Oxford professor of poetry Ruth Padel resigns

[wellinghall]

"The first female Oxford Professor of Poetry resigned today following her involvement in an alleged smear campaign against a former rival."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/may/25/ruth-padel-oxford-poetry-resigns

Comments

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

what next? the last TS committee elections will be shown to have been subject to fraud?

Hey, you weren't meant to know about that story! ;-)

[tree_and_leaf]

Well, you know what they say, the lower the stakes, the dirtier the fight...

As far as I recall Padel herself has always denied involvement, though.

[arda-unmarred.livejournal.com]

I definitely saw it this morning on the Guardian website, so you're not hallucinating.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

It's the press office I feel sorry for.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

There is this.

[segh.livejournal.com]

I asked the Constant Reader and he merely described the whole affair as "dark and obnubilated".

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

obnubilated

Now that's a word you don't see very often!

*makes note for next game of Scrabble* ;-)

[the-marquis.livejournal.com]

My Flister juggzy has commented on how sordid it all is, and how it makes women look bad, it would appear that Padel has been caught lying by claiming not to have said anything and then had the 2 journos that she told the story to come forward and say "Wait a minute ..." (or words to that effect).

Mind you some of the commentary on this in the press is shameful - apparently Clive James is suggesting that the women in the Walcott allegations may have lied and thus all women lie: actually I think all humans are capable of lying. On another note though that latter thought is something that regularly escapes CPS and the judiciary ;-)