Webchat with Keir Starmer & Bridget Phillipson

[ArabellaScott]

www.mumsnet.com/talk/mumsnet_live_events/4663774-got-a-question-for-keir-starmer-or-bridget-phillipson

I never see these things in the webchat thread, so thought I'd stick it here to let people know.

Oh, bum.

'We'll be closing this thread at 5pm on Thursday,'

Just read that bit. Still, people might like to read the answers.

Thanks for posting. Will keep an eye out for the answers.

Its always illuminating to see the responses as well as the omissions (i.e. we were to busy to answer so have picked the top 10 easy ones).

There's a bunch of interesting questions there that I would like to see answers to - and not just the obvious GC ones.

Oh my.

There's some very good questions there. How is he going to fudge or dodge these? I wonder if he will prearrange a family member to call him with an emergency so he gets to leave?

Perhaps a Labour Party member will be kind enough to hand him a wriggly baby 🤪

Apparently hiding under a desk is the politician's mode of choice for avoiding tricky questions at the moment.

Didn't the last Labour person pull out of the webchat at the last moment because some blue-haired children started shouting about Mumsnet being worse than Hitler?

A lot of excellent questions there. However having read Starmer's responses to the Labour Leadership webchat he held, I can only hope he is willing to engage a little more and take women a little more seriously than he did then.

Interview is now up on the thread. Keir does come out unequivocally on sport being for biological females only. All the rest is a bit of a fudge. But could be a lot worse.

If transwomen are not women in sport, they are not women anywhere.

Schrodinger's transwomen - simultaneously not women and women. Doesn't work in real life.

Exactly. Either TW are women which would include equal participation in womens sports etc, or they are not and should compete in the male categories. He fudged the whole thing and will now have to spend the next week removing splinters from his arse from the fence he’s sitting on.

That was quite underwhelming, his response doesn't tie in with the other things he's been saying about wanting our views further criminalised.
If he isn't outright lying then he isn't a very bright man.

I hope someone lead him to the actual thread so he understands the strength of feeling because it's easy to assume that it isn't as high as it really is from that.

Thanks, all. IDK if I can even be arsed going to read it if it's all just more of the bloody same.

What is the point? Really? Do they think women will just nod along to it?

I wonder has anyone explained to the Labour party that despite Mandelson's training about 'it's a post democratic era' where politicians rule the world and the plebs do what they're told, that this isn't the case and they still need people to vote for them?

And that women are half the UK population?

Drives me nuts seeing the level of thoughtful, passionate engagement of women on these threads and the total lack of engagement from the politicians who will only come here if HQ protect them and handpick the least scary questions for aides to write answers to in advance.

Any politicians now with the guts to actually come here and talk , on their feet, answering real time questions and not demanding edited and pre controlled/selected questions at this point would be at an open door. There are a lot of politically homeless women right now, and they all have husbands, sons, brothers, fathers.

There are people like Anne Ruzylo in the Labour Party. At the low levels, never allowed to rise any higher, and Anne's taken a lot of abuse down there, but anyone who doesn't know her name, you can hear her speak on Youtube where she has been recorded at several conferences. There is a woman who has information at her fingertips, can hold a room, speak from integrity and not pre planned aide scripts, answer real time difficult questions, has a grip on reality from a working life and real commitment to people. Listen to her and compare her to the likes of Starmer. There is a women who would be very difficult to scare by facing her with real people and real issues not prepared and sanitised first. The Labour party has people of the quality of Anne stuck down in its ranks.

It was a waste of time and I'm disappointed in Justine for not putting across the strength of feeling coming from the women who put questions and comments on the thread.

I watched a bit and lost interest. I dgaf about Keir's personality; I want to know what his policies are, and what he's going to do to protect women. The answer seems to be exactly what he's done to protect Rosie Duffield: fuck all.

I’m not surprised and I won’t waste my time watching it.

It was as bland as pureed mash.
He always reminds me of a potato.

I’m glad I watched it as I like to watch people when they’re speaking. I think it’s often a give away as to how they’re really feeling, what they’re not saying. Keir started fiddling with his fingers when one question about GC was asked. I think he was nervous.

I am glad he’s been very clear about the importance of parental knowledge in what happens to children. It’s not enough for me but it’s better than nothing. Now I feel I have some backup when going into school and wanting to talk about them socially transitioning children without parent’s knowledge. If schools in woke Camden where he’s an MP stop
doing it then maybe this will have a knock on effect.

He isn’t daft and he isn’t forgetful, he remembered the biscuit question. He therefore must know the LP aren’t fooling anyone with the “we aren’t misogynistic and we care about women” line. I just don’t understand.

His backside must be pretty sore. What a weed.

I once saw someone on twitter describe his face while listening to “real people” as “like a potato going round in a microwave.”

Oh, Delurking. That is perfect. 🤣

Accompanied by this photograph

Aw, stoppit.