Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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

57 replies

Confusedmumannoyedson · 12/06/2023 23:50

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

Kirsty Blackman thinks she has XY chromosomes yet gave birth.

OP posts:
BarbaraofSeville · 13/06/2023 09:59

x2boys · 13/06/2023 09:31

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

Of course I would, I was replying to the people who said this was basic knowledge that everyone knows.

I think that biology is compulsory up to GCSE level now, but it wasn't when I was at school, so despite a physics degree and multiple professional qualifications in a related field, my biological knowledge is very very basic.

EducatingArti · 13/06/2023 10:02

I think that candidates should have a reasonable grasp of maths and statistics. It might avoid a repeat of the situation when a previous secretary of state for education decided that all schools needed to be above average in SATs and GCSE scores etc. Mentioning no names but he is still part of the present GOVErnment.

CountTo10 · 13/06/2023 10:03

Just looked at her Wiki page and it says she studied medicine before dropping out!!!! Is that really true or just a dig at her ignorance of basic biology 🙀🙀🙀🙀

Dotjones · 13/06/2023 10:09

A knowledge test for people who want to become MPs sounds like a great idea but really it should be extended to a test for anyone who wants to vote or claim benefits. If you don't know how long the Hundred Years' War lasted or who Wat Tyler was you shouldn't have the right to participate.

Perhap there could be a kind of "ignorance tax" too to penalise those who don't reach a basic standard in maths, English, science, history and geography. If you don't get a certain grade in those subjects at school you get hit with an extra 10% tax throughout your life.

EyelessArseFace · 13/06/2023 10:10

Yes - these questions:

1 Do you live in the constituency?

2 If not, do you actually know where it is?

3 Are you aware that the general idea is that you are supposed to represent your constituents in parliament, and not ignore them while you preen yourself in front of tv cameras and arse-lick your way into the cabinet?

BarbaraofSeville · 13/06/2023 10:12

If they had restricted voting in the Brexit referendum to anyone who could explain what a third country is and the significance of being one, things would have gone very differently.

WilkinsonM · 13/06/2023 10:13

BarbaraofSeville · 13/06/2023 09:59

Of course I would, I was replying to the people who said this was basic knowledge that everyone knows.

I think that biology is compulsory up to GCSE level now, but it wasn't when I was at school, so despite a physics degree and multiple professional qualifications in a related field, my biological knowledge is very very basic.

If you know that females have XX chromosomes and you know that you are a human who menstruates then you know you have XX chromosomes.
not knowing that females are XX isn't the same as people saying 'I can only guess I have XX because I've never had my chromosomes tested'

Precipice · 13/06/2023 10:56

Dotjones · 13/06/2023 10:09

A knowledge test for people who want to become MPs sounds like a great idea but really it should be extended to a test for anyone who wants to vote or claim benefits. If you don't know how long the Hundred Years' War lasted or who Wat Tyler was you shouldn't have the right to participate.

Perhap there could be a kind of "ignorance tax" too to penalise those who don't reach a basic standard in maths, English, science, history and geography. If you don't get a certain grade in those subjects at school you get hit with an extra 10% tax throughout your life.

How does an ignorance of the Peasants' Revolt (will you mandate knowledge of the Declaration of Arbroath too, or is it just English history for the UK?) mean an ignorance of the current socio-political situation and modern day society?

To claim benefits? So people who lack a basic knowledge of history - which is likely to be linked to poor schooling and general deprivation, social exclusion - should be further punished for it by being further cut off from mainstream society?

AutumnCrow · 13/06/2023 11:03

I don't think it's too much to ask that MPs know how to look things up using a search engine or a book, particularly things they are spouting in parliament.

Confusedmumannoyedson · 13/06/2023 14:40

EyelessArseFace · 13/06/2023 10:10

Yes - these questions:

1 Do you live in the constituency?

2 If not, do you actually know where it is?

3 Are you aware that the general idea is that you are supposed to represent your constituents in parliament, and not ignore them while you preen yourself in front of tv cameras and arse-lick your way into the cabinet?

That would rule out quite a lot of them.

OP posts:
Confusedmumannoyedson · 13/06/2023 14:42

wildfirewonder · 13/06/2023 06:42

Yabu of course.

A liberal democracy is a liberal democracy.

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

Good point.

OP posts:
Confusedmumannoyedson · 13/06/2023 14:43

Rainbowshit · 13/06/2023 08:19

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.

It would be good it when they are shown to be lying they are actually held to account. Ticks for accuracy. 🙄😂

Why do some of these MP's chase the 'latest' thing?

OP posts:
Confusedmumannoyedson · 13/06/2023 14:45

sorrynotathome · 13/06/2023 06:44

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

It's not a transgender debate though. That's the misconception you have fallen for. It's a debate about the Equality Act. That covers everyone.

OP posts:
Flickersy · 13/06/2023 14:47

This is a fairly obvious slip of the tongue. Obviously what she said is incorrect. Not sure why everyone's making such a big deal out of a mistake and being all sneery over it though.

Confusedmumannoyedson · 13/06/2023 14:50

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 13/06/2023 09:49

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.

It's ok normally but when you have put yourself forward to 'debate' The Equality Act you think she might have prepared better. She came over as very stupid or playing the it doesn't matter card since we all have the same bits or perhaps it was an attempt to make men who like to dress as women love her. They certainly fawn over her. Not sure how many of her constituents actually fall into the category she spends so much time fawning over though. There are other things she could work on in her area, poverty, being one rather than focusing so much on gender ideology and pushing for men in women's safe spaces. 🤔

OP posts:
Confusedmumannoyedson · 13/06/2023 14:51

Flickersy · 13/06/2023 14:47

This is a fairly obvious slip of the tongue. Obviously what she said is incorrect. Not sure why everyone's making such a big deal out of a mistake and being all sneery over it though.

If you saw her speech in it's entirety you would see why everyone was laughing at her. It was a car crash, very embarrassing for her and raised lots of eye rolling, and 'is she really saying that' etc.

OP posts:
AmITooOldToDoThis · 13/06/2023 14:52

EducatingArti · 13/06/2023 10:02

I think that candidates should have a reasonable grasp of maths and statistics. It might avoid a repeat of the situation when a previous secretary of state for education decided that all schools needed to be above average in SATs and GCSE scores etc. Mentioning no names but he is still part of the present GOVErnment.

Wasn’t that Nicky Morgan (female)?

SunnyEgg · 13/06/2023 14:53

The point in the debate was a bit whaaat

Silly sausage

Not sure about a test but it is concerning

Flickersy · 13/06/2023 14:53

Confusedmumannoyedson · 13/06/2023 14:51

If you saw her speech in it's entirety you would see why everyone was laughing at her. It was a car crash, very embarrassing for her and raised lots of eye rolling, and 'is she really saying that' etc.

I've seen the speech. I still don't understand why everyone is crowing about the sort of getting-your-words-mixed-up mistake which has happened to all of us at one time or another, and we likely weren't speaking under pressure at the time.

Fightyouforthatpie · 13/06/2023 15:08

Dotjones · 13/06/2023 10:09

A knowledge test for people who want to become MPs sounds like a great idea but really it should be extended to a test for anyone who wants to vote or claim benefits. If you don't know how long the Hundred Years' War lasted or who Wat Tyler was you shouldn't have the right to participate.

Perhap there could be a kind of "ignorance tax" too to penalise those who don't reach a basic standard in maths, English, science, history and geography. If you don't get a certain grade in those subjects at school you get hit with an extra 10% tax throughout your life.

I have read some utter shite on here over the years, but that surpases most of it.
I think you will find significant numbers of the people who you have chosen to sneer at are already paying the kind of "tax" you advocate.

Seymour5 · 13/06/2023 15:16

Fightyouforthatpie · 13/06/2023 15:08

I have read some utter shite on here over the years, but that surpases most of it.
I think you will find significant numbers of the people who you have chosen to sneer at are already paying the kind of "tax" you advocate.

I think @Dotjones post was tongue in cheek?

Abra1t · 13/06/2023 15:20

Kirsty Blackman matriculated to study medicine, but later dropped out.

So she knows that chromosomes she has.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 13/06/2023 16:10

I haven't seen the speech. Sounds like I missed a treat. However:

Anybody can make a slip of the tongue in the heat of the moment. The reaction of those around her, though, from the sound of it, should have alerted her to what she'd actually said and she should have corrected herself. As a privately educated former medical student she should know this stuff.

She's 37. It wasn't compulsory to study biology when I was at school. It is now, and has been for a long time. There is no question that KB must have studied biology long enough to learn the basics of genetics. I did Biology O level in 1977. We covered XX/XY chromosomes as part of the reproduction and genetics topic and it wasn't cutting edge stuff even then. I thought it was common, general knowledge, but I see from this thread that it isn't. It is, however, really basic stuff if you've studied enough science to get into medical school.

Putting all of that to one side, though, you'd have to be really, really stupid not to grasp that human beings, just like other animals, have always been able to tell which members of our species are sexually mature males and which are sexually mature females, and the reason we can do this is obvious - it's essential for the survival of our species that we know who to reproduce with. We can do it from one quick glimpse of someone walking most of the time, and the clincher is if you find out that another human has given birth, guess what! She's a female. Only females conceive, go through pregnancy and give birth. Not all females do those things, but no males ever, ever, ever give birth. Nor do they menstruate, nor do they breastfeed, nor do they go through menopause. These are the common experiences of female humans, and no male will ever share them.

It's therefore totally mysterious what a male means when he says he identifies as a woman. What's he identifying with, given he can't share the biology? How is it not dependent on transient cultural stereotypes?

This ability to correctly sex other members of the species is so super basic that almost everybody in the world can do it from babyhood. Nowadays, however, a few people in rich countries have managed to unlearn it, and have convinced themselves that biological sex is too complicated for anyone to understand, so they won't even try, and all the people who say they do understand it are either lying or are just too stupid and poorly educated to grasp that it's too complicated for most boring ordinary mortals to understand.

I hope KB loses her seat at the next election. She doesn't appear to have the basic common sense and judgement to be in Parliament voting on complex issues. Her electorate deserves better.

Outofthepark · 13/06/2023 16:57

sorrynotathome · 13/06/2023 06:57

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.

Oh good lord @sorrynotathome your chromosomes can only be one specific thing if you're a woman. Even I know that 😄. It's like asking what's next to my left foot and pretending I don't know it's my right foot, because I'm not a foot specialist lol.