Good Law Project and Jason Arday

[Slightyamusedandsilly]

I appreciate this is a Marmite issue. But if you think the media's role in this poor man's death was unacceptable, would you sign this petition please? (I'm not the media, I'm just one regular MN user who finds this whole debacle disgusting.)

I understand not everyone sees this perspective.

https://surl.li/wfmdak

A man is dead because he chose to take his own life.

He also chose to steal other people’s work, took a job he wasn’t remotely qualified for at our leading university, lied repeatedly for his own gain, made accusations of horrible racist abuse against himself that weren’t remotely true and set the police on someone who was (very reasonably) investigating said lies when he thought he was being caught out.

But yeah - it was an internal matter

Another excellent reason not to.

The fox killer? My data? Are you completely mad?

The man in question wrote a book which, if the widely circulated descriptions are to be believed, detailed some fairly questionable ‘facts’ about his own life. He was planning to publish that to the wider world, and undoubtedly embark on a press publicity run to promote it. He participated in news interviews, particularly on the BBC. He was willing to let Cambridge make him into a poster boy for diversity hiring, and went along with all the publicity that generated. He was willing to be a public persona, and when the press took that further by digging into whether the claims he made were true, which is their essential role in society, it all came crumbling down.

I think that what happened to him is a terrible waste, and I strongly believe that he could have redeemed himself. His family will be devastated and I feel for them.

But making out this was a private matter when both Arday and Cambridge university actively courted the press whenever it suited them, for their own ends, to spin their tale of diversity success, is very disingenuous.

He also weaponised the law (or tried to) by instructing Carter-Ruck to send a barely-literate letter of claim on his behalf, threatening the TES with a civil suit, and leaving the story to be broken by an appalling racist. Carter-Ruck are not known for being conciliatory. Their fees are, I suspect, beyond the reach of the average professor’s salary, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Cambridge also had a hand in the suppression tactics.

The whole tawdry business stinks on so many levels and generally makes me feel pretty ashamed to be human.

This is an important lesson that the press and elite institutions need to learn. If you have any evidence that a person of colour is in a prominent position for any reason other than pure merit, then you should just do the decent thing and sit on that information, never make it public because the right wing will go to town on it and then this will happen.

I don't care if he wasn't 'fit' for whatever position he held. He wasn't hurting anybody, and plenty of folks found his rags to riches story inspirational. People should have just left him be. God I hate the people of this far right country. Just leave people alone!

The fox beater's latest grift? I don't think you'll find much support on MN for anything that odious kimono wearer does. Thank god.

So @DebbieSavage , liars and fantasists should be encouraged to publish their imaginary tales of woe and overcoming pretend hardships in order to encourage others to have something to arrive for?

Liars absolutely hurt everyone, including themselves in the end.

See: The Salt Path, Boris Johnson and Carl Beech off the top of my head.

Yes. Like I said, this young chap wasn't hurting anybody and his story was inspirational to a multitude of young people of colour in this country, it made them believe that despite deepseeted institutional racism they could still make something of themselves. Now that hope is shattered and they will never ever reach their full potential.

All for what? Just so the right wingers of this foul country could point and gloat and get out all their 'DEI' buzzwords. And now look what that resulted in. Another political death caused by the right wing. They need clamping down on and hard.

But he was hurting others, at least one female who was more qualified was passed over in favour of JA. Complaining students were told to check their white privilege and labelled racist.

When it comes to something like this, we have to look at what is best for the greater good of society. I think most people would agree that putting a person of colour in a position of power and prestige to inspire communities across the country is worth one or two people being overlooked for a role or being accused of racism (which is no big deal by the way, nobody takes racism seriously in this country anyway).

He was hurting his students who will have taken on considerable debt for his substandard teaching.
He was hurting journalists by threatening them with legal action for doing their jobs.
I can’t believe you think dishonesty and abuse of power are fine if they inspire people.

It was a woman of colour I believe....also, would you want your brain surgeon to be qualified or just inspiring?

Jesus fucking christ 😂🙄

🤔

Is this a joke?

Sarcasm or a parody account I presume?

Im getting Titania vibes…

Well you seem to of hit the nail on the head as to the attitude of how he got the job and why others allowed him to keep the show on the road for so long. Well done.

I wouldn’t sign anything by the GLP if you paid me. They are beyond awful and completely self-interested.

I feel that Jason Arday’s death strongly underlines that suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. He undoubtedly did hurt a lot of people and I think the involvement of Carter Ruck and the police demonstrate that this was a long way from just a mistake or a victimless situation. But he could have come back from it. People have come back from far worse. I think Cambridge and the self-seeking fools who fawned over him have a lot to answer for. I actually think much of the media coverage was way more targeted at them than at him personally. Shame on the GLP for exploiting his death.

It’s not a public interest issue though.
Why did GLP promote it as one?

Cambridge should’ve been allowed to deal with it in peace.
They were repeatedly asked to and refused - so it went public.

I will sign the petition. I have been thinking about this poor man's death a lot over the past week.

It seems a lot of hatred and vitriol was directed at him because of his race. Even if he was unsuitable for the role, he should not have been hounded to the point of taking his own life.

We did have a situation in our own university department when an academic was promoted to a professorship when she clearly was not functioning at that level. I was supportive of this promotion due to Athena SWAN, although ultimately, this resulted in a high number of PhD students leaving as she was unable to manage her own group and her research.

Thankfully, we were able to shut down and dismiss the complaints from the impacted PhD students, and the academic eventually the department left to take up a position in the US. However, regardless of things that may go wrong, this is absolutely no justification for the continued abuse of women and ethnic minorities in academia. This needs to be understood by the public.

Thankfully, we were able to shut down and dismiss the complaints from the impacted PhD students...

What did I just read? WTAF did I just read?

Parody?

University version of the rabbi of gaza parody account perhaps?

I don’t think so, they seem to be a regular poster! My jaw dropped at this too. @teaandquiet did you ever give a second thought to those PhD students whose complaints you shut down and whose lives and careers you ruined?! I would love to see your Research Environment and Culture statements…

Apologies all, I believe my previous comment was poorly worded.

Jason Arday may have been promoted to a position that he did not have the credentials for, but this point does not matter. What does matter is that he was relentlessly pursued due to blatant and overt racism, and this is what ultimately resulted in his untimely death. Now he has left behind a family without a husband and a father.

No one has ever died due to academic misconduct, plagiarism, or a poor student experience. But people do die as a result of relentless public scrutiny and witch hunts.

I think universities in general, like Cambridge and the Russell group university I am employed at, need to do more to protect the wellbeing of our staff from public criticism and attacks.