Heads up - webchat with Jeremy Corbyn Monday 19th Sept @ 2pm.

[JustineMumsnet]

Hello,

We’re pleased to announce a webchat with the leader of the Labour Party (and candidate in the current leadership election) Jeremy Corbyn MP on Monday 19 September at 2pm.

Jeremy has been MP for Islington North since 1983, and before 2015 was best known as a rebellious backbencher and chair of the Stop the War coalition. His leadership of Labour over the past year has inspired enthusiastic support as well as attracting sustained criticism. Among other things, he’s taken a new crowd-sourced approach to Prime Minister’s Questions, opposed military intervention in Syria and proposed the renationalisation of the railways.

His last webchat on Mumsnet (alongside fellow leadership candidate in 2015, Liz Kendall) featured lively discussions about socialism, electability and the provenance of Jeremy’s vests (Holloway Road market, since you ask).

Please do join the chat on Monday at 2, or if you can’t make it, leave a question here in advance. If you know people who you think would like to ask Jeremy a question, do please share the link around on social media too.

(If you’re interested in our webchat with the other Labour leadership candidate Owen Smith, take a look here .)

As always, please do keep in mind our webchat guidelines - one question each, follow-ups if there’s time and above all, keep it civil [taps nose like that geezer Shaw Taylor in Police 5] (Horribly showing my age there).

In most other countries with established procedures for direct democracy, constitutional change requires the support of at least 50% of states or cantons. The UK had a 50/50 country tie and recent surveys indicate that Wales would likely vote to remain, if another referendum were to be held today.

• Will you campaign against Brexit?
• Will you campaign for the right of parliament to debate Brexit - whether it should go ahead and on what terms - and for the right of Parliament, not the Royal Prerogative, as the proper mechanism to invoke Article 50?
• Do you agree that withdrawing from the EU would be a retrograde step that would adversely affect human rights, workers' rights and national security?

I will be open before I pose my question; I am a member of Welsh Labour Grassroots, home for Momentum in Wales. I know no-one amongst my political friends who advocates abuse or violence towards anyone whose views are different. At the meetings I hear reasoned debate and a desire for a return to the sort of politics that established the Welfare State, that advocates equality of opportunity for all.

My question to Jeremy is:
How do you keep your focus and your good spirits when you are attacked in the mainstream media on a daily basis, not for your policies usually, but for some imagined faux pas, or because you do not follow the usual political style, by being yourself?

dickdotcom - brilliant question. I hope it's answered, but I doubt it!

I have two daughters who are 9 and 12. I hope they will want to go to university and pursue whatever careers they desire, as I was able to back in the 90s.

As tuition fees make this look like less of an opportunity and more of a burden, what would you do to ensure that an education is available for all and not just the privileged few who can afford it? And what would you do to ensure more job opportunities are available for university leavers?

what is your plan to win over the central ground, the people that voted for Blair and Brown and then switched to Cameron and most likely, May. Or are you really thinking that you'll replace these people by a tide of super-left wing mob support?

Hello Jeremy

Thanks for coming on. Which is more important - winning the next general election or building a member-driven party?

It would be great if you could avoid fudging by saying that the two are compatible, unless you have data or other evidence. I hope you agree that it would be irresponsible to do so, since this issue is the fundamental one on which the future of the country rests.

Hello Jeremy,

Firstly I wanted to say I am supporter of yours and am in awe of your courage and stamina in the face of I would have voted for you in the leadership election but was informed I almost daily and unrelenting smears and MSM bias.
I was unable to be located on the electoral register [despite having been able to vote in both the 2015 GE and EU referendum no problem]... and that supposedly an email was sent to me asking me to clarify my votor details which I never received... and when I enquired at the end of August as to where on earth my ballot was I was informed that oh sorry, now I had missed the deadline to clarify those voter details and am now ineligible to vote in the leadership election despite having paid £25 to do so

Anyway my question to you is would you ever consider an alliance with the Green party? If so could you explain why and if not, why not?
I would be curious to hear your thoughts about this as a possibility for the Labour party's future.

Dear Jeremy. I haven't yet voted. As it stands I have two options - to vote for you, or to spoil my vote. Depending on whether you are prepared to look seriously at the question on prostitution, you can have my vote, or not.

Yes it really is that big an issue.

You don't have to lay out a whole policy document today, you just have to say you will think again, and that the pimp-decrim model is flawed.

Is a Labour Party split inevitable? There seem to be two ideologies at war within the party (MPs and supporters) at the moment and it's hard to see how it would be possible to unite them. Though it would be disastrous for the next election in terms of a viable opposition to the Tories, would a split necessarily be a bad thing in the long term, given the support you personally have of previously apathetic eligible voters?

Sorry, I don't know why my above post came out all mangled...
It was supposed to read...

Firstly I wanted to say I am supporter of yours and am in awe of your courage and stamina in the face of almost daily and unrelenting smears and MSM bias.
I would have voted for you in the leadership election but was informed I was unable to be located on the electoral register [despite having been able to vote in both the 2015 GE and EU referendum no problem]... and that supposedly an email was sent to me asking me to clarify my voter details which I never received... and when I enquired at the end of August as to where on earth my ballot was I was informed that oh sorry, now I had missed the deadline to clarify those voter details and am now ineligible to vote in the leadership election despite having paid £25 to do so

As a British Jew, I feel deeply alienated by your lack of interest in tackling anti-Semitism in the party, the whitewash that was Shami Chakrabarti's report on anti-Semitism in Labour, and particularly by your decision to suppress the Royall report on anti-Semitism at Oxford University Labour Club (which was subsequently leaked, showing there had been anti-Semitism)?

Why did you not publish the Royall report in full? When is Ken Livingstone's case going to be heard so that he can be removed from the party? Why did you nominate Shami for a peerage after her whitewash of a report? How do you intend to engage Jewish voters - including long-term Labour supporters like myself - and build bridges with the community?

I could write much more - there are so many deeply-disappointed left-wing Jews who currently feel they cannot vote for a leader who shows no signs of caring about anti-Semitic abuse within his own party. I wish you cared, but it feels that Jews (like women) are a group of voters you have little interest in.

Hi Jeremy
I joined the Labour Party only since you became leader. You are truly inspirational. However, I also admire and support Caroline Lucas and her Green ideals. Would you consider an alliance of some sort with her and her party?

I live in a Conservative stronghold, and in reality my vote for Labour generally goes to waste. Which is very upsetting and frustrating. Do you support moving away from 1st past the post to proportional representation and why (whichever way you choose). personally I think without this change a real engagement of the population is unlikely...although like you I always try to live in hope.

I would be keen to support many of your policies but I have been very disappointed in your leadership and also the unpleasant political culture that seems to surround it. In particular can you explain why you did not vote for a secret ballot at the NEC meeting in July to decide on whether to let you onto to the ballot for the forthcoming leadership election. NEC members were being threatened and bullied by other members of your party over this issue and by not voting for a secret ballot you were tacitly allowing this to continue.

Jeremy - did you know that there were so many proven psychics and that they all congregated on mumsnet? People who not only know what you are thinking, and the minds of all those around you, but can also see what is going to happen in the future if you win the leadership election? Is this something that you could use to win the next general election?

Further to Biblio, I am not a British Jew. However, I was appalled by Shami Chakrabarti's infantile report. You and those around you, seem incapable of talking about anti-semitism without also talking about "other forms of racism". Can you seriously address the very specific, pernicious racism that is anti-semitism that is rife within your party?

Would you be willing to wipe existing student debt, in particular for those students hit by the £9000 tuition fees and the abolition of maintenance grants?

Jeremy I am so excited by your approach to politics and determination to engage with people who have been disenfranchised by politics.

However I'm finding the stance on EU membership very frustrating. Why are politicians insisting on the 'Brexit means Brexit' motto? The UK spoke but the question was only about leaving the EU - it shed no light whatsoever on the reasons why people wanted to do so.

How can Brexit be delivered if no one knows what it means?

Will you support a vote on the predicted 'deal' before article 50 is invoked?

I'm sure someone else will already have asked this in the previous 9 pages but I would like to ask Mr Corbyn why he believes Keith Vaz's use of prostitues is a private matter and not a cause for huge institutional concern which warrants the retraction of Mr Vaz's report into decriminalisation.

The Equality Act 2010 should protect disabled people (as well as all the other members of groups designated 'protected') but instead the protections for disabled people are weak and difficult to uphold because they rely on individuals fighting for their rights instead of those rights being policed (for want of a better word off the top of my head) by an overseeing authority.

Disabled people are more often than not already struggling to manage to deal with everyday life and the extra burden on energy, time and finances to take service providers to court is too much to ask and causes hardship, suffering and in some cases permanent harm. Further each effort does not alter the likelihood of the same issue arising for another disabled person - not even with the same organisation.

My husband should have been protected under the act as should my son. They both suffered discrimination while trying to get a degree as mature students at the same university. My husband took the university to court and we accepted an out of court settlement because we reached the limit of our ability to fight the case.

We were litigants in person and the university had an expensive London law firm and used barristers against us. Our naive hope that the case would trigger a change in attitude from the university was fruitless as they simply appointed legal advisors to deal with it and then the organisation itself repeated and expanded upon the way they'd treated my husband by treating my son even worse.

My husband managed to get a first class honours degree despite the discrimination but my son being so much younger and less resilient suffered from Bell's Palsy due to the stress caused by their treatment of him and has been left with large student debts and next to nothing to show for it.

I know many other disabled students have had dreadful treatment at the hands of educational establishments - some do not survive the experience. This is not an isolated situation.

This particular establishment appears to have deliberately flouted laws designed to ensure disabled students have safe access to buildings in order to save money - we have documents to substantiate this.

What will you do to ensure that organisations comply with the laws of the land which are in existence to protect the vulnerable?

Will you make sure that disabled people in the UK have an ombudsman who will enforce the law?

The current Equality Advisory and Support Service is helpful up to a point but they only help people fight for their own rights and if the people do not have the capability or energy or money to manage alone then they flounder. Probono help is thin on the ground and stretched to breaking point.

It would be far more efficient and effective to have someone with teeth who can properly mediate and deal with these matters.

I gave spoken and written evidence to the Equality Act 2010 and Disability Committee at the House of Lords earlier this year and would welcome the opportunity to share the considerable evidence and information I have gathered in the last few years regarding these matters if it would be helpful to you. It is unjust that families and individuals struggle to get the education they should be entitled to and then when they manage to obtain a university/college place they find they are not supported as they should be in fact their situation is made worse rather than enhanced by the very people who should be helping them. The annoying thing being that most problems would be easily solved if only disabled people were properly consulted and respected and listened to instead of being patronised by people who think they know better than the disabled person what the disabled person needs as reasonable adjustment.

Thank you for reading this.

A question on behalf of my parents, staunch Labour voters (and lifelong public servants - so your natural allies) living in Rochdale: what can you say to them and their neighbours about Simon Danczuk and his behaviour whilst he's been an MP?

They don't feel they can vote Labour while he's your local candidate, and it's not even clear whether he's still suspended from the party. They are so disappointed and I think they feel disenfranchised.

FWIW, my mother wrote to your office about him and received no reply; not even an acknowledgement.

Do you think it's right for young children to be indoctrinated by Momentum?

Your policies give me hope, particularly basic income and decentralised energy. Have you seen Low Carbon Hub's recently published community energy manifesto? We think the UK needs to invest in renewables now on behalf of this new generation of children. We're an award-winning social enterprise working to build a new community-owned, renewables-based energy system. We've just installed the UK's largest community-owned solar PV rooftop project. It would be great to have your thoughts on the manifesto if you get a chance to read it later - www.lowcarbonhub.org/manifesto - and your thoughts on Hinkley in this discussion!
Thanks! Gudrun
[email protected]

Hi Jeremy
'Momentum' is a separate organisation that has been great in supporting your leadership campaigns. Do you think members of momentum should continue as a separate movement to support the LP at grassroots level or Momentum members fully integrate with the LP as LP members with the existing organisation of CLP's?
Lis

Just another voice to answer the questions on gender identity - men in female spaces especially. And the prostitution/Nordic Model questions.

I'd also like an answer on The question from HerculesMulligan about Simon Danczuk who appears to be a typical white, middle class man throwing around his privilege.

My question follows on from that: Why do you think left wing men are very good at recognising privilege in various guises such as class, poverty even race (to a certain extent) yet are completely blind to their male privilege and are more than happy to throw women under the bus?