Guest post from Nick Clegg: 'The economic rescue is working - but we know families are still feeling the squeeze'

[MumsnetGuestPosts]

The official figures are in: Britain’s economy is now larger than it was before the financial crash hit in 2008. There is still a way to go to get us where we need to be, with many British families still feeling the squeeze – but this is good news. It shows the rescue is working.

This is why the Liberal Democrats came into coalition in the first place, to provide the strong and stable government Britain needed to get back on its feet again. Four years on and Britain is going from strength to strength.

According to the latest IMF estimates, the UK will be the fastest growing economy in the G7 in 2014. We have more people in work than ever before, with 2 million more people working in the private sector than in 2010. The deficit is also down by a third: we’re borrowing around £3,000 less per family.

None of this would have been possible without the hard work and sacrifices of millions of families. Across the country, there are countless stories of workers in the private and public sector accepting pay cuts or pay freezes to prevent redundancies, keep businesses afloat and maintain essential public services.

In government, the Liberal Democrats have focused on doing everything we can to help Britain’s families weather this storm. The crucial question that every parent asks when weighing up whether to work or take on extra hours is: how much of my wages will I keep after I've paid for costs like tax, childcare, travel and so on?

To make that decision easier, we've secured a £800 tax cut for millions of ordinary people by raising the point at which you pay income tax to £10,000 - with a further increase to £10,500 next April.

The credibility we've gained by sticking to Britain’s economic plan has helped keep interest rates historically low, saving families money on their mortgage bills.

From this September, every family with young children will benefit from our plan to provide free school meals to pupils in reception classes, year one and year two – ensuring they get a healthy lunch and saving you around £400 for your household budget every year.

Also, if you’re a working parent with children under 12, we’re helping with childcare – from autumn next year, Government will contribute 20% of your childcare costs up to £10,000 a year. This covers parents working full-time and part-time and, for the first time ever, those mums and dads who run their own businesses. This will provide the equivalent of £2,000 per child, per year for every working family, except those on extremely high wages.

We've increased the hours of funded early-education available to every family with a 3 and 4-year-old to 15 hours a week, as well as 2-year-olds from poorer families.

We’re also making it easier for you to organise your childcare support in a way that works best for your family. From April next year, we’re introducing our new shared parental leave arrangements, enabling new parents to carve up the leave they’re entitled to with greater freedom and flexibility. We've already extended the right to request flexible working to everyone, to help boost that army of family members and friends you call on to help with childcare.

I want to help ensure that Britain’s children, whatever their family circumstances or background, get the best possible start in life. So, building on the success of our £2.5 billion Pupil Premium, next year, we’re giving state-funded early years providers an additional £300 to spend on every 3 and 4 year-old from poorer families to support their development further. This is one of the best possible investments we can make in our country’s future.

Together, we’re getting our economy back on track. There’s still a lot to do. But, as Britain moves from rescue to renewal, I'm determined to ensure that every single person has the opportunities and support they need to get on and build the life they want.

[LineRunner]

Dear Nick,
On the off chance your apparatchiks are reading this thread, I would like to ask why men like Lord Rennard and Mike Hancock the disgraced MP are still actually members of your Party, whilst good women who stood up for their laudable principles have felt they had no option but to leave.
In what way do you feel this endears you to Mumsnet?
Oh, hang on - it doesn't.

[IfNotNowThenWhen]

Have I been deleted yet?
I swear, if I get deleted again I will de-reg and tweet about why I did all the live long day.

[Baddderz]

I nearly de-reged over the mensch debacle.

[WhistlingPot]

I think much of the anger being vented on this thread, is well directed. Not just at Clegg, but at the whole stitched up shebang and the total lack of any party to address the real issues, or take responsibility. This buttered up folly of Clegg's has just spurred another outlet for it.

That's how I feel, in any case.

[FannyFifer]

Posts deleted for being mean, mean?WTAF!

[LineRunner]

The man is the Deputy Prime Minister of the UK. He ought to be a little bit tough. Just a ickle bit.

In my personal opinion he doesn't deal well with lib dem men who make women feel degraded. How you like them apples?

[Baddderz]

Discussing the lib dems is a wasted exercise.
They are finished in the UK.

[thecageisfull]

Mean? Because I called him out on privatisation of the NHS? Really? People are dying and I'm mean?

Please send me my text so I can repost

[LineRunner]

Did Clegg's own people complain? I know MN are trying to make AIBU less mean but this is a political discussion and it all seems a tad over zealous on the nicey-nicey front.

[MotherSouperior]

MNHQ, Could you please tell us if you have had any communication from the LibDems about this thread?

Or has MN self-censored?

[Justgotosleepnow]

Breaking Buddhist has explained the situation perfectly.
Politicians please read this and learn.

[Jux]

I shall be spoiling my ballot paper next year. First time ever in 38 years. None of you are worth the paper you are written on. But you Nick, you held the potential in your hands, the possibility that a Government would at last actually help the vulnerable in society. Oh how I am laughing at myself now.

I have to keep coming back to this thread because to say how disgusted and betrayed I feel only once is not enough.

I despise you, Nick Clegg. You are utterly reprehensible.

[Perhaps]

The right honourable Nick Clegg..i think not.

[WaxyDaisy]

I keep coming back too. I really think they have no idea of the strength of feeling amongst those of us who voted and felt betrayed. We have had a local Iib Dem council for as long as I can remember. They were generally v good, with sound values. Not at all the sort of party to team up with the conservatives. (I should add they are not the council any more here, for obvious reasons)

The party's track record locally suggested they would make good Government. Then, you came up with this principle that you had to go with the party with the most votes. Why? Do continental countries do this? Or do parties get together with the parties they feel they have most in common with and can form good policies with, as well as leading a Government? Yes, condem offered the biggest majority. Yes, Labour were a little unpopular after so long in power and in a bit of disarray. However, the people who voted for you at least have principles! You could have formed a Liblab coalition, yet you chose not to. Why? Grasping hungry greed for power?

You threw away your chance of winning the proportional representation vote the day you made Cameron prime minister. You had just exemplified to your previously loyal supporters why encouraging more frequent coalitions was in reality a fucking dreadful idea.

Have you really attenuated the a conservatives? We will never know. You automatically made yourselves their whipping boys.

Finally, your chucking out of manifesto commitments was shallow, deceitful, and wrong. It was spitting in the face of all those who voted lib dem.



Please note all the 'yous' in this post are plural and aimed at the whole lib dem top team.

[unitarian]

We've still got three party politics but really UKIP has taken the place of the LDs and, as I said in my deleted post, Clegg's performance in debate against Farage fuelled UKIP, and the poll ratings afterwards reflected the public's disgust with Clegg rather than agreement with Farage.

Nick Clegg, the man who made Nigel Farage look good'. What a political epitaph!

Is that 'mean' of me?

[WhistlingPot]

Mean but true unitarian!

[MotherSouperior]

I'm still perplexed at us being told not to 'be mean' to Nick Clegg and the censoring of posts that were simply calling him out on his abysmal record in power. I'm really, really bemused by MNHQ over this.

Again, MNHQ. Did the LibDems get in touch about this thread or have you self-censored?

I remember watching the Farage webchat, which really was a slow motion car crash. Even he had the odd supporter popping up. He faced criticism far more robust than that handed out here. I can't remember that thread having posts deleted (and I detest NF, so this isn't a defence of his dreadful performance).

There has not been a single positive post on this thread, endorsing his policies

On the contrary, MN (which should be a LibDem heartland, if ever there was one) seems unanimous in our vehement opposition to him – and the rest of the LD top team. The number of us who keep coming back to this thread ratherthanjustlurkonS&B-- says a great deal. We are furious with the effect that he has had on this country.

To delete us for being 'mean' to a grown man whose supine approval of policies have actually resulted in the deaths of vulnerable people beggars belief.

I don't get it, MN. I really don't. I could understand it if he'd faced a torrent of abuse but the majority of deleted posts took apart his policies and actions. Not the man himself. There's only one (the soiled trouser picture) that I think could fall foul of our guidelines.

Please rethink this or follow Parsing's suggestion about simply deleting the offending words. I really think as a matter of record this thread ought to stand uncensored.

Have the LibDems contacted you about this thread?

ifnotnow and Breaking Buddhist I couldn't endorse your posts more.

[IfNotNowThenWhen]

Thanks Mother Souperior.
Btw, did you used to be ,ahem, "inferior" or are you an entirely different poster?

[catsrus]

Think of it like this Nick. A man makes promises to a woman, they marry because she believes those promises and then once married he decides that those promises can be ignored. She comes onto MN and says, for example, 'what do I do, he promised the children would not have to pay tuition fees and now he's saddled them with debt, not only that he's limiting their access to good quality health care. Evidently his new best mate thinks we need to toughen them up and not pander to them but should be spending family money on jollies for him and their cronies' People have been betrayed by you and your party. I feel sorry for the decent party workers and MPs who will bear the brunt of this. My own MP is lib dem and a good local MP I have voted lib dem for 20 yrs, for one reason only to keep the Tories out (this is a 2 party area, Con and Lib dem)- but there is no way I would ever vote Lib Dem ever again.

[thecageisfull]

I've asked MNHQ for my deleted post so I can repost without the 'meanness' but nothing yet...