Best Of

@viewcode, I believe you are writing a piece on sex/gender equality and discrimination. You might find this article interesting on the For Women Scotland case and the far reaching implications of the Supreme Court judgment.

https://nilq.qub.ac.uk/index.php/nilq/article/view/1233/1030

Thank you for the contribution. I will read it but I don't know if I will have space to fit it it.

The article is on its sixth draft and is over 2,200 words not including the 16 appendices and the three of the four (@DavidL hasn't kicked in yet) discussants. The subheadings are:

• 1. INTRODUCTION
  
• 2. THE SUPREME COURT JUDGEMENT “FWS VS THE SCOTTISH MINISTERS”: 16APR2025
  
• 3. THE SUPREME COURT JUDGEMENT AND TOILETS
  
• 4. THE EHRC INTERIM GUIDANCE: APR-JUN 2025
  
• 5. THE EQUAL TREATMENT BENCH BOOK: MAY 2025 UPDATE
  
• 6. KELLY AND PEGGIE DEC 2025
  
• 6B. THE WOMEN’S INSTITUTE: 03DEC2025
  
• 7. SULLIVAN REPORT AT RSS CONFERENCE 02SEP2025
  
• 8. GLP v EHRC NOV 2025
  
• 9. THE EHRC FINAL GUIDANCE NOV 2025
  
• 10. HARWOOD AND FORAN SUBSTACKS
  
• 11. THE SUPREME COURT JUDGEMENT AND RIGHTS
  
• 12. SUMMARY
  
• 13. AFTERWORD
  

You might want to look at this - but IANAE and leave it entirely to you to decide if it is any interest.

https://www.thenational.scot/news/25693712.sandie-peggie-judgment-doesnt-necessarily-contradict-supreme-court/

To state the obvious - but it's perhaps not stated often enough - for questions like who can use which loo, who uses which changing room etc, the answer has to be obvious, unambiguous, applicable to everyone and immediate. You can't hang on while you litigate it or consult a handbook.

The moment it is complicated, it's the wrong answer.

Brilliant observation from lawyer Eva Chipiuk on the lessons of Nuremberg...

"After the Nuremberg Trials, one of the most unsettling conclusions did not come from the courtroom, but from the psychiatrist tasked with evaluating the defendants.

Dr. Douglas Kelley, the U.S. Army psychiatrist assigned to assess many of the senior Nazi officials, expected to find monsters people fundamentally different from the rest of humanity. He did not.

What disturbed him most was how ordinary they were.

They were not raving madmen. They were not obvious sociopaths. They were intelligent, educated, and often convinced they were simply doing their duty, following orders, or serving a higher cause. Kelley warned that this was the real danger: evil does not always look abnormal. It often presents itself as competence, obedience, and institutional loyalty.

His central warning was deeply uncomfortable there are people with morally vacant or destructive tendencies everywhere. In every society. In every era. What determines the outcome is whether systems elevate those people, shield them from accountability, and normalize their behavior, and whether ordinary citizens are willing to question authority when it matters most.

Modern bureaucracies and institutions are powerful precisely because they diffuse responsibility. Decisions are broken into policies, protocols, committees, and “best practices.” Harm is rarely framed as harm; it is reframed as necessity, risk management, or compliance. Individuals are encouraged not to think morally, but procedurally.

This is how ordinary people become capable of extraordinary wrongdoing by outsourcing conscience to institutions and convincing themselves that accountability lies somewhere else.

The lesson of Nuremberg is not that “those people were different.” It is that they were not.

That is why vigilance matters. That is why blind trust in authority is dangerous. And that is why a healthy society must protect dissent, accountability, and moral courage especially when it is inconvenient.

History does not repeat itself because people forget facts. It repeats itself when people convince themselves, “It could never happen here.”

Not that it's of any consequence, but a personal milestone today: since roughly 2012, I've been going to my kids' Christmas nativities. Reckon I've done 30-odd. Last one today - my youngest daughter leaves primary school next summer. It wasn't the most memorable of nativities, but it was pleasingly typical - the familiar words, a mixture of songs traditional and primary-school-inane, the always-incongruous desert scene in the background, the rag, tag and bobtail of kids taking part (I particularly enjoyed the king in the too-large crown which had to balance on his ears, making them stick out; and the fact that the Angel Gabriel was wearing deely boppers bearing the legend 'Ho Ho Ho'. A slight lump in the throat as I reflected on that period of my life passing on; happiness that the rituals still go on albeit with different people doing them.
I'm generally not keen on religion but this is a bit of religion I'll happily allow into Christmas.

@ChristopherJM
News: Ukrainian SBU special operation has hit a $400mn Russian submarine in Novorossiysk.

The Security Service of Ukraine conducted what it called a “unique special operation” targeting the port of Novorossiysk. “For the first time in history, underwater ‘Sub Sea Baby’ drones blew up a Russian submarine of the class 636.3 ‘Varshavyanka’ (according to NATO classification - Kilo). As a result of the explosion, the submarine suffered critical damage and was actually put out of action.”

The SBU claimed: “On board the submarine were four launchers of Kaliber cruise missiles, which the enemy uses to strike the territory of Ukraine.”

This was a joint operation of the 13th Main Directorate of Military Counterintelligence of the SBU and the Naval Forces of Ukraine.

https://x.com/ChristopherJM/status/2000583971432718829?s=20

#Explodey