Times article:
MP John Hemming banned from Mumsnet for posting while drunk
A Liberal Democrat MP has been banned from commenting on the parenting website Mumsnet after allegedly making posts while drunk.
John Hemming, 53, MP for Birmingham, Yardley, was banned after he revealed the identity of a pregnant Italian woman who had her baby taken away by Essex County Council.
Mr Hemming admitted being “not sober” when he breached an Italian court order by posting documents that revealed the names of the woman and her children.
“Although I do read Italian, I do not read it that well and I didn’t realise there was an Italian court order in place,” he said.
“As soon as I realised my error, I contacted Mumsnet and asked them to take the posts down.”
Mumsnet banned him for breaching its rules, after he also named anonymous users by posting links to Twitter pages which contained their names.
Mr Hemming has said that he “is not that bothered” by the ban and has joked that he is “now indeed on the naughty step at Mumsnet”.
He made a post on his blog on December 30 in which he publicised the statement he received from Mumsnet.
It said: “Hi, John. We’re getting in touch as we’ve received a couple of reports about your posts on the ‘child taken from the womb’ thread. It is against our talk guidelines to post information which would ‘out’ a poster, as a couple of your posts on here have done due to your posts containing links to posters personal twitter accounts which give their real names. We’ve had to suspend your account until you get in touch.”
Mr Hemming admitted to being “not sober” while posting, and in an exchange with one user he said: “I am not sober, but I am right.”
He said: “My eight-year-old daughter is thrilled I am on the naughty step and if she’s happy, I am happy.
“I am still posting on other forums because I believe that is the way to engage with people and I am also the only MP to take part in Mumsnet discussions using my real name.”
1 comment, from John Hemming:
(comment made 24 minutes ago, article updated 1 minute ago, so not entirely clear if changes have been made)