Time for a basic knowledge test before running for election as an MP

If you know that females have XX chromosomes and you know that you are a human who menstruates then you know you have XX chromosomes.
not knowing that females are XX isn't the same as people saying 'I can only guess I have XX because I've never had my chromosomes tested'

If they had restricted voting in the Brexit referendum to anyone who could explain what a third country is and the significance of being one, things would have gone very differently.

Yes - these questions:

1 Do you live in the constituency?

2 If not, do you actually know where it is?

3 Are you aware that the general idea is that you are supposed to represent your constituents in parliament, and not ignore them while you preen yourself in front of tv cameras and arse-lick your way into the cabinet?

A knowledge test for people who want to become MPs sounds like a great idea but really it should be extended to a test for anyone who wants to vote or claim benefits. If you don't know how long the Hundred Years' War lasted or who Wat Tyler was you shouldn't have the right to participate.

Perhap there could be a kind of "ignorance tax" too to penalise those who don't reach a basic standard in maths, English, science, history and geography. If you don't get a certain grade in those subjects at school you get hit with an extra 10% tax throughout your life.

Just looked at her Wiki page and it says she studied medicine before dropping out!!!! Is that really true or just a dig at her ignorance of basic biology 🙀🙀🙀🙀

I think that candidates should have a reasonable grasp of maths and statistics. It might avoid a repeat of the situation when a previous secretary of state for education decided that all schools needed to be above average in SATs and GCSE scores etc. Mentioning no names but he is still part of the present GOVErnment.

Of course I would, I was replying to the people who said this was basic knowledge that everyone knows.

I think that biology is compulsory up to GCSE level now, but it wasn't when I was at school, so despite a physics degree and multiple professional qualifications in a related field, my biological knowledge is very very basic.

Yes, knowledge test, along with a thorough background check and random hard drive checks. I’d love to see a few MPs have their hard drives checked. I have quite a long list of men whose hard drives I’d like checked. I’m sure a few of those handmaidens wouldn’t be so keen to bend over then.

IMO it’s quite common for people to be utterly clueless about biology, and it’s not necessarily anything to do with intelligence or general academic achievements. My dh (who has sundry letters after his name) went to an extremely academic independent boys’ day school where, unless they were planning to be medics, biology was considered a ‘girls’ subject’. Physics and chemistry were fine for boys, of course. Good, properly masculine stuff…

I was once staggered to realise that he hadn’t a clue about photosynthesis - the means by which plants take in carbon dioxide among other things, to give off the oxygen we breathe. Ditto the function of the kidney - he hadn’t a clue about that, either.

No but if your an MP.talking about chromosomes,you would probably have a quick Google before making a speech I would have thought?

Isn't the point that knowing you were going to give a parliamentary speech about chromosomes, and writing it down and knowing you were going to say that your female chromosomes were 'XY', and having full access to the internet and a huge parliamentary library and research staff, you might, you know, look it up to check?

Also Kirsty Blackman has made it her very busy business to 'know' about these matters for years.

I'd have to look it up because I'm of an age where biology wasn't compulsory at school. I did one year over 30 years ago and then did physics and chemistry GCSEs. Knowing that you're a woman and have periods etc doesn't necessarily lead into knowing about chromosomes.

But anyway, I agree that MPs need to be far more knowledgeable about many things and their constituents' issues.

For example, until our trade unions did a lot of campaigning work, many MPs assumed that civil servants got annual pay progression (we don't) and that we all do pointless office jobs that serve no useful purpose (also not true).

It's recorded for posterity that ignorance and weaponising suicide is all the TRAs have, contrasted with the articulate compassionate speeches from the pro women side.

Agree with others that parliament should represent the electorate however it would be good to have MPs who lie or split untruths to have to publicly correct themselves.

I get the point about needing a variety of people in parliament but KB went far far beyond that

I don't want anyone making laws in this country that are either that stupid or that wedded to a particular ideology that they willing to regurgitate absolute nonsense and make such a fool of themselves

Shouldn't there be some law about lying, not just ignorance but actually lying, about the very topic of discussion about a law that affects every single person in the country, be somewhat illegal?

This is how low the standard of parliamentarians is. There’s not much difference between a love island contestant and an MP.

It’s almost like meeting a creationist. Wilful ignorance of science allows the world to fit in with your beliefs.

Broadcasting your ignorance of basic biology isn't a flex

I think that there is a difference between not knowing 'your' chromosomes and not knowing that females have xx chromosomes, which you can infer from presence of periods, pregnancies etc. And there is a difference again to standing up in parliament and saying that your chromosomes are probably XY, when you've got two children (ofc, they could be adopted).
However, is she really was a male, XY, then she probably should have led with that, in this debate, rather than making it around like it's all very complicated and nobody could possibly know.

I genuinely don’t. I’m a woman but my chromosomes never come up in conversation. Don’t assume that your obsessions are everyone else’s.

Have you had regular periods? Been pregnant? If you've had natural female functions then you absolutely know your chromosomes. Don't be obtuse.

Agree. The electorate gets the politicians it chooses.

I do go to meetings, personally.

Many in the electorate are ignorant of policies that affect them deeply.

I don’t know what my chromosomes are. I went to school many decades ago and I’m not obsessed with transgender debates. YABU.

Yabu of course.

A liberal democracy is a liberal democracy.

In parliament there are many people I disagree with. That's liberal democracy.

KB also weaponised suicide in that speech, I found it gross, manipulative and totally irresponsible. She is a gaslighter and an idiot.