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But Gupta said they are “silent casualties” of the inferno: technically intact, but effectively put out of business for the foreseeable future.

“Does that mean I won’t make that book? No, I will still make that book as long as I can. But if I’m put out of business — as I very nearly have been — then I won’t make those books anymore. And that will be the ultimate effect of book banning.”

When it was put to him on Radio Lincolnshire that some family farms would be put out of business by having to pay inheritance tax, he replied that in a typical case, where a farm was first passed to a spouse and later to a son or daughter, the threshold before the tax was payable would be £3m.

We have very clear evidence that if the court strikes down this rule, it will essentially revive some of the companies that have been basically put out of business.

“This isn’t like Kodak being put out of business by the digital camera,” Sims said.