Ghent university shouldn’t have suspended Nathan Cofnas

 

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Toby Young

Ghent university shouldn’t have suspended Nathan Cofnas

20 August 2026, 7:57pm

https://spectator.com/article/ghent-university-shouldnt-have-suspended-nathan-cofnas/

 

It is ironic that the ‘be kind’ brigade beating their breasts and wailing about the ‘lynching’ and ‘assassination’ of Jason Arday think the appropriate response is to whip up hatred against Nathan Cofnas, the scholar who exposed Arday’s academic misconduct. At the vigil for Arday at Trafalgar Square on Sunday, several speakers singled out Cofnas for blame, including Diane Abbott MP, who described him as a ‘racist’. Nathan contacted me shortly afterwards worried that he risked being murdered if he set foot in London.

 

His sin, apparently, was not to expose Arday’s plagiarism, but to talk about it in an unseemly way afterwards

 

I should declare an interest in that the Free Speech Union, the organisation I run, helped Nathan with his legal fees when he challenged the decision of Emmanuel College to terminate his research fellowship following a backlash to a blog post he wrote saying that genes play a role in racial outcome discrepancies. This was after Emmanuel had initially defended his right to free speech, a right that was subsequently upheld by the University of Cambridge, which decided to take no disciplinary action against him. Nathan’s legal challenge against Emma was unsuccessful, but his lawyers believe the judge erred and have applied for permission to appeal.

 

It now looks as though the organisers of the Two Minutes Hate against Nathan in Trafalgar Square have got their wish – he’s been suspended by Ghent university, where he held a position as a postdoctoral researcher, pending an investigation. His sin, apparently, was not to expose Arday’s plagiarism, but to talk about it in an unseemly way afterwards – a sleight of hand we encounter again and again at the FSU: it’s not what you said, but the manner in which you said it.

 

In its communications about Nathan’s suspension, the university has emphasised how many people have written to it, presumably demanding Nathan’s head, as if that makes the decision more acceptable. The mob has spoken, is the subtext. If we deny them their pound of flesh, our reputation will suffer.

 

I daresay Nathan will lose his position at Ghent and that will send a message to other young academics, just starting out in their careers, who stumble across examples of misconduct in their fields. If the wrongdoer is the beneficiary of DEI, who will dare speak up? Best to keep quiet. Look what happened to Nathan Cofnas.

 

It’s as though the famous fairytale about the little boy who points out the emperor isn’t wearing any clothes has been rewritten by a ‘sensitivity’ reader. In the new version, the emperor commits suicide, while the boy is subjected to a show trial.

 

Toby Young

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Toby Young