Webchat with John McDonnell Friday 6 December 12:00

[BernardBlacksWineIceLolly]

Just thought I'd give a heads up, doesn't look like it's being promoted yet

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mumsnet_live_events/3760829-Webchat-with-John-McDonnell-MP-Shadow-Chancellor-Friday-6-December-at-12-midday

No doubt we'll want to talk over his answers afterwards!

Thank you for that Bernard. I can think of a couple of questions......

I cross posted with Empress so will probably get deleted and/or get another email about suspension and/or get a suspension!

I tried though!

Poor old MNHQ. The people who care and engage are primarily us

Except we keep asking the wrong damn questions

It’s a pickle alright

Oh good - I shall watch - I am not cut out for asking questions. Last time I tried a question (a naice open ended question to H Harman) I just got a naice pile of waffle back. I suppose at least she answered.

He did one a year or so back, and promised to come back to MN on GC issues but never did. No time today, but it would be great to dig up his earlier responses and ask why he failed to deliver on his promise.

(My own take is the JMcD is GC but would never admit this as he would upset the Momentum foot soldiers. However this is why he gets to do MN on behalf of Labour.)

(My own take is the JMcD is GC but would never admit this as he would upset the Momentum foot soldiers. However this is why he gets to do MN on behalf of Labour.)

Mine too. J McD is a materialist. No way he isn't. Unfortunately, he's depending on the activist base during this campaign, who are largely a bunch of bourgeois young liberals LARPing as socialists who have huge mythical persecutions complexes.

But for the manifesto concessions to mean anything they must be a) workable and b) defended by a big hitter.

I can't vote for a socialist party that does not full-throatedly accept women as an oppressed class based on exploitation via reproductive sex. As per Engels.

Yes, shame about John McDonald.

McDonnell

yes, I thought he came across relatively well on the last webchat. Similarly to Kirsty Blackman yesterday he spoke to MNers with respect. Unlike Phillip Lee and (very sadly) Stella Creasy

His politics are considerably to the left of mine, but I do have time for him

Ah good. I knew there would be a thread on this. I hope John McDonnell takes it seriously.
I haven't posted a question as it will get deleted.
I am really, really hoping he will answer honestly and reassuringly.
I want to use my vote.

I expect MNHQ are stocking up on gin.

I find him quite frightening, but this is because he is both intelligent and a believer. I only wish we believed in the same things.

I wonder what his favourite biscuit is? Garibaldi? Bourbons?

Why do they bother doing these webchats? Their researchers should know the kind of questions they are likely to be asked on Mumsnet at this time and they aren’t prepared to give any answers worth listening to. They just try to say as little as possible about their position on self-identification and refuse to acknowledge that it is already impacting women negatively. They really underestimate Mumsnetters if they think we are falling for that strategy. They just end up looking like cowardly fools and it would be so much better for them to not bother at all!

Honestly Charleston I’m not sure the researchers do actually know. I’ve a nasty suspicion that most researchers/politicians think we’re just a naice forum of silly old mummies who joke about biscuits

Perhaps you’re right Badger.

Please don't let some idiot as him about his favourite fucking biscuit
It drives me crazy

I predict he addresses the conflict in rights and says something that sounds like labour will protect women’s rights but isn’t 100% clear on howLabour define ‘woman’

Predictions in a sealed envelope

Closest wins a candlelit dinner with Jeremy Corbyn

Shit, can I change my answer?

Jeremy Corbyn creeps me out.

I’ve asked whether he 1) believes women are oppressed as a class on the basis of our sex, and 2) does a rich owner of the means of production become working class if they self identify as such.

Essentially, does McDonnell identify as Marxist,and does he understand structural opression and class analysis.

Hi John, thanks for coming onto Mumsnet.

I was delighted to read the Labour manifesto making it clear that women's sex-based rights would be upheld.

However, this policy is entirely unworkable in practice if Labour simultaneously allows people change their legally recorded sex by self-declaration - are you aware of this? Allowing people to change ALL records (birth certificate, passport, driving licence, medical records, etc) on a self-ID basis erases all legal records of a person actual sex. Which means that it becomes impossible to legally prove that the predatory man is male (despite being able to see that clearly) and it renders the single-sex exemptions useless.

What would Labour do to address that?

One solution would be to allow people to self-ID their gender and have legal protection against discrimination on the basis of that gender reassignment/expression/identity, but no longer allow that GRC to permit a person to change the (entirely separate) characteristic of "sex", which remains a separate factual record of their biological sex class. What do you think of that?

Whoops - wrong thread

Oh, I'm too late. Questions about women are now banned from the webchat.

Ho hum.

Sonic - I asked a detailed question on the workability of the single sex exemptions, so at least one got in there. Hopefully, he will have the guts to answer it with something that shows thought's gone into the manifesto rather than a simple sop to shut us up - since that's the only thing that will persuade me to not spoil my ballot and vote Labour.

The BBC ran a piece earlier today about women being the major group who are undecided about how to vote. I suspect this will be a "how can I get them to vote while staying on the right side of the powerful misogynists in the rest of the party?"