Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

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:
drudgetrudy · 05/04/2015 17:13

Puzzled at people saying the BBC have a labour bias. Did you see the Paxman interviews (particularly last time).
Some of the recent news items tell half a story and are slightly biased to the conservatives.

Sixweekstowait · 05/04/2015 17:15

AIBU thread on the gloves are off also on this topic. Sorry I gave it such an oblique title

PenguinsAreAce · 05/04/2015 17:17

Pre 1997 the Tories were moaning the BBC was too hard on them. Change of Govt at the election, and LO and behold the Labour Party were saying the same thing. The media will criticise the Govt. It is part of their role to critique Govt policy. This is a good thing.

Ratfinkandbobo · 05/04/2015 17:18

Yanbu, they certainly are hypocrites.

Littlemonstersrule · 05/04/2015 17:23

Regardless of who the PM is, there is only so much they can do to help the poor. You can't just throw more money at them, it doesn't help and solves nothing long term. The person themselves needs to take responsibility rather than lay blame at everyone else's door.. I think the emphasis he has placed on people helping themselves as much as possible is a far better way of doing things. We need a better economy, more in employment and a far less dependency on benefits.

The proposed cuts are just that, leaked suggestions of which there will be hundreds and from all parties. I doubt there is one party who would leave the benefit system as it is. Whilst it's paying for people to choose not to work, it's a shambles. The very fact it has to be suggested that they pay out no more than £23k shows just how out of hand it has got.

So Sam had help, lots of familes have help. Should she never mention it because she dares have money in the bank? Given she works, paying for a nanny is nothing unusual.

LineRunner · 05/04/2015 17:25

I think that was a stupid interview from Samantha Cameron. Who in the name of God thought that was a good idea when less rich (ie all other) families have no means of coping in such a way?

God I feel for her and her loss, but it does seem as though it's being used ...

Methe · 05/04/2015 17:26

The person themselves needs to take responsibility rather than lay blame at everyone else's door..

Yes of course, stupid disabled people. Should just recover.. Hmm

BreakWindandFire · 05/04/2015 17:27

The person themselves needs to take responsibility rather than lay blame at everyone else's door.

Given this is a thread about dealing with children with severe disabilities, how should they/their parents 'take responsibility'? Sometimes people need state help as it's far too much a burden (both financially and physically) for an individual family to take on.

LineRunner · 05/04/2015 17:31

Littlemontersrule, any chance you could check out what the discussion's about?

Maybe you might tell us your views about why those caring for children with disabilities or special needs tend to be poor, and how the Camerons' privilege correlates with that, or not?

TidyDancer · 05/04/2015 17:31

I'd love it know how it is proposed, in the spirit of this thread, how and where the "taking responsibility" is going to come from? Hmm

ElectraCute · 05/04/2015 17:33

littlemonsters are you being deliberately obtuse?

Surely, even a rabid Tory like you can see that this interview is - at best - ill-judged?

They are doing the exact opposite of 'throwing money at the poor' (ffs, nice turn of phrase). They are taking essential benefits away from disabled people and their carers, leading directly to a poorer standard of living and a decline in mental and physical health. And all the while GlamSamCam dabs at her mascara in front of a Daily Mail journal and tells us how she understands how hard it is.

Bollocks does she. It's sickening and they should both be ashamed of themselves.

Sixweekstowait · 05/04/2015 17:34

Little - Well goodness me who knew? Giving decent benefits and services to families with disabled children won't help? No of course not - the parents shouldn't have had a disabled brat in the first place should they? Why didn't they have an abortion? And really, the parent/s giving up work to stay at home and look after the disabled child? Whatever next? Couldn't they just leave it at home and it would learn to take responsibility for looking after itself. FFS!

ElectraCute · 05/04/2015 17:34

And as for your comments about people taking responsibility for themselves...words fail me.

Fucking Tories. There but for the grace of God go all of you, you selfish, callous fuckers.

Sixweekstowait · 05/04/2015 17:35

Nice touch not wearing the waterproof mascara btw

Sixweekstowait · 05/04/2015 17:36

Electra - I so wanted to use those words.... Spot on

Sixweekstowait · 05/04/2015 17:38

Actually being reminded of what a rabid Tory looks like is quite helpful really

Titsalinabumsquash · 05/04/2015 17:39

The CA thing is ridiculous though, we're not entitled to UC, DP earns too much.

This however doesn't mean that I can work around DS1's health! I'm yet to find an employer that is understanding enough for me to swan off to various parts of the country for weeks at a time with no notice while DS has treatment, or one that will let me leave as when necessary to take DS to the appointments that get scheduled on a same day basis.
We'll manage somehow but it's my personal only income, everyone says women shouldn't stop work and end up reliant on a partners income but that's what will happen if CA is changed like this.
Especially if they're planning on taxing DLA as well, as it was I had to fight tooth and nail to renew it after getting an original claim for life, as I pointed out on the review, DS isn't going to get better, there is only one direction his health will take and it certainly isn't up.

I don't mind David Cameron or the Conservatives though, I think a lot of their policies make sense and have to happen to balance the books, I certainly don't share a very wide view of him being akin to the devil himself as much as Mumsnet and the general public seem to.

caroldecker · 05/04/2015 17:40

I'm not up on the detail of what has happened over the past 5 years, have disability benefits been cut?
The leaked document - all parties will have asked the advisers to look at every option and do a cost benefit analysis - to not do so would be bordering on criminal. However, there is no evidence on which options they intemd to action.
I also believe it was the Labour party which introduced ATOS.

expatinscotland · 05/04/2015 17:43

'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.'

This ^.

YANBU.

I have a disabled child. A dead one, too.

This government has made things very bad for disabled adults, children and their carers.

And DC admitted he does not rule out cutting disabled benefits even more in that £12bn of 'welfare' cuts. Cuts at tax avoiders, £5bn, cuts at the most vulnerable in society, £12bn. Says it all, really.

Fucking hypocrites.

bigbluebus · 05/04/2015 17:45

They may well have had (and sadly lost) a disabled child, but they haven't a clue how that affects people in a similar position in the real world.

We have been relatively lucky in that we have had respite for DD, she has had a good school place with daily transport provided and we have had equipment provided to meet her health needs. That, however, was in children's services. DD is now an adult and that has been a whole different ball game. The Camerons have no idea of the stress involved in Transitioning from childrens to adult services. This has been a period of my life which has seen me start to crack under the stress. I have friends also who have muddled along nicely caring for their disabled child but they have started to suffer from stress and MH problems for the 1st time as their child turns 18. I had to give up my job when DD started school full time as there was no childcare available. We were lucky in that DH had a job that could support us with the addition of my Carers Allowance. If I lose that, it could be the financial straw that breaks the camels back. DS is about to go to Uni so we can ill afford to lose any further money. I will have no option but to go out to work and DD will sadly have to go into residential care. That will cost them lot more than £61pw.

littlejessie · 05/04/2015 17:51

YANBU - it's awful to see them doing this repeatedly on the campaign trail. And wrong, IMHO.

ShakesBootyFlabWobbles · 05/04/2015 17:53

I do find it curious for people to say that politicians release these stories for votes. Having read the article, will it effect my vote in any way? Absolutely not, it isn't relevant to that thought process.

I would be interested to hear of anyone on MN who has actually changed their vote to vote for DC only due to today's article.

A big fat zero is my guesstimate.

Whatever your politics, the family had a severely disabled child who died. If they want to talk about it whenever they like, well why not, that's an awful experience for any family to go through. You can have empathy for a situation without if having any effect on your vote; I don't see how the two are connected, policies go way, way beyond this story. But then, if there's is someone who's changed their vote just down to this situation, I would be interested to hear why.

JugglingFromHereToThere · 05/04/2015 17:55

I may not like Tory politics - and I'm hugely anti-austerity and am supporting the Green Party.
But I still have compassion for them as a family and think as individuals they're doing bloody well to keep going like they do after the loss of their child.
Basically I don't link the two things as much as you seem to OP. It's fair enough that you do, but I just see things more separately that's all.
Also I agree with an early poster on the thread and think a woman has her own life separate from her husband and his job, maybe especially when he's PM

drudgetrudy · 05/04/2015 17:55

Littlemonsters-that is a truly horrible thing to say.
Do you think people choose to have a sick child, develop cancer in their 40s, have a degenerative disease, live with dementia until they are 98?

Ffs-just let them take responsibility for this-give them an incentive to be well!! They shouldn't need care and the person caring for them should just get a job.
You are being callous.
I feel sincerely sorry for the Cameron's that their child had a disability and died.
Emotionally that musr have been very difficult for them.
However they have no idea how families without money and support cope and what addiional pressures they face.

Sixweekstowait · 05/04/2015 17:57

Big- what you make clear of course is the role that social services play or should play in the care of disabled children. DC always just mentions the NHS because a) they funded their own gold plated social care and so know nothing about it and b) protecting social service budgets don't such a vote winner is it.