Which lovely MNers can come and serve tea to the great and the good at the Party Conferences this year?

[KateMumsnet]

Hello Everyone

We're joining up with the White Ribbon Alliance to put on another Mum's Cafe at two party conferences this year, in order to highlight Maternal and Newborn Health. Horrifyingly, a woman dies from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth nearly every minute - and 99% of these deaths occur in developing countries.

The Cafe will be very like the one we pulled off with such aplomb at the Houses of Parliament in March, when Carrie spoke so brilliantly to an audience of assorted politicos, activists and the lovely Annie Lennox. Then, some gorgeous Mumsnetters dressed up in fine retro style, pouring tea for thirsty attendees to universal acclaim - and that's exactly what we plan again.

This time non-Londoners will get a look in, with the Labour Conference event taking place on Tuesday 28th of September in Manchester, and the Conservative one the following Tuesday 5th in Birmingham. If you're wondering what happened to the LibDem event, I'm assured that this was all planned much earlier in the year, when the political landscape was rather, ahem, different.

So who's up for dressing up in a pinny, a headscarf and some retro red lippie, and spending an hour or so pouring tea to the great and the good in support of a very good cause? Scroll down our campaign page to see a photo of what, precisely, we're asking of you!

One issue to highlight - the WRA are hoping to start both Mum's Cafes pretty darn early - at about 9am . This is because there is more chance of grabbing the grandees at this hour - so let us know if you can make it then, but also if you could make it, but not that early!

MrsBaldwin, I just hope everyone gets the irony....but I fear they won't.

QS and HuwEdwards:
"This is like an "in joke" spread to the wider public. Nobody is going to get it."

I think - it's all about the audience.

These cafes will be at party conferences. There will be absolutely no-one there who doesn't get it.

Although the UK aid budget is nominally ringfenced the new Govt could very well decide to decrease support for this cause on the basis that we need to pump all the cash into alleviating poverty in Pakistan instead (or whatever). So it is important to keep up the pressure.

Do Tories take any notice of banner waving? Probably not. Do they take notice of ironic tea pourers? Possibly yes.

PS Valpolicella is quite right. We met Carrie

Sorry Kate. You'll never convince me.

It's an awful idea.

PopeBenedict - Beta, ha! Where was the irony in that?

(As part of Garry Beta's continuing atonement for that sin he should be invited to pour tea at one of the cafe's, wearing one of KateMumsnet's pinnies.)

Sorry Kate. You'll never convince me.

It's an awful idea.

So bad I said it twice.

Mrs B I get the Carrie-meeting but if the conference gets publicity (and let's hope it does) it goes out to a wider audience.

Of course everyone will 'get it'. As MN said it is too 'palpably silly' not to be understood other than as such. But palpable silliness is palpable silliness nonetheless, and as eroding of meaning as all the other examples of relentless irony which is so often valued over and above the real meanings on which it is parasitic. Great for photos though.

And of course the beta thing was ironic. That was the tone of their relentless self-justification.

Do pinnies work better than banner waving, at changing policy I mean?

Ah yes because politicians are so well known for their irony and equality between the sexes. I mean, just look at my MP... oh no, not my MP... but another one... or perhaps a different one. If we look hard enough we might just spot a female one!

I for one am completely convinced that a pretty girl in a pinny is much more influential. Especially if she has a nice plate of biscuits to catch their attention

HuwEdwards - it might get a bit of B-roll on the 6 o'clock news as Cameron/Clegg/Militwin tours their conference and/or CarrieMN might get on News24. And if your namesake said on the voiceover 'these mums from a well-known website poured David Cameron a cup of tea whilst explaining to him whilst it was important to keep trying to help women in the developing world', well for me that would be worth it.

But the point for me would be to get some of the mid-ranking Tory activists who are pressing for the ringfence on the DFID budget to be removed (and they are, believe me) into the cafe and talk to them about why it is important to keep paying out for this, even in an age of austerity.

(I have to go to bed now, apologies, streaming cold)

MrsB namesake?? what are you implying, there's lovely?

I'll be buggered if i'll do 'the tea' like some women do, week in, week out, for their DHs / DSs at the local cricket club.

And i'll be buggered to hell and back if i'd go through with this. I just cannot imagine standing in front of politicians (male and female) dressed like this - WTF has it got to do with mortality in childbirth??? And how does it put an incredibly serious point across?

It's not ironic - you may see it as thus as you know yourself to be intelligent women with a point to make. It won't be ironic to busy politicians IMO...

So you are going ahead with this then mnhq ?

Perhaps it's time I left MN if this is how we are to be represented.

I wish I lived nearer the Tory one - serving George Osbourne tea?

Perhaps it's part of the "Let Girls be Girls" campaign...?

Now girls, serve your men and look pretty too.. none of that skinny jeans and t-shirt nonsense. Get your pinny on!

This thread has really saddened me.

I jumped in like a Labrador puppy eager to experience something so far removed frim my daily life and yet something that has parallels with what I want to achieve.

My last DC starts full-time school the day before the Birmingham event, and, after 11.5 years as a SAHM the time is right to move on. I'm not highly educated and feel very inferior to many of the posters here, and that has inspired me to change my lot by starting afresh in education and improving my potential to move into a world that is less child-centric.

I saw this event as a treat for me, marking the 'second day of the rest of my life' spending time with intelligent, compassionate and motivated people in an unusual and interesting environment.

But others' responses on here have shown my inadequacies of been able to see the event as potentially demeaning and a strange way of promoting the Mumsnet brand. Which just highlights my need for edification.

I am certainly not discontent with what I have acheived over the last decade and am very proud of who my DCs are, but am disturbed by my lack of wisdom.

Enough introspection, but I felt I had to explain my rationale of my eagerness to be what could be perceived as subservient.

Off to sleep on it.

I can't do faces as I'm posting on my phone but I am seriously :-0

I have to say that I don't think some of the more mature politicians will 'get it' other than the idea that 'a darling little thing' poured him a 'super cup of tea'. Where is the hmm face when you need it?

Chaos I don't think anyone thinks badly of you or the other posters who jumped at the chance. I understand the need to get out and do something more than most (reluctant sahm that I am). You took it at face value from someone you trusted. No harm in that

I can only comment on my experience at HoC

And I do appreciate the arguments above

But

IME of the event, they were expecting to be served by pinny, headscarfwearing mummies...instead they got a load of mouthy MNers who lectured them as they had their tea poured with facts, figures and opinions. Who deceived and disarmed them besides the fact that we had pinnies on

Great way to disarm a politician expecting his tea...serve it up with a dose of anachronistic servitude and sparkling intelligence about the matter in hand...They don;t know what the fuck to do then. And then end sign up to the campaign

If politicians are "lectured" and "don't know what the fuck to do" they're rather likely to sign up just to be able to get rid of you, get out of there - tea or no tea - and never have to think about the wider campaign ever again.

Similarly, I can forsee much of the meeja getting as far as the "these mums from a well-known website poured David Cameron a cup of tea" (by presuming the tea lady costumes are self explanatory) but sadly not getting as far as the "whilst explaining to him it was important to keep trying to help women in the developing world" bit.

No offence to all those who I'm sure have worked very hard in and around this cafe in the past, but if the photographs are so great, how is anyone supposed to know - or think to ask - how it relates to the White Ribbon campaign at all?

If you want to promote the White Ribbon campaign while ironically pretending to be stereotype women, here's an idea: how about serving the tea dressed only in strategically-placed white ribbons?

Might as well be a stripper as a serving wench, and the media attention should exceed your expectations - any publicity is good publicity?

This is not a discussion about whether WRA is a good cause, right? It's a discussion about whether their campaigning idea, the cafe is a good one and, by extension, whether MN-ers would want to be associated with it, yes?

On the point about whether it's better to wave banners or pour tea I found this link on the trade magazine PR Week which might be interesting to people - it's about what are the best ways to lobby the new Govt, which charities are currently scratching their head about.
www.prweek.com/uk/news/search/1024934/Charity-comms-chiefs-discuss-best-approach-coalition-Government

On tea ladies in the media - I think (although WRA themselves would be better placed to explain this) that the main point is to directly lobby MPs. The having-your-photo-taken-with-Annie-Lennox bit is just about getting them (and volunteers) there (and Annie Lennox herself said, in her speech, at the last cafe, something along the lines of 'God knows, I wish there didn't have to be a celeb attached to get people's attention for an important issue, it's ridiculous, but as this seems to be the way of the world at the moment I am doing my bit to help and that's why I'm here). Any media coverage is a bonus and secondary to the main aim to speak directly to MPs and the kinds of people who have influence in political parties (whilst pouring them tea).

A few thoughts on campaigning at party conferences - how do you best get your message across?:
a) by blowing the conference up (a la IRA)
b) by standing outside waving banners surrounded by Special Branch
c) by being inside pouring tea onto George Osborne's leg

Right I'd better go to work.

ItsAllaBitNoisy - far more vitriol over here than in the cosy old feminist section :o

Viper's nest - YES

Er...in any case it would be mums' cafe.

(And vipers' nest.)