Makerfield: Reform candidate sexist?

I watched the whole programme, my conclusion is; do people want a professional, erudite, polite member of parliament or a plumber with very little understanding of politics? I gathered this opinion from what I heard last night, others who watched the programme my have different well informed opinions.

His background should have been checked,things he said have come back to bite him and those things were awful however I don't think a by election should have been called purely to allow Andy Burnham to challenge Keir Starmer,not that I'm a fan by any means

J52

I watched the whole programme, my conclusion is; do people want a professional, erudite, polite member of parliament or a plumber with very little understanding of politics? I gathered this opinion from what I heard last night, others who watched the programme my have different well informed opinions.

You are casting aspersions on plumbers in general.

Johstone said some astounding things in his time.
Is that forgotten?

Chris Mason, the BBC's Political Editor, interviewed him during the week. They were in a pub and Kenyon was sinking pints and coming across like one of the lads. Chris Mason asked him about comments he has made, and mentioned the one the OP highlights. He admitted he had said those things but no longer believed them but it was how lads talked, especially Northern lads, according to him. The Carol Vorderman comment was made by someone else but Kenyon said he had replied to it in like vein so that's as bad as saying it himself in the first place. Personally, I wouldn't vote for anyone from Reform in a month of Sundays. I don't want Andy Burnham to win either because it's a means to an end with him. Sir Keir Starmer was given the whopping majority, not Burnham or anyone else, so let him continue. I am not a Labour voter but I feel for Starmer with all this going on behind his back instead of his Party doing their jobs.

MissAdventure

Johstone said some astounding things in his time.
Is that forgotten?

It's not what the OP is asking though is it? Boris Johnson, I assume you mean him, is water under the bridge.

I think the word ‘sexist’ is not strong enough. He’s a misogynist - only a man who hates women could hold views like that or post what he did to CV. I’m not saying being sexist is OK but it doesn’t mean you hate women as he does.

Sadly there are those who will lap all this up, just as they do with Trump. Our disgust will make not one bit of difference.

My personal view is that it all started with Thatcher and her rejection of society, community and cooperation as basic principles.

We have lost so much and as soon as we have a Labour government who are beginning to chip away at the edges of this, the media are setting out to destroy them before they have had 5 minutes to get on with the job and giving airtime to the far right - Farage, who is a nobody really with no coherent or costed policies, is being asked to comment on everything that happens and treated as on a par with the PM mediawise. He is a media construct with nothing concrete to offer.

We are being led by the media into a mess - thank goodness my life is at its tail end ....

Yes, Johnson is what i mean.
Unfortunately I've a lot of nerve damage in my dominant hand, so i assume people will have to make allowances for my awful spelling and writing ability.
Most do.

He was incredibly inarticulate on QT, and came over very badly, even without the sexist and misogynistic behaviour. His defence against those was that the comments/posts were made some time ago and he wouldn't say that sort of thing now - not that he regrets the feelings behind what he said, or the hurt they may have caused others, but that he is now aware that it was unwise to show himself for what he is now that he hopes to get into politics. So that's reassuring, isn't it?

If this is the best candidate Reform can field in such an important by-election, heaven help us all if they ever form a government.

Not sure if it’s the sane idiot but one has just said they should ban women drivers!!!

Being arficulate doesn't necessarily mean being the best candidate for the job.
I'm not excusing him; I didn't watch it, and don't follow politics at all now.

Or even being arficulate

MissAdventure, the man is a not very bright misogynist. Honest. He’s said awful things about women. He excuses this by saying he’s like other ordinary northern men. Nope, he isn’t. I live surrounded by y ordinary northern lads - not like this fool

I'll have to check him out then.
I'm loathe to get involved in political discussions for a couple of reasons.
He sounds repulsive, and I don't for one minute think that he can have changed into a different peraon than he was before now.

Witzend

J52

I watched the whole programme, my conclusion is; do people want a professional, erudite, polite member of parliament or a plumber with very little understanding of politics? I gathered this opinion from what I heard last night, others who watched the programme my have different well informed opinions.

You are casting aspersions on plumbers in general.

No I’m not! I was referring to Robert Kenyon as I followed on in the sentence pointing out that he seemed to be unable to reference his comments to parliamentary procedure.
No mention was made of plumbers, plural.
I have a great respect for craft persons in the building industry, but of course you don’t know me.

These people only apologise because they have been caught out.

They haven't changed their views, otherwise they would have posted, before being found out, saying that they have changed their views.

As for this northern men guff. All he is saying is that if he is out with his mates, if they make misogynist remarks, he goes along with them, rather than oppose them. Does anyone want a MP who every time a minister or a group of Labour MPs say something, he promptly agrees with them, even if he doesn't?

Agreed Iam64.

My husband, brother, son-in-law, grandsons, nephews and the many males in my wider extended family are all ordinary northern men. Not one of them holds the views Kenyon holds, nor would they ever speak about women like he has done.

He can’t hold a candle to ordinary, decent northern men, and plenty of them would happily tell him that to his face.

Coming from the south, my DD went to uni in the north and thus I met many northern young men, including my now SIL. They were all, to a man, impeccably behaved and respectful around women - more so than I had seen before.

The articulate ones are usually the worst, they hide their misogyny.

Luckygirl3

Coming from the south, my DD went to uni in the north and thus I met many northern young men, including my now SIL. They were all, to a man, impeccably behaved and respectful around women - more so than I had seen before.

I come from the north and met many young men. My children live in the north. One of them is married to a northern man. He does "northern men" a great disservice if we're supposed to believe they're all like him. (Come to think of it, Andy Burnham is a northern man.)

Galaxy

The articulate ones are usually the worst, they hide their misogyny.

I believe that's a crass generalisation.

Also very none specific. are you able to give one example at least of someone who is articulate but hides their misogyny Galaxy?

Robert Kenyon is a fool who is being used by Reform and who will be of little or no interest to the other Reform MPs should he get elected. He is a means to an end and that is all, a useful idiot.
I listened to the second part of The Rest is politics podcast about where Reform gets it's money. It is a really interesting and well researched podcast but unfortunately I don't think many Reform voters will bother to listen to it, which is a pity. Reform is being funded by extremely rich business people, many of whom live abroad but who circumvent the rules regarding donations to political parties by using various legal means. The laws around party donations are abysmal and it means that little is often known about who funds them and why, however, I doubt most are doing it out of the goodness of their hearts! The links that some of Reform's big donors have to foreign countries and extreme far right groups are questionable to say the very least. Will this stop people voting for Kenyon? Almost certainly not. Will Kenyon's misogynistic and racist comments put Reform voters off? Probably not, we just have to hope that Kenyon's attitude to women and minority groups is held by a small minority in Makerfield rather than a large minority.