(34)  The Scots, the English and racial discrimination (3)

Allan McPherson, a riot policeman with a strong Glasgow accent, lost his claim of racial discrimination against the Metropolitan Police before an industrial tribunal sitting in Woburn on 7 May 1998. McPherson claimed that his employers refused to make him a dog-handler because the dogs could not understand his accent. The tribunal found that dogs respond to voice tones rather than words, and that McPherson’s accent was too monotonous for the purpose. McPherson also claimed that he was the victim of other forms of discrimination as a Scotsman which put him under stress during the dog-handling course: for example, his Yorkshire-born sergeant referred to him as a juvenile jock and a sheep-shagger and accused him of being concerned only with money. The tribunal found that these were isolated incidents which did not amount to a continuous course of conduct constituting racial discrimination.