Sympathiser of MN hacking runs blog on childcare provider site

[antimatter]

Troll or not - he has decided that this company site is the right forum for his musings.

On a site which claims "A large part of the My Family Care Group is Tinies Childcare, a well-known name in childcare and parenting circles since 1975"
www.myfamilycare.co.uk

there is blog:
www.myfamilycare.co.uk/news/blog/hacktivism-or-poetic-justice.html

"Ben's no hacktivist but he knows when poetic justice has been done. With some recent reveals from website hacking, he wonders if these people are doing the right thing.

Marriage is tough, but
There have been two big website hacks that made plenty of headlines in the last few weeks. Top of the pile was obviously the Ashley Madison comeuppance. "Life is short - have an affair". I mean I'm all for living life, and marriage can be complicated, but it was pretty depressing stuff. 1.2 million email addresses in the UK! It's just an extraordinary number.
And whilst a few of us sniggered gleefully at the deserving member of the SNP caught up in the mix, overall it's a damning indictment of this wonderful modern world we've created for ourselves.

A real hacking win
And as for the other big hack it involved those holier than thou folk at Mumsnet. Some militant dads took exception to the sexist, opinionated vitriol that often passes for normal Mumsnet comment and decided to take the law into their own hands... Probably not the most sensible approach but I have some sympathy. Just ask Gina Ford or Amanda Holden. Being on the receiving end of a Mumsnet invective isn't much fun.

Positivity doesn't make news
I don't like Mumsnet - all those opinionated know-it-all mothers dominating the bulletin boards simply aren't my cup of tea. Its defenders say that it's nothing if not democratic. For every foul-mouthed tirade there's a positive comment in return, claim the founders. And for some lonely, depressed and grief stricken mothers it's an absolute lifeline. My issue with the site and everything it stands for runs a bit deeper.

And the loser is...
I dream of a world where there is equality between the sexes. I want my daughters to have exactly the same career and life opportunities as their brother, whether or not they decide to start a family along the way. We're getting closer but we'll only truly smash the remaining glass ceilings if men learn to be less macho and mothers stop being aggressively feminist. And some of the most aggressive feminists out there seem to live on Mumsnet. There I said it.
I expect my abuse to start. Let's hope I'm strong enough!
Ben Black

I've worked for Tinies in the past and nearly rejoined recently but discovered the business was a bit shit. I live on the edge of a county. I had to register in that county's branch of Tinnys and they would give me work in that county. All the work they could offer me was 25+ miles away whereas just over the border were a couple of nurseries who wanted me to do supply for them. I Wasn't allowed to register in the other county despite already spending most of the time working a few hundred yards from their office there.

He's really not thinking of the reputational risk for those companies which offer his company's services as a benefit. The place I used to work used Tinies iirc - I know for a fact they would seriously reconsider renewing their contract as a result of this article.

What a very, very silly man.

"Ben Black is Director of My Family Care, which provides childcare support to employers and businesses such as P&G, Barclays, KPMG, Deloitte, and IBM. "

Not sure when that was from, don't know if any MNers are employed by those companies. Maybe in the employee benefits departments...

I am hoping this is a Ratners moment for him but sadly I suspect it won't be.

Tiniest child care- you trust us with your kids- we judge your bodies.

Whirlpool, why not just forward the email to someone relevant in HR with a cover note saying "I'm surprised one of our suppliers supports illegal hacking and sending SWAT teams to family houses."

Easier said than done I will look into it and have a think tomorrow though.

Gerard Ratner killed his family's successful jewellery business by saying they sold crap in a speech.

Gerald Ratner, head of Ratners' jewellers made a speech about earrings his shop sold (I believe?) comparing them to £1 prawn sandwiches and calling them 'utter crap'. It was widely publicised and his shares nosedived. I think they were bought out by H Samuel in the end.

I used to work at one of those companies Whirlpool. Trust me, they are going to be seriously unimpressed. Personally, I think we should get his spiteful misogynist little blog as much publicity as we can muster :)

Where can I buy a T shirt with "Agressive Feminist" written on it?

It would be really easy to pull up the ethics/fairness/equality policy of one of those big name companies and find the bits that his support for illegal activity and misogynist leanings contravenes...

OK, so for shits and giggles I pulled up the P&G website and found their 'Purpose, Values and Principles'

In Values:
Integrity
We always try to do the right thing.
We are honest and straightforward with each other.
We operate within the letter and spirit of the law.
We uphold the values and principles of P&G in every action and decision.

In Principles:
We Show Respect for All Individuals
We believe that all individuals can and want to contribute to their fullest potential.
We value differences.
We inspire and enable people to achieve high expectations, standards and challenging goals.
We are honest with people about their performance.

And yet it pays for the services of a company whose founder clearly contravenes its Values and Principles.

And that's just the first company in a long list...

We operate within the letter and spirit of the law.

We respect all individuals unless they are women then are fair game for disrespectful rhetoric

Totally agree. I'm trying to figure out who is best placed to review service providers. Trouble is companies like p&g, shell, ibm etc are so large it is often hard to get the message to the right person. We have a women's event though organised by a group of the top women in the UK branch of the company, it would seem likely they would be interested. Might start there. Our UK director is female, I'm 100% sure if someone within the company had said this, they would be hastily removed.

Oh my goodness I think I may actually squal with glee if he loses a big contract as a result of this blog

I don't suppose that it crossed his mind, when he wrote it, that MN represents women across the board in the UK. Not the lentil-weaving, dungaree-wearing stereotypes he sees us as. But as corporate people, business women, hopefully hackers, SAHPs, WOHPs, carers, politicians, IT people - everyone. And, surprisingly (to him), intelligent human beings.

Squeal. Not sqal

Also, did it not cross his tiny little mind that the same people who read his email missives and use his services are going to be precisely the same people he's slagging off in said missive. It's staggeringly stupid.

I might as well email all my clients this afternoon saying "You're all a bunch of stupid cunts" and see how far that gets me!

I genuinely don't get it. Particularly condoning illegal activity on his blog as 'poetic justice'. He has my data on his website for goodness sake!
I also really dislike the way he refers to 'macho men' and 'feminist mothers'. He seems to have forgotten that the parallel of man is woman, not mother. There is an undercurrent of sexism, unforgivable generalisation and frankly not knowing your own customer demographic at all. No problem with him not liking mumsnet, plenty of people don't. I think he really needs to take this blog down and re write it if he really feels that strongly.
But it is ironic that P&G won the mumsnet top awards not long ago and now the company they use to provide them are attacking mumsnet. Absolutely baffling.

Cringe. He does seem a little over-obsessed about women's looks, doesn't he?

Not a very smart move plastering his misogynistic thoughts all over his web-site.

I would imagine that the vast majority of those he employs are also female - so he is pissing off his end users and his employees.

TheOddity that is actually a very good point. Presumably in law he is the 'Data Controller' under DPA. Yet he is applauding the illegal accessing of data.

Not quite sure what the Information Commissioner's Office would make of that

Perhaps the Information Commissioner's Office should hear about it from a concerned user of the service. Presumably he also holds data about customers' children on there as well.

Companies treat Data Protection very seriously. They can go under if they don't follow rules!