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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think that david cameron is a twunt

59 replies

spookycharlotte121 · 01/09/2009 22:29

I am so sick and tired of the conservatives painting single parent families as being the scum of the earth.

We didnt choose to be on our on with our kids.... we work hard to provide themwith a stable home and be both the parents.... its bloody hard work and to be acused of causing a "broken britain" i think is quite frankly insulting.

I would like to make a dart board with his face on it!
that or leave him to look after my kids for a weekend, cope on a small income and cope with abuse from my ex!

OP posts:
poshsinglemum · 02/09/2009 11:16

private
respect

expatinscotland · 02/09/2009 11:18

None of them has any link with reality for most people. That's why they all cock up so much.

civilfawlty · 02/09/2009 11:23

Actually, the most recent research clearly shows that the number of parents in a hosuehold DOES NOT effect a child's life chances. And that, in fact, the variables are geographic, to do with the example set by the parents, and to do with community.

It is easy and extraordinarily crass to suggest that the issues to which you allude are the province of single parent households. Moreover, the Tory policies will remove the support which allows single parents to be able to afford to get off benefits an go out to work, making their contribution to society and setting a good example to their children.

My suggestion is that the Tories, and people who support this maddening nonsense, do their research and have a more subtle understanding of the data without going off on pseudo-daily mail-esque rants.

mosschops30 · 02/09/2009 11:29

YABU - love DC

IUsedToBePeachy · 02/09/2009 11:39

No Moschops, you don't say? There was I thinking you were a leftie

PSM keeplooking - theya re out there, hiding. DH is an atheist but was a virgin when we met as was waiting for 'Mrs Right'- it's the morals that matter (not so botherd about the virginity obv LOL or i'd be a right hypocrite, just the attitude of wanting to commit)

ReneRusso · 02/09/2009 12:16

I haven't heard David Cameron say anything against single parents. Please can someone post the link?

purplepeony · 02/09/2009 12:30

I haven't heard anything either as I think he'd b e shooting himself in the foot.

I did hear yesterday that a report recently said kids from 1 parent families weren't doing quite so badly as it had once appeared. I also heard Ian Duncan Smith talking about his- but DC? No.

I think it is ludicrous for people here to say they don't like him because of his face, his smile, the fact he went to Eton ( MAggie went to a state school- did that make her popular with everyone, eh?), or the colour of his socks.

Also, you don't have to have been born into a particular sector of society to understand it. That imples you don't have eyes, easr and a brain to learn about it!

I have friends who have been to top public schools, sink schools and all in betwen- they are all the same underneath.

preciouslillywhite · 02/09/2009 12:44

I do think you have to experience poverty and social exclusion-thro personal experience or work- to understand it, pp. I don't think any amount of info and stats collected and collated by advisers and civil servants would give someone who's undeniably very privileged a fecking clue!

slug · 02/09/2009 13:04

When, pray tell, was Britain ever healthy? I can't for the life of me think of a golden time when all in Britain lived blameless, happy lives.

'Broken Britain' IMVHO is just a metaphor for 'the underclass'

purplepeony · 02/09/2009 13:19

Precious*- so according to your logic, the only people who are fit to lead the country or comment on poverty or the underclass are those who are either still poor or have had a poverty-stricken background- is that what you are saying?

If that is so, then how would the rest of the population- the majority who are NOT in poverty- feel about that kind of representative?

Your views don't really add up.

oldraver · 02/09/2009 13:22

I actually dont know what this man is saying, I just hear/read stuff on MN about what he has said. I cant wait for him to come knocking on the little nest of houses where I live (in his constituency

My neighbour across the road is a single parent. Her DH died while a high ranking RAF Officer, her two eldest where in private educatation and both now have degrees, the youngest is just off to university next month. My friend herself has a very good job in adult literacy and is completing her third degree

My next door neighbour was briefly a single parent as her there was an amicable break . Her youngest is still at school the oldest living independantly after completing college. She is a director/owner of an accountacy firm and gave up her £100,000/year London job 10 years ago to be nearer for her children

My next door but one also had a marriage break down. She is high up in South of England Tourism. Two sons at University

Then there is myself. I didnt choose to become a single parent as my DH died. Our son is now at University studying Crimnology and boy did it annoy him when the 'satistics' connecting 'broken homes' and crime were banidied about. I did choose to become a single parent again as I could support myself (partly as I have a pension that came from my DH serving his country)

So I cant wait for this mealey mouthed tosser to come calling and tell me what a waste all of these broken families are

paisleyleaf · 02/09/2009 13:25

single parents are not to blame for broken Britain

jellybeans · 02/09/2009 13:25

'I do have a problem with people who have essentially been born with a silver spoon in their mouths becoming elected to public office and then sermonizing about the supposed existence and evils of a social underclass of which they know nothing. '

I feel the same as 2kidzandi

Silver1 · 02/09/2009 13:27

IUsedToBePeachy They may be generalisations but why should I look see and hear a degregation of society and begrudge funding it with higher taxes?
Yes I agree there is an underclass-and yes it did begin to emerge in the Tory era, but Labour said they would fix it-and from what I have seen they have just glorified it.

I can hold my own moral standard without a government or a Mumsnetter telling me what it should be-but I can also vote for a party who seems to support these standards.

Silver1 · 02/09/2009 13:30

Paisleyleaf I think a lack of nurturing childcare contributes to broken Britain-and this government has criticised University Educated women who chose to stay at home with their children as wasting tax payers money.
They want all women back at work and there just isn't adequate childcare to cover this.

MadameCastafiore · 02/09/2009 13:32

It doesn;t matter what you say, any of you, he is going to be our next PM and I for 1 am very grateful for that.

catinthehat2 · 02/09/2009 13:33

"By ReneRusso Wed 02-Sep-09 12:16:33 Add a message | Report post | Contact poster

I haven't heard David Cameron say anything against single parents. Please can someone post the link? "

Has anyone come back to Rene with an answer yet?

slug · 02/09/2009 13:35

Purplepony, the problem with DC is not so much that he has a privildged background, he can't help that, but rather that nothing he has done since he graduated has exposed him to the reality of life in the UK for the vast majority of Britains. He has only ever worked for the Conservative Party, represents a relatively wealthy electorate and has filled his shadow cabinet with men who have the same background as himself. How on earth is he supposed to really understand what life is like on benefits/low wages/sink extates/sub standard housing etc?

Contrast that with Tony Benn for example, who has an equally privilidged background.

hannahsaunt · 02/09/2009 13:45

He has done something - he worked in PR - spin, spin, spin. Managed not to throw anything at the radio this morning as he was interviewed on Today. Dreadful man.

4littlelions · 02/09/2009 13:57

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

mazzystartled · 02/09/2009 14:01

yanbu

i don't feel the need to qualify that any further

ninagleams · 02/09/2009 14:01

The Conservative Party are apparently going to "end the couple penalty in the benefits system and recognise marriage in the tax and benefits system". They're not going to recognise co-habitees with children which would be practical if you wanted to promote two parent families. They're not going to promote the welfare of children by offering new, innovative support to all parents whether they're coupled up or not. Nope, they're going to offer a marriage tax break.

DC hasn't said anything substantial about single parent families at all. He's ignored them and gone for the safest, most conservative, old fashioned, simplistic policy that the party could promote. This is backed up with policies surrounding working parents and parental leave that the current government have said they can't actually fund at the moment because they would cost too much.

ohjustgrowup · 02/09/2009 14:15

I agree, Ninagleams. It is horribly simplistic. Is it better for parents in abusive or toxic relationships to stay together because a married unit is better than a stable single parent family?

I am a single parent. My ds is lucky enough to have two happy, single parents. He is emotionally, financially and educationally supported by both of us equally, but separately. We communicate nearly daily about him to ensure his routine and boundaries are the same with both of us. I resent being judged or penalised because my marriage did not work out.

I can't bear DC's smug attitude and think he is seriously a case of style over substance - and before I am told by anybody (mentioning no names) that I don't know enough about it - I have a degree in politics and I am a personal friend of DC's press secretary, so I do know something...

ilovemydogandmrobama · 02/09/2009 14:21

Britain really is broken when the Tory party is campaigning that civil liberties have been eroded...

said · 02/09/2009 17:00

Presumably childless married couples will be given a tax break over long-term stable co-habiting couples with children?

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