One must assume from reading the Sandie Peggie judgment that the tribunal was more concerned with discouraging further litigation than with giving full and fearless effect to the Equality Act.
At the heart of this case lies a straightforward question: does a biologically male employee have a legal right to undress in a female-only changing room? For Women Scotland answered that question at the Supreme Court: women-only spaces are for biological women.
Yet instead of applying that binding precedent, the tribunal awarded Sandie Peggie a technical win based primarily on procedural failings and delay, while simultaneously undermining the legitimacy of her core complaint. The effect is a ruling that says: “You were treated badly, but only because you reacted to a situation we pretend has no legal significance.”
The motion completely ignored both the findings of the Cass Review and the Supreme Court judgment in For Women Scotland, but not a single MSP spoke in opposition to it. (Jenni Minto, the Minister For Public Health And Women’s Health, actually broke down in tears at the end because she wasn’t managing to get children’s futures permanently destroyed with sufficient urgency, mainly because the UK Parliament took legislation out of Holyrood’s hands to protect them.)
To be honest, we’re mainly putting these here so you don’t have to keep looking at that picture of Alan Cumming.
But they also show what you can achieve, whether in football or politics, if you actually attack rather than being content to endlessly shuttle it all sideways and backwards until you get beaten without even taking a shot.
Perhaps the key graphic from last night’s by-election in Caerphilly is this one (green means Plaid Cymru in the context of Wales):
In the end, Plaid won pretty comfortably in what had been predicted to be a very tight contest between them and Reform, with a majority of almost 4,000. But Plaid aren’t going to be the next government of the UK, so what’s the real story?
Last month, when half a football team of armed police ambushed and arrested comedy writer Graham Linehan at Heathrow Airport for a couple of tweets, we said this:
Today, even more swiftly than we thought, this happened:
We should point out right at the start that a reader donated £12 back in the summer specifically to send us to Nicola Sturgeon’s book event in Bath last night.
So on the surface level this is just flat-out hilarious.
Firstly because, as we showed you yesterday, the “significant proportion of Scotland’s population” which appears to have been won back to the SNP since John Swinney became its leader is… 1%.
We were going to write something today for the anniversary of Alex Salmond’s tragic death, but then we read Kevin McKenna’s piece in today’s Herald On Sunday and we can’t improve on it, so go and have a read of that before you do anything else.
Alex always believed in looking forward, not back, so we doubt he’d be overly fussed at the pathetic “tribute” paid to him at the SNP conference this morning. What would undoubtedly have exercised him a lot more would have been the wretched current state of the party he loved and built from almost nothing into the dominant force in Scottish politics.
And nothing typifies that wretched state better than the craven and gutless capitulation of a speech given by Tommy Sheppard yesterday, opposing the rebel amendments to John Swinney’s non-strategy on independence.
It said a lot more than he thought it did, but none of it good.
It’d be quite hard to find an image that more completely summed up the wretched state of the SNP in 2025 than this one. Look at that tiny handful of miserable faces, sitting dejectedly around a near-empty function room. It’s so bleak Mike Leigh could make an entire movie out of it.
And we know what you’re thinking – that we sat through some internet livestream to find the most pitiful-looking freezeframe imaginable to show them in a bad light. But nope. Kevin Stewart MSP posted this cheery snapshot of his own free will on Twitter on Sunday morning, presumably in the hope of boosting party morale in some way.
sam on These Words Are My Own: “Andy, “to face such a veto down”. How do you envisage doing that?. Scotland is of strategic importance to England.…” Jul 19, 14:17
DavidT on These Words Are My Own: “Perhaps the £58,735 worth of items were dropped from the indictment as part of a deal where he agreed not…” Jul 19, 14:00
Alf Baird on These Words Are My Own: “You seem to be getting closer to the realisation (always delayed for the native intellectuals and bourgeoisie, according to Fanon)…” Jul 19, 13:58
Northcode on These Words Are My Own: “The issue here isn’t sentiment, passion or the level of frustration people feel. It’s the constitutional architecture. A majority can’t…” Jul 19, 13:27
Aidan on These Words Are My Own: “@Northcode – I am not NOW saying that, I’ve pointed that out from the beginning. There is no formal hierarchy…” Jul 19, 13:19
Mark Beggan on These Words Are My Own: ““If wishes were horses, beggars would ride” wise words my Granny used to say.” Jul 19, 12:50
Andy Ellis on These Words Are My Own: “What if the constitutional structure itself prevents a majority from being actionable? They always refuse to engage with that question……” Jul 19, 12:40
Mark Beggan on These Words Are My Own: ““If the political will were truly manifest” “native Scottish perceptual matter” “worldview in the particular is perversely constrained” “Turn on,…” Jul 19, 12:17
Andy Ellis on These Words Are My Own: “@Alf Where is this “plebiscitary election policy”, Andy? You sound like Believe in Scotland who in 2024 promised such an…” Jul 19, 11:56
Mark Beggan on These Words Are My Own: “There is nothing as sad as a stupid Scot who refuses to accept defeat. They turn on their own, blaming…” Jul 19, 11:54
Hatey McHateface on These Words Are My Own: “Some Scots got confused when asked if Scotland should leave a non-existent union.” Jul 19, 11:49
TURABDIN on These Words Are My Own: “@AndyEllis If the political will were truly manifest nothing could seriously prevent the restoration of national sovereignty & independence. The…” Jul 19, 11:46
Mark Beggan on These Words Are My Own: “It wasn’t just the referendum some Scots lost over ten years ago.” Jul 19, 11:38
Alf Baird on These Words Are My Own: ““Hence we come back to the required democratic mandate for Indy, and the best way to get that – a…” Jul 19, 11:25
Hatey McHateface on These Words Are My Own: ““Westminster would have simply shrugged its shoulders and handed the Scots the ‘deeds to Scotland’?” Why would it? It’s not…” Jul 19, 11:21
crazycat on These Words Are My Own: “At the time of his sentencing, when there was discussion about how he managed to qualify for legal aid despite…” Jul 19, 11:14
Hatey McHateface on These Words Are My Own: “And, they’re off. Sun’s shining outside. That won’t last forever. This pointless argument will. Andy already has the win on…” Jul 19, 11:02
paul on These Words Are My Own: “I would be delighted to see the documentation of this transaction. If you’re spending that much money on pens, hairdryers…” Jul 19, 10:53
paul on These Words Are My Own: “…which doesn’t go that far these days in that london. The portugese property looks like one of her husband’s more…” Jul 19, 10:33
paul on These Words Are My Own: “…and its cherished legal system is viewed as an opt in option by the colonialists” Jul 19, 10:26
Tenruh on These Words Are My Own: “See Nicola managed to attend the Glasgow Gay March yesterday. Wonder what stopped her attending any Independence marches when she…” Jul 19, 10:26
Northcode on These Words Are My Own: “AI Dan. You’re now saying geographic separation is the “most important” criterion, but Resolution 1541 doesn’t describe any hierarchy of…” Jul 19, 10:14
Northcode on These Words Are My Own: “Unionists (colonialists if preferred… same thing) frequently tell us in this place that: “There is no route to independence that…” Jul 19, 10:03
paul on These Words Are My Own: “Scotland is not a country, it is a colony. It cannot develop outside its colonialists’ interest. The deeds to its…” Jul 19, 10:03
Captain Caveman on These Words Are My Own: “Bronze medal in theory, but in reality, yes, “first loser”. Ach. Great game of footy tho, and awesome to see…” Jul 19, 10:01
Aidan on These Words Are My Own: “I never said that geographic separation is the ONLY criteria, but that it is the most restrictive and most important…” Jul 19, 09:52
Northcode on These Words Are My Own: “Andy Ellis. You’re arguing as if the only question is whether a majority exists. But the issue isn’t whether Scots…” Jul 19, 09:42
Northcode on These Words Are My Own: “Those examples don’t support your point, AI Dan. Palestine, Tibet, Indigenous nations in the US, and North Cyprus aren’t NSGTs…” Jul 19, 09:31
Northcode on These Words Are My Own: ““That is absolutely untrue, NSGT status does not rely on any of those things” You’re reducing the UN’s criteria to…” Jul 19, 09:25
Northcode on These Words Are My Own: ““No amount of obfuscation can hide the fact that any “decolonisation” attempt becomes a slam dunk if the people behind…” Jul 19, 09:17
