Nutmeg's week: Graham Linehan, Sandie Peggie, Sarah Phillimore

Firstly, apologies for the last few weeks. Graham has been tied up with legal matters and only now feels somewhat assured that returning to court next month won’t lead to an arrest at the airport by armed police.

(Reminder: our publisher, Graham Linehan, is the author or co-author of ‘Father Ted’, ‘The IT Crowd’ ‘Black Books’ and other well-loved sitcoms. He is also a staunch advocate for women’s rights.)

It would have been confusing to suddenly post last week’s edition of this column, so it is now available here. Already delayed partly because Graham needed to prepare for his trip to the UK, we agreed it would be posted after he landed at Heathrow. As you may be aware, he was then arrested at the airport by armed police which rather derailed that plan.

Glinner’s arrest might be a turning point

Linehan’s arrest at Heathrow, by five armed policemen, for posting (in April) two jokes about trans activists, and for writing that he doesn’t like misogynists and homophobes, has been perhaps the biggest story in the world in the last week. It was on the front page of almost every British newspaper, discussed in the House of Commons, in Congress, and on news networks across the world from the USA to Indonesia. This seems like a pivotal moment, accelerated by the revelation that those who alerted the police have confessed it was all part of a vindictive plan.

In Linehan’s Substack post, which has had hundreds of thousands of views, he states he was told that a serial trans activist litigant boasted in April that he had reported his tweets to the police. There has now, finally, been some scrutiny of Lynsay Watson, known as Alex Horwood when he was sacked as a British Transport Police officer in the 1990s. He later lost a discrimination case brought against the force’s union after he objected to being told to wear a male uniform to work.

In the early 2000s, he attempted to enrol as a nurse but abandoned this career path after the National Board for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting recorded his gender as male. He was also rejected by the Military Police and at one point said he was pursuing an industrial tribunal against the Ministry of Defence. In another newspaper story about him from the 1990s, a boxer was cleared of assaulting him, in which the judge said Horwood’s account of what happened was not accurate. The opening paragraph of the news story could be straight out of Father Ted.

Despite all this, he somehow managed to get another job with the police only to be sacked for gross misconduct by Leicestershire Constabulary in 2023 for sending free speech campaigner Harry Miller more than 1,200 abusive messages over 18 months. Incredibly, a police misconduct panel at the time heard that after Miller complained to Leicestershire Police about Watson’s behaviour, a senior officer advised Watson to … post anonymously instead.

Watson, it appears, has reported several people to the police for posting on X that men are not women. For example, writer Helen Joyce says she has a police investigation for ‘harassment’ on her record after Watson reported her for tweeting about a panel discussion she had with a transgender activist in 2023. Scottish blogger Stuart Campbell was reported to Greater Manchester Police by Watson for typing things like: ‘Human beings can’t change sex’.

Given the media interest and who the people behind the arrest are, it’s perhaps not surprising that even trans activists like Owen Jones have acknowledged that the optics have looked terrible for them.

However, not everyone has got the memo. Disgraced doctor Helen Webberley, who now runs a foreign company that facilitates access to puberty blockers and hormones for children - a former client of hers was Jayden Lowe - tweeted a picture of Graham Linehan with the words: ‘Let this be a sage warning … your time is coming’, followed by an emoji of a coffin.

In a discussion about the arrest, a Lib Dem councillor posted a picture of a gun to a woman with the words ‘shut the fuck up terf’.

Neither of these people appear to have been arrested.

Meanwhile, LBC presenter James O’Brien says it was right that Graham Linehan was arrested, as his tweets were ‘a threat of violence against a protected group’. The new leader of the Green Party, Zack Polanski, said it was ‘proportionate’ to arrest Linehan (but presumably not his deputy, who celebrated October 7), later adding that people should not be allowed to say that they “want to kick a woman in the balls”.

It’s also worth remembering that Linehan was flying to the UK to appear in court, as he faces charges of harassment and criminal damage against (sadly, because of my bail conditions, I do have to draw a veil over this part-GL)

Sandie Peggie: Recap and conclusion (for now)

The Sandie Peggie tribunal resumed for closing statements this week.

To recap: Sandie Peggie is a Scottish nurse with over 30 years of experience. She was suspended from her job working in A&E at Victoria Hospital in Kirkaldy, Scotland after she confronted a male doctor in the female nurses’ changing room. The doctor, Theo ‘Beth’ Upton, ‘identifies’ as a woman and complained to management that Sandie had bullied, harassed and ‘misgendered’ him. He also claimed she had failed to provide adequate care to at least one patient due to her antipathy to him as a ‘trans woman.’ Sandie brought a tribunal case against NHS Fife and Dr Upton, citing sexual harassment and discrimination by both.

The initial hearing began in February and Sandie and Upton both gave evidence. When asked what gave him the right to be in a women’s changing room, Upton asserted that he is a ‘biological female’. His reasoning for this assertion was that

‘the term biologically female or biologically male is completely nebulous. It has no defined or agreed meaning in science, as far as I’m aware. I’m not a robot, so I am biological and my identity is female. Without wanting to appeal to the dictionary too much, I’m biologically female.’

The tribunal took a break, during which the Supreme Court clarified that the word ‘woman’ does not actually apply to men in the UK Equality Act. Sandie was also cleared of all misconduct allegations against her just before the second phase of the hearing. As a result of these two developments, Upton’s main complaints about Sandie - that she had treated him as a man when he is lawfully female and she jeopardised patient safety – were demolished. During the second phase it emerged that NHS Fife’s equality and human rights lead was unaware of the law concerning single sex spaces and had Googled ‘transgender’ policies made by other health boards as Fife did not have its own.

It was also revealed that Upton’s line manager, Dr Kate Searle, had publicly shown support for him before the incident in the changing rooms had even been investigated. She had informed Upton in writing that he had ‘the full support of the consultant and senior nursing team’ who had all been informed of the ‘hate incident’. Searle further emailed at least 19 consultants to inform them that Upton had been victimised by the ‘confrontational and aggressive’ nurse. The hearing also heard evidence that Sandie’s political views were exaggerated and used against her to falsely paint her as a ‘transphobic bigot’ in order to prevent her from returning to work. Sandie has this week launched separate legal proceedings against Fife Health Board and Dr Kate Searle, among others, claiming harassment and victimisation.

During the second phase of the tribunal, NHS Fife released an extraordinary statement alleging that Sandie, her legal team and the charity Sex Matters were conspiring to manipulate public opinion and discredit the health board. They claimed this attack on the board endangered individual members who were being subjected to threats and abuse. There was no evidence of this conspiracy and NHS Fife was forced to revise its statement several times. NHS Fife was also warned by the UK’s equality watchdog to ensure its approach to single sex spaces is lawful, ‘without delay’. This was because the health board admitted it did not carry out an equality impact assessment before allowing men into the women’s facilities. This assessment will now be carried out retrospectively this month.

As the hearing resumed and concluded this week, Naomi Cunningham, acting for Sandie, informed the tribunal that she would like to submit Sandie’s written submissions to the media. This move was initially blocked by Jane Russell KC, acting for NHS Fife and Upton, who said Upton’s ‘deadname’ (Theo) would be revealed in these submissions. Absurdly, his name will now be redacted, despite already being in the public domain.

In her final submission, Cunningham argued that the Supreme Court ruling means the tribunal must accept ‘that there are indeed very serious and significant limits to the extent to which a trans identifying man’ can expect to live fully as a woman. She reminded the tribunal that ‘trans-identifying men are men’ and that sex is binary, something regularly denied by NHS Fife employees such as Dr Searle during the hearing. Cunningham proceeded to outline the ‘witch-hunt’ and ‘shockingly spiteful character assassination’ which sought to ‘punish [Sandie] for standing up for her right not to undress in front of a male colleague.’

Jane Russell KC’s closing statement on behalf of NHS Fife and Upton made the claim that there is no evidence that ‘trans women’ (men) pose any threat to women. She accused Sandie of taking a ‘gender-critical campaigning position’ at work and said she had been disrespectful to Upton out of anger rather than fear. Russell once again made the claim that Sandie holds ‘intolerant’ views and implied she is not kind enough to be a nurse.

Russell then pulled the dirtiest trick of the hearing. She requested an amendment to the defence which centres on the ‘objectionable manner’ in which Sandie expressed her desire for privacy. If the amendment is granted, it may mean further hearings and potentially a full reset of the case. Cunningham called the application ‘deplorable’ and argued it stemmed from Russell’s failure to plead her case properly. She told the tribunal that Sandie had wept when she was informed about the amendment.

The tribunal will now consider the amendment. A final judgement on the case as a whole is not expected until November at the earliest.

In case you haven’t had enough of Sophie Molly

As well as gloating about Glinner’s arrest, trans activist Euan Weddell (‘Sophie Molly’) has made a formal complaint about gender critical barrister Sarah Phillimore.

With the assistance of the Good Law Project (GLP), which has as director a man with not one but two children who are ‘trans-identified’, Weddell has informed the Bar Standards Board that Phillimore has ‘misgendered’ and ‘deadnamed’ him online. GLP founder and director Jolyon Maugham claims Sarah mounted a ‘campaign of harassment so wicked and persistent that the woman in question sought to take her own life.’

Sarah is now suing Maugham and the GLP for libel.

The GLP has a history of mounting very weak legal challenges which it inevitably fails to win. It is currently attempting to challenge the EHRC interim update following the Supreme Court ruling but failed to get permission to proceed at the first hearing due to a lack of clarity about what it was challenging. Sarah Phillimore’s response to the complaint against her outlines Weddell’s history of abusing women online and threatening suicide.

And then there was his reaction to the Charlie Kirk assassination.

As King’s Council Colin Wynter posted, “If this was indeed posted by Mr Molly, then I & everyone else are now free to refer to him as a truly despicable human being. He will not succeed in any libel action against me or you because it is no longer possible to damage his reputation or standing, as it is now in the bin.”

How did these people end up in charge?

In August, the Labour MSP Colin Smyth was arrested and charged over the possession of indecent images of children. Smyth had been a trans activist politician in the Scottish parliament, in which he voted for self-ID and even carried a giant trans flag at a Pride event.

He now also faces charges of placing a camera in a toilet at the Scottish Parliament building. A device was allegedly concealed in a small men’s toilet opposite the main Holyrood chamber, and at least five male MSPs have been notified and interviewed about it.

It couldn’t get anymore absurd than this, could it? Of course it could. It then emerged that Smyth was allowed to meet and host a group of children from Girlguiding in the Scottish parliament ten days AFTER he’d been charged with possessing indecent images of children.

Fortunately, the politicians in Westminster are far more sensible. This week, the House of Commons had 30 minutes of Women and Equalities Questions. It was dominated by Labour and Lib Dem MPs asking for more rights for cross-dressing men (one Conservative MP did ask about Graham Linehan and another about single-sex spaces).

Watching that, it might not be too surprising to learn the identities of some recipients of the UK’s ‘global talent visa.’ The Telegraph has revealed that the Arts Council and Home Office have approved visas for … foreign trans activist drag queens.

Another great week at the BBC

Three of the first eight episodes of the new series of University Challenge have featured an all-male-team that includes a ‘woman’. This is from episode eight.

The episode immediately followed another quiz, Only Connect, which started like this.

The following day Radio 4 listeners were treated to an exciting afternoon documentary about the plight of ‘transgender women’ in Bangladesh, while analysis of the BBC News website reveals its drag queen section (yes it has one) posted more stories in August than its section on women did.

It’s not just the BBC of course - this week a Sunday Mirror journalist called a man who sexually abused seven children in the 1980s and 1990s a ‘female paedophile’.

And finally

What better way to finish off a barking mad week than by this story: A 41-year-old Irishman who identified as a dog has been fined after shotgun cartridges were found in his car, following a drink-drive arrest. He barked and growled at officers, and walked on all fours to his cell. The judge described him as “an idiot”.

See you next week!