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Harriet Harman to stand for Speaker

31 replies

niceberg · 10/09/2019 19:38

I've just seen this news. Overall I have a very positive impression of HH as a feminist and her work in ministerial positions. Can anyone with a better memory for detail and knowledge of politics give their view on her? Is she gender critical? I seem to recall her chairing the interesting committee session that included Joanna Cherry who was on fire questioning a Twitter rep (?) about their misogyny.

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nauticant · 12/09/2019 13:33

I still can't understand how she remained as an MP after the pie stuff

Margaret Hodge managed to step around the Islington council paedophilia scandal that she was implicated in.

Thymejuice · 12/09/2019 12:33

I still can't understand how she remained as an MP after the pie stuff. I really can't.

Thymejuice · 12/09/2019 12:33

I still can't understand how she remained as an MP after the pie stuff. I really can't.

endofthelinefinally · 12/09/2019 12:14

It is just shocking isn't it?
How anybody could say that is incomprehensible. No thought process involved at all. She is a lawyer!!! So not unintelligent.

Thymejuice · 12/09/2019 12:14

I also can't get past PIE.

Baguetteaboutit · 12/09/2019 12:10

I'm not really one for declaring lower limits on who and what counts as a feminist. I understand that women have to negotiate between their feminist principles and actually navigating through a patriarchal society. But I imagine that Harriet Harman could take her PIE history book and walk underneath it without grazing her head.

MockersthefeMANist · 12/09/2019 12:04

Wouldn't be the first to seek the speakership to rehabilitate a reputation. Selwyn Lloyd was implicated in the lies over Suez, and George Thomas was chased out of a meeting following his diversion of funds for the Aberfan disaster.

Childrenofthestones · 12/09/2019 12:00

From a Daily mail report.....

,Miss Harman had claimed such a law would “increase censorship” and argued that a pornographic picture of a naked child should not be considered indecent unless it could be proven that the subject had suffered.

Christ almighty.😨

Seadragonusgiganticusmaximus · 12/09/2019 10:42

Even the Guardian couldn’t support her.

www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/2009/mar/02/harriet-harman-sir-fred-goodwin

Seadragonusgiganticusmaximus · 12/09/2019 10:40

Do you remember her comments about Fred Goodwin and the “court of public opinion”?

“I don't want to, I don't want to go into all the details of issues that ... the methods that might be taken [to claw back Goodwin's pension]. But I can say this, which is that Sir Fred should not be counting on being £650,000 a year better off as a result of this because it's not going to happen. The prime minister has said it's not acceptable and, therefore, it will not be accepted. And it might be enforceable in a court of law, this contract, but it's not enforceable in the court of public opinion and that's where the government steps in.”

How can someone who has so little respect for the rule of law run our main law-making body?

TheClitterati · 12/09/2019 10:29

👍🏼👍🏼 ah I get you!
Indeed.

TimeLady · 11/09/2019 11:57

I actually said " something like the Women's Equality Party with true feminist principles."

I think the current WEP has turned out to be a wasted opportunity.

TheClitterati · 11/09/2019 11:52

Women's Equality Party with true feminist principles
Including the wonderful feminist principle that transwomen ARE women & they must be centred in feminism and WEP policy Hmm

SirVixofVixHall · 11/09/2019 11:42

Thanks for the link OP.

TimeLady · 11/09/2019 09:47

Harman, Cooper, Thornbury, Toynbee and the like are as middle class as they come. I doubt they mix with the 'working class' any more than the Tories do. If they had instigated something like the Women's Equality Party with true feminist principles, I might have more respect for them.

DecomposingComposers · 11/09/2019 08:26

Betty Boothroyd was speaker from 1992 to 2000.

Thank you. It seemed longer ago than that.

sailingclosetothewind · 11/09/2019 07:58

No, because we need a speaker that is both politically neutral and neutral on brexit, Harriet is neither.

MorrisZapp · 11/09/2019 07:52

Betty Boothroyd was speaker from 1992 to 2000.

MissLadyM · 11/09/2019 07:45

I can't stand her and, like others, can't get over the PIE thing.

DecomposingComposers · 11/09/2019 07:40

It'll be good to see a female speaker.

Betty Boothroyd was speaker in the 80s

TimeLady · 11/09/2019 07:36

Too marmite for a Speaker, imo. She has always come across to me as a sanctimonious prig.

GrumpiestCat · 11/09/2019 06:55

I've always found it weird that speakers have to be impartial. I mean I understand in terms of the role but if that was my elected MP I'd be instantly disenfranchised wouldn't I? My representative would be essentially neutered. I also understand other parties won't stand against speakers at elections as a courtesy, again how is that democratic? It's all a bit odd. Am I getting it wrong?

OP posts:
endofthelinefinally · 10/09/2019 22:37

I hope some brave journalist brings up her links to PIE. Those people haven't gone away.

SirVixofVixHall · 10/09/2019 22:35

PIE ? Blimey ? What were her links ?

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