Jason Arday dead

[ThisWiseRobin]

Just putting this out there, but just heared.A sad end to a whole sorry mess.

Will Self has just written an excruciating article where he literally names a list of people who he publicly blames for Arday's death and encourages more of this.

This is disgusting. Telling people that if they kill themselves their detractors will be punished for their death is such a horrendous, anti suicide-prevention way to behave.

Taking his own life was a decision made by JA, a choice. No-one made him do it and no-one else is responsible. He could have made a different choice and faced the situation he got himself into. We should absolutely NOT be giving people the message that suicide is unavoidable, not a choice, someone else’s fault or a good way to punish others. We should be helping people see that there are alternatives and help is available. I have felt suicidal and had very dark times. I’m glad that I sought help and decided to live.

Absolutely sickening. But not a surprise from Will Self to be honest.

At the beginning there was a great article by the original journalist in the TES who was frustrated the narrative had been hijacked because of Cofnas’s blog and his recorded views, but that journalist wasn’t able to publish his researched article because Carter and Ruck had sent a threatening letter and TES couldn’t afford the legal bills. So perhaps this is an example of actions having unintended consequences. I’m sure everyone involved would have preferred a sober article in a specialist education paper to what has actually happened

That is bad.

Absolutely. Another example of how Cambridge University are at fault. They should have dealt with this issue as soon as they were informed there was a problem rather than sticking their heads in the sand.

It is not being tribal @noblegiraffe but it does seem as though you've got a particular axe to grind with Cofnas. If we look over there, we are not looking here at what's been played out so many times. I didn't enquire whether white saviours were behind Jason's vigil to be an arse. I said it because I'm tired of seeing racism being used by people feeling they have take offence. I'm tired of racist being thrown out every day. You were even accused of it and as I said at the time, you'd be one of the last posters to be guilty of that. Since George Floyd, it's been manipulated and it's not going to change any time soon. That's where the waters have been muddied, imo - guilt tripping, white guilt, white privilege, white supremacy etc. It was as sure as night following day that Jason's death would be used to once again incite this barrage of abuse while burying the reason we are here.

Why shouldn't I have a particular axe to grind with Cofnas? His views are despicable! (Note that I have said that his views are despicable, and I have also engaged with those views and deconstructed the problems with them, I'm not merely throwing out accusations of racism here).

The idea that if we're looking over there (Cofnas) we're not looking over here (culpability of Cambridge and others) is rather damaged by the fact that all the aspects of this story have been widely discussed on this thread. No one is stopping discussion of the role of Cambridge, or the role of the media or whatever, so there shouldn't be any problem with discussing the role of Cofnas.

You must be - you and others you’ve expressed agreement with have repeatedly described those who don’t agree as a homogenous ‘they’, and referred to JA as ‘your man’ and similar. The definition of tribalism. A distinct lack of honesty too in dodging specific points and instead brushing it all off as ‘they’re deflecting, this is what they do’.

The smaller vigil in Cambridge was arranged by a group of his students I believe. I’m not sure who organised the one in Trafalgar Square, but he has plenty of prominent black supporters. You can disagree with many of the things they say - I certainly do - but I don’t think you can call Kehinde Andrews or Nels Abbey or Diane Abbott ‘white saviours’.

You absolutely can and should criticise him. Just as others can and should question why these institutions are wanting things to go away rather than be investigated. Cambridge is on the back foot big time. I think that's bloody marvellous. Not seeing a death come out of this but unfortunately certain politicians are going to shout loudly for that scrutiny to be redirected back to racism. Thank goodness for the likes of James Cleverly.

Oh I can call Diane Abbott plenty of things. I just don't wish to get banned. Suffice to say, I don't put her anywhere near capable of fostering racial harmony.

To name people in that way is to deliberately put a target on their back

I get that Cofna is iffy and may well have had a racist motive or not depending on how people view the situation. However everyone knows that by doing that you will subject someone to possible physical attack these days.

Surely they are doing even worse to people that publicly have called JA than what was done to him because he courted all the attention and was the dishonest person. Most other people were simply shining a light on his lies to stop it continuing.

James Cleverley who agreed that the coverage and the outing could well motivated by racism, but that didn’t mean there aren’t also questions for multiple people to answer? A bit like a large number of us have been saying? And yet you’d think that acknowledging there is a racist element would make some pp spontaneously combust, so afraid are they to say what anyone with eyes can see.

The racial element doesn't necessarily have to come from the people you expect it to. Cleverly pointed out the racial profiling that Cambridge undertook. The pawns that people who I mentioned earlier like to use for promoting their own racial discord. Of course race was going to come up - it always does.

These days she is basically like the handful of Jews that supported Hitler

More often than not once she gets wheeled out people should probably start questioning what it is they are supporting

She is a very self centered person.

Cofnas has just criticised JK Rowling on twitter for calling him a racist.

This is going to be a very confusing time for Polanski and the like.

Back to people not staying in those lanes

Don't agree with everything she has to say but she isn't the monster they paint her to be.

Love it when a strong woman refuses to be silent

I presume you are talking about @BermudaRhombus @noblegiraffe and @Switchnow as I was talking about a conversation about academic standards and they diverted into an attack on Toby Young which led to things going off thread.

Or are you again inventing things in your head about people you think you disagree with you and then confusing your inventions with reality?

This is where it's got to where TRA, also 💯 guaranteed to be anti racist/Israel will take umbrage at JKR going for Cofnas. The implosion will be huge. That's what you also get when you're a professional crusader. All it needs now is for JKR to change her stance on Palestine and it will be full throttle.

Cambridge have been publicly accused of elevating Arday because of his race and, his age. Anything to get away from being male, pale and stale…

This is being wilfully ignored because people see C and attack him for racism and whilst completely ignoring the big elephant in the room.

They’re doing it on this thread.

No retort to the fact Cambridge had clearly prioritised someone over others because he was black.

You could have posted the meme 😆

He said both that the scrutiny was possibly racially motivated and that the appointment was a failure of due diligence. Something lots of us have repeatedly said. You cited him, and yet you don’t want to acknowledge both aspects of what he said.

‘James Cleverly, a right-wing opposition MP whose mother was born in Sierra Leone, told the BBC Monday that "quite possibly" some scrutiny of Arday was motivated by racism.
But the situation would "never have come this far if people within the university establishment not just Cambridge had done the robust due diligence and checking that should happen with any senior academic appointment," he said.’

https://www.africanews.com/2026/08/18/thousands-pay-tribute-to-former-cambridge-prof-jason-arday-at-london-vigil/

🤣 The pp is tagging those of us who disagree, she’s certainly not expecting back up from any of us!

Not sure what this childish ' Jan' business is, but using it certainly does not mark you as one of the grown ups.. It sounds like a Misogynistic attempt at insults like ' Ok Karen' or ' Rachel from Accounts'. I thought you objected to that sort of identity-based stuff?

If you look back to the start you will see I have made a lot of good contributions to this thread. It was you who caused a distraction by your extraordinary response to me pointing out that you were making stuff up about how his family reacted to him. Perhaps if you keep to facts you will find people can have better discourse with you.