Possibly one of the most bizarre stories to emerge over the weekend is the sorry tale of an academic and poet who was up for the prestige position of Professor of Poetry of Oxford University and decided to take out a fellow contender with a couple of smear emails that were sent to journalists.
Her name is Ruth Padel. She decided to dredge up some allegations - over twenty years old - about Derek Walcott, the West Indian writer and artist and Nobel Prize winner.
You can read the story here and make up your own mind
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/poetry/article6360730.ece
but the woman is clearly a complete and utter bitch.
Diane Abbott gives an even tempered defense of Walcott, in the Jamaica Observer, so it is possible you did not catch it.
I think it is a sorry indication of our times that a female academic can believe in her wildest dreams that circulating twenty year old "sexual harassment" gossip and unsupportable allegations, in order to further her career, is in any sense socially or morally acceptable. Indeed it is yet again the tyranny of those who use political correctness as a weapon.
3 comments:
Was the stupid woman not suspended? I thought I read that somewhere.
A woman scorned ...
She resigned today. She said she wrote the e mails to prevent students being put in danger.
I heard her on the radio this lunchtime. She was misunderstood!
What an absolute ghastly character came across. My beloved wife said she was as guilty as hell and was obviously a feminist!
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