When I wrote about the Jason Arday case, the whole point of doing so was to question the pile-on and the high-handed outrage which I found appalling. I wanted to defend Arday by explaining that despite the allegations, I was rooting for him against the pompous voices of outraged academia.

Will Self may not strike you as the obvious moral arbiter of life on earth

Will Self may not strike you as the obvious moral arbiter of life on earth

As someone who did not succeed in getting into Oxbridge when I applied, I felt a certain admiration for Arday, who had come from a humble background and worked the system to his benefit. In my piece, I expressed the sentiment I felt at the time of reading the coverage about him, which was: ‘Go on my son!’

I wanted to come at the story from a different angle, because Arday was, in my view, an interesting character, and the more I read about him the more I liked him. But it seems that in doing this, I landed myself on a series of leftist hit lists, published after Arday’s tragic death.

One such is being put about by Will Self. In a pompous post issued on Substack, Self says that every journalist who wrote about this issue needs to be held accountable for Arday’s death. Even a journo who said ‘Go on my son!’ to Arday. Self suggests I’ve got to be reported to, er, the relevant authorities.

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Will the BBC apologise for its role in the Jason Arday story?

Now, Will Self may not strike you as the obvious moral arbiter of life on earth, but he has decided that he is. So let’s go with that, for now. If Will Self isn’t happy with what I wrote, or doesn’t understand it, then the Prime Minister needs to be made aware.

Self, you see, has written to Andy Burnham to tell tales on me and many others, in his position as leader of the morals of the (not so) free world.

The look and feel of Self’s ‘Situation Report’ reminds me of something in George Orwell’s 1984. It is in many ways ludicrous, but it is happening, nonetheless, and we cannot assume Burnham’s response will be to say ‘Eh?’ and move on.

Also, irrespective of what Self’s ludicrously overblown statement actually achieves – for overblown is what Self does for money, and he can make a buck on Substack, I get that – there are other such lists and other campaigns to hold writers accountable for Arday’s death.

Free speech has been on life support for a while, but this week they switched off the machine and it died with poor Jason Arday. I don’t know which I’m more upset about. Arday, definitely. Because free speech was absolutely on its last legs and no one, least of all me, expected it to live for much longer.

In fact, it was getting kind of agonising watching it thrashing about. It’s less painful and messy this way.

The situation is finally nice and clear. You’d have to be stupid to say what you think now that it has been established that if you write your........

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