to think we are doing ourselves a disservice by asking the PM about biscuits/TV/film etc?

[Ewe]

We have the PRIME MINISTER on for a webchat, surely we can keep this political and relevant?

I worry that asking questions about these superficial things;

a) gives him an opportunity to avoid the harder and more important questions

and

b) may give the impression that we are just a bunch of daft mums when we are actually the complete opposite!

AIBU? (Quite probably yes)

well I personally think if he is too scared to commit to a question about biscuit preferences...sort of reflects the continual self checking re spin and perceptions that plagues politics at the moment....what would the focus group say is the right answer? fuck the focus group! tell us what you really think!

So it does serve a serious purpose.

Agree with Frumpy and MadamD, he's hardly going to change his mind on anything because of an hours webchat, and he already knows what we think is important.

yanbu - I think MNHQ did bloody well to get him on here, so to ask him about his favourite biscuit is a bit silly. Its the PM fgs! I'm usually one of the "gay for a day - wh owould you do?" questioners, but I didn't think it was at all appropriate in this case. We NEEDED him to answer the important Qs.

the biscuit thing was a counterpoint to the fact he wouldn't address many of the issues raised...

Next time, someone at MN towers could just offer him a plate of biscuits and then hold up the wrapper in the background. That way, we would know which one he likes but the rest of the world could remain in blissful ignorance.

I mean, it wasn't like he was going to have some kind of Damascan epiphany on how to be PM after being on MN...

YABU - he was never going to answer the serious questions properly, he's a politician. The biscuits/ TV thing would have been much more revealing.

I think YABU

So what if he is the PM? Why does a webchat with him have to be political and relevant?

Why can't it be more an opportunity for us to get to know him as a person? I don;t think that makes us daft mums at all.

It isn't about whether or not a couple of questions about HE or primary education will change his mind, it's about pinning him down on questions and getting a straight answer. I think he was able to ignore all of the relevant, interesting and important questions because all the dross that was asked let him off the hook. I couldn't give a shite in a snowstorm about whether he likes hobnobs as it is not relevant to his ability (or not) as PM.

I should think he only came on here because he saw it as a 'soft' Q&A session. And how right he was.

frumpy, you got special webcam priviliges?

and I agree with Puppymonkey, he is a politician, he's not going to answer any difficult quesitons he doesn't want to answer.

It wasn't soft. He got asked some really pertinent questions, which he did not answer or trotted some party line.

Why should we not enjoy humour with him because he is the PM?

He has a name, it is Gordon.
He likely will have had a child pee/vomit on him at some point.
He bleeds blood.
He laughs sometimes.
He is sad sometimes.
He is just like..........mmm, a normal person.

We, none of us, should have to adapt the way we talk in our day to day lives for anyone.

If he didn't want to be presented with the full MN experience, he wouldn't have come.

MamaG why did we need him to answer the important questions?

What does it matter? He didn't say anything none of us could have found out for ourselves through doing a bit of research did he?

Gwtting him to give answers to our concerns doesn't fix those concerns. Hell, he doesn't even have to stick to what he said here.

YABU, its the character of Mumsnet....and anyway, there were LOADS of serious, important questions and he didn't answer many of those either.

And of course, it wasn't really just him, tapping away on a keyboard, surely? There will have been a whole team of people, checking all the questions, advising him on which to answer, and frantically gathering stats on Sure Start centres or whatever.

They will have cherry-picked the questions, and then someone will have typed up the PPB at the end.

They wouldn't have been side-stepping biscuit questions when they were perfectly capable of side-stepping much more important issues!

Madame sadly no webcam, I was stuck in a little mini-episode in my own head

I agree frumpy

Lol Callisto 'it's about pinning him down on questions and getting a straight answer'

You are joking aren't you? He's a politician!

Yes, I should say 'attempting to get a straight answer'. Bloody politicians.

I know...who'd have em eh?

we DO know he had cupcakes though.....

you could have been asking him all those serious questions til the cows came home,to no avail....and you all KNOW that!!

no point is there. same with Ed Balls.

it quickly became apparant that he had his own agenda...i asked Aggie her fave biscuit,then i asked Gordon....so what? lighten up...

will ask the next one too...if thats ok?

my question on three tier education hasn't been answered at all...never will be because its too controversial....i accept that

Do you think so TataRose? A whole team of them?

I don't actually think there's anything wrong with the odd more frivolous, 'human' question like the biscuit one. The trouble is there were loads of posts harping on about biscuits, demanding an answer to the biscuit question and speculating as to what kind of biscuit it would be. Just don't think it does us any favours really.

It was answered though.......

By SarahBrown on Fri 16-Oct-09 14:44:10

Shortbread, actually

and Sarah should know!