to think the Camerons are hypocrites?

[Pixel]

I've always had the utmost sympathy for them and what they went through in losing their eldest son, but Sam has made me very cross today. She's going on about how difficult it is caring for a disabled child and saying 'it pushes you to the limits of what you can cope with', yet the other day I saw this article. It says that the BBC has seen leaked documents showing that the Conservatives are planning to cut carer's allowance and disability benefits should they get re-elected.

Northern excellent post

This should be the new mumsnet campaign
To get parliament to recognise how appalling this system is and to change it for the positive

YANBU and I agree with Orlando.

I haven't read the thread but I am quite cross about the timing of this. Obviously terrible tragedy for them and it is a totally personal decision when you decide, if ever, to talk about it publicly. But the timing just weeks before an election. Cynical beyond the pale.

Add in to that what everyone else has said about trying to deal with a sick child without support, finance etc and it is even more shocking.

I wonder whose decision it was to talk about it now?

I don't have respect for anyone who puts their children in the papers.

Other politicians, and "celebrities" have managed to avoid doing this.

And I agree that Cameron uses mention of Ivan to shut down debate

I have had a think about this. We know what Portillo said about the Tories thinking that they would not win the election if they were honest about what they wanted to do.

What if the Cameron's were privately unhappy at the way the NHS looked after Ivan? What if they resented the fact that the UK system meant that private healthcare was not set up to support a child with
Ivan's needs? They were as reliant on the NHS as everyone else... and whilst no doubt they got preferential treatment, perhaps not as preferential as they would have liked.

What if they thought that it was wrong that they were able to claim DLA when they didn't need it?

Would they come out and say that? Or would they feel justified using the death of their son to drive an agenda which they personally believe would have benefitted him? Maybe they have some grudges against certain elements of the NHS? Anyone who works with top consultants knows that they are not easily intimidated.

In any event we must not allow Cameron to use the death of his Son as a shield to stop interrogation of his policies. His experiences have informed his policies no doubt.... but in what way? We can only judge by his actions which are to dismantle the NHS and cut services to the disabled. Perhaps this shows that he and his wife are in fact emotional about the NHS and disabled services. The problem for us is that their emotions may be negative, irrational, and clouded by grief.

DynastySuit I don't think David Cameron gives a shit whether anyone has forgotten the 'Calm Down Dear' moment or not. The recent documentary about him showed he has a 'Calm Down Dear' tea towel in his kitchen. I bet his (more than likely female) domestic staff are so amused when they use it. Isn't it fun when a patronizing 'joke' keeps on giving?

Gatorade, I didn't know that. How hilarious.

Much more offensive than Ed Miliband having two kitchens IMO. that second one is grim anyway

yanbu, op. Their stance is hypocritical and insensitive.

Well, she is not in government herself. However, the timing of the release of this article just before the election is very contrived and I think there is something cheap about using it as part of their election campaign.

Attached clothes peg to nose and went to visit DM site. Overwhelmingly the posts and upvotes register distaste/disgust that the Camerons should use their deceased child in this way.

Also, today a very thoughtful piece from Dominic Lawson (who has a disabled child) taking Cameron to task for his failure to help others in the same position. He points out that Cameron is a patron of KIDS (a charity that aims to improve local and central government care for disabled children) Lawson's wife Rosa Monckton is its president. He quotes cases about ordinary people's struggles to get local councils to listen and act. He points out that in five years no steps have been taken to improve anything.

I would describe the tone as quietly but firmly damning.

Remember Charles Gummer and his daughter?

Eat this hamburger. It's fine and you'll love it.

I would love to know how much that cost him in bribes.

I remember that well, I'd like to hear his daughters reaction to it now, now that she's older.

It is a sad fact that politicians children are often paraded in front of the cameras in order to get their parent's votes. However, none, apart from Cameron has actually used a dead child to win votes. That is sick.

zeezeek I agree with you & wouldn't vote for him based on this alone (although wouldn't have chosen him anyway tbf).

He has never had to experience the hardship associated with worrying about money/housing/support which confronts most parents of sick/disabled DC. His attitude is an insult to voters' intelligence and, sadly, the memory of Ivan. Samantha is a sheep, shame on her.

While my son was on the Oncology Ward of GOSH we met families who were losing their livelihoods & homes, along with their DC. Terrifying & heartbreaking.

I think the best skill a politician needs is the ability to listen. They may not be able to empathise - as things could be outside their experience. But an ability to listen.

If you can't listen to people - and just like the sound of your own voice and think you understand people's reality, you aren't going to be effective.

I suspect Cameron has only really listened to certain people - and ignored what other people tell him and their reality.

He is rich and so is she. They don't care, IMO.

I would like to think that Samantha Cameron is at this moment really regretting that interview. It would be good think that she was pressurised into it by Lynton Crosby and his friends and now feels quite sick that she allowed Ivan to be used in this way. The trouble is, I'm not entirely convinced that that is the case. You really have to despise the electorate to go along with a trick like that, and I don't know that she's bright enough to work out the truth.

If they want to talk about their son, I dearly hope it helps them deal with their loss. I don't know anyone who doesn't feel for them, as we do for anyone else who has lost a child.

If they want to talk about how they know what being a carer is like for most ordinary people - they really, really don't. They haven't had to spend years of never having enough sleep, of debt, of shortchanging other children in the family of time and attention because there aren't enough care-hours to go around, to not knowing what is going to be your fate in the next week, month, year, decade...

It's that feeling of hot, bright exhaustion washing over your brain when you are chronically sleep-deprived over months and years, you have to take three buses between appointments because you can't afford a cab, you can't stop, you dare not get ill yourself, your paid work hangs by a thread as you can't focus on it and you have to drop it every time there's an emergency, your home is a state because you don't have time to do housework, you eat cheap rubbish because it is easy and cheap and it gives you just enough energy to get stuff done, there isn't anyone to hand any of this over to, you feel like you aren't doing enough for any of the people you have responsibility for but you are doing your best, and you have no idea how long it will go on for....

It can be utter desperation, being a carer, and while they have no doubt suffered great pain and loss, they haven't known this.

YANBU.

I don't see anything wrong with them talking about their disabled child if they want to.
And who knows, maybe, by talking about him a lot, especially at this time, it helps give his life more meaning, which in turn gives them some comfort.

Disability charity that helped Camerons son loses out in cuts.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/disabled-charity-that-helped-camerons-son-loses-out-in-cuts-2269618.html

Neither does anyone else takeme, there are plenty of people to whom they could speak, privately. There are even times when they could choose to speak publicly. However to do so during an election campaign is entirely cynical, particularly as it is in support of a government that has done nothing but deprive those with disabilities and their carers.

Maybe in an (albeit slightly clumsy) way, they are trying to raise disability awareness?
Who knows.

I'm sorry, but the way I see it, Politician or not, NO parent, who's lost a child would try and exploit that fact.

I think it's insulting to them to suggest otherwise.

Remember DC went to s mners house and met her severely disabled dd and promised her no cut would be made that affected disabled.

Ha ha ha!