Allison Bailey v Stonewall - Employment Tribunal hearing Thread 6

[ickky]

The Tribunal started on 25th April at 10am. If you would like to view online you need to send a request for access as early as possible.

Send an email to

[email protected]

The subject heading of the email request should read

“MEDIA OR PUBLIC ACCESS REQUEST – Case number 2202172/2020 - Ms A Bailey – 25th April 2022.

Then ask for the pin for the online access.

You will be contacted with instructions on how to observe the hearing.

When joining the live tribunal please choose a non inflammatory/offensive name, everyone can see it in the chat - This is a court room, please behave accordingly.

The court chat function is there for official court purposes, not for observers, please don't use it unless you have a technical issue.

On the first page underneath where you put your screen name, select the video and mic that are not crossed out (top option), this is the courts vid and mic.
On the next page select NONE on the drop down windows for vid and mic, these are your own video and mic.

You must be muted so as to not disturb the hearing.

There is also live tweeting from

twitter.com/tribunaltweets
Abbreviations:

AB: Allison Bailey, claimant
BC: Ben Cooper QC, barrister for AB
SW = Stonewall Equality Limited (respondent 1)
IO = Ijeoma Omambala QC, senior counsel - barrister for SW
RW = Robin White junior counsel to SW - assisting IO
GC = Garden Court Chambers Limited (respondent 2) (GCC would be a better abbreviation)
AH = Andrew Hochhauser QC, senior counsel - barrister for GC
JR = Jane Russell junior counsel to GC - assisting AH
RM= Rajiv Menon QC & SH = Stephanie Harrison QC (jointly respondent 3 along with all members of GC except AB)
EJ = Employment Judge Goodman hearing the case
Panel = any one of the three panel members (EJ and two lay members)

Thread 1 www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4529887-Allison-Bailey-v-Stonewall-Employment-Tribunal-hearing?

Thread 2 www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4542466-allison-bailey-v-stonewall-employment-tribunal-hearing-thread-2

Thread 3 www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4545725-allison-bailey-v-stonewall-employment-tribunal-hearing-thread-3

Thread 4 www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4546945-allison-bailey-v-stonewall-employment-tribunal-hearing-thread-4

Thread 5 www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4548160-allison-bailey-v-stonewall-employment-tribunal-hearing-thread-5

Thank you for indulging me, I knew it was worthwhile asking

Can I suggest 'Super Cooper' to the tune of Abba's Super Trooper.

If GCC are not insured against a negative outcome of this tribunal, are these barristers going to have to cough up cash for their own legal fees if GCC lose? Could explain some of their anger.

Abba - Super Trooper

@IcakethereforeIam ooh I like that!

Can someone please explain why RMW's job appears to be typing E354 = B632 and what that means?

Maybe also something like collective narcissism in play when it comes to GCC.

Allison must have had some idea what reactions she might get when she took action against her chambers, and I'm stunned all over again by how brave she is.

@Emotionalsupportviper I see you are on the same wavelength as Icake!

Sorry ! I should have read the whole thread, Icake beat me to it.

Performative retrospective cross-indexing of some sort?

A homage to the E numbers in the barristers' end-of-day orange squash?

Beats me. 🤨

I shall now, shamelessly, shoehorn in two writers who've been running through my head during the tribunal proceedings when we've been present for some complex emotions from various parties.

Joseph Conrad's wrote this in his 1913 novel Chance and it puts me so strongly in mind of people's unswerving belief in the truth of their moral compass and the narrative of being on the right side of history to the point where they saw no reason to engage in the due diligence such matters would normally attract:

You know the power of words. We pass through periods dominated by this or that word - it may be development, or it may be competition, or education, or purity or efficiency or even sanctity. It is the word of the time. Well just then it was the word Thrift which was out in the streets walking arm in arm with righteousness, the inseparable companion and backer up of all such national catch-words, looking everybody in the eye as it were.

Rebecca West wrote this in 1941 and it exposes the foundation for our sense of ourselves as rational beings:

- only a part of us is sane: only part of us loves pleasure and the longer day of happiness, wants to live to our nineties and die in peace, in a house that we built, that shall shelter those that come after us. The other half of us is nearly mad. It prefers the disagreeable to the agreeable, loves pain and its darker night despair, and wants to die in a catastrophe that will set back life to its beginnings and leave nothing of our house save its blackened foundations.

These people were in the same house (GCC) and share so many of the same values and yet there's a strong sense that there was a lot of attention paid to the cosmetic (colours, fonts) but none to the foundations or a sense of current events that would destroy the foundations if they were neglected and left unchecked.

Perhaps I'm hopelessly wrong. Maybe they were always a house divided and they were always going to fall in some way but I'm picking up so much dissonance among people whom I admire for their achievements. This doesn't feel like an area where disagreement generates creative friction that will help everyone to progress. This feels like something that erects a larger, Here Be Dragons sign with little chance of a more widely helpful resolution.

And if their legal fees are anything approaching AB's that's a lot of cash and a huge loss of face for the chambers.

I can see why they'd all be furious, even without any narcissistic/personality traits at play. Idiots.

I think one is supposed to refer to the electronic page numbering and one the bundle page numbering.

It’s because the bundles were such a mess there appears to be two sets of references depending on which bundle you have access to.

It's because the pagination of the 6431 page non-downloadabe bundle was screwed up Clymene. The printed number on the bottom of each page doesn't match its sequence number. So, in your example, the 354th page in the electronic (E) document, page E354, will have the non-matching page number in its footer of 632 (designated as B).

The complication comes from the fact that the barristers, in directing witnesses to the correct page of the bundle, are using the B numbers.

The E numbers are useful for fast navigation of the non-downloadable bundle. The barrister mentions the B number, it's converted into the E number, you type it into the search box at the bottom of the webpage, press the Return key, and you're whisked directly to the correct page.

B=1.79E

sorry couldn’t resist as been done some maths all day

Ahh, thanks. I did see that but thought it must be information for people who have bundles to look at. I'll try it tomorrow.

alerting people to potential e-numbers in their half time orange juice?

And the judge has a support cat who appears to be of an oriental variety if they yowling is anything to go on.

Oh, Spindle beat me to it.

Saw this recently in Bristol.

I'd love if that was RMW's only job in life. Their other job appears to be pointing out offensive log in names and occasionally fetching technical support when their witnesses have turned up with a coach load of supporters who need to be fitted into a tiny room.

What happens to Allison after all of this? I

mean I assume she will have some say in the direction she wants to go but I’m not clear if she could change Chambers after this, or if she has to stay and work with these people or give up her career?

Does anyone know?

I have no idea, just speculating, but I'd imagine she would leave. I think she's currently on sabbatical until this is concluded, but I can't see it being tenable for her to return there whatever the outcome.