While doing some research for the Scottish history podcast which I co-host, called A Thistle With Thorns, I read a newly published academic work on 17th-century Scotland. “The Scottish State and the Experience of Government, c1560-1707, Essays in Honour of Julian Goodare” brings together a collection of contributed pieces looking at the development of Scotland’s institutions of government in the early modern period.
Several articles address the phenomenon of Scottish witch hunts in those times. We know that King James VI and I had something of an obsession with witches; an interest which was taken up with enthusiasm by the Kirk and the Scottish authorities. Innocent women (and the victims were usually women) were dragged to the courts for their supposed dealings with the devil, although in practice their lifestyles and beliefs might just have been out of step with societal norms of the time.
We might think these episodes of witch hunting simply reflect a superstitious backward period in our nation’s history, but more recent events suggest the judgmental strain amongst Scottish authorities against lone women brave enough to challenge the orthodoxy still exists. I refer, of course, to the case of Sandie Peggie, the Fife nurse of more than 30 years unblemished service, who was suspended by her employers in NHS Fife because she had the temerity to object to sharing a changing room with a biologically male trans woman, Dr Beth Upton.
I attended the employment tribunal in Dundee last week to better understand for myself the issues at stake. And what I heard that day, and what has been reported in the media, continues to astonish me.
What has come out in evidence thus far indicates that, from the very start, those in positions of leadership within NHS Fife were never interested in acting in an even-handed manner in considering Peggie’s complaints, but rather immediately took Upton’s side.
There appears to have been no proper duty of care by NHS Fife towards their nurse employee, or any consideration of her rights in the matter. What’s worse, attempts were then made to smear Peggie’s character, by suggesting she was transphobic, homophobic, and even racist.
The list of management failures exposed by the tribunal thus far grows ever longer. A lengthy media statement issued by NHS Fife had to be withdrawn and rewritten several times, after the first wording appeared to blame Peggie’s legal team for offensive messages being received by NHS Fife’s staff.
We then had an unprecedented intervention by Scotland’s Information Commissioner, David Hamilton, in relation to the health board’s failure to comply with a decision notice around responses to a Freedom of Information request.
In a statement, he complained about “the petulant tone of NHS Fife’s latest statement” and went on to warn that he might have to report them to the Court of Session for contempt of court. To have a public body threatened with criminal charges in this way by another public servant is simply astonishing.
In the background of all this is the fundamental question of why NHS Fife did not comply with the law in providing single-sex accommodation for staff. The recent decision of the UK Supreme Court in the For Women Scotland case made it clear what the law said, in case that had been in any doubt previously, but the health board continues to dig a hole for itself in the stance it is taking at the tribunal. And this is after Peggie was cleared of any wrongdoing in an internal disciplinary process.
NHS Fife has admitted their legal costs have exceeded £220,000, and the final total is expected to be at least double that. Unlike Peggie, whose legal costs are being funded by supporters, every penny being paid by NHS Fife in defending this action comes from the pockets of you and me, the Scottish taxpayers. We are paying for the egregious mistakes being made.
The positions of NHS Fife chief executive Carol Potter and the health board members are now simply untenable. They have presided over a situation where large sums of public money have been wasted in the mistreatment of someone who should have been a valued member of staff. They failed to comply with the law and may even be guilty of contempt of court. They should go now.
The other astonishing aspect of this has been the pitiful silence, from Neil Gray, as Health Secretary, and John Swinney as First Minister – the individuals ultimately responsible for the actions of Scotland’s public bodies. If Potter and the Fife NHS Board do not go voluntarily, then Swinney needs to call them in and sack them.
For too long, failures in Scottish public life have gone unpunished, and the Peggie case is such an extreme example that the Scottish public sector will become a laughingstock if these individuals remain in office.
There is a broader issue here for the Scottish public sector, and that is the question of policy capture by extreme trans activists, which led to public bodies accepting gender self-identification in practice even though it had never been put into legislation. Whether it is in the police, the prison service, the NHS or in education, women and girls have had their spaces invaded by biological males whilst those who raised a complaint were bullied and victimised.
This has all happened on Swinney’s watch. As Deputy First Minister to Nicola Sturgeon, he was more than happy to see these policies applied. Now, thankfully, this case has exposed the weakness of his position, and his inexcusable failure to put things right.
Never mind the Scottish Government making apologies for the witches persecuted 400 years ago, it should be starting today by ensuring brave women like Sandie Peggie get the justice they deserve.
*Murdo Fraser's opinion piece was printed in The Scotsman on July 30.
