Our friends at the Good Law Project

[Gymnopedie]

I know this doesn't belong here but given the bollocks from the GLP about issues that do I thought people might be interested.

It's about Professor Jason Arday, a Cambridge academic. The story started when there was a claim that large chunks of his PhD thesis had been taken from another (sometimes not even changing typo errors) published a few years earlier. His justification is that he's autistic and his way of coping is 'mimicry'.

Sine then his many claims about his charity work, fundraising and physical exploits have come under increasing scrutiny - much from the Guardian - and are unravelling fast. He's having to backtrack and 'explain' a lot. He's claimed to have been on a TV programme that he never was and it was chronologically impossible for him to be on it. He has claimed a lot of nasty harassment but has no evidence of it, no photos, no messages, and didn't report any of it to the police. (Well he claims he did once, but the police have no record of it and the story doesn't stack up.)

What does the GLP have to do with it? They're organising an open letter in his support, claiming that there is nothing to see here except that he's a victim of vile racism.

Support for a left wing cause that bears no relationship to the facts? Where have I heard that before?

Charity casts doubts on volunteering record of Cambridge professor (The Telegraph via MSN)

Playbooks, plagiarism and a pig’s head: new claims surrounding a star Cambridge professor | University of Cambridge | The Guardian

Glasgow University denies Jason Arday visiting prof claim | The Herald

Its 'she looks like a nice grandmother but underneath she is a wolf'.

She looks like a nice grandmother, any wolf who messes with her or her family will learn its mistake.

That's kind of the vibe I aim for when I go clothes shopping.

I’m still trying to get my head around how we, ie society, have gone from being carelessly racist, homophobic etc, realising and then addressing it to try and ensure a fair society, through to where we are now.

It seems that in attempting to address discrimination, some groups have become untouchable to any form of criticism or even questioning. And yet other groups have come through the other side and it’s rarely a factor.

By this I mean that any commentary on Arday or the Duchess of Sussex for example inevitably attracts defensive remarks along the lines of “this is all just racism”. I’m sure we could all think of high profile TW who deflect criticisms of their actions with “transphobia”.

And yet I can’t think of a single high profile LGB person who has deflected legitimate commentary with “homophobia”, even though there’s plenty of that still around. We know that disabled people face ableism all the time, and women face misogyny - both are so rampant that it’s barely worth mentioning.

So how and why have we ended up with this heirarchy of characteristics where to be racist or transphobic is so terrible that we do anything to avoid an accusation as it could be career ending and/or result in being a social outcast. Being homophobic is frowned upon but won’t get you cancelled. But it’s still perfectly fine to be ableist, ageist and misogynistic. Because Reasons.

Just to be clear - I’m saying genuinely racism or transphobia is to be condemned alongside other forms of illegitimate discrimination. But questioning is not discrimination and disagreement is not hate.

These are brilliant

From careless racism and homophobia to careless ageism and misogyny (and boasting about animal cruelty).

Ah, progess.

A gerbil t-shirt always helps in this regard I find.

He's brought out the big guns.

https://bsky.app/profile/sophiemolly.co.uk/post/3mtvq53dcy22j

For women Scotland isn't a charity either . BACKATCHA

A fleece is technically sheep's clothing.

Is a wolf fleece a wolf in sheep's clothing?

For Women Scotland is, however, very clear about the issues on which they campaign.

They don't just ask for money and then decide how to spend it later.

Rather more successful too.

Are there facilities big enough that can accommodate both their egos at the same time?

Wolfish sheeps clothing.

To clarify, is this a t-shirt made of gerbils? Because that sounds a bit hot in this weather...

Considering this is FWR, I assume the shirt will be made by gerbils and probably featuring gerbils on it, like the lovely Maud.

The inquest into the death of Jason Arday will open today.

I'm assuming it'll be adjourned for months but it's likely to trigger More Insta posts

Apropos nothing , here is an injured fox being rescued after getting caught in netting. Cant think why this made me think of that

https://www.reddit.com/r/MadeMeSmile/comments/1vwxxks/wild_bird_rehabbers_save_a_trapped_fox/

JM is imploding because maybe - just maybe - he’s realising in encouraging his kids to think they could change sex he’s totally f’cked their entire lives.

I'm wondering how careful he'd have to be if he's called on to provide witness statements. He mentioned that he offered to take Arday out to the cricket that final week. this was to someone who he'd said was in hiding in their house afraid of being seen in public.

Arday declined so he carried on and went himself

The ineffable JM's behaviour this week towards Barbara Rich has reminded me of this post of mine earlier on the thread.

A video from This Isn't Working on the Arday scandal:

If you watch and get to the end you'll hear an interesting "parallel" story from South Africa.

JoMo would really benefit from someone close to him telling him to stop talking.

He doesn't strike me as the sort of bloke who would take any notice.

He's 100% the type who would complain about being ignored and talked over if his share of airtime fell below 90%.

I'm part way through watching it and it's good, they're both very clear and down to earth.

Tanya de Grunwald's poker face while others are talking is a bit distracting; unless it's natural, she must have practised that for some time.

Statement from GLP - you can almost HEAR the teeth grinding: https://goodlawproject.org/statement-about-the-bbc-and-our-fundraising/ - it's about JM denying furiously that there was a donate button on the Arday story, when there was.

It's the most spectacularly non-apologetic apology I think I've ever read. "I have apologised to the journalist (above) for misleading them. And it is right that I acknowledge that Barbara Rich, a retired barrister with a long history of hostility towards Good Law Project, is right about this narrow point."

ETA archived so you don't have to give them clicks https://archive.is/5mAVh