The organised hard left has moved fast after the fall of Jason Arday at Cambridge. They are furious with the Good Law Project for its open letter which still proclaims that ‘entirely false allegations of plagiarism were made against Professor Arday’. Instead of this absurd position, they are trying to control the narrative by quietly dumping those who appointed Arday. They want to save DEI by rebadging it. Hence their letter from 90 dons, publicly spoken for by Professors Nicholas Guyatt and Priyamvada Gopal. They know the Vice-Chancellor, Deborah Prentice, is vulnerable because an employment tribunal has just rejected her ‘ghosted’ evidence against a whistleblower in a university bullying case. They demand she reject what Professor Guyatt calls the ‘incredibly racist wave of commentary’ and back an ‘agenda of representation’ – in effect, racial quotas which, if so named, would be illegal. Professor Guyatt, like his fellow signatory, the Extinction Rebellion activist Professor Mary Laven and, until last week, Arday himself, are Fellows of Jesus College. Such people say Cambridge should ‘look like the society it serves’. If Jesus College is any guide, the society they mean is China.

Arday’s professorship had victims – those better qualified for the job who were discriminated against and research students whom he did not teach properly. They suffered from unprofessional behaviour by the relevant Cambridge authorities. Questions about Cambridge’s professionalism arise in other areas too. Take........

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