To think the Guardian is a joke re: JK Rowling?

[Firesidefox]

So, the Guardian was running a 'person of the year' poll, and I voted for JK Rowling for her bravery in standing up to the extremist wing of the trans lobby.

I went to have a look to see when the results were out, and they've deactivated the poll! According to Twitter, it's because JK Rowling was the out and out winner.

If this is the case, this is PATHETIC.

Gordon Brown and his 'bigoted woman' remark in 2010 would be a fairly obvious example.

And again in 2014 -

A Labour MP [Alex Cunningham] has apologised after launching a renewed attack on the Rochdale pensioner who was derided by Gordon Brown as a “bigoted woman”...

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/brown-was-right-about-bigoted-woman-says-mp-cdtt6tml38p

Astonishing tweets from Labour MP Neil Coyle last year -

Labour MP calls Brexiteers ‘shtbag racist w**ers’ over Proms row
Neil Coyle says song Rule! Britannia is only liked by 'sh*tlickers" ...
The Southwark MP went on to claim that “fat old racists” would blame the EU if Brexit went wrong...

The Independent understands that Mr Coyle has been spoken to by Keir Starmer's office, which told him to take down the tweets.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-mp-brexit-neil-coyle-proms-farage-jacob-rees-mogg-a9689776.html

@AlternativePerspective

Doesn’t Justine’s DH work for the guardian? Editor or some such?

Ian Katz, ex deputy editor?

@Clavinova

No comment on the Tories attitudes to the working class then?

Surely one would expect (want) journalists to be clever (ie Oxbridge educated) rather than less clever ? Nothing to be ashamed of ?

Surely for a paper that has presents itself as left leaning and concerned about the plight of the poor and disadvantaged employing a bunch of of people who have had zero experience of said social issues is a bit short sighted. Also, the staggering hypocrisy of trying to shame companies about sharp employment practices, tax evasion and unpaid internships when they have practiced exactly the same does not exactly help their cause.

Boston in Lincolnshire also didn't have problems with high unemployment, it has lower than average wages because of the type of work available there, not because of immigration, people were paid lower than the regional average back in the 80s and 90s too.

This is the narrative but actually immigration had little to no impact on the NHS or schools or anything else.

Not true. Look at all the schools who are classed as struggling or failing that have a large proportion of English as a second language speakers, not enough school places, long waits for Dr appointments, operations and extra pressure on housing and infrastructure. All governments have failed to make the necessary investments required to deal with the increase in population size

@CorrBlimeyGG

1. There was no poll.

1. Person of the year can mean whatever you want it to. If Rowling was to 'win', she wouldn't be the first bigot to do so.
2. Transphobia is not something to be proud of. Rowling deserves zero sympathy.

Ooh cpuld this be the day thay somebody finally explains what JK Rowling said that was so transphobic and bigoted - in JK Rowling's own words?

"Not true. Look at all the schools who are classed as struggling or failing that have a large proportion of English as a second language speakers, not enough school places, long waits for Dr appointments, operations and extra pressure on housing and infrastructure. All governments have failed to make the necessary investments required to deal with the increase in population size"

This is the narrative but its not true.

The schools with the highest number of children who speak English as an additional language are in London and tend to be doing very well.

A huge amount of research has disproved the impact on the NHS point, cuts to social care funding meaning old people end up in hospital longer and the impact of an ageing population have been the causes of longer wait times across the NHS.

Immigrants tend to be young and healthy and not use the doctor much. Nuffield College Oxford did a good study on this.

@JohnHuffam1812

Boston in Lincolnshire also didn't have problems with high unemployment, it has lower than average wages because of the type of work available there, not because of immigration, people were paid lower than the regional average back in the 80s and 90s too.

If you read what others are saying on this thread, we know this. What we are saying is that Labour didn't make enough effort to do the long, slow, frustrating work of listening to people and tactfully but thoroughly correcting their misconceptions and making a different case. Grassroots stuff. The Tories, meanwhile, nodded along and said 'Yes, you're right'. Guess who got the votes of the misguided and prejudiced, and a fair number from the undecided in the middle?

Just exchanged e-mails with Elon - his took me an hour to interpret as it was full of numbers, hieroglyphs and runes, which turned out to be his kids' names.
Anyway, he was named 'Person of the Year' by Time Magazine, but was a bit embarrassed because he knows that more than a few people (myself included) self-identify as the 'Person of the Year'.
Consequently, being the humble guy that he is, he has asked The Grauniad to pull their (un)planned poll.
So, nothing to see, please move along.

ps If you're reading this Joanne, the one with the grumbling multi-millionaire child actors being picked off, one by one seems favourite!

@IpanemaPeaHen

The Gordon Brown bigoted women moment is widely acknowledged as the tuning point when Britain started pandering to the racists. He was completely correct about her.

Tories got in and the rest is Brexit history. Sadly for UK.

What did she say that was racist and bigoted?

The Tories were in in Boston anyway.

The fact that no one has really been able to link to examples (except for 2) prior to the referendum shows that this is just a created narrative and not actually true.

Where my family are from there is the lowest amount of immigration in England, yet all through the 2000s peope ranted about immigration, even though there were a couple of hundred Poles living in a town of 25,000.

@JohnHuffam1812

The Tories were in in Boston anyway.

The fact that no one has really been able to link to examples (except for 2) prior to the referendum shows that this is just a created narrative and not actually true.

Where my family are from there is the lowest amount of immigration in England, yet all through the 2000s peope ranted about immigration, even though there were a couple of hundred Poles living in a town of 25,000.

So we actually voted to stay in the EU and we haven't seen a great resurgence of open racism and anti-immigrant sentiments? Gosh. I must just have dreamed it all. Prime Minister Ed Miliband is now in his second term and everything in the UK is just peachy.

Yes and the point being it is all about perception. There was and is structural inequalities and in many communities, this lack of access to school places, doctors appointments, decent jobs, became the anti immigration narrative. Whether it was true or not is largely immaterial. It suited the Tories as it became a good way to deflect blame (although it then neatly segued into Brexit). My family live in an area that has seen waves of immigration, which has significantly changed the area, it's still pretty prosperous but poorer than comparable areas elsewhere. In one generation they're all pretty much gone from being working class Labour voters to working class Conservative voters.

You are a perfect example of why we are in this Brexit mess, JohnHuffam1812.

Deny and ignore if it doesn't fit your narrative is what got us here.

@user1471517900

Despite the OP being utterly disproved on page 2 of this thread, the poll shows only 6% voting unreasonable.

Never change Mumsnet.

Which is particularly ironic on a thread which is frothing over a "poll" being ignored

@CorrBlimeyGG

1. There was no poll.

1. Person of the year can mean whatever you want it to. If Rowling was to 'win', she wouldn't be the first bigot to do so.
2. Transphobia is not something to be proud of. Rowling deserves zero sympathy.

@CorrBlimeyGG

1. Rowling is not bigot, she in fact has said trans people deserve protections and safe spaces, but do spew your ignorance and bigotry and refusal to actually get your facts right.
2. Your ignorance and bigotry is not something to be proud of, nor is your femphobia. Rowling is a hero for trans people as well as women, you and your hatred, ignorance and bigotry deserve no sympathy. Probably just another woman-loathing incel.

www-bbc-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36258541.amp?amp_js_v=a6&amp_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQKKAFQArABIIACAw%3D%3D#aoh=16407192102016&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&amp_tf=From%20%251%24s

www-lincolnshirelive-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.lincolnshirelive.co.uk/news/local-news/life-boston-eu-immigration-changed-4802404.amp?amp_js_v=a6&amp_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQKKAFQArABIIACAw%3D%3D#aoh=16407192102016&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.lincolnshirelive.co.uk%2Fnews%2Flocal-news%2Flife-boston-eu-immigration-changed-4802404

www-cnbc-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2019/11/28/in-boston-britains-most-pro-brexit-town-voters-are-fed-up.html?amp_js_v=a6&amp_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQKKAFQArABIIACAw%3D%3D#aoh=16407192102016&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnbc.com%2F2019%2F11%2F28%2Fin-boston-britains-most-pro-brexit-town-voters-are-fed-up.html

If you read what others are saying on this thread, we know this. What we are saying is that Labour didn't make enough effort to do the long, slow, frustrating work of listening to people and tactfully but thoroughly correcting their misconceptions and making a different case. Grassroots stuff. The Tories, meanwhile, nodded along and said 'Yes, you're right'. Guess who got the votes of the misguided and prejudiced, and a fair number from the undecided in the middle?

True enough, but this also ignores the vast amounts of money that the likes of Aaron Banks spent on ensuring Brexit happened because of how much they stood to gain. Yes, Labour (and not just them but the entire Remain campaign) didn't do a great job of countering the spurious arguments put forward, but it was far far from a clean fight and the winners are certainly not going to be the residents of Bolton and Boston and the fault absolutely does not in the main part lie at Emily Thornberry and Gordon Brown's feet.

JohnHuffam1812
@ Clavinova
No comment on the Tories attitudes to the working class then?

You quite clearly asked for examples of Labour MPs - here;

This old tripe again? Got examples?

@coffeerevelsrock

If you read what others are saying on this thread, we know this. What we are saying is that Labour didn't make enough effort to do the long, slow, frustrating work of listening to people and tactfully but thoroughly correcting their misconceptions and making a different case. Grassroots stuff. The Tories, meanwhile, nodded along and said 'Yes, you're right'. Guess who got the votes of the misguided and prejudiced, and a fair number from the undecided in the middle?

True enough, but this also ignores the vast amounts of money that the likes of Aaron Banks spent on ensuring Brexit happened because of how much they stood to gain. Yes, Labour (and not just them but the entire Remain campaign) didn't do a great job of countering the spurious arguments put forward, but it was far far from a clean fight and the winners are certainly not going to be the residents of Bolton and Boston and the fault absolutely does not in the main part lie at Emily Thornberry and Gordon Brown's feet.

True, but the seeds sown by Banks fell in the fertile ground prepared by a lack of open discussion about immigration issues.

Sorry I thought I had posted about JRM calling people who went to Comprehensive school" Thick as potted plants", or the Britania Unchained mob saying that the British workers were "The worst idlers in the word" never mind all the fact that the PM called the working class "likely to be drunk, criminal, aimless, feckless and hopeless”

"True, but the seeds sown by Banks fell in the fertile ground prepared by a lack of open discussion about immigration issues."

There were lots of conversations about this even in the run up to the referendum. No one wants to listen to facts when they can have opinions.

Those links are absolutely infuriating. Blaming a lack of butchers, post offices and grocers on immigrants. I live in an area with limited immigration and have done for 13 years. We have a reasonable high street and it still has a PO, but the green grocers shut down years ago and there has never been a butcher's while I've lived here. This is because of supermarkets and other changes, not immigrants.

FFS.

seems one prediction about Brexit was spot on. It's going to creep into every debate, every discussion and every analysis of peoples motives for generations to come.