, Fenton exposed the claim’s fallacy, noting it appeared only in the politicized SPM, not the full report. His critique, grounded in the “Climategate” emails revealing data manipulation at the University of East Anglia, drew ire from other academics, who aligned with the BBC’s narrative. Fenton’s later observations about the scripted program and its biases got little traction, foreshadowing the resistance he would face on Covid-19.
By March 2020, Fenton’s Bayesian analysis with Martin Neil and others had confirmed John Ioannidis’s findings on COVID-19’s low infection fatality rates (IFR) of 0.12–0.2% using a larger dataset[tD1] [N2] . This finding went against the government’s proclamations of a highly virulent epidemic with high fatality rates. He also identified flaws in PCR testing, noting false positives inflated reported rates of pandemic incidence. [tD3] [N4]
His early scepticism extended to lockdowns, which he saw as a gross and unnecessary violation of human rights and a pretext for permanent climate-related restrictions, a view shared by others who noted the overlap between the Covid and climate hysterias that had enveloped mass media coverage. These findings grounded in objective data – low infection rates, not-fit-for purpose tests of infection, lack of efficacy of lockdowns on infection transmission -- marked Professor Fenton as a dissident when dissent was equated with causing danger to public welfare.
The Machinery of Suppression
Fenton’s public dissent on GB News in 2021, where he challenged the “safe and effective” mantra of Covid-19 vaccines, ignited a firestorm. Unlike Mark Steyn, who lost his job for similar critiques, Fenton faced a more insidious campaign. His colleagues at Queen Mary university distanced themselves, refusing to collaborate on grant applications. Research papers authored by Prof. Fenton, once routinely accepted, were rejected by journals without review and even pre-print servers. “As soon as we started challenging the Covid narrative, our work was blocked at every turn,” Fenton told me in an interview on June 19, 2025.
The campaign escalated with anonymous complaints to Queen Mary’s HR department, which demanded that Dr. Fenton respond to evidently frivolous allegations. In early 2022, a group of 12 student activists—out of 300 in a mandatory master’s module on risk assessment—demanded to be allowed to switch to a different module rather than be taught by Dr, Fenton.
This incident highlights a curious shift in student activism. In the 1970s, students protested against “the establishment”, opposing the government in key areas of public concern such as the Vietnam War. Today, as Dr. Fenton noted in his interview, “student activists align with government policies in Covid and climate, even cheering for war in Ukraine.” This inversion reflects a generation conditioned to enforce orthodoxy rather than challenge it.
The most chilling allegation involves the UK’s 77th Brigade, a British Army unit originally tasked with monitoring online foreign terrorist threats and countering “disinformation” by foreign powers strayed far beyond its remit and reportedly monitored domestic critics. Dr. Fenton believes he was tracked by the brigade, possibly with assistance from the “Mutton Crew,” a group influenced by Dominic Cummings’s “nudge unit” and behavioral science teams like SAGE, where Susan Michie, a self-described communist, wielded influence. Dr. Michie’s fear-based strategies, alongside Neil Ferguson’s apocalyptic models, shaped the UK’s Covid response, which Dr. Fenton’s data undermined. His claim of surveillance, while unproven, aligns with reports of the 77th Brigade’s activities during the pandemic.
Institutional Betrayal and Forced Resignation
The NHS delivered the final blow. In June 2023, Fenton was invited to speak at its Health and Care Analytics Conference on Bayesian probability in medical statistics—his specialty. Days before the conference, the invitation was rescinded, citing his vaccine critiques. Freedom of Information (FOI) and subject access requests revealed partial documents suggesting 77th Brigade involvement, a claim Fenton pursued through the Free Speech Union (FSU).
The NHS denied his requests for a judicial review, an apology, or a charitable donation, instead accusing him of being a “conspiracy theorist.” In a surreal twist, Fenton was accused of being associated with the American white supremacist movement because he used the clown world emojis which it was claimed were synonymous with “Heil Hitler”.” This was a baseless smear echoing the absurdities of historical witch hunts. It should be noted that Professor Fenton’s Polish father was a Holocaust survivor whose entire family was murdered by the Nazis, while his maternal grandfather fled the Arab pogroms against Jews in Jerusalem in the 1920s.
Queen Mary University’s response was similarly unsympathetic. In addition to appeasing the students who refused to attend his module, they refused to support him against the continued baseless accusations being made against him (such as being a ‘conspiracy theorist’ and a ‘fraud’). Despite his impeccable record, with the inevitable pending HR procedures Fenton felt compelled to “retire” in December 2022. His emeritus status was nearly denied, granted only because he agreed to supervise three PhD students gratis
Fenton’s cancellation exacted a heavy toll. His fellowship at the Alan Turing Institute was terminated, as were those of all members of his research team uninvolved in his Covid research, suggesting a broader purge. Invitations to speak at Queen Mary’s Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, where he was once a regular, ceased after 2020. The betrayal by colleagues and students, whom he expected to value objective inquiry, was particularly stinging. “I was just presenting data,” Fenton told me, “and I was shocked at how destructive it became.”
This shock underscores a key theme: the naivety of assuming truth will prevail in an age of ideological conformity. The BBC, once a bastion of impartiality, failed to engage with Prof. Fenton’s critiques. The NHS’s complicity, alongside the 77th Brigade’s alleged role, suggests a state-backed effort to enforce compliance, reminiscent of the Church’s surveillance of Galileo.
The BBC’s role in Prof. Fenton’s saga mirrors its earlier treatment of David Bellamy, a renowned naturalist and broadcaster whose career was derailed for questioning man-made global warming. In 2004, Bellamy publicly expressed doubts about the climate change narrative, calling it “poppycock” in a Daily Mail interview and arguing that natural cycles, not human activity, drove warming. The BBC, a gatekeeper of environmental orthodoxy, sidelined him. His regular appearances on programs like Botanic Man ceased, and by 2005, his broadcasting career was effectively over. Bellamy later claimed the BBC “froze him out” for his views.
Contrast this with Sir David Attenborough, whose embrace of the climate alarmist narrative elevated him to iconic status. Attenborough’s documentaries amplified the BBC’s agenda, earning him knighthood and global acclaim. While Bellamy’s scepticism led to his erasure, Attenborough’s compliance ensured his deification. This dichotomy illustrates the BBC’s selective amplification of voices, a tactic repeated in its dismissal of Fenton’s Covid critiques. As with Bellamy, Fenton’s evidence was not refuted but suppressed, signalling that dissent, not inaccuracy, is the true crime.
A Call to Defend Truth
Norman Fenton’s cancellation is a microcosm of our broader affliction. From academia to media, dissenters are silenced through de-platforming, smears, and professional exile. The Daily Sceptic has documented similar cases, from scientists questioning vaccine mandates to journalists challenging the climate hysteria. This trend threatens the foundation of free inquiry, replacing evidence with orthodoxy.
We must resist this machinery of cancellation. The NHS, BBC, and universities like Queen Mary must be held accountable for stifling debate. The 77th Brigade’s alleged actions demand scrutiny, as does the role of behavioral units like SAGE in manipulating public perception. Students, once idealistic rebels against power, must rediscover their role as truth-seekers, not enthusiastic enforcers of “woke” dogma.
Like Galileo, Fenton’s vindication may come too late for his career. Yet, his courage, like that of other dissidents, lights the path forward. As I learned from my own cancellation, the fight for truth requires resilience. We owe it to Prof. Fenton, to ourselves, and to future generations to defend the right to question, lest we surrender reason and truth to the altar of power.
A version of this article was first published in the The Climate Skeptic
