Politics and Poetry don’t mix

Ruth Padel has resigned as Professor of Poetry, only a week after starting the job, after the emergence of emails she sent to national newspapers containing, among other things, allegations of sexual harassment in Derek Walcott’s past her seemed to implicate her in the smear campaign carried out against her rival. Clearly, it is entirely possible that the anonymous letters sent out to Cherwell and hundreds of Oxford Academics had nothing to do with Padel. Yet it doesn’t look good. Moreover, her actions are questionable independently from those letters. Padel claims that she acted ‘in good faith’ in sending the emails, yet the conflict of interest is palpable. If she truly felt a duty to act upon the concerns of students, perhaps she might have found a better way of doing so than to email the Evening Standard with the suggestion that the contents ‘might provide interesting copy.’ Add to this her wonderfully obtuse suggestion that the smear campaign might, in fact, have been a conspiracy against her candidacy, and it begins to seem that she has made a farce of the election. Padel has, naturally, been decried by all and sundry as having undermined a democratic process, and in doing so degrading a venerable academic post and wasting the opportunity to be the first female to hold it. Yet Cherwell would suggest that rather than undermining the democratic process, Padel is an indication that it isn’t appropriate to the role. The notion that the election is truly democratic is, firstly, ludicrous. Despite widespread and unprecedented media attention, of a potential 150,000 eligible to vote, only 477 people participated. Either Convocation should be narrowed to include those who are actually relevant, or it should not elect the Professor of Poetry. Moreover there seems little reason for the role to be elected at all—the only other role to be chosen by Convocation is that of Chancellor, which is in no way related. The Chancellor at least serves some sort of leadership role, even if his status is essentially titular. Politics is not a necessary addition to poetry—if Padel is the result, perhaps we should reconsider our approach.