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Why They Believed Arday but Not Ray

How a tale of two teachers became a parable of our times

This week, Colin tells a tale of two teachers, separated by 40 years but bound by one unavoidable question: why do those in power reward the story they want to believe over the truth?

Jason Arday, the youngest Black professor ever appointed by Cambridge, staked his reputation on a Homeric struggle against adversity. That story has since unravelled in the most devastating fashion.

Contrast this with Ray Honeyford, a white Bradford headmaster who had a hardscrabble childhood. He wrote one honest article criticising multiculturalism in 1985 and was hounded out of his job.

Colin explores why one man was lionised for saying what people wanted to hear, while the other was destroyed for telling the truth.

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