"Secret" government plans to "win back women"...

[HelenMumsnet]

Hello.

Apparently, the Coalition has "secret plans to win back women" by, among other things, cutting school summer holidays, overhauling child benefit and banning advertising to under-16s.

What do you think?

Would plans like this win you back - if, indeed, you ever went away?

Note to David Cameron.

You need to go back to the drawing board dear. Hope you don't get too frustrated in the process.

I am so angry that these family 'issues' are clearly onlyna women's responsibility makes me so

Sorry, angry!!

They can scrap the planned CSA charges for a start.

Mind you, I was never daft enough to be won over by them in the first place. I could see they were going to trample over single mums from the starts .

Would not meet my approval at all; as a carer they are cutting my income by £50 pw from 2013, a ban on advertising that I can implement myself thank you very much would not cut it much as a gesture if we ahve ended up in temporary housing with our disabled chidlren in temporary foster care due to housing shortage!

And whilst I understand shorter summer hols is a bonus for many, that's not universal: as well as hitting the tourist industry hard, and pushing UK holiday rates up a lot, children with disabilities like mine need that longer break- first 3 weeks until they adjust to change of routine is a nightmare; and of course SSD will not botjer making holiday provision for several longer breaks in the way they do with the sumemr one, so we'd be landedd in it several times over.

Happy days!

And oh yes from next year DH might be main carer dso that's a pile of as well.

(seems to depend on what stats you read whether policies are hitting womern and children or the disabled hardest btw: not that they are discreet groups anyway)

wow, that list is quite staggeringly inept, isn't it?
I'll say one thing for New Labour, they knew how to use focus groups. Whereas this lot are coming across like they make up their policy on the back of a paper napkin in a pub gentleman's club.

I'm surprised they even understand that women are pissed off with them.

Their proposals are so far of the mark that they just underline how out of touch they are.

The maternity budget idea is particuarly bad, we all just want good local services.

There is no point changing school holidays as for every person that wants it changed there will be someone else who likes it how it is.

It shows what the coalition think of women - not every woman is a mum. Many of these policies would be of absolutely no benefit to the childless or women with grown up children.

Decent childcare in the school hols would be of greater benefit to working mums than cutting school holidays.

And organising a glorified cocktail party to celebrate women in business - give me a break! I bet they call then "mumpreneurs'.

The proposals were set out to be good sound bites without costing the coalition money or political capital.

Worthless.

It beggars belief that a party that thinks charging women who are escaping abusive marriages for the privilidge of chasing (and often spectacularly failing) fathers to support their own children is a good idea would ever have any realistic idea of what women actually need or want.

Wrt the disabled and carers, They are putting many carers in unattainable situations whereby they were already living in dire poverty but are pushed even further into it. With my respite now recently cut to zero and further cuts being made to my childs access to healthcare and education I will eventually crack. It isn't an if but a when :( and when that happens the local authority will have to pay foster carers in excess of 1000 per week to care for my child and they will have to provide proper respite (overnights) in order to give the foster carers proper respite as part of their employment. That's if they can find foster carers, if they can't she will have to be put into a residential school setting, do please google, a pmld one costs about 600k p/a iirc. I wouldn't mind but my care package was tiny anyway (about 12 hours per week with no overnights) but it allowed us all the function normally. Those 12 hours were minimum wage. When you lookl at it comparatively budget wise I wonder what the hell they are thinking?? Short term, great. Long term it is disastrous

They'd win this woman back by reclaiming all powers we've ceded to Brussels - especially the European Convention on Human Rights - and delivering a proper, written British constitution.

Well to win me back you need to remove the pay freeze for the armed forces, stop messing (behind closed doors) with the pension DH was promised when he signed up, put the Child Benefit system back to rights ( you don't need to be a chartered accountant to see that 42k isn't equal to 80k) and take a good, long hard look at how our EU counterparts treat the family unit before they make any more half-witted policies.

I'm not going to do more than mention in passing the whole forces family housing issues which effects thousands of women and children both in and out of the UK because if that can gets opened there'll be worms everywhere!

How patronising that they genuinely seem to think that their feeble, totally impractical, half formed mumbling of an idea will lead either to our throwing ourselves at their Gucci-clad, under exercised feet in gratitude or singing their praises as one harmonious voice from the rooftops.

They all need to get a grip of their antiquated views-why not just send us all a new pinny, oven gloves, backdated issues of 'Good Housekeeping' circa 1950 and be done with it?

I would not be won by cutting school holidays! They should introduce a proper summer break like most other countries get. Help rather than continual hammering for people who are trying to help themselves would be more of a vote winner.

Another AAAAAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH from me, as so many of the points I was rolling up my sleeves to make have been covered brilliantly by the posters above.

I think they should shorten special schools summer holidays or at least provide a proper free 3 week playscheme instead of the teachers having to come back early. Almost 7 weeks is far too long for obvious reasons

Where I am the council provides a free summer club during August to every aprents between 10 and 3; OK so it's not whole day but it's close to school hours. They run it alongside the SN provision to promote inclusion and we pay for it in our council tax over 12 months. Far easier.

Wouldn;t that make a bigger difference to people than slamming the tourism industry and cutting holidays?

And the promise of a house should your life be affected by disability ro redundancy would be a far better security for more people than they imagine- our social housing system is a mess.

RogerMelly hugs. Zero respite ehre (above the level of an NT child anyway, see above)- we have 2 diagnosed disbaled child and one who will be one day (another suspected but we don't need services for- so all our 4 at very different levels). I did break; when we were told about ds4. I am just starting to get abck up now tbh. Without DH they'd have 4 boys with additional needs in respite care at around £2k a week each. For the want of an evening off a month to just meet adults or have a quiet bath. I don't think they relaise how much they can save by allowing the preservation of family support etc.

And the next 2 years brings with it a cut of £50 a week in WTC to every family with a child on MR DLA ( any child who sleeps even if their other needs are immense). And no exemption from cuts in HB (so many will be forced away from family support), ATOS assessments that clearly do not cover most autistic spectrum disorders (I am not anti assessment, just anti THIS assessment)........ I think the message of who they give a damn about reached home a long time ago. And we are not it.

at mumpreneurs. I bet you're right though, MmeLindor

See, that's where SN varies: for our kids also in special schools 6 weeks is needed; ds1 in particular takes so long to adapt to the change of routine that 3 weeks emans he is still in meltdown before he goes back so we won;t have been able to do anything or enjoy him.

Which is why flexible respite is the answer.

And yes, Slug. And Mme Lindor.

If they cut school holidays they will alienate me. I don't want my child living in school!

How about "winning them back" by not making us redundant in the first place, and ensuring that we are properly represented, and paid equally.
Women are properly represented, and paid equally.

Are you saying that only men should be made redundant due to cuts, or that no-one should be made redundant at all?

The government should not be targetting women at all. It's discriminatory.

rofl @ the idea that women are paid and represented equally. If we were represented equally in government it's highly unlikely they'd have come up with this embarrassing pile of crap, for a start.

1. I'm a teacher - leave my summer hols alone, you will have no teachers left if you get rid of one of the only perks left since our pensions were raided and our rights eroded through academies and free schools.

1. I will be staying at home for the first few years of my firstborn on my DH's income of £42k. No child benefit for us, or any help at all afaics.

1. I have been really sick in my first trimester and have had extra scans, rehydration and loads of drugs. Does this mean I've spent my 'personal budget' and have to give birth with no pain relief in a hospital corridor?

1. This targeting women reads like a really bad ad campaign. Tip - women make up over half the population, our issues are more important than spending millions on futile wars to make pathetic male politicos feel like they have big dicks.

I wondered how long it would take before there was talk of anti-male discrimination. I think this is rather missing the point anyway - fathers are far more interested in these issues than childless women.