"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?

Surely given the nature of the cuts / big society it's plain that ore women are at risk fo redundancy? That's to not say it's OK that women work often in dead end, care work or part time hours (fine if they choose of course) but these are the jobs seeming to be hit so yes it would affect women.

But LAMO that it's not a men's issue if their partner loses their job, or struggles with childcare. Surely it's not woemn's issues, just issues?

The proposals include :

moves to debate a reduction in the long summer holiday to help working families ? "if we're feeling brave", it says.

right the proposal here is to make moves to have a debate - lets make this perfectly clear - not even a debate. even if it went ahead the teachers would revolt

? Frontloading child benefit to help parents struggling with childcare and lost earnings in their children's first years.

this could have merit

? Working towards a "proper" ban on advertising to children.

working towards....wtf does that mean - its bullshit - the whole premise is bullshit ban advertising - are you fucking kidding me

? Introducing personal budgets for maternity services to allow women to shop around for services.

backdoor privatisation of health services? not sure about what this entails. need edams expertise here

? Developing a strategy ? "including possible cross-party work" ? to ensure there are more female candidates for mayoral posts, elected police commissions and local enterprise partnerships.

oooh going to develop a strategy - not going to do fuck all about it in real terms - but develop a strategy

? Changing plans for the new universal credit to give it to women automatically, instead of allowing the applicant to nominate a household member.

seems sensible

? Setting up a website to allow women to anonymously disclose and compare their salaries with others in their industry.

good idea if the data exists - does the data exist or is this just bullshit?

? Criminalising forced marriage because the "signals sent out by opting not to criminalise is a bad one".

no shit sherlock

? Holding a No 10 summit for women in business. "We haven't had one yet," it acknowledges.

ooh junket - i wanna come if there;s prawn cocktail and cheese on a stick

so they are 'moving to debate' not even fucking debate - never mind the issue
they are 'developing a strategy'
they are 'working towards'

they are full of cockshit that's what they are

Ah stripey don't you see?
many teachers (esp. in primary) are female; if they leave then they stay at home on theor aprtner's income (because in Tory land they will have one and it will be a he), the job goes to somene else (preferably a man or an undeserving single mum) and their agenda wins.

(presumably if it's a debate and etachers revolt, even though they do after all ahve contracts, this will enable them to paint it as more of those horrid teachers kicking off? ah yes. Of course).

WRT to frontloading child benefit- depends; might be merit but ds3 will always ned chidlcare (or until he passes through to adult services at 16). Wonder if they would remember that?

ahh indeed you see, i assumed that front loading would be a choice

it may not be

A choice would work.

Does this government do choice?

Will Cb not be absorebed into UC system anyway, so losing it's independent existence?

I've just written a long vitriolic rant about what I think about this Government, and how much worse Cameron is than Major or Thatcher.

I then deleted it because, well, it wasn't ladylike and wouldn't really contribute to the harmony of the planet.

But I'm still thinking it, anyway.

i love you for that post hester

They will never have my vote, they don't represent the poor they just insult us at every turn and blame us for everything.

But I might as well add my views, school holidays? means nothing to me I don't care, changing child benefit? increasing it I hope every penny vanishes as soon as it enters the home, banning advertisement to under 16 year olds? what kind of stupid knee jerk crap is that? how is banning advertising going to change anything other then put a strain on TV programs (why show kids shows if you get no advertisement revenue from the add breaks for that market?).

Tell you what, stop kicking the poor, raise the minimum wage, give help to those who need it rather then insult them, free decent education, more apprenticeships and some for older people, they moan we are living longer yet give nothing to the over 25's, a decent unemployment system that treats the unemployed as humans instead of cash cows for government contractors and actually helps people find work, stop taxing the hell out of us, tax, tax and more tax we should be ashamed to live in a country where a full-time worker has to claim benefits to live, thats just wrong.

Shorter working hours we work like dogs and never see our kids, cheaper childcare so we can actually work when we have kids in the first place, the minimum wage is less a day then child care is so poor mothers are forced to stay at home while the husband works like a dog and benefits top up the rest or living standard drops.

Extend employment law so that it fully covers all contract types, the ConDems know full damn well that companies place people (especially the low paid) on part-time, rolling and zero contracts so they can avoid the majority of laws that are out dated and favour the full-time permanent contract type which is now a rarity.

Cap house prices, rent prices, utility prices. just stop it all, stop pandering to big business above the people who voted, stop subsidising the companies low pay by endlessly taxing everything to give it back to us so we can actually eat, let a fare days work actually mean a fare days pay that we can live on, and that applies to both sex, no more gender divide.

I think I love NewManager.

Great post.

But I think cocktail party at No10 would involve slightly more sophisticated hors d'oevres than sausage on a stick. Humus and sushi perhaps.

This doesn't seem to have gone too well for the Condems, does it? What a shame. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha (repeat and fade)

@ Alice

This is what Nye Bevan said about the Nasty Tory Party:-
"That is why no amount of cajolery, and no attempts at ethical or social seduction can eradicate from my heart a deep burning hatred for the Tory Party....so far as I am concerned they are lower than vermin."

Whatever his reason, I agree. They don't care about us, why would I care about them? I hope they get what they deserve at the next election along with the spineless LibDems.

meh, I lose sympathy with anyone who can describe anyone else as lower than vermin.

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.
You can't make women get involved in politics. It's up to them to do something about it, rather than moaning about it not being fair.

You can't have equal numbers of male and female MPs when there are so few women involved at the lower levels. You'd just get a poorer quality of MP, and resentful people that they weren't being represented properly.

JLK2 do you seriously think the only reason there are so few women at high levels of government (not to mention woman MPs) is because women can't be bothered to get involved in politics? Seriously?

Oh this thread has cheered me right up . Pathetic Tories with their pathetic little attempts. Made me laugh earlier when it said how they got together all their No. 10 female MPs or something, that would have been a small room then

Agree with you all. Said so well by you all. (Except JLK2 of course.)

Looks like I'm not alone here in feeling insulted by what they have pushed into the category of women's issues and more to the point what they have left out.

At what point do I have time to get involved in poltics??

Due to cut backs I'm helping my frail dad look after his mother. I'm making sure my sister (who has major back injury) does not work to much as she is not entitled to benefits. I'm also comforting my mum about her library job.

I also work full time in a hospital, as well as looking after my DP who has mental health proplems. He studying for a new trade as his business went south. He is also trying to set up a new business to pay the morgage.

Phew!

Not to mention all the house work!!!

Lw

Utterly against shorter school holidays: they are very short already- hence the high prices and lack of availability for family holidays during the summer. Children need the long break to wind down and ger properly stuck into other things. Increase the provision of summer camps perhaps, but don't shorten everybody 's holiday to gain the votes of the few.