Barker has spent three days at a tribunal claiming unfair dismissal against North Ayrshire and believes the EIS would have defended him differently if he had been a black woman.

As the official who once drafted the union’s race and sex discrimination guidelines, he feels he knows what he’s talking about.

Barker was left without a job after local government reorganisation (he argues) and even applied for the post of Scottish official with the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers. He did not get that either.

He therefore claims he was effectively dismissed by North Ayrshire - it is suggested he was the first teacher to be made compulsorily redundant in Scotland - and is determined to see justice.

This explains his interest in the law. The legal eagle is prosecuting his own case. Good practice, you might think, for his continuing law degree at Strathclyde University.