Eleanor Scott article, 'Did Mumsnet Just Hand Penny Mordaunt Her Arse?'

[R0wantrees]

'Did Mumsnet Just Hand Penny Mordaunt Her Arse?'
(extract)

“Don’t you worry about getting back to us, Penny dearest. Mumsnet only has ‘14 million unique users’ a month ... Just you sit tight and eventually get one of your minions to post some anodyne rhetoric about valuing diversity and it’ll all be fine.”
— Mumsnet poster, webchat with Penny Mordaunt 14/3/19 13.55pm

It takes a certain set of tools to turn a golden opportunity to engage with hundreds of thousands of women on International Women’s Day into an unmitigated PR disaster, and Penny Mordaunt MP has somehow managed to pull it off. I’ve met Penny Mordaunt a few times in Portsmouth over the years while I was on Council-related business, and she has always seemed perfectly likeable and pleasant. But future Prime Minister material? Not unless courting disaster is now seen as prerequisite rather than unfortunate happenstance." (continues)

concludes:
"The Mumsnetters who had asked their questions in such detail, and with such courtesy - posters have to abide by Mumsnet’s fairly stringent ‘Talk Guidlines’ - were left disappointed and, frankly, pissed off, especially regarding the unanswered points about children’s safeguarding. But they weren’t leaving the webchat meekly. ‘Disappointed but not surprised’ wrote one poster. ‘Completely disingenuous’ wrote another. Of her apparent ignorance around the issues raised concerning children’s safeguarding, a poster wrote, more in sadness than anger, ‘This is unforgiveable. You were given all the information. All of it. Spoonfed it. You haven’t bloody well read it.’ And one of the most damning comments so far: ‘Either Penny, or Penny’s SPADs are not up to par on the reports coming out of the Tavistock’. (Click here if you want to read the Mail’s report about the potentially brewing scandal, or here for a BBC snippet. It’s worth digging deeper if you’re interested.)

And finally, can the Minister for Women even define what is a woman? On this showing, the answer would seem to be No. The actual Minister for Woman apparently doesn’t ‘get it’, doesn’t want to ‘get it’, and seemingly can’t be bothered to ‘get it’. That’s a lot of women’s votes that have just been lost, whichever way you look at it. Post-modern, philosophical ideologies of feelings, and misunderstandings of the difference between sex and gender, should never, ever compromise the safeguarding of children. People who raise red flags about safeguarding deserve to be taken seriously and to have their voices heard. If we’ve we’ve learned nothing else during the past decade, surely to God we’ve learned that."
eleanorscottarchaeology.com/els-blog/2019/3/14/the-day-that-mumsnet-took-down-penny-mordaunt-mp

thread:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mumsnet_live_events/3523984-International-Women-s-Day-Q-A-with-Penny-Mordaunt-MP-Secretary-of-State-for-International-Development-NOW-CLOSED-TO-NEW-QUESTIONS

How can she now row back from her original TWAW statement? She is between a rock and a hard place, even though it's entirely her own fault.

Best thing would be for her to be replaced during a reshuffle and that the next Cabinet Minister is compelled to understand that repeating the TWAW mantra is unacceptable.You deflect, even when pressed. Politicians are supposed to be good at that.

One of her spads (Davidson) is a former Sun journo. Surely she's not drunk the KoolAid too? Isnt she paid to read which way the wind is blowing? Here's a hint ....Martina, Sharron, Kelly

I think she is concerned about women and girls rights.

Until they conflict with the TRA juggernaut.

Then we just have to lay down and be flattened.

Mordaunt has shown beautifully, through her vague, evasive and light weight replies the inconsistency of the TWAW position with intelligent, articulate, and rigorous debate.

Good article!

Penny, Are you listening yet?

Ace article!

If you are stuck, there is an excellent definition of 'woman' in the dictionary. (It was there all along)

Perhaps Penny was hoping that questions would be "what's your favourite biscuit"-level.

It's interesting isn't it. And I'm pretty sure Penny isn't the only politician to expect this. It's almost as if politicians think Mumsnet is full of mummies who talk about nothing but biscuits and crochet and bubs first words as opposed to a forum full of intelligent women who talk about those things but are also capable of asking difficult, probing, well evidenced questions about current affairs.

Perhaps MNHQ should double check with all folk who want a webchat that the participant is not confusing Mumsnet with netmums

Isnt she paid to read which way the wind is blowing?

It's a top down push, they know, but they are the ones pushing this. They are the company making the KoolAid, changing isn't going to come from them.

Morning. I'm just coming on in my real life name (woo hoo) to say thanks to everyone who read my piece on the Mordaunt 'webchat' and who has commented so positively on it.

It's part of a politics blog which itself is part of a bigger website, mostly about archaeology and history, including archaeologies of previously under-represented people eg infants, children and women. (I'm an archaeologist by training.)

Great article.

Well done Eleanor, right on the money there.

Great article, Eleanor.

That we here on Mumsnet are stereotyped as mush-for-brains ninnies is perhaps our most powerful weapon at times - and the irony that this particular forum is chock full of astonishingly bright women who make me feel at times inadequate (in a good way) - and I'm stupendously over-educated - constantly makes itself plain whenever these rather stupid politicians think they can offer us such drivel as Mordaunt did.

Thank you Eleanor so curious

I will check out the rest of the website, it sounds fascinating!

Great article, Eleanor. Nailed it. Comprehensively.

I'll stake a bottle of gin that Mordant will not only not bother to read anything here, but will be actively dismissing all this as arrogantly and foolishly as most TRAs do. It is clear Mordant is fully signed up to this niche ideology in which anyone who points out bloody great safeguarding concerns and reality dissents is beneath contempt.

I continue to wonder why on earth Mordant bothered to do this at all. There is zero attempt to win hearts and minds, yet the offensiveness is in it's banality and complete lack of intelligent engagement rather than coming here to tell MNetters to shut up. She clearly had no interest in actual conversation, she's made herself look rude and stupid, what was she thinking when she agreed to do a 'chat' (BBC no debate style) that she clearly couldn't be arsed with, with people she clearly has nothing but contempt for?

What’s that sound I can hear issuing from your mouth Penny, is it lalala? If you take your hands from over your ears for just one second, and avert your eyes slightly from that promotion, you might just notice that fucking giant shitstorm headed straight towards you, and threatening to blow that rug from right under your arse.

And why has the web chat been taken off sticky? It’s not usual for @MNHQ to remove a web chat from sticky after less than 12 hours. Anybody would think someone wished to hide it away for some reason...

Thank you Eleanor. Brilliant article.

EleanorScott Thank you so much for your great writing!

Oi oi penny

Have a read of Eleanor piece. That is what a woman with a brain writes like

Have youthought about sacking yourself off yet as you don’t deserve your wages and what have women done to deserve you

WHAT IS A WOMAN PENNY

I'm just coming on in my real life name (woo hoo) to say thanks to everyone who read my piece on the Mordaunt 'webchat' and who has commented so positively on it.

Morning! Fabulous blog and glad you found us all talking about it!

I hope Penny realises that the answers she gave here will be on the internet forever.

So much written record. And such a good timeline to compare with the scandals that are only just beginning to break. We will know who said what and when and what they ignored and when.

In many ways, Penny has been very helpful here. I wonder if she realises quite how helpful.

I think the govt should just be honest and change her title to 'Minister for Males Under the Trans Umbrella'. At least we wouldn't keep getting our waning hope raised then battered by body blows of disappointment.

Let's be honest.

No one in the government is representing the interests of women and girls.

Penny Mordaunt Minister for MUTTU.

She clearly had no interest in actual conversation, she's made herself look rude and stupid, what was she thinking when she agreed to do a 'chat' (BBC no debate style) that she clearly couldn't be arsed with, with people she clearly has nothing but contempt for?

2017 HuffPost article, '9 Completely Irrelevant Things You Might Not Know About Penny Mordaunt'
(extract)

1. She Once Lost A Bet And Had To Say ‘Cock’ Six Times In The Commons Mordaunt is a Royal Nay Reservist and as well learning everything needed to become an acting sub-lieutenant, she has also fallen victim to some good old fashioned armed forces japery.

In 2014, she said: “During our mess dinner at the end of the course I was fined for a misdemeanour, and the fine was to say a particular word, the abbreviation of cockerel, several times during a speech on the floor of the House of Commons and mention all of the officer’s names present.”

She even won a Spectator Speech of the Year award for it but said she felt “a bit of a fraud” because “let’s face it, the reason I won this award is not because of the hours I put in or the carefully crafted speech, it’s because I referred to male genitalia during the course of it.” (continues)

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/penny-mordaunt_uk_5a045422e4b0937b510ff2a3?

Thanks EleanorScott - what a great thing to do re archaology too. I am always far more interested in ordinary lives and the trials, routines and creativity rather than only war and who dominated who and how (men). I love to think of what the brainy women of mumsnet would have got up to if they were living 2000 years ago, for example....

Morgan Oger getting a rape refuge defunded, on the basis that it excludes 'marginalised women' - ie angry men, is what Penny Mordaunt is advocating for.

Angry, cross dressing male born individuals attacking women is what she is upholding.

I can't begin to understand how she justifies this to herself.

EleanorScott - can you get a piece into the national press, by any chance?

And let us not forget the 'penis and testicles' speech in the House of Commons, @R0wantrees:

www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jun/04/penny-mordaunt-queens-speech-loyal-address-testicles

And let us not forget the 'penis and testicles' speech in the House of Commons

I think Penny Mordant is adept at joining in with the 'boys'