Sara Morrison v BFF thread 4

[MarieDeGournay]

continuation

..just testing. You passed.😁

Yes me too, all back now thank goodness.

The thing is, the witnesses so far and the complaints have made such a big deal of how 'inappropriate' and 'unacceptable' SM's views are (bigot, fascist, far right, Nazi, etc etc), that to then argue that they didn't want rid of her makes no sense.

If you truly thought that someone in your organisation held such horrendous views, of course you'd want rid.

Really Nick?! 😳

I wished my friend a happy birthday on Oracle (ITV text pages) in about 1983 which probably makes me precociously Gifted & Talented, and should get me a backdated Equity Card for appearing on telly?

MD “we getting tortured by all sorts of headcases… stopped by people in the street and harassed online… so I protected my staff"

Assuming Nick meant 'contacted' instead of 'tortured', I wonder which flavour of "headcases" and "harassers" MD was referring to when she said this.

Apols for silly post above that was supposed to be a reply last night when more appropriate!

I quite like that NW hadn't heard of Gaslight! And admitted it. 😂

'Gaslight' was George Cukor, not Hitchcock.

It only makes sense if you don't really have 'love' for everyone, and probably agree with her but, hey ho, someone will have to take a hit to save appease the concerned Board.

Does knowing that qualify me to be CEO of BFF??
No thanks!😬

I think we are all aware of certain things from MD’s testimony.

Having been in charge of BFF for decades she has got used to having things her own way.

She is used to manipulating information to the board so that she gets her own way.

In essence she is used to using some aspects of coercive control within her position of professional authority and that she seems to be able to do that both up and down the hierarchy. (Love-bombing is evident here too).

SM has taken some of that control away and the process of ET is exposing how MD has reacted to that. I doubt her working behaviour has ever attracted scrutiny of any shape or form before.

She can’t contain her outrage that a small arts organisation, and her in particular, isn’t somehow exempt from employment law and fair practice.

She genuinely believes that having manipulated the situation to try and subvert legal process to pursue the end MC desired that she is not lying in response to NC because to her these manipulations are entirely within her authority as she sees it, further enhanced by MCs own manipulations of her.

The panel will have to perform significant gymnastics if they want to view her as a credible witness.

NC and CE are such a talent at uncovering such dastardly and underhand behaviour.

Does anyone else think that MD has received some sort of coaching overnight on what to say? I could be why she was so keen to get home yesterday rather than wait another hour and finish.

Some of the phrases she has used this morning sound like media/interview coaching-speak - MD saying "I do not accept the premise of the question" in an attempt not to answer jumped out at me.

Why does mumsnet and X keep going down and (eg) BBC does not?

We're about 30 mins on from when they were meant to come back, do we reckon they're still arguing the toss over 3rd July subject matter?

Cloudflare which runs MN and Twitter is having serious issues.

I'll carry on when I can, but please step in if you see I haven't pasted.

Cloudflare (who host X and MN in some way that someone cleverer than me will explain) keeps going down.

@ProfessorBettyBooper Cloudflare issues.

Cross post w @ProfessorMyrtleLion !

It seems to be something to do with Cloudfare; glad it wasn't just me!

See https://www.cloudflarestatus.com/ for updates. Cloudflare sits in front of both Twitter and MN, ironically, to guard them from problems of various kinds.

Seems like someone at Cloudfare needed to charge their phone and accidentally pulled out the plug for the server. Seems fixed now

NW currently discussing Gaslight, so guessing they're not back in yet...

Women.

From NW

Except Alfred Hitchcock did not direct gaslight…

From seacoastonline.com

However the play Gas Light and subsequents films Gaslight is where the phrase did come from:

From bbc.co.uk

Apparently the evil man would turn down the gas lights to make his wife think something spooky was going on.

[we are back]
J I said whilst issues are agreed between the parties ultimately it was for the tribunal to decide
SD we don’t accept it’s pleaded as “less favourable treatment”
NC didn’t hear

J I said from my notes the issues don’t need to be slavishly stuck to
SD you referenced, Knox, so you did
J I did

NC I understood no amendment was nec to plead the point I wished to pursue - if we wish to put forward the contention that 3 July was an act of detriment then we should be able to do so. If we are now not we must put forward an amendment application

SD the only thing I agreed was not needed was an amendment to the issues, not the pleas and there is a distinction between the two
[more legal discussion - SD suggests it is dealt with in closing. J and NC agrees.]
[MD resumes]

NC takes MD to her Witness Statement (WS) where she says the BFF staff page was moved on 17 Sep - and SM’s WS which shows the staff webpage at BFF was taken down on or by 31 July 2023
MD agrees she was wrong

NC if that was taken down in planning in Sep it’s less plausible it was because of SM - but we say this was part of an airbrushing exercise, taking SM out of BFF
MD I’m sorry what’s your question
NC [repeats q] -

I think it was a play written in the 1930s about a toxic marriage where the husband tries to make the wife seem mad by sneaking about turning the gas lights up and down. I saw it once a long time ago.