Sara Morrison vs Belfast Film Festival - Thread 2

[TwoLoonsAndASprout]

Continuation of previous thread - don’t have all the details to hand to add here, so if someone can pop them on, pls do! Want to get this up quickly!

Ooh I was more sure on the first name! I may be completely wrong then!

This says he's called Michael Mckeown

But it also calls Deborah Boyd a professor <cheeky>

Nick Wallis's GenderBlog should be in peoples email boxes this morning if you have subscribed. Quite an interesting account of yesterday's events from his perspective.

Also some pictures of "The Professor's" best X contributions referred to by NC. Including a tweet from July 2017, showing a poster on a lamp post saying "Fuck the DUP" surrounded by a rainbow of balloons and her caption: Best Photo today so far.

No bias here then from this Tribunal panel member.

Pondering.
Even if DB is using the title Professor erroneously, is it material?
I can see that ordinary people (MN, observers etc) might be imputing something from it, but that's on us, surely?
Maybe calling herself prof had no bearing on her appointment to the panel?
I totally agree with all the issues around integrity, but is she necessarily incapable of carrying out the role impartially simply because she might be styling herself wrongly?
Trying to be charitable.

No it was Michael McKeown.

Phew thought my memory was failing me!

That'll teach me not to check! Sorry.

You can achieve a PhD through research by practice but there is still a significant thesis attached.

also you can get a PhD by publication but I’m your thesis has to assert the validity of your research and why those publications amount to the equivalent of a PhD.

All routes need to demonstrate parity of some sort or other.

And there would be a record of the award

It goes to her INTEGRITY.

A lie is printed on a piece of paper in the Tribunal.

If she can lie to her Judge and can lie to claimants what else will she lie about.

She has a code of Judicial conduct to adhere to.

Yes there should be.

There is nothing.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7c15cced915d210ade17cb/PublicBodies2003.pdf

She has an uncorrected listing as a Dr in Government document.

I think sitting at a desk on a panel with a big sign in front of you requiring everyone to address you in a way that you have no right to, and which infers academic superiority and experience that you don't have, and there being evidence of you doing the same with the title Dr elsewhere, questions your integrity (and delusions and self grandeur) so completely that you have absolutely no right to take that role.

Of course she didn't need to be a Professor or a Dr to perform that role in the first place and if she hadn't pretended to be those things it would never have been a lack. That's not where we are though.

It really really does

Can you imagine if NW has not asked for the refusal hearing to be in public This illustrates why open justice is so important

I should have checked first too! All good!

Yes, you're right - I should have included those. But all routes to a PhD require a body of work/relevant experience, which Professor/Dr/whatever Deborah Boyd does not appear to have.

I know of at least one Visiting Professor who styles himself Professor, even though he has no PhD or Chair. I wonder if it isn't policed and some of those who become VPs just use it because they think it makes them look big and important.

It undermines the huge effort required from academics to reach that level.

Its the record of the awards that is not so straightforward if you have limited information. Eg you dont know the awarding body/institution.

I am also wondering this morning if DB has had to step down from other tribunals mid-way due to ill-health, over the last 35 years, or was this the 1st time?

Michal McKeown has resigned from all three companies listed on his LinkedIn profile. You can’t cross reference his name on CH because he uses a slightly different one for each business. Interesting

Blimey, those social media pictures In Nick’s blog bring the bias home more for me than just reading about it. It definitely brings into question the judge’s integrity as well. What a mess.

Yeah, I think the material issue is the potential bias.

If she's been a tribunal member since 1990, and started incorrectly styling herself years later, I don't see a particular relevance to this case - you can make out an argument that it's a general integrity thing, but we wouldn't even be questioning this if the bias issue hadn't been raised.

(Though I'm sure FWR will be taking a keen interest in lay panel members going forward!)

As far as the professor thing goes, there will be a handful of civil servants who maintain records of PMs, and they're not going to have the resources to do spot checks on the credentials of a PM who's been styling herself professor for maybe 20 years, and styled as such on the department's records.

I would guess that at some point the record was updated to include the Prof title, and this coincided with a visiting appointment at UU, and there was a brief cross-check at the time - the same way you'd check if someone adds OBE to their name - and it's just gone into the records and stayed there ever since.

Gosh I'd missed that! Crikey!

I'm a bit worried about the judge too - her reactions when this all started in the morning seemed to be a bit extreme. I would have expected concern and perhaps irritation, but not outright anger. They are all professionals and surely she would have realised that NC would only be late for a very good reason.

Compare and contrast to the judge in Peggie v NHSFife when JR derailed proceedings time after time…

I can't read this as it's an expensive pay wall. But it would indicate that the judge is very well aware of how social media profiles can be problematic and that her view would surely be at odds with SD's "and so what?" assertion.

legal-island.com/employment-law-hub/the-use-and-misuse-of-social-media-in-schools

Could SM still have grounds for appeal now that PB has recused herself and assuming the ET outcome is unsatisfactory?