Klaxon! Tweets wanted for Sam Gyimah MP, Minister of State for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation

[FeminismandWomensFights]

Klaxon! Calling all gender-critical people and groups, and especially scientists who are on Twitter: closing date 5pm today Friday 30 Nov

www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/science-and-technology-committee/news-parliament-2017/sam-gyimah-ask-twitter-questions-17-19/

Committee asks for Twitter questions for session with the Minister

On 11 December the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee will hold a one-off evidence session with Sam Gyimah MP, Minister of State for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation, and Dr Patrick Vallance, Government Chief Scientific Adviser.

Science and Technology Committee
Twitter: @CommonsSTC**

MPs on the Committee want to ensure that their questions reflect the most pressing concerns in the science community and are inviting the public to submit questions to be put to the Minister.

Submit your question via Twitter between 8.30am on Wednesday 28 November and 5pm on Friday 30 November using #AskSamGyimah.

This is a GREAT opportunity to raise issues about university teaching or researching, grant funding, ethics approval, freedom of speech and debate, freedom to educate students along accepted scientific lines, oppression of women academics who speak out, silencing of scientists, the climate of fear in universities, sexism and working in science and universities...

Bump.. less than 2 hours left to tweet!

@CloneInAMillion

Could you also ask
Is Twitter is the best way to get questions from the public when so many women have been banned / suspended from Twitter for stating the scientific truth that males are male.

Sorry everyone I will be stopping bumping very soon:

... don’t forget to tweet before 5pm today with your question for the Minister.

Remember to use the hashtag #AskSamGyimah

Tweets to be sent to the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee:

Twitter handle: @CommonsSTC

Then on 11 Dec the Minister will be asked the questions that have been picked by the Committee in person.

These questions and the discussion may inform the future work of the Committee and it will all be written up on the Committee website.

@Goldenbuzzer
I have tweeted your question.

I am trying to raise my own questions but there is just me and maybe just one or two other voices. Come on people you can do better than this - the questions posed above could be usefully answered but if you want answers you need to engage with the thread. It take 2 minutes to create a Twitter profile

Here is the thread to ask your questions: twitter.com/CommonsSTC/status/1067697352612417536

Use the hashtag #AskSamGyimah

@goldenbuzzer
I have tweeted your second question too.

Thank you so much to everyone who has tweeted- please let’s keep it going!

Is it worth making the point about Twitter not being the best/safest route to collect questions from women, and including the link to this thread- so that the Minister can see what women would like to ask him about (..when women are allowed to ask/talk anonymously)?

I've only spotted two messages with my name on. Anyone else want anything tweeted on their behalf before I log off?

@BowlOfBabelfish
I will tweet your questions too.

Thank you for taking the time and raising questions for the Minister Crone, Fizzing and everyone else!

There are a good range of gender critical questions on the thread despite the very short window in which questions were allowed. Let’s hope the Committee takes up the opportunity to look into this area with the Minister.

It’s also not too late to add comments to the tweets on there or to like the comments that have been made if you are coming late to this particular party

Hopefully the link below shows the hashtag and everything that was asked under it (sorry I am not great at Twitter!)

mobile.twitter.com/search?q=%23AskSamGyimah&src=typeahead_click

I think it is worth pointing out that Twitter is not a safe place for women to express themselves (I suspect he won't care much, someone responsible for paying for that survey is either so biased they won't care, or too stupid to understand).

Hopefully, it is worth point that out, Jux. Gyimah has made a big thing out of supporting free speech and opposing "no-platforming" in universities, so at the very least if he didn't accept there was a serious issue with women being banned from twitter for saying things like "women do not have penises", he would be being hypocritical. And some parts of the Tory-supporting press would have a field day if he tried that (hopefully he wouldn't - he has always come across as sincere in his defence of free speech).

Ooh! I just saw this opportunity from looking down their Committee timeline-has a later deadline in mid-December and is not necessary to respond using Twitter:

www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/science-and-technology-committee/news-parliament-2017/my-science-inquiry-launch-17-19/

Thank you crone!

Public money used for research aimed at drawing up a bill cannot be ethical.
When that research proposal states the conclusion it wants to draw it cannot be ethical.
When that public money and biased research is used to create a proposal for legislatuonal changes that will actively endanger women and children, that is a matter of grave public concern.

Please feel free to tweet the above at Sam Gyimah- Amd do let me know if any replies!

"Universities minister Sam Gyimah becomes seventh minister latest to quit over Brexit deal"

www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/breaking-universities-minister-sam-gyimah-13670812

A convenient excuse, I suspect. Makes him look principled instead of incompetent, biased and just not very good.

Flipping heck - You couldn’t make this shit up. Twitter questions close - he resigns. What a co-incidence.

I know it's tempting to think this is because he's ducking the twitter questions, but seriously that's a bit tin-foil-hatty. He wouldn't have seen them first hand anyway - a civil servant would have collated the responses and written a half page summary for him to sign off on.

No, he really has gone over Galileo, and as a working scientist engaged in various big multi national science collaborations (which no country would have the clout to do on its own) I respect him for it. Scientists have repeatedly lobbied government saying "you've got to ring fence money for international science collaboration post Brexit". By pulling out of Galileo last night, May has shown she isn't going to listen, and as a result Gyimah's position as the minister with responsibility for protecting British science had become untenable. He had no choice if he took the brief seriously.

He's an ambitious career politician in a Brexit voting area. I don't think the questions had anything to do with this.

Addendum - having read the Telegraph's coverage, May was also backed into a corner by the EU where she had no choice - the deal on the table wasn't one she could sign up to either (which is what I think the "sunny uplands" Boris/Gove team don't get - we have no power in these " negotiations" and never had - we either take what we're given, or walk away empty handed).

oh.... FGS! I have to laugh or I might cry!

I can’t say I blame him at all, because it is widely acknowledged how absolutely beyond shit Brexit will be for research and science and innovation in the UK. But the timing is dreadful for this particular session.

Never mind.. it’s a committee invitation to the Minister, not a Ministerial initiative, so I assume that the next person in post will be invited by the committee at a later date. Let’s see who the lucky person is.

Also- this puts more emphasis on the 200wd submission invitation that I posted about above.

And in retrospect- it’s good that at least the questions yesterday were tweeted so that they are out now in public and raising awareness that this is a science and research-relevant issue... even if Sam Gyimah isn’t going to be the one answering the questions.

Yes, you're right of course, Feminism and Fermat. That's why I trust scientists, they keep cool heads and use their analytical skills!