Saturday, March 18, 2017

Was Paul Nuttall a university lecturer or not?


When Paul Nuttall's website reappeared (to general rejoicing) last week, I wrote of the claims about his past that are no longer to be found on it:
The claim that Nuttall has been a university lecturer has been deleted.
This always seemed unlikely to me, but it was repeated without comment by many journalists when Nuttall was elected leader of Ukip.
Yet if you go to the Press Releases section of the site, you will still found it made several times,

On 21 February 2010 the world was told:
“I am not for one minute criticising students, who by and large work hard, I am criticising this Government for devaluing university education,” said Mr Nuttall, who is a former University history lecturer.
On 10 October 2014:
But Mr Nuttall, UKIP Deputy Leader, and Education spokesman, who is from a low income background and worked as a University lecturer, calls the proposal an example of the worst kind of social engineering that will act as a great disincentive to success.
And on 27 July 2015:
Deputy Leader Paul Nuttall, a former University lecturer, has also highlighted the role of Monnet Professors, academics selected and funded by the EU to promote EU integration..
So was Nuttall a university lecturer or not?

Because the claim was weeded after his site became an embarrassment to him during the Stoke Central by-election, I am inclined to think he was not.

How come he claimed to be in three different press releases?

Clearly, a press officer made the same mistake three times.

Or it could be that three different press officers made the mistake once each?

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