A favourite subject of Paul Staines and his pals at the Guido Fawkes blog for some time now has been the apparently fearless exposing of gender-segregated meetings, a subject where the Fawkes crowd can count on the enthusiastic support of the more vocal and partial, like (thankfully) former Tory MP Louise Mensch. Because the only meetings the Fawkes blog fearlessly exposes are Labour Party ones. And then only some of them.
Feared. But only in the retelling
The inference is clear: Labour tolerates this kind of thing, and because Staines and Co never feature a Tory Party example, his favoured political party does not. Hence today’s post titled “Labour Hold Another Segregated Rally”, telling “Labour MPs attended a gender segregated rally in Oldham last night, with photos released from the meeting clearly showing Muslim women and men being seated seperately [sic]”.
There is even time for a little righteous posturing: “Readers will be well aware that this isn’t the first, or even second, time senior Labour figures have attended gender segregated rallies. When will Labour come out and denounce this gender apartheid?” All very noble, except that this is hypocrisy on two fronts. Let us first consider the Fawkes blog’s omission of Tory politicians attending and addressing gender segregated or all-male meetings.
As my good friend Sunny Hundal noted back in May this year “Boris talking to a male-only audience at a Muslim event. Where are the women? And where is the rightwing outrage?” And there is London’s increasingly occasional Mayor doing just that. Edward Anderson went one better: “Here is David Cameron at a Hindu temple in a totally gender-segregated audience (02/05/15)”. Dave did it too.
But at the Fawkes blog, such events went unnoticed. And it was not just Tory MPs who got that all-important free Fawkes pass, but those in Labour whom Staines and his pals deem useful to them. So it was that one MP happily advertised “Great meeting with residents in our #Rochdale Bangladeshi community today - I like this photo!” confirming “Great meeting today at #Bangladesh Community Association in #Rochdale”.
Yes, Rochdale’s nominally Labour MP Simon Danczuk is another blind spot for The Great Guido, and not once, but twice, as Danczuk has also Tweeted “Such a diverse political culture in #Rochdale - does make elections fun as this rally today shows!” What this rally shows is another all-male gathering. Another example of gender segregation available to the Fawkes blog which they choose to ignore.
Very few Labour figures were invited to the Fawkes blog’s tenth anniversary bash last year. Simon Danczuk was one of that few. A more blatant example of rewarding the usefulness Staines and his pals believe Danczuk has to them by looking the other way would be hard to find. And a worse demonstration of selective reporting would be even harder to find. As for the credulousness of Ms Mensch, well, that’s just sad.
Still, as the Fawkes blog practises gender segregation itself, what else can we expect?
Some very noticeable and the most significant voices missing from this issue, those of the Bangladeshi people themselves. Mensch and her ilk are far too busy outraging and whites-plaining. They don’t appear to have asked the actual Bangladeshi people who were at the meeting, if this was their choice. Nothing says cultural arrogance more than white crusaders speaking for and over an entire community. The Bangladeshi people are entitled to sit wherever they choose especially in their own gathering.
ReplyDeleteWould Guido and Mensch arrogantly hold up the meeting while they made people sit in what they considered the appropriate seats?
Given the refugee crisis, wholly-owned tory mainstream media far right propaganda, and the proposed bombing bloodbath on Syria.....
ReplyDeleteIt's all typical corrupt hypocrisy.
But not unexpected.
Did they have women in the Bullingdon Club?
ReplyDeleteSurely you do not have an argument for this, If the Tories do not have this nor do the UKIP lot then why are labour .
ReplyDeleteThis is a really serious issue and cannot be just said to be one of those things. No wonder people are saying that this election in Oldham will be really close .
To win you accept that women cannot sit with men because of what women are not seen as equal that is what it looks like to me.
@4
ReplyDeleteThe Tories do have this, as can be seen by reading what I posted.
As for UKIP, we have yet to see them reaching out to Muslim communities. Why that should be I will leave to their supporters to explain.
"...if the tories do not have this..."
ReplyDeleteCare to explain Thatcher's "One of us," "The enemy within" and "There's no such thing as society" then?
to Treborc - what would the answer be if people at the meeting chose to sit this way? refuse to engage until they looked more photogenic. You can't force change over night, it alienates communities when we steam in demanding they change.
ReplyDeleteAnd maybe people were just, you know, sitting with their friends.
If there are two seats vacant, I would probably without even giving it much thought, choose a seat beside a woman.