I need to clarify a few things about my work In recent days, a combination of left-wing journalists and disgruntled left-wing former colleagues have been trying to imply I've been forced out of academic life because of my political views This is completely false They are bad actors The truth is that my university, the University of Kent, like many other universities, is massively in debt, and has been for a while It has been shutting courses and offering academics voluntary severance to cut costs About 50-100 academics have taken this I am one of them The deal was negotiated about six months ago. It has nothing to do with my political views or recent events The two are being linked by shoddy, resentful, and politically-motivated journalists like James Ball, who did not bother to call me to confirm basic facts ... .. and disgruntled, left-wing, former academic colleagues, many of whom I have not socialised with for more than a decade and who, as is instantly obvious on here, resent my success and/or oppose my politics Personally, I don't feel like I need to justify myself but after multiple academic books with Oxford, Cambridge, dozens of articles, awards, grants, a professorship at 33, two Sunday Times bestselling books, I feel like I've done all the things I wanted to do For me, after 20 years of studying and teaching in the legacy universities, the time was right to take the money Life is short. I am 42. I want to do something else. So, for now, I am Honorary Professor at Kent and write the 2nd biggest Substack in the UK and the 5th biggest politics Substack in the world (mattgoodwin.org) I am delighted this is giving voice to many people who feel they've been shut out of the national conversation and the legacy institutions. I will never stop speaking for them I will be announcing other (academic) affiliations and projects next month, which are all very exciting Lastly, if visibly bitter, resentful, and typically unsuccessful academics and journalists want to frame this as something it is not then, well, good luck to you I wish you the best Matt