Mark Irvine - Blogger, Campaigner, Organiser

The Sandie Peggie employment tribunal is the biggest industrial relations issue to make the news headlines in years - the Herald newspaper, for example, has no less than two journalists covering the story this week. Yet the Scottish TUC, the voice of Scotland's trade unions, has nothing to say about Sandie Peggie's David vs Goliath battle with the bullies and bureaucrats at NHS Fife. Speaks volumes about the leadership of the Scottish TUC and trade unions in NHS Fife who have failed to stand up for a long-serving health worker - a nurse, with a 30-year unblemished record of service to her local community.   I wonder what Unison and the RCN are reporting on their respective web sites as 'Latest News'.  

Trust John Swinney to face both ways over Donald Trump's visit to Scotland. On the one hand the SNP First Minister is 'peeing his pants' for the chance of a meeting and photo op with Donald Trump, but on the other Swinney is accused of whipping up protests and protesters.     

I thought I'd never stop laughing at the suggestion a petite nurse made a grown man cry and get upset by telling him he had no business in a female changing room - so upset he allegedly felt unsafe and had to be escorted to his car. How was the poor man able to drive home - and how does he even survive working in a busy 'Your Life In Their Hands' Accident and Emergency department?  

We go live to the female nurses' changing rooms in NHS Fife.

One thing that strikes me from Sandie Peggie's tribunal is the number of highly paid NHS managers who ganged up to get a nurse with a 30-year unblemished record of service to her local community suspended. I've counted 8 NHS Fife managers who have given evidence recently, but far from protecting the interests of everyone involved - including Sandie Peggie's - this group showed extreme favouritism towards doctor Ted Upton, a man pretending to be a woman. Suspension should be be a last resort, a neutral act to facilitate a speedy investigation into a serious incident, yet Sandie Peggie was suspended for two months over what amounted to more 'hurty words' - when she should have been looking after patients. Scotland's NHS has more money and more staff than ever before - the problem is there are far too many of them concentrated in the wrong places, far too many overpaid managers and too few front-line staff like Sandi Peggie.

I first met Dan Brown in the early 1990s when were on opposite sides of the negotiating table at COSLA, the umbrella body representing Scotland’s local councils.  Dan was the spokesperson for the Employers’ Side - the Employers’ Side Joint Secretary - and I had the equivalent job for the joint trade unions, via my role Unison’s Head of Local Government and chief negotiator in Scotland. We often had to resolve difficult, sometimes intractable, problems that put us at loggerheads with each other, but our discussions and negotiations were always professional, respectful and friendly - never angry, personal or acrimonious. Everyone respected Dan - he was a likeable down-to-earth guy, someone you could trust, a man of his word who played things  straight and had a great sense of humour - including the ability to laugh at himself. When I left Unison Dan told me he would greatly miss working with me, but a few years later we were thrown together again when, unbeknown to each other, w...

Lots of people are asking the same question: Why was a male doctor using the female nurses' changing room?  Why did Theodore Upton choose to invade a changing area reserved for nurses - instead of  the changing facilities used by other medical staff (male or female) ?

The evidence in the Sandie Peggie employment tribunal is that doctors in NHS Fife closed ranks around one of their own using the spurious excuse about 'welfare of staff'.  Because nurses are staff too of course (along with other NHS workers) - and they are entitled to exactly the same respect, courtesy and consideration as doctors! Yet the opposite seems to have happened in NHS Fife where Sandie Peggie was suspended for several weeks, 'hung out to dry' and treated much less favourably than Dr Theodore Upton

For some bizarre reason, the University of Sussex has given 'Marathon Man' Eddie Izzard an honorary degree in feminism - which can only be a joke or a calculated insult. Because Eddie is a man, a biological male who likes dressing up in women's clothing - fair enough if that's what floats your boat, but Izzard is no feminist.

Jeremy Corbyn's favourite union boss, Len McCluskey, is under fire after a damning report commissioned by Unite. "Unite's auditors found the union spent as much as £125m on the hotel and conference centre development, which has since been valued at just £38m."   https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp3kgg55410o  

A. NHS Fife, of course! Gethin Chamberlain (a freelance journalist) reports on the scurrilous allegations made against Sandie Peggie during her employment tribunal battle with bullies and bureaucrats at NHS Fife. Note too the immediate response from Sandie Peggie's daughter, Nicole. I'm surprised the Chair (an employment judge), or one of the other panel members, did not object to these false and baseless claims, but what a way to treat a woman with a 30-year record of unblemished service to her local community.   

  The Herald leads with a great story about the hostile behaviour of trade unions - in this case the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) - towards union members who reject self-ID and men declaring they have magically 'become women'. The RCN likes to call itself the 'real voice of nursing', but it is being sued by Sandie Peggie, a nurse with a 30-year record of unblemished service to her local community. Sandie claims the RCN abandoned her when she was suspended and falsely accused of wrongdoing by senior managers in NHS Fife. Which begs the question - what is a trade union for if not to support and advise members in their hour of need?    

Scotland's NHS has apparently spent £20 million since 2019 on 'diversity, equality and inclusion' (DEI) staff and training. Judging by what has been going on recently in NHS Fife this has been a diabolical waste of money - and a human cost too for someone like Sandie Peggie. The health service has more staff and more resources than ever before, yet waiting lists are getting longer and patients are being let down.

Joan McAlpine, journalist and former SNP MSP, is spot on with her column in the Sunday Post which points out that Sandie Peggie was punished and victimised for speaking the truth to power "Sandie Peggie told the truth when she stated Dr Upton was a man. She declared the Emperor had no clothes" "It is not just Fife health board that has been exposed. And the 'power' in question is not just the bullies and bureaucrats at NHS Fife NHS - the people responsible for this farce include three First Ministers of Scotland and the Scottish Government who have been promoting the nonsense of self-ID in our public services. 

The Courier reports that the chief executive of Fife NHS, Carol Potter, is facing an internal staff revolt over the appalling handling of the Sandie Peggie case. Not surprising given that a nurse with a record of 30-years unblemished service to her local community was under investigation for 18 months - over what turned out to be bogus, trumped up charges.

Three successive SNP First Ministers have turned Scotland into a laughing stock with their support for self-ID and the absurd notion that men can magically declare they have 'become women'.  The SNP's pursuit of self-ID has led to the vindictive witch hunt in Scotland's NHS against a courageous woman, Sandie Peggie, a nurse with a unblemished 30-year record of service to her local community. John Swinney, Humza Yousaf and Nicola Sturgeon owe Sandie Peggie and apology

  Not content with smearing and condemning Sandie Peggie out of hand, Dr Kate Searle doubled down and the next day told Ted Upton he had "every right to report this incident to the police". What kind of people behave in this way?  

  Doctor Kate Searle wrote to fellow medical staff in Fife NHS, condemned Sandie Peggie out of hand and took sides over an alleged incident, even before a proper investigation was underway. Yet it was Sandie Peggie who was suspended by NHS managers and put under investigation for 18 months before she was exonerated. What a way to behave - the senior management and Board of Fife NHS are not fit for purpose.

A fish rots from the head down, so they say. So can it just be sheer coincidence that Nicola Sturgeon, who was until recently head of both the SNP and Scottish Government, is named after a fish? 

Having carefully weighed all the evidence, I think it's fair to say Scotland's trade unions (including the STUC) have been about as much use as a chocolate teapot in defending women's rights to dignity, privacy and single sex spaces at work.     

While the Scottish TUC has had virtually nothing to say about Sandie Peggie and her fight for dignity at work against the bureaucrats and bullies at Fife NHS - STUC boss, Roz 'Five Homes' Foyer has been stoutly defending her role as a landlord/property magnate.  

Buddy Holly could never have imagined his great song 'Peggy Sue' acquiring a new lease of life courtesy of Fife NHS and the trade unions. But it must be music to the ears of grassroots trade union members that Sandie Peggie is suing the bigwigs at the RCN - for failing to protect her rights at work!