Toby Young – The Daily Sceptic Aug 1, 2026
Jason Arday, the Cambridge DEI poster boy embroiled in a plagiarism row, boasts a back story so implausible it raises the question: is he, in fact, the latest comedy creation of Sacha Baron Cohen? His extraordinary claims – from running 600 miles in six days to raising £5.5 million for charity – have been accepted without question by universities, the BBC and fellow academics alike. Read my piece about what may be Baron Cohen’s most spectacular stunt yet in the Spectator:
Are congratulations in order for Sacha Baron Cohen? The more I read about Jason Arday, the Cambridge sociology professor and DEI poster boy caught up in a plagiarism row, the more convinced I am he’s the comedian’s greatest creation.
Arday’s academic career, like his athletic achievements, reads like a fairy tale
First, there’s the over-the-top back story. He claimed to have been totally mute until the age of 11 – having been diagnosed with autism – and unable to read or write until he was 18. Yet in spite of these disadvantages, he earned a PhD by the time he was 30 – which he managed to complete while suffering from a brain tumour!
On the face of it, utterly incredible. But it begins to make sense if you think of Arday as an Ali G-like character designed to test the limits of how unwilling white do-gooders are to challenge the claims of black people suffering from ‘intersectional oppression’, however implausible.
And test the limits he has. He chalked up some truly extraordinary achievements in ultra-endurance running, or so he says, completing the 600 miles from Edinburgh to London in just six days – 50 miles short of the world record for ultra-distance running over six days – and 30 marathons in 35 days. During this latter feat, he suffered a hairline fracture on day 21 and, according to him, his leg swelled to twice its normal size. Yet, remarkably, he went on to complete another nine marathons. In all, he maintains, he raised £5.5 million for charity.
All of these claims have been accepted at face value by the four universities who’ve awarded Arday honorary degrees, as well as the BBC, which published a laudatory profile when he became a Cambridge professor. How Baron Cohen must have laughed – assuming I’m right about Arday being a satirical creation. A stunt designed to expose the wilful blindness of hand-wringing liberals has succeeded beyond his wildest dreams.
Arday’s academic career, like his athletic achievements, reads like a fairy tale. After getting a degree in education studies at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, he went on to do a PhD at Liverpool John Moores University, before becoming a professor of sociology at Glasgow in 2021, then a sociology professor at Cambridge in 2023. At the age of 37, he was the youngest black person ever to be given a Cambridge chair.
Baron Cohen, who’s apparently been developing this character as a long-term sleeper project, must have been cock-a-hoop. But could he push the joke even further? Doubts about Arday’s academic integrity began to surface in 2023 when two sociology professors started asking awkward questions about his doctoral thesis and some of his journal papers. Not so fast, thought Baron Cohen, who must have anticipated that his hastily-cobbled together ‘thesis’, masquerading as original research, would one day be rumbled – the title of Arday’s PhD even includes a rogue apostrophe.
To deflect these allegations, the comedian appears to have come up with the genius idea of enlisting his cousin, Sir Simon Baron Cohen, as a co-conspirator. In 2025, the director of Cambridge’s autism research centre co-authored an open letter furiously accusing Arday’s detractors of being racists. This was the academic equivalent of Ali G’s famous catchphrase whenever anyone challenged him: ‘Is it because I is black?’
Worth reading in full.
Cohen huh? I wonder who he might be…
“Jason Arday, the Cambridge DEI poster boy…” — He beez a gud boy and youz beez waysisss,
As for Cohen — well that’s a jew. What else would one expect?
LOL..
The funny thing with all of this, and it’s not just particular to the so called ‘liberal left’, is that it’s irrelevant what type of cartoon character or associated fairy tale is being enacted*s.. because it’s actually about the mindset of the imbecile establishment itself and it’s investments in the nonsenses.. and the lol, ‘degree’ to which it’s brain has been cleansed… and it’s operative washed of any discernment and cof cof ..discriminating intellectual aptitude.. in order to keep grifting…
to the point of course, that we have cambridge dons followed about the foisty corridors of faux academia by big blak mamas with dread lox to make sure they stay on message.. and now of course the don is himself a black fantasist… a cardboard cutout with the usual handlers.*.
you see, the old guard on it’s way to irrelevance and the abattoir was his own worst enemy, having betrayed himself in order to avoid the lol..
difficult questions..
which of course was supposed to be his fucking job… was it not ?..good fucking riddance.. say I..
you wont be missed.
lolo..
* the black female swedish minister of culture…melting down lol ‘viking artifacts’…
sarcasm is the lowest form of humour
it is toxic to the soul
it is said sacha can get away with racist archtypes and characters
because he is a jew
i love real jewish humour but hes not funny
@ dil..
sarcasm may very well be the lowest form of humour, in as much as hope is the last refuge of the scoundrel.. but we can say with assurity that it’s the highest form of insult…
which of course is it’s purpose..
A chump at Cambridge? Hmmm
Those who have read my previous comments will be aware of my disdain for men in suits, “titles”, and qualifications that presume said hoop jumpers can laud it over the rest of us as “experts”. It goes beyond the Cambridge chimps’ tea party the diversity crowd have inflicted upon us. Laurel & Hardy were no doubt eighty years ahead of their time with their “Chump at Oxford”…
I note one of the multi-personality’s bots hides behind a doctorate and an evident faulty spell checker that fails to capitalise the perpendicular pronoun… That’s how you can tell him/her, but don’t tell him/her/it… So much for his “credentials”
Verily, much is to do with marketing rather than substance. I have recently acquainted myself with discourse on real ales and German beers, and have seen the best beers are not advertised, while the worst are very popular. It is a minor point that many “Spanish” and “Italian” lagers are brewed in Burton Upon Trent. Interestingly the Aldi and Lidl knock off clones of these are often better…
So, what does this all amount to?
I think that bullshit – along with fear – is the currency of those who rule are forever spending into the economy….
Simon Smith: 1973 Cycling Proficiency graduate and Smethwick Cultural Attaché to the Truthseeker…
This is a great example of what it means to be fake. All such fakers are promoted from within. The dude is probably related to Cohen.