Webchat with John McDonnell MP, Shadow Chancellor, Tuesday 18 September at 11am

[JustineMumsnet]

We’re very pleased to announce a webchat with the Shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell, this Tuesday 18 September at 11am.

John has been Labour MP for Hayes and Harlington since 1997. Born in Liverpool, he studied at night school while working before going to university. He went on to work as a union official and in local government at the GLC and at Camden Council. He campaigned for Jeremy Corbyn to win the Labour leadership in 2015 and has been Shadow Chancellor since then.

He describes his vision for the UK economy as ‘socialism with an iPad’, centred around research, investment and ‘alternative forms of ownership and control’ such as nationalisation, co-operatives, and locally-owned enterprises. He has proved a controversial figure in some quarters, with particular attention paid to his 2003 remarks about the IRA, for which he apologised. He has described Labour’s anti-semitism row as a low point, and has been quoted as saying ‘we have got to sort this out’.

Please do join the chat on Tuesday at 11am, or if you can’t make it, leave a question here in advance.

We’re expecting this to be a busy webchat, so only existing Mumsnet users are able to post on this thread. Apologies to anyone new who can’t post - please stick around, we’ve got lots of other things coming up

As always, please remember our webchat guidelines - one question per user, follow-ups only if there’s time and most questions have been answered and please keep it civil. Also if one topic is overwhelmingly dominating a discussion with a guest, mods might request that people don't continue to post what's effectively the same question or point. Rest assured we will ALWAYS let the guest know that it's an area of concern to multiple users and will encourage them to engage with those questions.

Many thanks.

I had pretty low expectations of this webchat - but even going into it with low expectations, it has proved worse than I'd expected.

placemats why? Was it her extraordinary bad judgement in her personal life? What qualities did she possess?

Wow what a fucking cop out.

Can we have a party that...
Realised only women can be women and not bloody jim who fancies pretending to be one.
Have an actual idea about economics
Does something about the shocking levels of poverty
And actually has a clue about anything, anything!

Also MNHQ please re-consider the ban on Gorgon.

She reacted (understandably) angrily to another poster claiming that accusations of anti-semitism were just fabrications by the anti-Corbyn press. The other poster then (IMO) goaded her into further angry responses.

In the context of a web chat with a politician where it's important to keep discussion on track, I can understand why the posts were deleted (though I have seen much more aggressive exchanges left to stand on AIBU). However, banning a Jewish poster for wanting to raise anti-semitism and being upset by her concerns being minimised - MN, is that really the look you want to go for? Really? Especially after Justine made such public claims about supporting free speech

WPUK statement:

WPUK & John McDonnell
We can confirm that we have had a meeting in confidence with John McDonnell. That meeting was very constructive and John listened to our concerns and confirmed that women’s rights will be a matter of significance to any future Labour Government. We are pleased he disclosed our meeting to women on Mumsnet who have been at the forefront of pushing politicians on this issue. We encourage more political dialogue and reasoned discussion and hope this can now begin to take place.
Over the past year we have met with several key political figures. We are glad to see politicians increasingly willing to be open about wishing to meet with us and hear women’s concerns. We have been pressing for more such meetings and will continue to do so.
Respectful and open dialogue is the way forward.
18th September 2018

I can't have a discussion with you lucy if you can't discuss women who had power within an historical context, especially those women within the middle ages. Context.

She wasn't in the Middle Ages. Fact. And what did she do that was commendable?

So he can trot out the AWS but not any clarification on the definition?

It is supposedly enough of a crumb to keep us happy at his feet...

Nothing on the Karen White debacle either.

So convinced to vote Labour

Just to clarify. I’m even LESS likely to ever vote labour again after this thread.

Just read the guardian piece about this webchat.

Hi journalist Zoe Williams

You forgot to mention he dodged my questions relating to brexit and the impact on disabled and/or sick people and their carers.

Also you forgot to mention that he's a bellend

WPUK we can confirm that we have had a meeting in confidence with John Mcdonellm and We are pleased he disclosed our meeting to women on Mumsnet. Why "in confidence" and "disclosed"? National secret is it? Wtf?

Too little, too late. Labour do not support woman, they don’t even support the working class.

Ummm I’ve only attended one feminist meeting in person recently but an MP attended and it was kept VERY hush hush because

• personal safety risks to women attending (the big one)
• risks to the MP I guess you’d class as administrative - basically their office being harassed by TRAs. The MP said their office had previously been effectively shut down for a day after declaring they wanted to meet with women’s place and didn’t want to risk worse threats in advance

And what is being done about these people targeting WPUK, MP’s, meetings, woman and children? Because this is domestic terrorism.

mrs I've had to Google the word - because I'm an uneducated remainer - and that's a tad harsh isn't it?!

I think your even tempered, unbitchy and well-humoured.

But what do I know I'm a female carer and unimportant :P

His transgender views are a triumph of hope over experience.

He clearly does not understand that for TRAs there can be no compromise to suit everyone. Because that would deny TRAs of the validation they seek. They simply want to invade all women's spaces and leave real women no legal way to challenge it once they can legally change sex (even though we all know they can never change sex biologically).

For me the middle ages ended mid 16th century along with the Renaissance.

Mary's son James, who succeeded the quisling Elizabeth I, never forgot his mother and had her body exhumed and placed in the vault of Henry VII's chapel in Westminster Abbey. Rightly so.

John loves his mum and wants everyone to be friends and share broken biscuits. Funny he never mentioned his love of the IRA

Whatever the allegations, the reality is that those of us who campaign for remain lost. Much as I don't like the result, I do feel that we have to respect it.

What a lame answer!
A couple of days ago, someone in the Guardian pointed out that one Parliament cannot bind subsequent ones. He asked a pertinent question: Why should one electorate be allowed to bind the electorate of the future? We have already seen polling evidence to suggest that the Leave voters will very soon be outweighed by those who would have voted Remain, i.e young people.

At what stage does the Leave mandate expire? I would suggest as with Parliament - after 5 years or less if the evidence suggest that the mandate has gone.

Aww, I thought he was being quite grand-daddy? Bleugh.

I would suggest as with Parliament - after 5 years

But May called an election after 2 years because she didn't like the result of the previous one!