The NHS is wasting public money defending the indefensible in employment tribunals brought by women who do not want to share their changing rooms with men.
Nurse Sandie Peggie is fighting NHS Fife over its trans policy (Image: Getty Images)
Few stories sum up the state the country is in better than an NHS employee earning up to £59,000 who cannot say what sex they are. Isla Bumba was paid around twice as much as a newly qualified nurse to be in charge of “equalities and human rights” at the health service in Fife. But Bumba is apparently in the dark about whether she is a man or a woman. So confused is she that when questioned at an employment tribunal, Bumba said she could “hazard a guess I would be female” but that “no one knows” their chromosomes or hormonal composition without a formal test. Bumba went on to say that biological sex was “far more complex” than the legal team was making out.
Isla Bumba appeared at the employment tribunal of Sandie Peggie (Image: Getty Images)
Bumba had no option but to come out with the nonsense because admitting anything otherwise would expose the lies at the heart of trans-extremists’ claims – that men cannot become women and most people the world over and throughout history have been able to tell the difference between the two sexes in a nanosecond.
The diversity officer describes herself as a “trans ally” and told the tribunal she had not considered workplace regulations that guarantee single-sex spaces when giving advice about how the trust should deal with single-sex spaces.
Which means taxpayers are funding a woman who is unable to say she is a woman without going through chromosomal testing to oversee rules that she has not read about how men and women should be treated in the workplace.
To further illustrate the absurdity of the situation, while Bumba cannot say for certain she is a woman, Upton insists he is absolutely sure that he is female.
Bumba is just a foot soldier on the battlefield and is not the cause of the insanity that has gripped our NHS and many other institutions.
She is simply part of the groupthink that has engulfed the so-called progressives who are in charge of so many areas of our lives but with little, if any, accountability to us about their increasingly illogical decisions.
Up and down the country there will be hundreds of other public sector officials handed your money to be equally woolly in their thinking.
Unfortunately, NHS Fife is simply one of many organisations that refuses to adhere to the decision taken by the most senior judges in the land.
The City of London Corporation, which is in charge of Hampstead Heath Ponds, is still refusing to accept the ruling.
It means despite there being a mixed pond and a men’s pond, the women-only pond also allows men.
In a statement the corporation said it was reviewing the rules following the Supreme Court’s assessment and insisted its priority is to “provide a safe and respectful environment for everyone.”
Which is the typical sort of bland jumble of bureaucratic buzz words that sounds nice and kind, but boils down to “some men’s feelings are more important than all women’s safety”.
Who are we supposed to hold accountable for such decisions? The only way that female nurses can make their voices heard appears to be through the courts.
It cannot be right that public services choose to ignore the law or steamroller through their own policies on such divisive matters.
It is ludicrous that the Peggie tribunal is even continuing. NHS Fife is still fighting Peggie’s claim her treatment was unlawful after she was suspended over a clash with Upton in the changing rooms when he started to undress in front of her.
Ms Peggie told the tribunal she had felt “embarrassed and intimidated” during the incident.
The details of their exchange are disputed. Peggie was suspended and the clash was listed as a “hate incident”.
Despite being cleared of gross misconduct following disciplinary proceedings, the trust is still defending the case, at a cost of £220,000 so far.
It has dismissed the Supreme Court ruling that a woman is defined by biological sex under the Equality Act.
Jane Russell, representing NHS Fife, said it was an “abstract case about representation on public boards” and that it was “not about toilets”.
It has long been a scandal that health officials have promoted magical thinking instead of biology, but it’s an absolute insult that your money and mine is still being wasted on it.
