Thankfully James O’Brien says he doesn’t feel any personal guilt for standing up for Arday publicly. Well that’s a relief…
He implied this is because only a racist would doubt Arday’s credentials. He said on LBC today:
“What’s your takeaway here? Because mine is very very personal. I can’t separate the personal from the public. I feel like a mug actually is the short answer. I don’t feel guilt. I don’t feel, oh you should have done differently or you should have done better because I mean who would who would meet a Cambridge professor and immediately start thinking ‘God I wonder whether you actually deserve to be there, I certainly wouldn’t do that.’
If I was a racist and I met a black Cambridge professor, then I probably would find myself thinking, ‘Yeah, really a black guy, professor, I don’t think…’ but I’m not a racist, so it didn’t cross my mind. But it’s more the personal contact that I’ve had with him subsequently that makes me feel like a mug. The fact that he thought I was someone that he might be able to persuade to stick up for him when he knew he knew that he’d done.”
O’Brien described Arday as a “remarkable & brilliant man” in 2023 and last month attacked the Times and the Telegraph for “studied & deliberate ignominy. If there is any case to answer here, it is about Liverpool John Moore’s supervisory failure of an obviously unique PhD student. Something, I imagine, their own exhaustive investigation concluded…” Is an apology in order?
More names have dropped off Jolyon’s letter in support of Arday, namely:
Lord Simon Woolley is still on there but his job title has been stripped. To begin with he was “Principal, Homerton College, University of Cambridge” – in list two he is just “Lord Simon Woolley.” Cambridge wipeout…
There is now an effort to launch an investigation into how Arday was ever appointed in the first place. Goodo…
Watch the clip above to see LBC’s James O’Brien say with a serious face “it’s just insane how patronising some people are to their readers“. Pots, kettles…
It forms part of a furious rant he inflicted on his listeners this morning. Apparently it is absurd for the media to report on the PM taking a holiday just two weeks into the job, and it’s all fine because he’ll obviously have his phone nearby. An excuse which, for some reason, O’Brien never thought to make for Tory ministers in the past – he also seems to think Yvette Cooper is still Foreign Secretary…
Philippe Sands – Starmer’s close friend who has acted for Mauritius on the Chagos case for many years – has today said that the deal proposes no risk of Chinese expansion because Mauritius won’t do anything without India’s permission. Sands claimed the deal was “a win-win for everyone.” Not least himself seeing as he was paid out of a pot of over £8 million…
Sands falsely claimed to an obsequious James O’Brien on LBC that the Chagos archipelago is “now part of the sovereignty of Mauritius.” He also said the fate of the islands is up to India now:
“I mean, if the International Court of Justice had given its ruling and it hadn’t been followed, then there would have just been uncertainty and insecurity and a lack of stability. And that is the kind of vacuum into which others insert themselves. But the reality is, if you’ve been to Mauritius, it’s a country whose closest, you know, colleague is India. It doesn’t do anything without India giving the get-go, and saying yes, you can do that. India’s been deeply involved in these negotiations, and there’s no way India is going to allow Mauritius to give any of its islands, and it’s got plenty to give away if it wanted to, to China. So the Chinese thing, frankly, is a bit of a red herring.”
At least Sands is reassured…
In other news Sands was recently disqualified as an arbitrator from hearing a Cypriot-owned oil company’s claim against Turkmenistan due to a conflict of interest. Embarrassing…
James O’Brien has demeaned himself again on his LBC phone-in with Sadiq Khan. He begged the London mayor to give him the story when he decides whether to run for a fourth term or not:
“Can I have that scoop – because I’ve had you in the studio for 10 years and I’ve never had one big story from you. Can I have the story about whether or not you’re going to run for Mayor of London? I want you to promise now – this is entirely unprofessional, self interested, and a little bit needy, but I want that story… I want that. Stick that on a post-it note or something like that.”
Khan offered no such promise. Sad…
Foreign Secretary David Lammy appeared on James O’Brien’s LBC show this morning despite calls for O’Brien to resign over an antisemitism row. On Tuesday, O’Brien uncritically read out a claim alleging Jewish children in the UK are taught that “one Jewish life is worth thousands of Arab lives” and that “Arabs are cockroaches to be crushed.” He added he’d read the comments in “good faith”…
The Board of Deputies of British Jews branded the remarks “unacceptable and highly offensive,” and demanded LBC take O’Brien off the air. Despite the furore, Lammy has gone ahead with his appearance. He told O’Brien he was “reassured” the UK isn’t complicit in Israel’s actions in Gaza, insisting “we aren’t sending anything the IDF could use.” Probably not the wisest media choice for the Foreign Secretary…
James O’Brien has today apologised on LBC after he yesterday uncritically read out a claim that Jewish children attending “Shabbat school” in the UK were taught that “one Jewish life is worth thousands of Arab lives, and that Arabs are cockroaches to be crushed.” The now-deleted clip has received global coverage…
He has now said on air:
“At this time yesterday on the show, I read out a message from a listener called Chris who said that his wife had been brought up in the Jewish faith and had attended what he described as a Shabbat school. He went on to make further claims about what he said she had been taught in that school. As with all the texts and messages that I read out on the program, I did so in good faith. But the message has understandably upset a lot of people and I regret taking those unsubstantiated claims at face value and I’m genuinely sorry for that. Um, and it is very important that I get that out there and and thank you for your um, attention.”
LBC has not released its own statement. A Campaign Against Antisemitism spokesman said the original comments were “amplified by a host who likely wouldn’t think twice about cutting off the caller were he promoting such grotesque falsehoods about another minority.” Not pretty…
Andy Haldane, Burnham’s recent adviser on the economy who has not taken up a No10 job, told Andrew Marr on LBC:
“The market now suspects that this is a traditional tax-and-spend socialist government with better TikTok videos…
imposing windfall taxes on oil & gas or on banks or upping capital gains tax would […] repeat the mistake that Rachel made […] The Achilles heel, the fiscal Achilles heel of this government thus far has been its unwillingness and/or inability to cut public spending.”