Time for a basic knowledge test before running for election as an MP

[Confusedmumannoyedson]

AIBU? Prospective candidates should sit a test to check for basic intelligence.

Kirsty Blackman thinks she has XY chromosomes yet gave birth.

https://twitter.com/themajorityscot/status/1668329329884004353

In case you don't have twitter "Kirsty Blackman, Zoomer of the Week nominee, says she can't define what a woman is because: 'I have no idea what my chromosomes are. I have an assumption that they are probably XY but I don't know! Not got a clue what my chromosomes are!'"

Amongst a lot of other nonsense

Some great replies to this. "Well I've never seen my chromosomes but every time I look downwards in the shower I see my gentleman's apparatus.
That's always a good reminder when I wonder what sex I am."

tbh I am for basic materials relating to campaign issues and then a simple mcq for all voters before they are allowed to vote. something like this would have avoided the brexit disaster. mps "knowing stuff"/being "intelligent" doesn't stop some of them from greedy lying b words. I am definitely for them having a cap on their earnings after they leave the job to stop them from getting lucrative positions in exchange for underhand business.

Also important to know a little geography - so maybe where Dover is in relation to Calais...

No not really - KB was deeply embarrassing but I quite like having a range of people in parliament, more like the voters.

Without wanting to sound a thousand years old it is a shame that local political meetings aren't really a thing any more. Candidates used to have to stand up and give their views in detail in front of big audiences for weeks on end during a campaign, and now they don't get scrutinised in the same way. I can't say I'd be that likely to go to the meetings either so im part of the problem.

In case anyone doesn’t believe that Kirsty Blackman MP is really that dim, it’s in Hansard. And I heard her say it myself on live TV, as did a large audience. Jo Cherry MP puts her head in her hands.

Blackman is trying to deny she said it but it was televised!

There’s also a fun battle going on with her wiki page.

KB also weaponised suicide in that speech, I found it gross, manipulative and totally irresponsible. She is a gaslighter and an idiot.

Yabu of course.

A liberal democracy is a liberal democracy.

In parliament there are many people I disagree with. That's liberal democracy.

I don’t know what my chromosomes are. I went to school many decades ago and I’m not obsessed with transgender debates. YABU.

Agree. The electorate gets the politicians it chooses.

I do go to meetings, personally.

Many in the electorate are ignorant of policies that affect them deeply.

Have you had regular periods? Been pregnant? If you've had natural female functions then you absolutely know your chromosomes. Don't be obtuse.

I genuinely don’t. I’m a woman but my chromosomes never come up in conversation. Don’t assume that your obsessions are everyone else’s.

I think that there is a difference between not knowing 'your' chromosomes and not knowing that females have xx chromosomes, which you can infer from presence of periods, pregnancies etc. And there is a difference again to standing up in parliament and saying that your chromosomes are probably XY, when you've got two children (ofc, they could be adopted).
However, is she really was a male, XY, then she probably should have led with that, in this debate, rather than making it around like it's all very complicated and nobody could possibly know.

Broadcasting your ignorance of basic biology isn't a flex

It’s almost like meeting a creationist. Wilful ignorance of science allows the world to fit in with your beliefs.

This is how low the standard of parliamentarians is. There’s not much difference between a love island contestant and an MP.

Shouldn't there be some law about lying, not just ignorance but actually lying, about the very topic of discussion about a law that affects every single person in the country, be somewhat illegal?

I get the point about needing a variety of people in parliament but KB went far far beyond that

I don't want anyone making laws in this country that are either that stupid or that wedded to a particular ideology that they willing to regurgitate absolute nonsense and make such a fool of themselves

It's recorded for posterity that ignorance and weaponising suicide is all the TRAs have, contrasted with the articulate compassionate speeches from the pro women side.

Agree with others that parliament should represent the electorate however it would be good to have MPs who lie or split untruths to have to publicly correct themselves.

I'd have to look it up because I'm of an age where biology wasn't compulsory at school. I did one year over 30 years ago and then did physics and chemistry GCSEs. Knowing that you're a woman and have periods etc doesn't necessarily lead into knowing about chromosomes.

But anyway, I agree that MPs need to be far more knowledgeable about many things and their constituents' issues.

For example, until our trade unions did a lot of campaigning work, many MPs assumed that civil servants got annual pay progression (we don't) and that we all do pointless office jobs that serve no useful purpose (also not true).

Isn't the point that knowing you were going to give a parliamentary speech about chromosomes, and writing it down and knowing you were going to say that your female chromosomes were 'XY', and having full access to the internet and a huge parliamentary library and research staff, you might, you know, look it up to check?

Also Kirsty Blackman has made it her very busy business to 'know' about these matters for years.

No but if your an MP.talking about chromosomes,you would probably have a quick Google before making a speech I would have thought?

IMO it’s quite common for people to be utterly clueless about biology, and it’s not necessarily anything to do with intelligence or general academic achievements. My dh (who has sundry letters after his name) went to an extremely academic independent boys’ day school where, unless they were planning to be medics, biology was considered a ‘girls’ subject’. Physics and chemistry were fine for boys, of course. Good, properly masculine stuff…

I was once staggered to realise that he hadn’t a clue about photosynthesis - the means by which plants take in carbon dioxide among other things, to give off the oxygen we breathe. Ditto the function of the kidney - he hadn’t a clue about that, either.

Yes, knowledge test, along with a thorough background check and random hard drive checks. I’d love to see a few MPs have their hard drives checked. I have quite a long list of men whose hard drives I’d like checked. I’m sure a few of those handmaidens wouldn’t be so keen to bend over then.