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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

UKIP Strikes Again - AIBU

14 replies

LittlePeaPod · 07/08/2013 08:19

Godfrey Bloom the UKIP MEP who believes business shouldn?t employ woman of child bearing age strikes again.. AIBU to ask people that support UKIP to please tell me (a working pregnant woman) WHY anyone would want to vote for a party with these types of beliefs?

www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/aug/06/ukip-godfrey-bloom-bongo-bongo-land

OP posts:

MalcolmTuckersMum · 07/08/2013 08:23

Well I can't tell you why anyone would want to do anything that they do - only they can answer that. What I do find a bit worrying is that a lot of people agree with this kind of buffoonery. How we get past that is a lot more worrying than why someone says they're going to vote for a party like this. I've bolded the 'says' because I suspect when it actually comes to it they won't carry through!

Original poster

LittlePeaPod · 07/08/2013 08:32

Malcolm I couldn't agree more.. Its beyound me!

OP posts:

Lazyjaney · 07/08/2013 08:38

He got on the radio, used the time mainly to make his underlying point that we should be spending aid money in the UK at the moment instead.

UKIP play the media very well IMO, they are deliberately baiting their opponents and it is effective.

CocacolaMum · 07/08/2013 08:40

I listened to the debate about this the other day. I am really pleased that he has come out with this garbage as it means they have lost votes!

Catsize · 07/08/2013 08:44

He would have employed my 48yr old female partner who cares for our toddler at home whilst miraculously managing to fit in some self-employed work. And there are the men who give up work to stay at home too. And he omen who never want children etc. and the problem of leaving half our workforce under the age of 35 unemployed etc. Bonkers.
But he is if a generation like my father's. At 12 or so, I queried why his factory didn't have a creche. 'Because most of our 4,000-strong workforce is male'. Marvellous.

Original poster

LittlePeaPod · 07/08/2013 08:47

I must admit I haven't listened to the debate. I find it impossible to listen to anything any UKIP MP/MEP says...

OP posts:

SugarSpunSisters · 07/08/2013 08:49

I heard a bit of this bellend on BBC Radio 2 yesterday, he was on air bragging about how he would not employ a woman between the age of 25 and 45, braying about how she would not even get in front of him for an interview

Original poster

LittlePeaPod · 07/08/2013 09:02

Sugar it's beyound me.... [angy] Thank god we have businesses like the one I work for and business leaders like my MD who's senior team make up 3 women with young children (under 5), one woman with an older child, one preganant woman (me) and two men. The business also has an enhanced maternity package. The business sees and values our ability to deliver for the business and not just a financial drain on the business... This idiot is a complete arse and god only knows what would happen if he had any power! We would all be unemployed...

OP posts:

HollyBerryBush · 07/08/2013 09:07

In slightly more politically correct tones, you will often find women will not employ women of child bearing age - it isnt a misogynist thing.

Small and fledgling business cannot afford to pay someone for the best part of a year, and I know it can be claimed back from the government etc etc but nonetheless its a faff.

However in my experience, it was never the working women with children who were the 'problem' it was the older work with old and frail parents who took the majority of time off at short notice. That in its self is going to present as a much bigger problem as the populace ages.

Definition of problem in this context - emergency/short notice leave with no cover/hand over in situ

Original poster

LittlePeaPod · 07/08/2013 09:14

Could I just add my MD is a woman, with two children under 10.

Holly you make a valid point with regards SMEs but the focus should be on finding a solution to support SMEs rather than a cart blanch ?donemploy women of child bearing age?

OP posts:

ICBINEG · 07/08/2013 09:16

holly it IS a misogynistic thing. It's just that women can be misogynistic too.

ICBINEG · 07/08/2013 09:16

especially now we will be having equalised paternity / maternity rights.

You could employ a 30 year old man and he could disappear for a year on paternity leave.

Latara · 07/08/2013 09:17

Mr Bloom is the Prince Phillip of politics...

TempusFuckit · 07/08/2013 09:34

To go back to an earlier question, I think the reason so many people agree with him is that it's a basic human urge to look after your own - and many, many people define their own as those geographically close to them. In Mr Bloom's case, his own doesn't seem to extend further than those of the same gender and class as himself too - which is also a commonly shared human trait. That's why charity appeals which use emotion to make people feel a kinship and sympathy with those they're trying to help are more successful than using statistics and logical argument. And why charities for domestic animals are so wildly popular.

I'd also say that ridiculing and going on the attack with people who hold these views is also therefore counterproductive. Just entrenches the urge to protect. Better to appeal to any propensity for sympathy and even empathy. Although John Humphries ridiculing Bloom this morning was very, very funny .

(Also agree that women can be misogynist btw.)

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