Jason Arday, the Walter Mitty of elite academia. Any thoughts?

[Perkins : Reborn]

In the unlikely event you haven't heard of this bloke, it's a big story just now. You won't believe how ridiculous and frightening it is that this man was given a position at the top of his field; possibly in the world, let alone Britain.

I won't repeat the accusations (mostly all easily verifiable) but it's been interesting to see the different reactions to the story.

At one side you have elements of the left arguing that too much attention has been paid to the case (presumably because he's black), while the right are absolutely delighted to have an ultra-prominent whipping boy for their crusade against 'forced' diversity.

I honestly think it's worrying that one of our flagship educational institutions was fooled by a man who reminds you of the fantasist we all knew at school.

He's previously involved police for simple criticism, and now he has attack dog lawyers trying to intimidate the press.

Maybe he can run another thirty marathons to raise funds.

 

[Shambles]

Not been following this story closely but he definitely seems like a proper chancer and I totally agree it seems insane he managed to fool so many professionals in the field

This sort of thing happens way more often than it should tbh. Heard several cases of people managing to fool hospitals into believing they are surgeons and shit. One was just a teenager if I recall correctly. Wild stuff

 

[placebonaut]

also not looked into it but heard it in passing on the news.

100% snap thought in my head based on no actual information was this could be in part caused by positive discrimination - I may be totally wrong.

I'd be surprised if anyone could attain & retain their position without the ability to do the job, so I'm struggling to understand how it got to this state in honesty.

Whatever the cause/facts it's sadly going to be used by both side to make whatever point they want to.

for what it's worth I'm a strong advocate of meritocracy and anti-bias, it still should be the best person for the job imho.

 

[Perkins : Reborn]

This bloke blatantly wasn't up to standard, and people had raised concerns over a number of years, but he was Cambridge's photo boy after they'd been criticised over lack of black professors.

He apparently completed thirty marathons in thirty-five days, nine of them with a fractured leg after suffering an epileptic seizure. Also ran 600 miles in six days on a treadmill, making him amongst the world's top athletes.

He raised £5 million to £5.5 million for charity. Making him one of the top fundraisers of all time. Later he said it was as part of a syndicate over 20 years, but he'd signed non-disclosure agreements with the other members of the 'syndicate'.

He was nonverbal until the age of eleven and illiterate until the age of eighteen, despite a former classmate's account of him being a 'chatterbox'.

He was visited by a masked man with a knife on two separate occasions with racist intent. Neither case was reported, nor was there CCTV.

His academic work plagiarised others to the extent that he copied spelling and grammar errors.

He had a stroke which meant he conveniently couldn't refute claims about his work.

And it goes on and on.