Sandie Peggie vs NHS Fife Health Board and Dr Beth Upton, following Employment Tribunal judgment - thread #60

[nauticant]

Judgment was handed down on 8 December 2025:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6936ce28a6fc97b81e57436a/S_Peggie_v_Fife_Health_Board__Dr_Upton.pdf

Sandie Peggie, a nurse at Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy (VH), brought claims in the employment tribunal against her employer; Fife Health Board (the Board) and another employee, Dr B Upton. Ms Peggie’s claims are of sexual harassment, harassment related to a protected belief, indirect discrimination and victimisation. Dr Upton claims to be a transwoman, that is observed as male at birth but asserting a female gender identity.

The Employment Tribunal hearing started on Monday 3 February 2025 and was expected to last 2 weeks. However, after 2 weeks it was not complete and it adjourned part-heard. It resumed on 16 July and the last day of evidence was 29 July 2025. It resumed again over 1 to 2 September for closing submissions.
Following handing down of the judgment on 8 December 2025, on 11 December 2025, it was announced by Sandie Peggie and her legal team that they would be pursuing an appeal.

The hearing was live tweeted by x.com/tribunaltweets and there's additional information here: tribunaltweets.substack.com/p/peggie-vs-fife-health-board-and-dr-005 and tribunaltweets.substack.com/p/peggie-vs-fife-health-board-and-dr-bd6.

Links to previous threads #1 to #50 can be found in this thread: mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5379717-sandie-peggie-list-of-threads-covering-employment-tribunal-and-afterwards

Thread 51: mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5402652-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-51 1 September 2025 to 2 September 2025
Thread 52: mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5403218-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-52 2 September 2025 to 4 September 2025
Thread 53: mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5404208-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-53 3 September 2025 to 1 October 2025
Thread 54: mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5418690-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-54 28 September 2025 to 21 November 2025
Thread 55: mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5447019-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-55 19 November 2025 to 8 December 2025
Thread 56: mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5456749-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-56 8 December 2025 to 9 December 2025
Thread 57: mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5457132-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-57 9 December 2025 to 11 December 2025
Thread 58: mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5458443-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-following-employment-tribunal-judgment-thread-58 11 December 2025 to 12 December 2025
Thread 59: mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5459115-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-following-employment-tribunal-judgment-thread-59 12 December 2025 to 17 December 2025

I agree better late than never, but he forgot a couple of unanswered questions:

• what is gender incongruence/congruence?
• how is it treated by prevention of puberty?

I gave up on PE years ago. It used to be good and at times very funny, but over time became dull and self-righteous, reading more like the work of snotty sixth form boys than anything else.

Totally agree. Very parochial. DH buys my sub for my birthday each year, and some of the cartoons make it worthwhile. In fact, some have been quite GC over time

The problem with this piece is that he isn't the subject, we are. They are lampooning those complaining about him, reducing us to hysterical women demanding increasingly terrible punishment for him.

Well we're not. We just want fair and reliable outcomes from the court system. A basic foundation of a civilised society.

A couple of issues back there was an Ed. comment under a letter about the GI issue (can't remember what now) thanking readers for the many letters they had received on the topic, as always. So they know damn well their readers are VERY interested in this topic, yet they continue to dodge it or mock it.

I'm sure Kemp was stung by the piece, but it's far off the mark in my opinion.

On the other hand, it’s very clear in the piece that the judgment was an AI concoction of nonexistent legal precedents. So that’s taken as a given. It’s unthinkable for a judge to be found to have done this, generally people wouldn’t believe it, but the Eye presents it as fact. I’ll put up with being represented as a vengeful Harpy if that’s what it takes to get it into the public arena. After all, as the Eye and its readers know very well, there is a very real issue about what you do with a judge who does something as bad as this.

PE has gone too far with the judge story. No one deserves a publication joking about their demise in such graphic terms. It reminds me of a much more cruel version of Monty Python’s Life of Brian, when the mob are all pointing their fingers at whoever speaks.

I hope wee Skemp got coal for Christmas and the new year finds him spending a lot of time on his allotment.

I stopped subscribing to Private Eye a few years ago, when I realised that it hadn't made me laugh in months, or told me something I didn't already know. Sometimes it feels like a HMRC in-house magazine.

Which is not to say that it can't do solid journalism when it wants to...

But really, it wears its old identity, as a bunch of public school anarchists throwing brickbats at the establishment, as a skin suit. It's been the establishment's court jester for a long time. These days the brickbats are more likely to be aimed at anyone who opposes the institutions.

And it's been extremely cowardly on genderwoo. I wonder why.

I used to read PE. I even donated to the Bananballs fund, for those that remember.

These days, though, I find it far too smug and lazy. So I no longer read it.

I will be pleased when they get a new editor. Hislop was once a young and brave hire, he is now old, smug (as previously mentioned), and as much establishment as he used to mock.

Peter Cook of blessed memory wouldn't recognise it, for sure

It was the Martin Honeysett cartoons I used to buy PE for. I loved that man's drawings and treasure my copy of Ivor Cutler's 'Life in a Scotch Living Room Vol 2' illustrated by Honeysett.

This year Hislop celebrates his 40th year as editor.

Also, HIGNFY has been on the air since 1990, when the Soviet Union still existed. The fact that it's still a BBC flagship show is a bit like turning on the TV in 1990 and Muffin The Mule still being a BBC flagship show.

He reminds me of Spike Lee. He rather enjoys being one of the great and good, and getting invited to the establishment's parties, but he's also very keen for the rest of us to continue seeing him as the angry young man he was decades ago, and definitely not an old fart who avoids subjects that might get him cancelled.

Harry Enfield's take has not aged at all.

Thank you for that Harry Enfield link absolutely spot on.

Yes - I’d never seen that thanks @SionnachRuadh

Thanks for the link - I hadn't seen that before but it is spot on.

And I must see if I can dig out my copy of Life in a Scotch Sitting Room 😀

I still read it out of habit really and my son also buys my annual subscription. PE can be great on deep dives about issues the mainstream media only covers superficially eg. the post office scandal, Deepcut barracks, and currently Lucy Letby.

I just wish it wasn't so smug and dismissive over GI issues that it seems to regard as trivial when in fact it's ruining the lives of many children and women.

GI issues that it seems to regard as trivial when in fact it's ruining the lives of many children and women.

And therein lies the answer. It's considered trivial because it primarily affects women and children.

Muffin the Mule crack made me roar with laughter and I've been stuck in a traffic jam for ages!

DH and I just read the PE front cover every month in Tesco's

I have a copy on cassette somewhere, not sure if I have anything to play it on. I remember literally crying with laughter the first time I heard it. I still occasionally have a little snigger to myself if I see a particularly impressive thistle when out and about.

I've just caught the last 20 minutes or so of an ancient Law & Order, in which a judge is obviously biased towards a young woman defendant, disallowing all the prosecutions lines of questioning, jailing the lawyer for contempt when he objected etc.

At a retrial the Judge's boss gave the biased judge the choice of "coming down with 'flu" to make way for a new judge or face an investigation. I wonder if Big Sond's feeling a bit sniffly.

I always find it a bit odd that Helen Lewis wrote for many years for P.Eye. I wonder what she made of their evident disdain for women?

I find her most peculiar in interviews. She seems sort of placating, as if she has been abused in some way. Afaik that’s not the case.

They could just play this in place of HIGNFY, every week. Nobody would notice.

Russell Somebody. 😂