To think that if you can't remember to take your 8 year old home from the pub then you can't be trusted to run the country?

[PrettyPrinceofParties]

www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/jun/11/david-cameron-daughter-behind-pub?newsfeed=true

I do think the pub aspect is important though. Adults go to pubs to drink alcohol. Alcohol impairs your judgement.

So, some parents go to a pub and something happens which implies their judgement has been impaired.

People don't need Alastair Campbell spinning it to see it as "got too pissed to make sure their kids were safe."

I expect they were nothing like pissed though. So it is unfortunate for them. But I dislike DC intensely and cannot bring myself to be at all sympathetic to his discomfort.

5madthings- od course they are there for the children.they are prime kidnap targets!

Balloon slayer- they were not there for a piss up.they were there to have a meal in the restaurant!

(Can't believe I've been driven into defending DC-I hate him, but some of these posts are just so stupid!)

you dont always go to the pub to drink alcohol, esp if you are driving, we go quite often for lunch to a pub that has a garden for the children, we rarely drink we are going for the food and because its a good place to relax and the children can play. a pub lunch is often no different to a meal in a restaraunt except that many pubs are more suited to taking children with you.

i doubt the alcohol played any part in their dd being left behind, yes there are circumstances where alcholol does play a part in poor parenting, this isnt an example of that tho and its just unfortunate that its come to light when it has done given other policies being announced at the same time, i woudl like to find out how it was leaked and why it has taken until now for it to come out in the press tbh.

and i dont have any sympathy or fondness for them i just dont see that it is a relevant or necessary news story.

I KNOW. Please read my last paragraph

I was talking about how it LOOKS.

And don't say "aw, it's not fair to say how it looks." This man was elected on "how it looks."

Adults don't always go to the pub to drink. We go for a family meal twice a month to the pub, and only really on Birthdays, Anniversaries etc do I tend to have one drink with my meal.

I am the one that tends to do the driving though.

plus, I am a cheapskate and prefer to spend what I would on 2 glasses at the pub, on a decent bottle for at home to enjoy once the sprogs are in bed

well to me it looks like a parenting misshap, the alcohol is neither here nor there and just because it was a pub and they had been drinking doesnt change my view of the situation, if someone reading it cant see past the words pub and alcohol then quite frankly i wouldnt be interested in their opinion anyway. and as i said i am not sympathetic to them i just cant be arsed with the hysteria and the 'bad parenting' judgements or that fact that its a new story at all tbh.

I do, however, agree that alcohol impairs your judgment. Especially 3-4 glasses. And I do think it probably did play a small part in the 8 year old being left behind.

And I also agree with those stating that they aren't "normal", and that they need to be even more vigilant due to what could of happened. This is why I am glad I am "normal" and therefore allowed to be human, as it must be bloody exhausting living that sort of life and not being allowed to make human mistakes.

But, you can't judge his parenting based on his political stance. That would be like saying I am a shite, incompetent Mother because I would no doubt run the country into the ground as I would have no idea where to even start. Yes, he is a shite, incompetent PM, but that don't mean he is a shite, incompetent Father.

The daily Tory/telegraph has cameron leaving a pub flustered and saying
"I have left George behind."

Cartoonists by nature never seem to like leading politicians.

Dave will never leave a pub in the resat of his life without a headcount.
Yes, alcohol is a factor. DC would probably not be driving himself.

More people seem keen to join in this discussion than would enter a Euro
or other policy debate. Politics is not sexy to most people. Or even interesting Sad in a way.

It's been widely reported he drank three or four glasses of wine which at pub measures is anywhere between three quarters and a bottle and a half.

I agree it doesn't make him an awful
Parent but he is not in normal circumstances and the risk was not just to his child but to the leadership of the country.

He strikes me as a fairly decent but misguided bloke somewhat out of his depth work wise but a genuine family man. I'm sure he had his heart in his mouth for those fifteen minutes. That does not change the potential consequences of what happened and at very least a review of security is surely needed.

rhonda - really? I've read that he drank one pint of beer.

I can't believe that we are taking as remotely truthful what the papers have reported about what DC drank!!!!!! Since when did the papers report accurately. This is all 2 months old anyway - what an absolute crock of poo.

Obviously it isn't funny as his DD must have been scared.

Nevertheless it does remind me of the joke we used to tell as kids:

"I don't drink, smoke or swear. Bloody hell I've left me fags in the pub!"

DC's version

"I am launching a new campaign to tackle problem families. Bloody hell I've left me kid in the pub!"

My DM left me in my pram outside the village shop when i was a few months old. Came home, realised she had forgotten something

I only have a PFB but i can completely see how it can happen.

Right lets get a grip here. They got in the car without their 8 year old, not a baby as being reported. Nancy obviously went to the toilet without telling anyone and they went without her, so many people in several cars I can see how easy it is. For the media and BBC to say "is he capable of running the country if he can't look after his children is so ridiculous". So he likes a few drinks with his meal, so he likes to play on the odd computer game. This is because he is NORMAL. Jesus give the guy a break, there are more important things going on in the world than this. I suppose you are all aware that this actually happened two or three months ago!!!!!!!!

......and I don't bloody care if he gets rat-arsed now and again, he has as much right to let his hair down as anyone else.

Normal.

Ahahahahaa!

BAH HA HA!!!

apparently the child wasnt scared, she was looked after by pub staff who knew her and they had given her little jobs to do and she was happy helping them until she was collected, at 8 some will have been scared, but as she was with people she knew (think they are regulars at the pub) then she was fine.

Why on earth would an 8 year old be scared? This is a pub she and her parents frequent often. She knows the staff. I would be mortified if an 8 year old of mine wasn't able to go up to the bar in those circumstances and say "there's been some sort of mix up- can I phone dad, please?"

Well she was obviously confident enough to go to the toilet on her own.

Lots of brand new Judgeypants out and about on Mumsnet this week

I agree with WRinkly. There are things far worse than leaving your child in the pub.
Denying terminally ill people the money they need to survive on until they have the good manners to die.
Withdrawing funding from organisations helping women to flee from domestic violence
Rearranging DLA so people with prosthetic limbs a and wheelchairs are no longer classed as having mobility problems
Labelling families as 'problems' and setting targets for LAs to identify in order to receive money.
The above at the same time as shutting children's centres, youth clubs and anti gang initiatives
Frightening people reliant on disability benefits so much that they kill themselves rather than face a life without financial or practical support.

Given all that (and more) I can quite understand why people think leaving your child in a pub is inconsequential.

Did I mention he was a tosser?

I like MrsDeVere's contribution best. That's the extent to which I care about their lives. I'm guessing he didn't forget about his child because he had the weight of his conscience pressing down on him.