In case you missed it (well done, if so), last week Will Self wrote an extraordinary rant on Substack attacking various journalists for how they wrote about Jason Arday and demanding they be held responsible for his death. It reminded me of one of those dogs in a pub that starts barking at some imagined threat to its owner, then gets carried away with the excitement of its own barking until it totally loses its mind and has to be taken outside to calm down.

There was a passage where the loquacious one went after the excellent Melissa Kite: ‘J’accuse Melissa Kite of turning Arday into a lovable conman, an entertainment through whom the supposed obsessions of contemporary education with minorities and disability could themselves be mocked… I wonder if she also enjoys meeting her readers: getting together so they can all make each other laugh about “cripples” and n—s: it doesn’t seem remotely implausible to me.’

Being a paraplegic is a harsh, effortful business. We have to work twice as hard to be half a person

Being a paraplegic is a harsh, effortful business. We have to work twice as hard to be half a person

Melissa was understandably appalled at this puzzling bit of mind-reading on the part of Self, responding on The Spectator’s website: ‘I absolutely have never laughed about “cripples” or ever used that word. So why is it in direct quotes? And I have never used the n-word so why is he saying it is plausible I have?’

I would never use the n-word in a million years, but I don’t see it as in any way comparable to the word ‘cripple’, which I’m sure Melissa wouldn’t use either. I,........

© The Spectator