This clip was broadcast on ITV News Wales this week.
It’s a staggeringly obvious mess for a whole raft of reasons – a number of completely spurious, illogical and unsupported claims are accepted as facts without any sort of challenge or balancing voice (which has been standard practice on ITV News for a while now across almost any contentious political topic) – but it led us to somewhere magnitudes of crazier still.
My first ever real experience of politics was playing Dictator.
Originally written by Don Priestley for the Sinclair ZX81 in 1982, it was a simple text-based game which subsequently came to other formats including the Commodore 64, BBC Micro, Elan Enterprise and the ZX Spectrum, which is where I encountered it.
Something very odd happened when the Sandie Peggie employment tribunal delivered its judgment – and it wasn’t just the made-up quotes and mangled law.
Call it institutional bias, ideological capture, or just the law doing its job, but what Employment Judge Sandy Kemp’s tribunal delivered was the most one-sided outcome since Butch and Sundance decided to come out shooting.
Because, y’know, you can call us old-fashioned purists or sticklers or whatever if you like, but government ministers probably shouldn’t openly lie in prepared statements to the High Court in order to pervert the course of justice.
As recently as this weekend, the Scottish Government claimed that it has “made clear it accepts the Supreme Court ruling [in For Women Scotland] and is taking forward the detailed work necessary”.
But as with so much the Scottish Government says, it’s a barefaced lie.
We thought we should keep track of all the issues with the Peggie tribunal judgment, now that Sandie Peggie has officially announced her intention to appeal it.
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 first and most important thing to note about yesterday’s judgment in the Sandie Peggie tribunal is that it’s a very big victory. The tribunal found that Sandie Peggie was gravely and heinously harassed by her employer through no fault of her own, and she’ll be entitled to substantial compensation as a result.
It also ruled, repeatedly and unequivocally, that Dr “Beth” Upton (who’s referred to in the judgment as “the second respondent”) is a man.
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.)
Disgraced ex-policeman and notorious vexatious serial complainant Lynsay Watson is having quite the meltdown on the groomer-and-paedophile haven Bluesky tonight.
Strathglass on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “replying to Northcode (A) OK. not really important in the scheme of things. (B)Ditto. (C) So Police Scotland are saying…” Aug 18, 21:39
Aidan on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “@Alf – if it is the high-quality work you say it is, then why is it published in a student-run…” Aug 18, 21:24
Aidan on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: ““A distinction is appropriate, here, because Alf has been accused of obsessive references to various writers who deal with Colonialism”…” Aug 18, 21:20
Alf Baird on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “An extensive summary of the ‘Doun-Hauden’ book’s findings and theoretical framework developed to explain Scotland’s colonial condition, inclusive of extensive…” Aug 18, 21:14
Spartan 117 on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “I don’t always agree with Alf however he does make compelling points and makes his points without any disrespect or…” Aug 18, 20:48
Saffron Robe on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “I’m not sure I agree with your conclusion, Stuart. What if independence is the only way to bring about justice?…” Aug 18, 20:28
James Che on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “The devolved Scottish governance is English by nature and law under legislation and Statues from the Westminster parliament in which…” Aug 18, 20:15
Northcode on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “Police Scotland’s reply… tone, structure, and meaning. This letter is calm, procedural, factual, standard, professional, and non?reactive. It’s exactly what…” Aug 18, 19:19
Jay on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “Anthem and Alanm, your assessment is correct. Thatcher and her associates intended to corrupt potentially democratic politics with a massive…” Aug 18, 18:16
Northcode on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “You’re wrong, Jay. Alf only references those pioneers of postcolonial theory to punt his book, “Doun-Hauden: The Socio-Political Determinants of…” Aug 18, 17:56
Jay on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “Confused as to the utility of your comment (referring to J. Arday) for remedy of the ills with which Rev…” Aug 18, 17:24
James Che on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “With Scotland not having a legal parliament of its own, ( as presently its under the legislation and statue’s of…” Aug 18, 16:17
James Che on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “It would appear that Stu is dealing with the wrong Crown offices of England and english laws, not Scots law,…” Aug 18, 16:01
James Che on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “Union minded people are beginning to fight a losing battle in its efforts to hold Scotland even as a Colony.…” Aug 18, 15:47
Aidan on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: ““So universities now teach there is no union between Scotland and England” Which universities teach that?” Aug 18, 15:39
Northcode on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “A fit of boredom came upon me… so I had a closer look at the lawyer’s letter for something to…” Aug 18, 15:30
Jay on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “They say your name is J. Main: you speak only for yourself.” Aug 18, 15:21
James Che on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “Just talking to a lady from England with full qualifications on studies on geography and world war one and world…” Aug 18, 15:16
robertkknight on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “Agreed, Alf. Ignore the site pricks/usual suspects.” Aug 18, 15:08
Hatey McHateface on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “I was unaware of the correlation between republicanism and Christianity, Spartan. In fact, I thought it was republicans who foisted…” Aug 18, 12:51
Mark Beggan on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “Yes Alfie that’s right. Now tell us about your academic journey and any marathons you took part in.” Aug 18, 12:46
Spartan 117 on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “KCIII’s deliberate abandonment of Christianity is just one of the many and varied reasons I am a Republican.” Aug 18, 12:35
Hatey McHateface on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: ““they are a servile people” “they will always be slaves” Yet one quarter of the world atlas used to be…” Aug 18, 12:32
Hatey McHateface on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: ““aside from … some traditions of dress” (Fanon). Praise be! I was worried that Professor Baird was about to tell…” Aug 18, 12:24
Captain Caveman on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: ““– I will enjoy watching the muslims r4pe you and your kind into oblivion.” Well, I daresay I shouldn’t be…” Aug 18, 12:20
Confused on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “first they came for the autists, but I said nothing as my disability increment was due to ADHD … then…” Aug 18, 12:02
Confused on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “Hey Caveman – concern yourself less with Scotland and keep tae yir ain midden, your problems are greater https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/08/16/eritrean-man-raped-pensioner-outside-church/ -…” Aug 18, 12:00
Confused on The Land Of Do-As-You-Please: “oh dear. I thought you really had them, this time … Much as I salute your indefatigability and dog with…” Aug 18, 11:48
