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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think Katie Hopkins (ex Apprentice) is a nasty piece of work who should not be given airtime?

109 replies

MaryThornbar · 15/03/2011 09:03

They just wheeled her out on Daybreak to comment on the woman who took her employer to tribunal for making her redundant while on maternity leave.

She was bleating on about how she only took 2 or 3 weeks maternity leave for each of her 3 children, and that we should be more like the USA and have 6 weeks unpaid leave instead of what we have now.

I can't bear the woman, and think she is a self important twunt, who should never have pro-created in the first place.

OP posts:
Original poster
MaryThornbar · 15/03/2011 13:08

are not care

OP posts:
bigbeagleeyes · 15/03/2011 13:10

I also wonder if she has any female friends at all.
I can't imagine wanting a mate like her.

Desperateforthinnerthighs · 15/03/2011 13:13

I work for a very small company - there are 3 of us and Jess the office Cocker Spaniel and for a company like us a years maternity leave is quite a big upheaval..... If I have another baby we are thinking of training the dog

TheCrackFox · 15/03/2011 13:14

She hasn't got any meaningful career left after making a complete arse of herself on the Apprentice. Now she is left in the situation where she has to make pantomime villain type statements in a sad effort to try and fill her days because she has such a sense of entitlement that a normal £25k job is beneath her.

Sad really.

juniperlips · 15/03/2011 13:22

she is one of a very, very, very small minority - a woman-hating woman, and she's wheeled out with relish by male tv execs who like to make the point that 'see! not ALL women believe in equality in the workplace' etc etc. She puts the cause back by at least 50 years. And what's most depressing is the amount of airspace she gets is in direct disproportion to how intelligent, charismatic and interesting she is. Sounds of barrels being scraped every time she goes on TV..

thaigreencurry · 15/03/2011 13:37

I think you are all being harsh on Katie. She doesn't know anything about business and she is rather lacking in intelligence. It must take a lot of courage to stand up on TV and talk nonsence.

Seabright · 15/03/2011 13:44

I think there is an advantage to companies regarding women with children that is often overlooked and that is the loyalty factor.

I know this scenario doesn't describe everyone, but it's quite common in my idustry: You go on maternity leave, then come back, usually on reduced/flexible hours. Most people then stay with the businesses, because they've been good to them by agreeing to be flexible and also because it's almost impossible to find a new job offering the same flexibility.

So, the workers get flexibility and the owner gets long-term employees and doesn't keep having to re-train new recuits.

gysela · 15/03/2011 13:46

YANBU she is vile...I must say though that I work for a small company and am going on maternity leave. Recruitment for my cover was by word of mouth, I am only getting SMP. When I've been ill during my pregnancy it has been considered unpaid leave. Very little training is offered in small companies so I have never been trained for anything in the years I've been here and my replacement will not get any training.
FME small companies pay the least they can get away with. Yes its difficult to have a small company but its equally difficult to work in a small company.

houseworkwhore · 15/03/2011 13:48

Gah i saw this and was clawing at the telly!

She is vile. i dont believe she only had that time off. i bet she didnt breastfeed! (ducks)

LineRunner · 15/03/2011 13:52

I found myself watching this by accident, having switched over to Daybreak when the BBC's 'regional' news segment was being even more tedious than usual.

The woman sat with Katie (not that awful Bleakley, the other one brought in to say something remotely intelligent) made the point that if 50% of the workforce are female, and 80% will have children at some point - children who will be the workers and taxpayers of the future - then it's not good economic policy to penalise them.

Katie blathered on that business should not subsidise women's 'choices'. Ah yes, choices. Didn't she choose to dump her kids on her parents when she made a fool of herself on the Apprentice?

Jaydles · 15/03/2011 13:56

She is sooo irritating and her suggestion of 6 weeks unpaid leave is astonishing. I laughed at her "mumsnet mafia" comment though.
I do think that the publicity surrounding the judgement is not going to do women in the workplace any favours. In particular gaining employment over someone who has already finished their family or is male

darleneconnor · 15/03/2011 14:01

If small businesses do suffer extra costs eg training and advertising when a woman goes on mat leave thenthe issue is extra govt funding for this not cutting mat rights. That would cost the govt and economy much more in the long run.

darleneconnor · 15/03/2011 14:01

If small businesses do suffer extra costs eg training and advertising when a woman goes on mat leave thenthe issue is extra govt funding for this not cutting mat rights. That would cost the govt and economy much more in the long run.

LineRunner · 15/03/2011 14:08

Agree with darleneconnor. This is a national economic issue, and surely to god we ought to be past the era of every woman having to sort out her own convoluted personal response to the general circumstance of something as normal as maternity.

It really can only be at government level that a country ensures fairness for pregnant workers, as well as fairness for, say, small business-owners wishing to employ women.

ledkr · 15/03/2011 14:13

yadnbu-she is vile and a know it all,2-3 weeks she went back to work?Good for her,im six weeks down the line and i feel like shit still with extended bleeding and c section scar infection,dont think they would like me back at work at the moment.
How ridiculous.

noeyedear · 15/03/2011 14:17

I googled her for the sake of fairness to see what she actually does before commenting- her website is the vaguest thing I have ever seen! She actually does do nothing! Her 'business' seems to be 'telling it like it is' whatever that is!

She knows nothing about anything and is just a media whore. She's pathetic!

The population is suffering terribly in the US and Japan as a result of their poor maternity packages/ patriarcal attitudes to mothers. Intelligent, educated women decide not to have children. The Japanese are paying women to have children and the US relies on its immigrant population to sustain the workforce. That will go down a storm with many of the people who are now bleating on about 'Wimmins rights'

prettyfly1 · 15/03/2011 14:24

I just looked at her website and to be frank as a digital marketer WHAT A JOKE. Sorry Katie but clearly your "telling it like it is" mantra didnt extend to your web designer. A load of nonsensical, poorly written, ego centric twaddle with no substance to back it up. Business woman my arse.

messagetoyourudy · 15/03/2011 14:34

I have had real life experience of Katie she came into where I work a few years ago, and she was as jumped up as she appears on TV. She wanted to be recognised and was generally snotty in a 'don't you know who I am' way.

I live in Exeter and I know a few people who have come across her - not favourable reports.

AuntMabel · 15/03/2011 14:41

Oh dear oh dear, why on earth did I increase the traffic to her website today. I think she needs professional help. If you aren't near to any sharp objects read her blog. Here's a gem of a post:

From Why women hate other women

Women that have a nanny
Closest to Satan is the woman that has a nanny. You can detect this type of woman hater through the barely controlled sneer and the remark ?oh how lovely for you.? This is code speak for ?you snobby spoilt cow?. Strangely, this criticism is most often levelled by the cheap suit wearing type that chucks her kids into the local nursery for nine hours a day under the ?voucher? system. These nurseries are effectively Romanian style orphanages Shock
for children where large numbers of inconvenient offspring are confined to a single poorly ventilated room staffed entirely by prepubescent girls that should be in some sort of school themselves.

W.T.F?! I agree with the above poster who said she puts the cause back by at least 50 years. Sad

poopnscoop · 15/03/2011 14:45

Working for and with women like her is why I changed careers from the city and work from my home now, happily self employed. The hard-as-nails tough macho act is ridiculous.

Awful woman.

NinkyNonker · 15/03/2011 14:50

I remember hearing her on the radio Houseworkwhore, on the breast vs bottle debate when they started discussing the 6 month suggestion. She was talking about not BF because her breasts were in a shirt, in the office...not hanging out all over Costa...or similar sentiments.

I turned the radio off as I wasn't sure how she was qualified to comment on something she admits she has no experience of.

poopnscoop · 15/03/2011 14:52

haha here is her blog.... which mentions mumsnet in her Maggie Thatcher post. Methinks she needs some comments ladies!!!

www.katiehopkins.co.uk/blog/

GeneHuntsMistress · 15/03/2011 14:56

She is a complete misogynist. What a sad indictment of our society that a cunt like that is given airtime.

houseworkwhore · 15/03/2011 16:30

ninkynonker if i only could afford a costa's...haha!

houseworkwhore · 15/03/2011 16:32

Just found this on her blog:

A working mother ? but no one knew

Not till Mark Thatcher started doing strange things with models and fast cars did any of us even realise Thatcher was a mother. Did she ask for flexi time, maternity leave, short days, child care support? ? did she hell. Would she have belonged to mumsnet? Never.

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