Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think the Camerons are hypocrites?

381 replies

Pixel · 05/04/2015 15:51

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.

OP posts:
Viviennemary · 05/04/2015 16:38

I'm sick to death of this anti Cameron stuff on Mumsnet. But I agree that not having to worry about financial problems does make life easier whatever your circumstances.

LaLyra · 05/04/2015 16:38

I find them quite baffling. You would think that their personal experience would lead to David Cameron wanting to help people in a similar position to him.

For example I had a school colleague whose adult child had autism and she knew how hard it was to be in the position of their families. She had to be, very gently, told that she had to stop helping the other families in her position so much because she was going to burn out with early starts, late nights and the hours spent researching the ways she could help the children in her class.

David Cameron has absolutely no empathy with people whatsoever. Especially when you consider that a lot of the cuts are being inflicted on people who don't have the funds for two nannies to help so are in a worse position than their position, which they know was awful.

Icimoi · 05/04/2015 16:42

Yes, they are hypocrites. I must admit my opinion of Samantha Cameron has gone right down as a result of today's interview. I don't think you can sink much lower than using your disabled dead child for electoral advantage.

textfan · 05/04/2015 16:43

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

BabyGanoush · 05/04/2015 16:45

well, the bbc is a labour mouthpiece...

EggcidentalAnarchist · 05/04/2015 16:46

Yanbu

SuburbanRhonda · 05/04/2015 16:46

I'm sick to death of this anti Cameron stuff on Mumsnet.

Why?

almahart · 05/04/2015 16:47

I think the way Cameron uses all his children to make political capital is highly questionable. I haven't seen other politicians do it. Not only does he talk about his oldest son but I heard him on the radio the day his daughter got her school place talking about how relieved he was to have got that letter just like all other families. I don't think it reflects well on him at all.

Also, it just boggles me that the Conservatives have managed to cut some taxes while decimating welfare budgets.Why? Also, of all benefits by far the greatest proportion are those paid to pensioners which are not being touched. So OP yanbu.

Original poster
Pixel · 05/04/2015 16:47

I'm sick to death of this anti Cameron stuff on Mumsnet.

This is the first time I've said anything against them on here. I actually voted for him last time after I saw an interview where he really seemed to understand what it's like to battle for everything for your disabled child. He even agreed it was soul destroying having to fill in the piles of forms to get DLA and promised to make it easier.

I have seen no evidence whatsoever that he has shown an ounce of sympathy to parents of disabled children (or disabled adults, I still haven't forgiven Remploy) since he's been in power. Sadly it was all a sham.

OP posts:
HelenaDove · 05/04/2015 16:49

The hypocrisy is astounding.

Red had a great interview with Sarah Brown last month in the print edition. Shes very passionate about EVERY child having access to education.

Sam cant hold a candle to her IMO.

Original poster
Pixel · 05/04/2015 16:50

Alma, YABU calling pensions a benefit. My mum is 70 and only gave up work a couple of years ago after working full-time since the age of 14. She has more than paid her dues for the pittance she gets.

OP posts:
SauvignonBlanche · 05/04/2015 16:51

YANBU

TBH my first thought reading the article this morning was try living through it while living in poverty.

I sometimes wonder how they sleep at night.

Original poster
Pixel · 05/04/2015 16:52

Sorry Alma when you were agreeing with me. Smile It's just something that really upsets my mum, being described as on benefits. And she is taxed too!

OP posts:
Iggly · 05/04/2015 16:52

Neither Sarah nor Gordon Brown used either the death of their premature baby or the serious illness of one of their sons as a way of getting votes

^this a million times.
But they didn't need to- labour aren't known as the nasty party...

iHAVEtogetoutofhere · 05/04/2015 16:56

To have a child with a disability makes extra demands on any parent.
To lose a child is something you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy.
I am certainly sorry for any family who goes through that.
Many families go through that with much less support and far more financial worries too.

The Camerons have every right to speak of their experience.
BUT - DC does often seem to 'use' his personal experience to claim authority about disability and to 'shut down' discussion of his actions to make life more difficult for disabled people and their carers.

Other politicians have had children with difficulties or lost children and they have not chosen to speak of it repeatedly just before an election.
It is their right of course.
But it is my right to consider it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

ihatelego · 05/04/2015 16:58

YANBU they are huge hypocrites and I seriously worry about the longevity of the NHS and the rights of the vulnerable if the tories win again Sad

DustingOffTheDynastySuit · 05/04/2015 17:00

I agree that in comparison with Sarah Brown, SamCam does not hold up well.

The only justifiable reason I can see for continually using your child's memory in politics - and Cameron brought him up in BOTH live TV debates, it's almost like a reflex action now - is because you have made improving the lives of families with disabled children your personal crusade. But of course he's doing the absolute opposite of that.

I know the Camerons released those semi-official looking photos of David and Ivan, but then there was very little mention of Ivan until David spoke about him at the Tory conference. Now it feels like his name is constantly and quite casually brought up, and I absolutely agree that he uses it to shut down debate on the NHS.

The utter lack of self-awareness at how their situation differs from ordinary families faced with the same challenges is frankly quite terrifying also.

TidyDancer · 05/04/2015 17:02

I think what scares me the most about this is that they know what it's like to have a child with disabilities (granted they had the cushion of being millionaires and could finance all the help they wanted/needed), and DC still proposes these policies. Even with his apparent experience in the area, the Tories are destroying the lives of the most vulnerable people in the UK. What will he and his cronies do to people who they don't have anything in common with at all? The prospect of continuing Tory power scares the hell out of me.

DustingOffTheDynastySuit · 05/04/2015 17:02

Actually didn't Gordon mention the loss of his child in that final hours speech he did before the Scottish devolution vote? But that is the only time I have ever heard him do so, and it felt not only impassioned, but almost unscripted. It was done very positively too.

DoctorDonnaNoble · 05/04/2015 17:03

The BBC does not have a pro-Labour bias. Many of it's political commentators, such as Robert Peston, are Conservatives.

Methe · 05/04/2015 17:04

You'd think that having been through it themselves they would treat people going through it now a bit better.

The way the tories treat vulnerable people is the only reason I'm not voting for them in the next election. I don't know how they can live with themselves.

TidyDancer · 05/04/2015 17:05

YY to the using their DS to shut down the NHS questions. And people had such a go at Jack Monroe when she dared to point it out. She was (and continues to be) 100% correct.

RonaldMcDonald · 05/04/2015 17:11

I have been so so disappointed in this govt for the way that they have treated disabled people and their carers.
My mother is a WC user and has been terrified of losing her DLA although this might not make much sense. DLA is the thing that allows her to work a little still and get out of her house.
She has worried and worried about ATOS and PIP.

I think that the govt takes takes takes from those with least - as no one wants to imagine how it would be if it were them. They think the number of votes are negligible and they can do as they please.
Then Sam Cam and HamCam are wheeled out pretending to understand.
This is just appalling.

If UKIP, vile as they are IMO, would promise to do decent things to support disabled people and the legions who care for them I would vote for them in a heartbeat
Why aren't Labour beating this drum?

PenguinsAreAce · 05/04/2015 17:11

YANBU

Somewhere on here there must be a record or a link to a record of the promises he made about nappies when he when to visit Riven. Did he do anything about it at all? Has he done ANYTHING in govt to help the poorest members of society? And yet he calls himself a Christian too.

HelenaDove · 05/04/2015 17:12

I used to post on Carers Uks forum and i remember saying on there five and more years ago what would happen and some of them shouted me down saying "But he had a disabled child so he WILL understand"

Havent used their forum for a few years. Nothing personal, it just petered out once i joined MN.

I wonder what the ones who insisted i was wrong think now.