to think that the gloves are off now after the interview?

[Sixweekstowait]

Well am I?

The whole thing is just

"Tall, almost supermodel skinny, effortlessly glamorous, shifting her dark brown hair from her eyes, there is more than a hint of slinky rock chick Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders about her. But on this glorious spring day, cool cat Samantha is, like many other mothers up and down the country, making piping hot porridge in her family kitchen. The Prime Minister’s red box of cabinet papers lies flipped open on a canary-yellow sofa. "

Vom.

It does throw an interesting light on all that false indignation Cameron came up with in relation to Jack Monroe's comments, doesn't it? I find it staggeringly cynical.

But what is interesting is that papers like the Mail and the Telegraph are using such desperate tactics so early in the campaign. It makes you wonder whether they know either that the polls are looking bad for the Conservatives, or that there is something nasty lurking in the woodwork for them.

I'm sorry but that has made me so, so furious.
I will never, ever try to diminish their grief. I can also understand the emotional challenges they faced with parenting Ivan.

But she's now said she knows what it's like. She's admitted they needed help. So why is her husband's government responsible for making the lives of families like mine so much more difficult? We're losing money financially and there have been cuts to vital services from the local authority that we used to use to assist with their care and education.

The only overnight respite we got used to come from my mother. Now the kids are getting older she can't cope any more (all 3 are disabled) so that's that. If I ask for more help I get threats of child protection investigations.

Both me and DH have been at breaking point. We both have lost our mental and physical health.

Giving an interview like that when her husband's government have made our lives a whole lot worse just makes me sick.

And actually our self respect is long gone too. We're constantly accused of scrounging and being on the take.

Taking into consideration that despite everything that they have been through, and yes, it's harrowing, she should not be using this to prop up an election campaign. There are those of us who are at breaking point and have been for quite some considerable period of time, and still this government if fucking the foundations and leaving people with disabilities and their carers on ever shifting sands.

is not if
apologies, tired. A rough night looking after my lot!

I think of them as bigger bastards since I read that.

It was so hard for them with all the help they get but still cut everything they could to make it ten time harder for the peasants who deal with it alone every day.

The way they spin their grief is truly hideous and beyond vile

It's desperate. I hate that she's been pimped into this.

Little monsters: they are both super-rich, with inherited wealth. Your attempt to change this difference of scale into something ordinary ("benefit cuts didn't affect the Cameron's experience of their child's severe health issues because they were responsible and waited") is, frankly, bizarre.
I think the literary trope you have invoked is "bathos".
Or are you really that naive?

I utterly agree with freudianSlipper, though. This is hard to criticise. I'm sure every emotion she gives voice to is utterly sincere. I would not want to walk the journey she's walked and I have enormous sympathy for her as mother. And that is precisely why it is terrible that this has been 'sold' for electoral votes.

I don't get the big deal of her having money for help, MN has many people who pay for nannies, cleaners etc. They had the right to spend their earnings on whatever they wanted. Should nobody aim high in life for fear of having something others don't?

Local authorities manage their own budget, they decide the best use of the money. In a time when there is little money and budgets are cut, some harsh decisions need to be made.

We live in a country that has free education to A Level standard, free healthcare and a benefit system that provides decently enough.

There are lots of others cuts that could be made to feed more money into councils but they are already being slated for making cuts so there is only so far they can go at a time.

You've nailed it in all aspects, thecatfromjapan.

Come on then little monsters, come and have my lot for a week and try saying that.

'Spend their earnings.'

If only everything they had was earnt. And if only what they earned wasn't because his mother in law pulled strings to get him a job.

They are absolutely not the definition of what you can accomplish with 'hard work'

(a bloody awful phrase - as if PP haven't worked hard enough looking after disabled children)

Isn't the point that they know how hard it is, and probably know that it would have been even harder if they'd be vaguely 'normal'. So surely they must know what harm the cuts he has made has done. That makes him evil

And if he doesn't realise that then he's incompetent.

Either way, not someone I want as PM

We also live in a country, Littlemonsters, that makes it a living hell trying to manage the needs of a severely ill/disabled child while watching your income diminish to almost nothing. There is nothing in place for those parents who are forced to give up work when their child has long term medical needs.

'their earnings'? since when did they earn their money?

inherited wealth and jobs gained via the old boy network more like.

Little Monsters: you live in cloud cuckoo land.
Not many of us can afford 24 hour nursing care for a disabled child. I expect that is actually THREE full time nurses.
No matter how hard I work, I couldn't afford that.

They afforded that care because they are from wealthy families, not because they work hard and earn a lot of money.

'earnings' Lol

I don't get the big deal of her having money for help, MN has many people who pay for nannies, cleaners etc. They had the right to spend their earnings on whatever they wanted. Should nobody aim high in life for fear of having something others don't?

The point is (1) it's not their earnings; (2) she is totally failing to acknowledge that, difficult as it must have been for them, they had it much, much easier than most by reason of their money; (3) her husband's government is doing its level best to make the lives of disabled children and their families much worse; and (4) coming out with this a month before an election is unbelievably cynical.

That reference to the politically correct council trying to put Ivan into a mainstream school made me particularly angry. The main reason councils do that is because they are cash strapped. Yet all Cameron's government has done to remedy that is take even more funding away from local councils. So many parents of disabled children have to settle for inadequate and unsuitable education because they haven't got the means to fight for or pay for anything better.

I wish there was a recommend button on MN so that I could thumbs up Icimoi's post

I'm horrified by this interview. Cameron made a big deal out of Miliband talking about weaponising the NHS and then goes for this. The NHS is a political subject. The family's situation and grief is not and never should be 'political' but by giving an interview like this at this time that's exactly what they've made it. I think it's despicable tbh that Samantha Cameron has been put in this position. I support her talking about her struggles and her grief as much or as little as she wishes but the timing for this has so clearly been manipulated.

Incidentally I know mumsnet has previously deleted threads on this subject because of a need to protect grieving parents from unfair comment. That obviously no longer applies. I wasn't going to vote for Cameron anyway but if I had been thinking about this would certainly have caused me to think again. What kind of man allows his private grief to be exposed and his wife to be a political pawn?

Other websites are now saying that the Camerons claimed DLA for Ivan. As a non means tested benefit they had every right to do. However if this proves to be true and I have no idea whether it is of not, it will not endear them to those who have had benefits reduced or taken away, I also include those who lost their child benefit because of the 40K rule.

But sunnymeg isn't it the case that in order to get access to some services, you have to do the DLA claim?
I'm not sure.

It is around here, crappy.
Yeti weirdly enough not sufficient to get you a social worker from the child disability team.

We live in a country that has free education to A Level standard, free healthcare and a benefit system that provides decently enough.
Not if you're disabled and unable to work it doesn't. Oh, and my Carer's Allowance: 65 quid a week. What pray, is generous about that? I work an 18 hour day, every single fucking day of the year because this government took away my respite care. They took away dh's physiotherapy. They took away anything other than standard wheelchair assessments which means we have to pay for our own. They took away homes, dignity, lives. Get out of cloud cuckoo land Littlemonsters the reality for many of us is on the fucking breadline, being scared.

I agree. I don't like the manipulation of something like that to buy votes. And there will be a backlash. Some people love it though because this sort of thing obviously works - or they wouldn't do it.

As for the government's treatment of the disabled - I don't think society has ever treated disabled people and their families well. It is marginally better than it used to be but there is a long way to go before it is acceptable.

There needs to be a complete rethink - I would get rid of the category "disabled" altogether and just look at the child or the person and what they need and what they can contribute. But I suspect we are a long way from that.