Open letter: Mothers Appeal To Mumsnet CEO Justine Roberts

Thanks for the heads up on the petition and yes the letter is tediously familiar behaviour, so depressing.

Hopefully Justine will have a meeting and diplomatically then forget about it all.

The UK government has already done what they want anyway, so it's all a bit of a waste of time and likely just performative virtue signalling, with a bit of a kick in the direction of normal women to make it spicier.

By the by - petition for a Maternity Commissioner is up at gov.uk petition site.

They want our power/vote/support but despise us at the same time.

Its tediously familiar, isnt it?

The government hasn't done a huge amount, based on results, to improve maternity care in the UK, which is a current MN campaign (and has been since 2017 IIRC) which came out of grassroots user experiences.

They did a survey and 61% of women didn't have access to food when needed during postnatal hospital "care".

These women seemingly don't give a fuck about UK women and their maternity experiences as have heard nothing about them supporting this campaign (I think Davina McCall did so if she's on the list she gets a pass).

My feeling is very strongly 'how dare they presume to speak for me'.

I'm sick of brain dead celebrities wading into conflicts they clearly know sweet f a about and potentially making things worse. Getting it wrong in this situation means supporting / propping up Hamas which I'm not at all sure would be to the benefit of women and children in Gaza.

JR can do what she likes with her site and her brand, of course. It's a bit of an odd one politically, as it has soft power that can be used to push views that may not reflect those of its users. Who are the content providers, and effectively the marketable product.

Someone needs to tell them that FWS met on FWR.

I know, right. How fucking rude. I am 100% confident they have never lowered themselves to read even one page of FWR in their lives otherwise they'd get to find out that speaking out ourselves is what we do.

They obviously do good work. For decades, however, MSF has had a reputation for being arrogant to the point of putting the volunteers at risk.

Mumsnet has since confirmed receiving the letter and is arranging a meeting with Stevenson and other signatories to discuss the matter.

Disappointing that JR felt pressured into this. A responsible approach on the part of Juliet Stevenson would be to go talk first, publish a letter second subject to JRs approval.

"Many parents may not feel confident enough to speak out themselves"

I'd like any of the women who signed that letter to go on TV, the Graham Norton show for example, and say something truly controversial, not just a funny story with a slightly outre punchline but something that is considered unsayable in their circles, come on Dame Judy say "sex is binary and immutable" on TV, or Annie Lennox go and defend Roisin Murphy on live TV. Be confident, speak out!

The Red Cross webpages are much more focused on aid and neutral on politics in Gaza. A big difference in approach.

I fail to understand how, if you think a big monster with no redeeming qualities is threatening and harming people you want to help, doing things to deliberately provoke that monster will help?

Msf don't have to make political statements and I fail to see how doing so helps them to provide aid. It seems self evidently that it will do the opposite. They can't be that stupid so I can only presume they are more interested in political activism than aid in this particular area now.

I'm sure they do some good work, but their reputation among the NGO sector seems varied. They're sometimes accused of being vanity/ego driven.

Aye. It's an attempt to use the Mumsnet name/brand as a proxy for 'UK women', without lowering themselves to actually speaking to us.

I hope Justine tells them to FRO.

"Many parents may not feel confident enough to speak out themselves"

Seriously, have these people spent five minutes on Mumsnet? We're not a herd of quivering sheep waiting for guidance from the Almighty Justine.

Who could apparently sort out the Middle East by tea time, if she'd just stop faffing about and galvanise the women of the nation already

These "cultural heavyweights" should write their own open letter, and leave Mumsnet out of it. Any Mumsnetter who wants to sign can do so - and every Mumsnetter can carry on doing what we've always done: using our voices, on here, every day of the week!

If we want to give Kier Starmer a bollocking at any stage, I have no doubt we'll find the "confidence" to do so, without needing to be chivvied into it by the great and good of the acting world.

If the UK government has already condemned it, what do the writers expect Justine to do? Get them to condemn it twice (unlikely to be more effective than the first time)? Start a war?

Oh, and that BBC article (dated 31 December) says Israel's revocation of the licences had been condemned by 10 countries, including the UK.

" The move was condemned by 10 countries, which said the rules would have a severe impact on access to essential services.

In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of the UK, France, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Japan, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland said INGOs were integral to the humanitarian response in Gaza and that any attempt to stem their ability to operate was "unacceptable".

"Without them, it will be impossible to meet all urgent needs at the scale required," they warned. "

Can anyone point me in the direction of a copy of the text of the open letter, without having to read it on someone's Google Drive? TIA.

There's a BBC article about it:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1evp7weyv2o

The issue isn't just about refusal to provide employee information - I imagine NGOs who Israel considers to have taken an anti-Israel stance could be excluded under one of the other grounds for rejection (see bullet point list below).

"The diaspora affairs ministry said the primary [my emphasis] reason INGOs had their licences revoked was "the refusal to provide complete and verifiable information regarding their employees,"
...
Fewer than 15% of the INGOs providing humanitarian assistance to Gaza were found to be in violation of the new regulatory framework, it added.

That framework includes several grounds for rejection, including:

• Denying the existence of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state
• Denying the Holocaust or the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023
• Supporting an armed struggle against Israel by an enemy state or terrorist organisation
• Promoting "delegitimisation campaigns" against Israel
• Calling for a boycott of Israel or committing to participate in one
• Supporting the prosecution of Israeli security forces in foreign or international courts "

Aye. Wait til they hear about Iran!

What about the kids suffering in other war torn countries?

In the Sudan, Ukraine, the DRC, Yemen, Myanmar etc?

Why specifically focused on Gaza? And ignoring the plight of all these other children?

It seems the 'glitterati' are quite selective when it comes to their performative empathy.

Oh I quite agree - the lack of compassion and empathy from all the women writing the letter for women whose livelihoods have been trashed by the TRAs and their groupies, and for those whose privacy, dignity and safety has been shat on from a great height by the same men's right movement is awful, isn't it?

I think you're spot on. Sadly.

Yes, I don't either, as Google often insists on having you signed in at all times and I'm concerned they can see who reads the document, and so would see my name.