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MNHQ

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

8 replies

KateMumsnet · 08/09/2010 15:17

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. Grin

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 Shock. 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!

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MNHQ

KateMumsnet · 08/09/2010 15:38

Thank you Chaos!

DanceInTheDark, we will ensure there is a suitable phone box changing area at the venue in which to complete your transformation into SuperPinny..

MNHQ

KateMumsnet · 08/09/2010 21:22

Hello

Dads are very very welcome to come and dress up in headscarf, pinny and lippy. To be perfectly frank, I was horribly successful in channeling Grayson Perry at the last one, so any real men in drag will fit right in.

Very sorry if we gave the impression that you'd be there to hover at the table, batting your lashes and keeping resolutely schtum. We should clarify that you will be briefed by the WRA on the key issues, and encouraged to engage with the attendees (only if you're up for it, of course - there'll be WRA activists to hand if you get stuck.)

The tea-lady/retro schtick arose as an extension of the idea of the Mum's Cafe, which the WRA had already had great success with at a previous party conference. They served tea to interested conference-goers in mismatched vintage china cups, and provided copies of The Mum, a red-top spoof which carried articles about maternal mortality, pieces on Sleb supporters etc.

So the tea ladies idea was a fairly logical development of that. I think it's fair to say that it also refers, in a very tongue-in-cheek way, to the more wild-eyed media perceptions of what Mumsnetters are - a bit bossy admirably forthright - and was a send-up of that. Events like these are directed at the media, as much as policy-makers, and it made a good photo.

Overall, I'm afraid that it didn't occur to us that this could be perceived as demeaning. Not because we're not aware of the symbolism of women serving tea to men, but because it was so palpably silly. Also, we guessed that the tea-drinkers, who included sympathetic members of the public and activists as well as politicos, would be predominantly female - which is pretty much how it turned out. 'The great and the good' was ironic, to reflect the important distinction between the various groups who'll be attending. Grin

Thanks, though, for pointing this issue out. We're probably a bit far down the line to do an about-turn, but we will definitely bear it in mind if we do something similar again. We do hope those who are available and are interested in this issue will continue to sign up .

MNHQ

KateMumsnet · 09/09/2010 12:07

Hello

Thanks for all your posts, everyone - we've taken on board your strong feelings about this. We're going to go back to the WRA and see if we can work something else up, and we'll get back to you when we've had a chance to chew it over with them.

MNHQ

KateMumsnet · 10/09/2010 14:36

Hello

We?ve spoken to the White Ribbon Alliance now, and explained the strength of feeling expressed here. They are very happy for Mumsnetters to turn up dressed all in white, and to act as co-hosts of the event, rather than serving comestibles to representatives of the patriarchy. Hopefully this addresses the concerns expressed here? It?s really too late to redesign the entire event from scratch; the venue was booked some time ago, and politicians and representatives of various organisations have already expressed an interest in attending.

Do let us know what you think, especially those of you who have said you?d like to come, or who would like to come, but have thus far been too scared to say so Grin.

It would be great to harness some of the fury energy expressed on this thread for what we all agree is an important cause. We'd love to hear you ideas for how MNers could get together to publicise international women?s issues, or put pressure on the relevant politicians. Maybe we could think about doing something around International Women?s Day next March, or a similarly significant date? (Please let it not prominently feature bodily fluids though; we?re not sure our delicate constitutions could handle that.)

MNHQ

KateMumsnet · 11/09/2010 14:56

Oh motherinferior, the shame! I can assure you that in all future communications the apostrophe will be in the right place Blush.

BonzoDooDah and Lotkinsgonecurly, good point. We've asked the WRA to point us in the direction of some useful reading, and we'll pass the links on as soon as they get back to us. Last year there was a short pre-event briefing and a fact-sheet to refer to, but I'm sure they'll have something that you, and anyone else who wants to gen up, can tackle in advance.

MNHQ

RowanMumsnet · 13/09/2010 16:33

Hi Bonzo - yes, we definitely want you, please thank you please! Waiting for WRA to get back with specific reading material, will pass that on as soon as we have it.

Serving/not serving: there will be hot drinks and biscuits. Whether you dispense them or not will be entirely up to you Grin

MNHQ

KateMumsnet · 14/09/2010 22:06

Hello

We've been talking to the WRA and the other organisations in the maternal health coalition, and they feel that, with so few Mumsnetters attending, the event might be a bit of a damp squib.

We do understand that the original proposal didn't go down very well with everyone, and we'd hoped that we'd managed to address some of your concerns with Plan B - but alas, this hasn't resulted in many extra volunteers.

We're going to hold our fire till we get another opportunity to draw attention to this really important issue - and we promise to consult in advance so that everyone (or most people at least!) is on board with the plan.

Thanks very much to all the MNers who volunteered, we hope to see you another time.

MNHQ

RowanMumsnet · 15/09/2010 17:27

Hi Bonzo and JustAnotherManicMummy (and thanks to melrose for volunteering). We really needed about 20 volunteers for each event, as (unlike the previous event at the House of Commons) the expectation was that Mumsnetters would be pretty much running the whole show. We needed to make a decision yesterday about whether to go ahead or not, and we didn't feel confident that we would be able to deliver a successful event, so we had to decide against.

Many apologies to those who were looking forward to it; as Kate says, next time we'll try to give you all a bit more notice.

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