• Login
  • Register
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Podcasts
  • Newsletter
  • Premium
  • Donate
  • Log In
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result

‘I’ve Lost My job, My Livelihood and My Future’ – Interview With Rail Conductor Sacked For Asking, ‘Do They Have Black Privilege in Africa?’

by Toby Young
29 July 2022 6:34 PM

Simon Isherwood, the conductor with West Midlands Trains (WMT) who lost his job after asking whether such a thing as ‘black privilege’ exists in African countries like Ghana (which is 95% black), has given an interview to the Mail in which he describes the ordeal he’s been put through. I know a bit about Simon’s case because the Free Speech Union helped him bring a case against WMT in the Employment Tribunal. Earlier this week, the judge found that Simon had been unfairly dismissed and he is now in line for a five figure pay-out. Here’s how the interview begins:

Railway manager Simon Isherwood was so passionate about his job with West Midlands Trains, he was known to his line manager as ‘Mr. Northampton.’

There was nothing he didn’t know about train services to and from the market town.

Starting his career more than 11 years ago as a train conductor, Mr. Isherwood, 60, had risen through the ranks – twice winning awards along the way for going beyond the call of duty in customer service.

As manager of a diverse team of around 25 conductors, he liked to think of himself as someone who has always treated everyone fairly and equally regardless of colour, creed, gender or sexuality.

It was his idea to invite everyone in his team to take part in a morale-boosting ‘feel-good’ video during lockdown, set to the Billy Ocean song When The Going Gets Tough, which attracted 4,400 views on You Tube.

When the company then asked him to put forward two conductors for a poster campaign welcoming commuters back after lockdown, Mr. Isherwood’s first choice was a young man from Pakistan – simply because he was his best employee.

“I loved my job and there was nothing I wouldn’t have done for that company,” says Mr. Isherwood, proud of the way he as a manager judged others on merit and job performance alone.

“From the day I started I’d never had anything but promotion, praise and awards. They knew that if something went wrong I’d be the first one on the scene.”

So Mr. Isherwood was devastated when he was sacked by West Midlands Trains from his £49,000-a-year job for gross misconduct at a disciplinary hearing in March last year.

His crime? He’d forgotten to turn off his microphone following a diversity and inclusion online webinar, which he attended voluntarily at home after his morning shift at the station, on the subject of ‘white privilege’.

To his acute embarrassment, other managers – still logged on after the team talk ended – overheard Mr. Isherwood saying to his wife: “I couldn’t be a**ed because I thought, ‘You know what, I’ll just get f•••ing angry.’”

The private conversation went on: “You know what I really wanted to ask?… and I wish I had, do they have black privilege in other countries? So, if you’re in Ghana?”

Suspended the same day following a complaint by a manager from sister company East Midlands Trains, which organised the webinar, a mortified Mr. Isherwood apologised profusely to his bosses for the microphone lapse, his swearing and any unintended offence.

He insisted the first part of the conversation did not relate to the webinar at all but was in response to a note his wife had placed in front of him, asking, ‘Have you phoned the oven man?’ because their appliance was broken.

Yes, he admitted, he’d felt a little annoyed and insulted by some aspects of the webinar, presented by an outside consultant who was white, which seemed – to him at least – to suggest that all white people are born inherently racist.

His question about ‘black privilege’ – he maintained – was not intended as criticism or mockery of the webinar, but as a genuine one intended to help him understand better.

“We’d been asked to think of questions and I was just doing what I was told,” he says.

Worth reading in full – not least because Simon’s story is typical of the kind we hear every week at the Free Speech Union. Those who dismiss cancel culture as a culture war trope invented by conservatives in an attempt to cast themselves as victims often point to high-profile people like J.K. Rowling who don’t appear to have suffered any financial loss in spite of being targeted for cancellation. In fact, the vast majority of the victims of cancel culture are exactly like Simon – ordinary people whose lives have been destroyed after a handful of woke activists (or just one, in Simon’s case) urge their employers to punish them for dissenting from progressive orthodoxy.

And if you think you might be fired for challenging woke gobbledegook, join the Free Speech Union. Membership fees start at £2.49 a month.

Tags: Diversity TrainingFree Speech UnionSimon IsherwoodWest Midlands Trains

Donate

We depend on your donations to keep this site going. Please give what you can.

Donate Today

Comment on this Article

You’ll need to set up an account to comment if you don’t already have one. We ask for a minimum donation of £5 if you'd like to make a comment or post in our Forums.

Sign Up
Previous Post

We Must Never Surrender Our Right to Drive

Next Post

When Did the Police Become the Thought Police?

Subscribe
Login
Notify of
Please log in to comment

To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.

Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.

10 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
HelenaHancart
HelenaHancart
4 years ago

It is truly disturbing how utterly ugly some people’s minds have become in this fake “be kind” era. At what other time in history would people sanctimoniously and viciously attack others just for behaving like human beings?!!!

10
0
Marmalade
Marmalade
4 years ago

It blows my mind that there are some people out there who are obeying these restrictions!

5
0
manav95
manav95
4 years ago

I think students need to engage in some old fashioned rioting, to teach these fucks a lesson.

0
0

NEWSLETTER

View today’s newsletter

To receive our latest news in the form of a daily email, enter your details here:

DONATE

PODCAST

Episode 36 of the Sceptic: Karl Williams on Starmer’s Phoney Immigration Crackdown, Dan Hitchens on the Assisted Suicide Bill and Tom Jones on Reform’s Local Council Challenge

by Richard Eldred
16 May 2025
0

LISTED ARTICLES

  • Most Read
  • Most Commented
  • Editor’s Picks

Chinese ‘Kill Switches’ Found in US Solar Farms

15 May 2025
by Will Jones

News Round-Up

16 May 2025
by Richard Eldred

Spy Agency Report on the Alleged “Extremism” of AfD Turns Out to Be So Stupid That it Destroys all Momentum for Banning the Party

16 May 2025
by Eugyppius

The Folly of Solar – a Dot on the Horizon Versus a Blight on the Land

16 May 2025
by Ben Pile

Chris Packham is the New St Francis of Assisi

15 May 2025
by Sallust

The Folly of Solar – a Dot on the Horizon Versus a Blight on the Land

28

Civil Servants Threaten to Strike Over Trans Ban in Women’s Lavatories

22

News Round-Up

18

Spy Agency Report on the Alleged “Extremism” of AfD Turns Out to Be So Stupid That it Destroys all Momentum for Banning the Party

18

Chris Packham is the New St Francis of Assisi

39

Trump’s Lesson in Remedial Education

16 May 2025
by Dr James Allan

Spy Agency Report on the Alleged “Extremism” of AfD Turns Out to Be So Stupid That it Destroys all Momentum for Banning the Party

16 May 2025
by Eugyppius

The Folly of Solar – a Dot on the Horizon Versus a Blight on the Land

16 May 2025
by Ben Pile

Renaud Camus on the Destruction of Western Education

15 May 2025
by Dr Nicholas Tate

‘Why Can’t We Talk About This?’

15 May 2025
by Richard Eldred

POSTS BY DATE

July 2022
M T W T F S S
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031
« Jun   Aug »

SOCIAL LINKS

Free Speech Union
  • Home
  • About us
  • Donate
  • Privacy Policy

Facebook

  • X

Instagram

RSS

Subscribe to our newsletter

© Skeptics Ltd.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Podcasts
  • Newsletter
  • Premium
  • Donate
  • Log In

© Skeptics Ltd.

wpDiscuz
You are going to send email to

Move Comment
Perfecty
Do you wish to receive notifications of new articles?
Notifications preferences