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A word of warning to my GC followers. Holbrook says "I will now finish my legal career with pro bono unfair dismissal cases for women sacked for saying that a woman does not have a penis" - but it's clear from the article he doesn't know the first thing about discrimination law. https://twitter.com/mckinneytweets/status/1355873668442841089
Which is not surprising - from his (ex) chambers profile, he appears to have no experience of employment or discrimination law. I'll put the cache here too, as the chambers page may disappear. https://cornerstonebarristers.com/barrister/jon-holbrook/ https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:FyLzVyAcTW8J:https://cornerstonebarristers.com/barrister/jon-holbrook/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk
I already explained to Holbrook why his claim about the Equality Act was wrong. He didn't reply. Strange, if he were really interested in debating this topic. https://twitter.com/anyabike/status/1352642892892930057
Holbrook misses the basic point that any disciplinary rule that singles out black kids only, as this one did, on his own description of it, is inherently discriminatory.
If the rule singles out black kids, it's no defence to say that the rule is perfectly reasonable. It would be a different matter if the school had a policy that everyone's hair should be of a reasonable size and length (and they enforced that consistently across the board).
But that's not what happened here. So I'm not surprised the school settled. I would have advised them to settle.
And it's plainly right that the law *should* provide a remedy to people who are singled out for different and less favourable treatment because of their race.
So to suggest that there is something wrong with the Equality Act because this kid, who clearly was the victim of unlawful discrimination by the school, got some redress, is plainly wrong.
I know women are facing discrimination and even dismissal for expressing their beliefs about sex and gender. I know it's daunting to face a tribunal claim without a lawyer. But please, don't accept an offer of free representation from anyone who doesn't understand the basics.
