Ten brave women still need your help to bring a ground breaking court case that could change employment tribunals forever

Posted on October 16, 2025 by davidhencke

Stormy scene around tilted scales of justice as judges avoid complaints

Remember the ten brave women I wrote about who are challenging the bullying behaviour of Employment Judge Philip Lancaster? See my blog here. The ones the justice system refused to investigate despite overwhelming evidence?

They’re now in a race against time – and the Judicial Conduct Information Office is playing its oldest trick: delay, delay, delay until they run out of money or miss their deadline.

Here’s what’s happening:

The women issued their Letter Before Action to the Judicial Conduct Investigation Office (JCIO) in September. The JCIO’s deadline to respond under the pre-action protocol was 8 October. They missed it. The women waited another week. They missed that too.

Now the JCIO says they won’t respond until 20 October – leaving barely two weeks before the women must file at court in early November or lose their right to bring these proceedings forever.

Classic establishment tactics. Unlimited taxpayer funding and government lawyers versus women running on crowdfunding and determination.

But here’s why this matters more than ever:

In September 2025, Baroness Harriet Harman KC published a damning report on judicial misconduct. Her conclusions are devastating:

“The problem is the culture of impunity for those at the top who commit misconduct. Those in powerful positions whether at the Bar or in the judiciary who choose to engage in bullying, harassment or sexual harassment can be pretty confident that nothing will be done about it. And that is what must change.”

She identified a “cohort of untouchables” amongst the judiciary and “particular judges who are widely known for making everyone’s lives a misery.”

This is EXACTLY what these women are fighting to expose.

The women need £40,000 total to see this through

They’ve raised £17,335 so far – incredible progress from 472 supporters. But they need £40,000 in total to get this case into court and finish what they’ve started.

Their legal team of outstanding women lawyers at Deighton Pierce Glynn has already slashed fees dramatically. But even at reduced rates, taking on the government is expensive.

What’s at stake:

35,000+ employment tribunal users face these tribunals every year
If this judicial review succeeds, the JCIO will be forced to properly investigate judicial misconduct
Judges who egregiously abuse their power and block the release of the court record will finally face consequences
Whistleblowers will be better protected

This isn’t about these women and whistleblowers getting compensation – their chance at justice has been lost forever. If they win the judicial reivew there won’t be any compensation – just the knowledge that they exposed a corrupt complaint system. And showing judges that they are not above the law.

How to donate:

Go to: https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/exposing-judge-lancaster/

Every pound counts. They cannot let the judicial establishment win by simply outlasting them financially. Not when they’re this close.

Please help them as they have shown remarkable courage and integrity to do this for the greater good but they can’t do it without further financial help.

The story of a Berkhamsted Quaker arrested for protesting about designating Palestine Action as a terrorist group

Posted on July 10, 2025 by davidhencke

Sue in the pink dress joining the demonstration on July 5. She later was holding a placard when she was arrested. Pic Credit: London Evening Standard.

My view about the Government’s hasty decision to designate Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation was disproportionate and unwarranted.

It is saying the people who damage property to protest about Britain’s armed support for Israel are equivalent to the Manchester Arena concert bomber who set out to kill and maim as many people he could enjoying a pop concert. This is plainly a ridiculous comparison. If the authorities want to take action against people who damage planes there are already plenty of laws in this country from criminal trespass to criminal damage that could be used. And it is absurd to say anybody peacefully demonstrating in favour of this organisation should go to jail for 14 years.

So unusually I have given space to one of our local people to describe her feelings about being arrested and bailed for demonstrating in front of Ghandi’s statute in Parliament Square last week. She has distributed this to Quakers and I thought it deserved a wider audience. She has not been charged with anything yet so it is reasonable to report this. Journalists who follow the law more closely than me say the fact she hasn’t been charged is because it will have been referred to the Crown Prosecution Service to consider what to do as there are lesser charges that can be brought. Many of the people arrested were elderly and likely to die in prison if the full terrorism sentence was served.

Here is Sue Hampton’s tale:

I was arrested on July 5 at the feet of Gandi’s statute

I was arrested on Saturday 5^th July at the feet of the Gandhi statue in Parliament Square, along with three Christian Climate Action friends, among more than twenty others. We were arrested under Section 13 of the Terrorism Act, within hours of the proscription of Palestine Action, for holding a placard that read I OPPOSE GENOCIDE (and) I SUPPORT PALESTINE ACTION. When interviewed at a police station I told the solicitor that I would like, in answer to each question, to say, “I am a lifelong pacifist, a Quaker and follower of Jesus.” Emotionally I regret to say I took his advice and stuck with “No Comment”. After being kept twelve hours I wasn’t charged but given bail conditions and told to report back to Wandsworth Police Station on October 2^nd. In my cell I experienced unusually deep peace as well as profound grief.

Palestine Action is a nonviolent direct action group. The Filton 18, still on remand many months after blockading an arms factory, and those who recently disabled a fighter jet with paint, believe in peace and justice. Many Friends will remember Sam Waldron taking a similar action at an RAF base and being acquitted, and before that, the Ploughshares women who damaged a plane destined for East Timor. My own first arrest some years back was for locking on with two other Quakers to block the road to the London Arms Fair. UNICEF says that 50,000 children have been killed or injured in Gaza, yet our government continues to support Israel by supplying parts for missiles, by sharing military intelligence and training Israeli soldiers – while refusing to condemn the war crimes of Netanyahu’s government as genocide. Incredibly, thirteen members of the UK Cabinet, including Keir Starmer, Yvette Cooper and David Lammy, have received gifts from that government.

By lumping Palestine Action together with two violent organisations in the proscription bill, our own government skewed the vote. I seriously believe that the outcome would have been different had our MPs been voting separately on each group. Indeed, my own MP has implied that under those circumstances she would have made a different decision. This is not justice. It isn’t honourable. Like the BBC’s biased new coverage and their decision not to show the documentary they commissioned on medics being targeted in Gaza, it’s wrong.

That’s why I took a spare placard on Saturday and sat with my principled activist friends. I hadn’t been allocated one, and if asked in advance I might, or might not, have been daunted by the potential custodial sentence (up to 14 years) but I wanted to support the protest with a badge. Will people be arrested for wearing badges or T-shirts in support of Palestine Action, for sharing posts on social media, for using any public platform to speak the truth that proscribing a nonviolent protest group is unjust? Although an immediate appeal failed to prevent the law being passed, I do believe that the proscription will eventually be declared unlawful. More importantly, a peaceful resolution to the conflict may yet be found, and the real terror will end.

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MP calls on Sellafield chief executive to apologise to whistleblower after spending £750,000 to silence her

Posted on March 28, 2025 by davidhencke

Euan Hutton, chief executive of Sellafield, found himself being called to apologise in public to whistleblower Alison McDermott by her local MP, Anna Dixon at a highly charged hearing of the Commons Public Accounts Committee last week.

The chief executive was clearly embarrassed to face questions about spending such a lot of public money to silence the whistleblower after she produced a report about the toxic culture of bullying and harassment at the UK’s biggest nuclear waste plant.

Alison McDermott, a well respected management and diversity consultant, had faced a series of tribunals and costs hearings.which cost Sellafield over £750,000 by employing top flight lawyers.The main hearing was before judge Philip Lancaster, a judge now facing complaints from 10 women, including Alison, for his patronising and misogynist approach to female litigants who appear before him.

Anna Dixon,Labour MP for Shipley, raised the issue at the beginning of the hearing which was to examine Sellafield’s record so far in running down the waste facility over the next 100 years.

She pointed out that Alison had been head hunted through Capita to work for Sellafield and was then employed directly because of her excellent work. After she produced a report revealing a toxic culture of bullying and harassment at Sellafield this all changed and she was removed from Sellafield.

She told him :” I understand that at that time you did not invoke your whistleblowing policy or take a statement, as required by your own policy. Instead, you spent some £750,000 on legal fees. Perhaps you would confirm that. You refused mediation for three years, and pursued Alison for costs twice and lost on both occasions. As you will know, the remit of this Committee is concerned with the proper ethical use of public funds. As the new CEO, Mr Hutton, I would ask you whether you think this was a good use of public money.”

….” I have seen the treatment of other whistleblowers, which is similar to the treatment of my constituent, that has serious detriment to health, mental health and indeed professional reputation. Alison, as you probably recognise, is sitting here in the public gallery. I recognise that you are not willing to say very much. I am disappointed in that, because most of this is historic and in the public domain. I wonder whether you might apologise to her for the way that she has been treated by Sellafield.”

Mr Hutton replied implying that the situation in Sellafield then was ancient history.

Euan Hutton, chief executive Sellafield Pic credit: gov.uk

“Over the last seven or eight years now, we have made really big strides forward in addressing some of the issues that there were at that time.
You might say that I would say that but, in the most recent staff survey, which concluded, I think, a fortnight ago—I only say “I think” because I cannot remember whether it was a fortnight ago—we have seen significant improvement.”

Anna Dixon concluded: “I am going to come back later and challenge whether these problems have really completely gone away. I do not think that I heard an apology, but I hope you will at least agree to meet with me and my constituent, Alison. “

Since the hearing Alison McDermott has written an open letter to Mr Hutton, David Peattie, group chief executive of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and Paul Vallance, a non executive director of the NDA saying:

“The PAC’s examination has now raised serious questions about your leadership and your organisations’ management, culture, and safety practices.

I’ve made no secret of the toll this has taken on me. But each time I was faced with the choice between comfortable silence and speaking the truth, I chose the latter— without hesitation. That decision is one I will always carry with quiet pride. I can look myself in the mirror, sleep peacefully, and carry a clear conscience—something that is priceless.

I can’t help but wonder: how do you reconcile your actions?

What kind of man do you see when you look in the mirror? “

The PAC has now to produce a report following the hearing. I somehow think it will not be a glowing endorsement of practices at the UK’s biggest waste facility.