Ines Connor

Specialist interest Russian Lit&Cult / ma ssees UCL. All views are my own and are only a note to myself. "Beauty is truth, truth beauty".

[Peter Hitchens @ClarkeMicah]

When indeed, .@catharinehoey ? Compliance with the covid panic showed us that the British public are now a despot’s dream.

[marydejevsky @marydejevsky]

In many European counties the platform appears on the ticket

[Peter Hitchens @ClarkeMicah]

Yes, .@holysmoke You appear to believe God to be a sort of bureaucrat, who ignores inward hearts and outward actions, as long as the correct forms are followed. I take an almost completely opposite view of the Almighty. Hence our amusing disagreements.

[Peter Hitchens @ClarkeMicah]

.@mwd892 Do you think Ted Kennedy’s wife and children wanted that marriage annulled?

[marydejevsky @marydejevsky]

Free care, aka 'NHS continuing care' is postcode lottery, & in effect unavailable for most. I was told only those w/ less than 6 mths to live had hope of qualifying. Useless for those w/ chronic conditions such as, w/ my husband, late-stage Parkinson's

https://t.co/9iprXikfGH

[Uta Frith @utafrith]

In case you want to know my views on the autism spectrum in 2016 (and more besides), there is an in-depth interview
https://t.co/E8Ih9Tjumc
I don't think my views have changed that much. But well, even subtle changes can have consequences.

[Richard Morris @ahistoryinart]

Spencer Gore's painting depicts his wife Mollie seated at her sewing table in a vividly coloured room at 6 Cambrian Road in Richmond, London in 1914; similar to Bonnard and Vuillard's interiors and a dash or two of Sickert.

[Peter Hitchens @ClarkeMicah]

Amusingly, many on Twitter dismissed my article on official crime figures as subjective, without reading it. They missed this;

[Richard Morris @ahistoryinart]

The Van Eeghen family has donated an extremely rare early 17thC drawing book to the Rijksmuseum, the book contains various drawings by Rombout Uylenburgh, a painter from Friesland who worked at the Polish royal court in Kraków and apprentices who trained in his studio.

[Richard Dawkins @RichardDawkins]

I am bewildered, and not very impressed, by the visceral, naked, irrational hatred spat out by some defenders of Jason Arday. If a Cambridge professor is accused of being an unqualified charlatan, the accusation might be racially motivated. On the other hand it might not, depending on the evidence. The correct question to ask is not, ”What is the colour of his skin” but “Is it in fact true that he is an unqualified charlatan?” Please examine the evidence before leaping to the assumption of racism.
As for the idea that journalists “piled in on him” and “hounded him to his death”, most attacks were against Cambridge University. Jason himself was widely regarded as an unfortunate victim of foolish promotion way beyond his ability to cope. In appointing him to a professorship for which he was manifestly unqualified – in ludicrously describing him as “the best in the world” – certain senior members of the university showed a level of patronising condescension towards black people that could fairly be described as racism, while at the same time making him tragically vulnerable to such attacks as came his way.

[Claire Fox @Fox_Claire]

Blacklists of journalists. From those who flaunt their 'be kind' lables & have the temerity to call themselves liberal. This assault on a free press is an illiberal act of censorship, deploying intimidation, moral blackmail & public shaming. It must be resisted. A lot at stake.

[Edward Lucas @edwardlucas]

i'm a cyclist, since 1979 in London, and I feel ashamed watching this.

[Howell Harris @trefeca]

@ahistoryinart Reminiscent of Delondre's 1885 Omnibus picture -- Carnavalet Museum, Paris. Issue was that members of different classes had to sit together -- novel, shocking. Daumier's much earlier drawing really gets this.

[marydejevsky @marydejevsky]

practically every other OECD country taxes by household, not individual, income, as we used to do. Nigel Lawson changed that. It's a massive disadvantage for single-earner households (incl where one cannot work thro disability) & increases headline rate of child poverty

[Peter Hitchens @ClarkeMicah]

No doubt people 'agree' in that flaccid way they have, but when Marks and Spencer began to introduce self-checkouts, and I a) politely urged other shoppers not to use them and b) tried politely to get the shop to provide more human cashiers, I was treated as if I was a mad nuisance.

[Paul Embery @PaulEmbery]

Jason Arday’s death is tragic. But please spare us the sanctimonious complaints that he was merely an ‘obscure’ academic who was the victim of a racist witch-hunt. The probing and questioning and exposure were entirely legitimate.

Arday was plainly guilty of plagiarism. He had also made a series of fantastical claims about his life and career. He ended up being appointed as a professor at one of the world’s most august seats of learning – where his students, who had worked extremely hard to get there, were paying large fees for the privilege of being taught by him.

Far from being obscure, Arday had happily engaged with the media over many years, often repeating his false claims. He appeared on numerous TV shows and guest edited Radio 4’s flagship Today programme. He even carried the Olympic torch.

Moreover, he had secured a major publishing deal for his autobiography, which was set to be released in Britain and the US just as the scandal broke. By no measure was this man ‘obscure’.

When a fellow academic in Plymouth began to question his credentials, Arday (or someone close to him) made a complaint to the police. When a journalist from Times Higher Education started investigating, he was subjected to a police inquiry and also received a threatening letter from the leading libel solicitors, Carter Ruck.

Arday and those around him were clearly not averse to hounding others when they felt like it.

It’s very possible that Arday did not have sufficient support measures in place when he was finally exposed – but that’s on others. The investigation and questions amounted to legitimate journalistic inquiry.

This was never just about Arday’s fabulism. It was also about the increasingly controversial philosophy of DEI, the obsession of our political, corporate and educational institutions with pushing that philosophy, and how it might have led to someone with Arday’s subpar credentials being appointed in the first place.

These are all valid questions to ask – and, by asking them, journalists are simply doing their jobs.

[Claire Fox @Fox_Claire]

I think @PaulEmbery makes some very valid points here. It is so difficult because in these tragic circumstances, we all need to reflect. But for now a worry: the hounding narrative is in danger of pushing serious mistruths & will lead to even more chilling of free speech, press freedom & accountability. Those who maliciously/carelessly accuse others of racism (in my book at least one of the worst smears); those who glibly call in libel lawyers or the police to silence scrutiny; those who shamelessly blame queries about academic corruption for a truely devastating death - it is THEY who are recklessly hounding good faith individuals. If the 'lesson learned' is 'put up or shut up', we may as well abandon truth-seeking, integrity, journalism. That would be another tragedy.

[Оксана-бунтарка (🇰🇿❤️🐻) @OskanaShadow]

Most people in the West can't understand Eastern People. I give you one example. When Nazi Germany invaded the USSR, the enlistment offices in Kazakhstan, was flooded by ... Kazakh women. Around 180,000 served in the Red Army.
Kazakh people still love to tell their heroic tales.

[Peter Hitchens @ClarkeMicah]

I still don’t know why or how it vanished.

[Peter Hitchens @ClarkeMicah]

Thank you, .@rowanpelling. What I can't stand is people on anti-social media asking 'Haven't you anything more important to write about?'