UCU being taken to tribunal over discrimination for 'gc' views

[ArabellaScott]

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/gender-critical-documentary-makers-take-ucu-tribunal

The filmmakers of 'Adult Human Female' are taking UCU to tribunal.

I'll try to find an archive copy.

I applied for access over the weekend, and permission came through a few minutes ago.

Thank you for keeping me up to date so far. I appreciate it’s adjourned until 12:45: was lunch mentioned?

I got the impression the plan is to come back at 12:45 to decide what's happening - initially it sounded as though the plan was then to take lunch and start the witnesses afterwards, but then after it was mentioned that NC wants the judge to watch the film, I think she said that wasn't likely. But then they realised the judge doesn't need both to watch the film and read the transcript of the film, so not sure what will end up happening! It wouldn't surprise me, sadly, if at 12:45 we learn that nothing visible will happen until tomorrow morning - these things often seem to proceed at a fairly glacial pace.

Thank you, @fanOfBen.

Not that it matters in the scheme of things, but wouldn’t the dictionary definition of a woman belong to the publishers of the dictionary?

I just checked a few dictionaries & they all define 'woman' as an 'adult female human being" which is not the same as the film title or what is on KJK's posters. I think adult human female is catchier which is presumably why it was used.

Back - expecting to need the rest of the afternoon for reading. Still unclear whether we'll get a bundle; claimant's solicitors happy to host a link, but respondent's solicitors not happy for us to be able to download it. (I expect that makes it more difficult to host but it looks as though the barristers are not across that!)

They seem agreed that they can do without duplicating questions to both claimants. Questions about how relevant Shereen Benjamin's evidence is - judge and TB seem to think a lot of her statement is background that isn't directly relevant to the points they have to make findings on.

They are going to meet back at 3 to talk about the bundle, but no witnesses till tomorrow. Unclear whether we will be let in at 3 or not.

What was the significance that the meeting was “locked” with one person in the waiting room? Did it mean that if you weren’t there at the start of the resumed section you couldn’t then join?

Yes, I think so. The clerk has to do some work to manage observers and in other ETs they have differed in the extent to which they let people join at random times - sometimes people can end up in the waiting room for a long time. It's best to join a few minutes before the session is due to begin.

Also, re the bundle.
I’m not used to these occasions, only having joined the SP one before. In that, if they said something like “Looking at paragraph 6 on page 217…” that section would appear on the screen.

Perhaps they don’t have anyone to show that in this ET. If observers like ourselves don’t have access to the bundle, will it mean we can’t see the paragraph under discussion?

Thank you, @fanOfBen .

I’d left the screen open from when I first joined, but was cut off. Fortunately I had rejoined well before 11:45.

There have been different schemes. Yes, it could happen that they are discussing text we can't see. (Didn't that happen at SP in fact, or am I just misremembering?) Or there might be a link where we can download the PDFs for ourselves. I forget in which one they did have links we could use to view but not download - I remember that one being a real pain though because the system was incredibly slow to find our way around! Maybe that was Allison Bailey? At least this case has a fairly short bundle so hopefully that shouldn't be so bad.

Thank you, again. I don’t remember not being able to see text in the SP case, but that doesn’t mean we could, my memory being what it is.

I'm pretty sure I would remember if we had been able to see the reproductions of Upton's text notes, so I think that didn't happen, at least!

As far as I remember I haven’t seen a bundle or been linked witness statements in the Scottish ones, just the English ones.

Ah, there's a difference, isn't there - is it that in Scottish ETs there aren't formal written witness statements? This one, despite concerning events in Edinburgh, is under Watford i.e. English I think - presumably relating to where UCU's headquarters are.

WFTCHTJ

We’re back.

Naomi has such a lovely voice. It's her secret weapon - she lulls you into thinking things are going ok, and then hits you with the question that kills your case

Clearly the judge has read the documents very thoroughly

Starting at 10:30 on Tuesday and 11am on Wednesday.

So there will be a downloadable bundle? but maybe not until tomorrow? Starts at 10.30 tomorrow and 11 on Wednesday

10:30 start tomorrow, 11:00 on Wednesday, because of panellists' constraints.

Sorry, @ThatPithySheep , cross-posted about future timings.

Edit, and @fanOfBen .

So good, we said it thrice.