A letter to the Scottish Green Party, the Scottish Liberal Democrats and the SNP
By Sarah Phillimore
To whom it may concern
I am sad, afraid and angry that as a woman in 2020 I feel compelled to write to a political party in these terms. To the extent that members of your Party are involved in the document I discuss below, I would be grateful if you would conduct urgent investigation into their behaviour in light of the risk of harm it causes to women such as myself.
On November 27th a number of people posted to the social media site Twitter a document headed a ‘Call to Action. This was written by:
a group of trans and/or non-binary people who have come together from across Scotland’s political spectrum to highlight the crisis of inaction on transphobic abuse in our parties.
It asks for signatories which include:
Patrick Harvie MSP — the Scottish Green Party
Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP — the Scottish Liberal Democrats
Stewart McDonald MP — the SNP
The ‘call to action’ went on to refer to:
Recent examples of social media posts allegedly undermining Trans Day of Remembrance from a councillor and revelations regarding an MP funding what is known as a hate group are more recent causes of concern.
This refers directly to a tweet by David Paisley who identifies as a Scottish actor with 27.k followers. He is referring to a donation made by Joanna Cherry QC to my crowdfunder where I am attempting to raise money to take action in judicial review against the College of Policing and Wiltshire Police, against the decision to record my protected political speech around the immutability of sex as a ‘hate incident’.
I am a member of the campaigning organisation Fair Cop which is comprised of gender critical lawyers, former police officers, writers & professionals, dedicated to upholding Articles 8–11 ECHR.
Fair Cop is manifestly not a ‘hate group’ and therefore I am not a member of ‘hate group’. Discussion of the laws of the UK are protected political speech as confirmed by Knowles J in Miller v College of Policing .
I am a barrister and therefore a member of a regulated profession. If people genuinely believed I was ‘hateful’ I would expect to be arrested and disbarred from my profession. Attempts to smear a female politician for donating to my legitimate crowd funding, on the basis of my membership of Fair Cop, is not merely absurd, it is dangerous.
I have been repeatedly named by Mr Paisely in a series of tweets to which I was offered no right of reply as Mr Paisely has blocked my Twitter account from interacting with his. His false and malicious assertions have then been embedded into this ‘Call to Action’ which has also been widely circulated. This puts me — and I assume Ms Cherry — at actual risk of harm, given the nature and extent of the messages I have now been receiving which threaten me with sexual and physical violence and make derogatory comments about my appearance and my age.
The signatories to this ‘Call for Action’ thus offer their unquestioning approval to a malicious and baseless attack upon a serving member of the Scottish National Party, Ms Joanna Cherry QC and a named individual in England — me.
To the extent that the signatories to this letter are members of your party, I trust you will take the necessary action to indicate your disapproval of such tactics which are in themselves hateful, have no place in any modern democracy and which put me and other women at direct risk of actual physical harm.
I will continue to monitor the messages I receive. Should they continue or escalate, I consider this will be a matter for the police.
Given the nature of my concerns and my possible need to involve the police, I would be grateful for your urgent response.
Regards
Sarah Phillimore.
It must be awful for Sarah to go through all this but I hope her efforts are successful.
"David Paisley who identifies as a Scottish actor ". I must admit I'd never heard of him before joining this group, where the evidence suggests that he is primarily a bully of women and LGB people - but he "identifies as a Scottish actor."