Protected disclosures in the public interest
A shift how I speak about my workplace complaint has reset how I feel about it as I start my sixth year of trying to be heard.
For the last two years I have worked as a consultant with Third Sector Solutions. Our work includes supporting senior leaders in the third sector, leading governance audits and investigating whistleblowing complaints. It was following an interview with a whistleblower towards the end of last year that I found a new thread to pull for She’s Gone Too Far, my attempt to whistleblow about the toxic culture in the Lib Dems.
As I typed up my notes, I realised that the person making their complaint had known that they were making a disclosure from the very beginning. This knowledge provided them with a resoluteness when they had initially approached their employer. It made me reflect on the words that I have used over the last five years.
When I first spoke to Willie Rennie MSP, I told him I had a concern that the MEP was being racist, ‘but not to worry Willie, we can fix this.’
When I first told the Liberal Democrats complaints process that I had been assaulted, I told them that that I was feeling too weak to stand up for myself.
When I spoke up publicly, I said that I wanted to create an organisation that makes “whistleblowing cool and NDA’s history.”
As I looked back over my impressive archive of unheard complaints and public posts, I realised that I have used so many words in so many ways. The language of reconciliation, words that minimised my experience, phrases that centred me over other more serious aspects of my complaint (when Lib Dem members were bullying me into not speaking out about the mass bullying and abuse of others because ‘it’s not your experience’) and at times humour, to try to retain the support I had gathered on X. One thing stood out - I’m yet to use the language of whistleblowing law.
In 2023 a lawyer contacted me to offer me support. He told me to “keep it simple” and advised that there is way too much information in my campaign for anyone with any power to get to grips with it. I agreed, but I didn’t have the capacity at the time to simplify the information and honestly, it shouldn’t be down to me to do this.
But something clicked into place after interviewing the latest whistleblower. I called Protect, the UK’s leading whistleblowing charity. I’d spoken to them at the beginning of 2024 but hadn’t found their advice to be useful. I realise now that for the most part I wasn’t in the headspace to give them the information they needed to be able to advise me properly. December’s call was different. I gave them what they needed to know to point me in a new direction for 2025 and they helped me to sift through my complaints and frame it in the eyes of the law.
The most powerful message that I took from speaking with Protect is this…
When I wrote to the Ethical Standards Commissioner to tell him that Alex Cole Hamilton MSP shares women’s confidential messages relating to bullying, abuse and pain caused by politicians in an attempt to make them trust him and believe that he is a feminist, I approached it in the wrong way. Whilst the person I spoke to at Protect is of the same opinion as me - that Alex’s behaviour is harmful to women and should be stopped, she also advised me that gaslighting women in this way is not illegal - but sharing their data is. I’ve been advised to go back and look at every complaint through the eyes of the law and frame it as if I was writing a legal letter, not a testimony. This has been unbelievably difficult, no impossible, until now.
I was also advised to speak to my MSP or MP as they can represent and support constituents who are making disclosures in the public interest. HAHAHA. How I laughed. Alex Cole Hamilton is my MSP and Christine Jardine is my MP. I’m whistleblowing about them. But what’s interesting is that I have written to some of my regional MSPs (in Scotland, each person is represented by one constituent MSP and seven regionals) and the ones who have bothered to write back have told me that they can’t get involved because I am making a workplace complaint.
“No you’re not,” Protect said clearly back to me. “You’re making protected disclosures in the interests of the public. Get comfortable with telling people like that.”
And so She’s Gone Too Far has a new lease of life for 2025. I’m rewriting my complaints to every one I complained to from 2019 - 2024, and I invite you to come along with me as I show you how impossible it is to be heard about wrongdoing in UK politics.
Bye bye X
After 14 years of X, I have moved over to BlueSky. I joined twitter in 2011. I met friends on the platform, a brave tweet about a cancer diagnosis led me to find my own breast cancer, and there has been so much support for She’s Gone Too Far, I still dream about how to repay the people who helped me believe in myself again.
But yesterday X told me that posting "trans women are women" may be considered a slur. So that's me done. It’s Trump’s inauguration day so it feels timely, albeit exhausting to think I have to build up support all over again.
Follow me on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/emmawalkerceo.bsky.social
Sign my change.org petition to Ed Davey MP and Alex Cole Hamilton MSP: Petition
I’m posting all of my videos on YouTube (asap): https://youtube.com/@ShesGoneTooFar
Subscribe to this newsletter on Substack for free: