Mumsnet Talk

Evening all

We had quite an extensive thread about this last week <applies cold flannel to forehead> and this was Justine's response:

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Hello,
We can see where you're coming from, we know it's wearing, particularly if you feel you are part of a group that is under attack but as a rule we don't interfere in the boards for situations like this.

Here's why:
We do allow debate here, and that includes contrary, insensitive and sometimes downright unpleasant opinions. Many of the threads about benefits and cuts merely reflect an ideological discourse that is right at the heart of the political debate in this country right now about the size of the state. It would feel odd to us to insist that those on one side of that argument had to stick to one thread when we have always adopted a politically neutral position - we are for all mums not just mums of the left or right.

Madeleine McCann was a bit of a one off (hopefully) for a few reasons - it spawned many more threads than usual, taking up almost half of active conversations at one point, it went on for eons (literally months and months) and it was so intensely personal about one particular family.

I know this is not the answer many of you want to hear but obviously there is the option to hide a thread on active conversations and we will, of course delete any posts that go beyond debate about government spending and into disablist territory. We will also ban anyone who is obviously only here to try to inflame - please do report any instances you see.

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In addition to that, please report anything that you think should obviously be in Politics or In The News, and we will move them - and then you can hide those topics, if you like.

Thanks
MNHQ