to think we are doing ourselves a disservice by asking the PM about biscuits/TV/film etc?

[Ewe]

We have the PRIME MINISTER on for a webchat, surely we can keep this political and relevant?

I worry that asking questions about these superficial things;

a) gives him an opportunity to avoid the harder and more important questions

and

b) may give the impression that we are just a bunch of daft mums when we are actually the complete opposite!

AIBU? (Quite probably yes)

[bibbitybobbityCAT]

Yanbu.

[daftpunk]

yanbu.....i am cringing at some of the questions.....very childish.

[heartofgold]

yanbu.

[Ewe]

Phew. Thought I might have been flamed!

[Callisto]

Totally agree, and I'm cringing at the sycophancy of some of the posts too. Why do women do this? It makes us look like a bunch of airheads who are completely in awe of a deeply flawed and politically dead man fgs.

[lucykate]

yanbu, had i know he was here for a chat i would have asked him for some threadworm tips

[flowerybeanbag]

YANBU

[bodycolder]

No yanbu but he isn't really saying much to the serious questions either.A lot of flannel and fence sitting

[itsmeolord]

YANBU. I was going to contribute but then when I read through, I cringed and decided not to.

We had an hour to ask about political issues that affect us all and there were sodding discussions about Up and fucking biscuits??

[Callisto]

No different to PM's questions then. He seems to be an inordinately slow typist too, you'd have thought he would have brought a 100 wpm secretary with him.

[lucky1979]

YANBU - I think the same when any of the women's mags do interviews with politicians and ask them inane questions and talk about how they're fanciable (or not).

[daftpunk]

that was to be expected bodycolder...he was ever going to answer the questios he wanted to answer.....but asking about biscuits...? some people just try too hard to be ..er...funny..? ..(not sure that's the right word..)

[catinthehat2]

Oh come on, what did you expect? And even though this webchat had huge publicity, it looks as if nobody even bothered to come barging in from other sites to score a few points either.

Genuinely, nobody really cares about GB or his thoughts, people in RL are just waiting until next year when he will go.

[Bleh]

There was a whole other thread for the stupid questions and swooning.

[daftpunk]

catinthehat...

i don't think you can say that...lots of people care about what he thinks...and it's not a foregone conclusion that the tories will win.....

how busy is he......do you think he wants to waste his time on nonsense....?

[catinthehat2]

DP - I said when HE goes. I don't think the LAbour party is going to want him around for too much longer!

[TheDevilEatsBabies]

yabu for the simple fact that he didn't even bopther to answer any of the serious questions, just gave us namby-pamby rhetoric and standard responses.

[anastaisia]

YANBU

[BlingLoving]

Right,I'm going against the flow to say that actually, no I don't think it makes us look stupid to ask about his biscuit choice. When I read articles about famous people, no matter who they are - politicians, actors, royalty etc - I like to know about the big important things and I also like to have the interesting little side bar points about themselves. It makes them seem more real.

To my mind, if you come onto an internet chat room to talk, you should be able to chat, even if you ARE the pm. And I'd have liked more answers to the serious questions, as well as a little more humanity on the lighter side.

[frumpygrumpy]

I think its totally, totally right to ask him those light questions.

He is just a person, doing his job and there is no reason in the world why he should always do that job without some humour and light moments.

Of course we must prod for our answers but he's not here for a grilling! What we ask and push for on this platform isn't really going to change all that much. He will likely remember us more (and our points) if we pepper the discussion with humour. Its psychology.

We are the voice. And that voice shouldn't sound like any one of us.

[MadameDefarge]

Oh come on, its a bit of lighthearted banter..what MN is great for...and given we got sod all that was worth listening to re policies, it was also a stick to poke him with.

[anastaisia]

don't you think though - that chatting should be coming after the big important questions. I mean I asked :
I'd like to ask about the Badman Home education review. Specifically, can the government offer any real assurances that they are listening to the concerns of home educating parents about the recommendations of the report and that the Select Committee is not just a rubber stamping exercise for legislation which the government has already decided is going through?

Which is about the subject important to me - but could have been about ANY topic. It should have been an easy question, in a democratic country there is only one possible answer - yes your views are being listened to and no the select committee isn't a rubber stamping exercise. I am seriously scared about the fact that it wasn't considered an important enough question to answer - was it because it was missed in all the biscuit questions, because he decided not to answer any home ed questions or worst of all because he could not honestly say that the government is acting as a democratic government should be acting.

[morningpaper]

Actually a biscuit answer would have been FAR mroe newsworthy and probably resulted in ENORMOUS sales of the biscuit in question, so probably was far more controversial than anything else. We should have JUST asked 200 biscuits questions.

[brimfull]

We don't have to prove we are intelligent by not asking trivial questions.
Tis a mumsnet chat and a PPB for him.

[daftpunk]

he was only here for an hour....maybe if he'd been here all day you could get a bit lighter....i personally couldn't give a monkeys about his biscuit choice.