Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Site stuff

Join our Innovation Panel to try new features early and help make Mumsnet better.

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

Original poster

Vanishing posts on the Jess Phillips thread

57 replies

Mner2000 · 21/01/2020 11:00

Numerous posters (here) have noted that their posts were removed from the Jess Phillips thread before and after the event (here) and there being nothing noted on the thread itself that there is no accompanying deletion message on the thread itself.

The Daily Mail clearly has a screen grab of StealthPolarBear on 20/01/2020 13:31.17 that is no longer on the thread - without an accompanying thread deletion message like is normally there.

Is mumsnet against free speech and rigorous debate? Politicians must robustly account for their actions where their policies affect so many. If they cannot do this on a Mumsnet forum, how will they manage in parliament?

Self ID is not single issue - it affects every area of national and regional policy. Maybe if Jess had been able to see a better range of comments, it would help her understand this better and if she had seen the number of comments, it would help her see just how many people are concerned about the real impacts of policy change on such a large level. She says herself that some of the issues raised on the thread were not ones she had come across on the doors but yet we are not allowed to ask them here. This would have been the ideal opportunity to raise awareness of the many, many issues involved.

There must be a better way to arrange these webchats than just deleting people's comments and concerns without trace. What about grouping the questions by topic.

OP posts:
peachgreen · 21/01/2020 13:55

Pretty sure Jess Phillips - like the rest of the world - knows that Mumsnet is full of "gender critical feminists". I don't think you need to worry that your opinions haven't been noted.

MNHQ allowed the questions to be asked and made sure Jess addressed them - she spoke more on trans issues and women's rights than any other topic. It's right that no one topic dominates an entire webchat. Other people have other concerns and deserve to have those heard.

Lordfrontpaw · 21/01/2020 13:48

Has anyone been excommunicated and why does the mail say there are no comments on that piece (which I find hard to believe)?

OldCrone · 21/01/2020 13:46

There has to be a middle ground, such as a thin bar of comment that says something like ‘duplicate question - women’s spaces ‘ etc.

But they weren't all duplicate questions. Many of the deleted questions were about different aspects of an enormously complex issue.

As it stood in the end, a question about Labour's response to women holding a meeting had to be removed so that one could be asked about the spousal exit clause in the GRA. I don't see how it could be argued that these were both the same question.

JustHereWithMyPopcorn · 21/01/2020 13:37

Yes that's a good point Saucery, this idea that because no one has asked hem the question then it never happened is being reinforced by this censorship, 'well we asked the people of mumsnet but only three people made a comment so it can't be a real issue to them or women in general.'

Saucery · 21/01/2020 13:34

There has to be a middle ground, such as a thin bar of comment that says something like ‘duplicate question - women’s spaces ‘ etc.

Jess Phillips herself stated that ‘thousands’ of working class women whose doors she knocked on over the last 5 years never mentioned the subject. If MNHQ are complicit in making questions vanish then how do we hold politicians to account when they refuse to address the issue?

Original poster
Mner2000 · 21/01/2020 12:52

Exactly. Would MNHQ have done the same if the thread had been flooded by TRAs? The TRAs would be going mental if their posts had vanished into thin air. This was not handled well at all.

OP posts:
JustHereWithMyPopcorn · 21/01/2020 12:34

I think MNHQ actions were outrageous. Won't bother wasting my time on any further webchats, what's the point?