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Sickening discrimination is dressed up as lads' banter

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
Published date11 May 2022
Publication titleDaily Record, The / Sunday Mail (Glasgow, Scotland)
We should not be surprised that "sickening" sexist, racist and homophobic jokes were made by an after-dinner speaker at the Scottish Football Writers' Association (SFWA) awards in Glasgow

But we should take heart, that in that audience were women who refused to tolerate it, who stood up, walked out and spoke up.

It wasn't just the sexist warblings of Bill Copeland, a former QC turned afterdinner speaker which offended the women but the alleged homophobic and racist references too.

The women were unwilling to sit there and swallow discrimination dressed up as "banter".

Sports journalist and TV presenter Eilidh Barbour tweeted: "Never felt so unwelcome in the industry I work in than sitting at the

Scottish Football Writers' Awards.

"A huge reminder there is still so much to do in making our game an equal place."

That a woman who has excelled in her field should feel so uncomfortable and excluded among her peers is an appalling indictment of football and the insidious bloke culture it's immersed in.

Journalist Gabriella Bennett was among two tables of guests who left the ceremony and publicly condemned the offensive spectacle.

We have hopefully progressed from a day when those women would have been roundly pillioried as humourless. Instead, they won a small victory for all women, for female journalists.

The SFWA had their arm twisted but they have promised to do better and Copeland has been thrown back to whichever archaic world moulded him.

No such humility or recognition from the Faculty of Advocates in their handling of the degrading and sexist comments made by one of their own about one of Scotland's most respected women's rights campaigners. This week we reported on leading QC Brian McConnachie who sent texts about the head of Scotland's largest rape charity, saying he would "s**g" her "just to have something over her".

McConnachie's degrading and sinister sexual remarks about Sandy Brindley were presented as evidence in a complaint to the Faculty of Advocates which demands a QC acts with honour...

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