Nick Clegg on Mumsnet this Thursday (16th Sept) evening between 8 and 9 pm

[JustineMumsnet]

We're delighted that the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, will be joining us for a webchat this Thursday evening 8 and 9pm.

Next week the Deputy PM will be joining other world leaders, celebrities and business leaders who are gathering in New York for the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Summit. He will be aiming for global action to reduce the shocking number of women who die during pregnancy and childbirth in the world's poorest countries.

Nick is happy to answer your questions on the UN summit as well as on his role as Deputy Prime Minster. Join us on Thursday evening or if you can't make it along then post your question (one each only please) here.

Thanks.

I think that Mr Clegg dismissed most of the questions in his opening sentence 'As you know, I?m here to chat today about the MDG Summit'

Or read - 'I am not replying to any of the other difficult questions because I downt actually have any answers'.

I'm with you on that one cupcake!

dont

I though this question asked by AnnieLobeseder was good...

"Perhaps while discussing pregnancy and childbirth, you could raise the related subject of the ongoing horror of female genital mutilation. According to the website of the charity FORWARD, FGM continues to be inflicted upon approximately 100-140 million African women worldwide, and each year, a further 3 million girls are estimated to be at risk of the practice in Africa alone.

Even more appallingly, this practice is carried out right here in the UK, where an estimated 6,500 girls are at risk of FGM every year.

While the practice is illegal under UK law, no-one has ever been successfully prosecuted for this crime, so among communites where FGM is practiced, this law is no deterrant.

I would like to know where the current government stands on the issue of FGM, how it intends to raise awareness of the issue, how it intends to make sure that no UK citizen ever has this horror inflicted uopon her, and how it intends to raise the issue with other world governments to eliminate FGM worldwide."

Nick, do you honestly believe the reaction to the coalition in general has been mixed? Virtually every forum it has been discussed in has produced the verdict that the Lib Dems joining forces with the Tories was neither in the interests of your voters or the country in a wider sense. It has clearly been wildly unpopular. Did you really come on MN expecting not to be asked things like this? And how do you feel about your prospects at the next election?

'That's why we are reorganising our entire aid programme to put women at the heart of everything we do on developing countries.'

That's great Nick, can you think about trying to make women a little bit less marginal in government at home too please?

or to quote my earlier question, why are there so few women in the Cabinet and what are you going to do about it?

Yes, I would echo that. Can you answer the Fawcett Society question, please?

I think you're massively glossing over the posts on this thread, Mr Clegg (welcome back to Mumsnet, by the way),

It's a mixed reaction in the sense that there were positive and negative posts. But there was a lot of anger in many of those posts - and anger because there is also a lot of fear. Fear for people's future, for their homes and for the safety and welfare of their families.

What are you going to do to help people in this country? I think the UN aims are entirely laudable, but it does seem as if these are being highlighted at the expense of people in this country who are, in many cases, really frightened about what this government is doing, and what effect it is going to have on them.

I read that something like 20 out of 24 members of the Cabinet are millionaires, so the next few months/years, whilst going to be difficult for us all (because we're all in it together, aren't we?) are hardly really going to impact on anyone in the upper echelons of Government.

How are you going to help those who are going to lose their jobs, their income, their homes?

I wouldn't describe reactions to the coalition as mixed. I don't know anyone who thinks the coalition is doing a good job. And everyone I know who voted Lib Dem is disgusted at what has happened, this is not what they voted for. But maybe that's because I work in the public sector and this government has made it very clear that they hate all public sector workers. Nick - when did you realise that you were actually a tory? Was it before or after the election?

Hear, hear, midwifemuse! Totally agree

I didn't know you could dictate what people asked you as an elected politician. Interesting

Is he on??His he answering any questions?

I really agree with what you say about the fantastic role played by midwives. Even Miriam and I noticed a difference with our children - two of them were born abroad and the third with midwife care on the NHS, and the difference in care and treatment was really striking. As for the US, inevitably the focus of the MDG Summit should remain on the developing world, though of course we shouldn't be sanctimonious in the rich world about our own standards of care. You might be interested to know that in the 1930s Britain'shigh maternal mortality rate was seen as the "great blot on pubic health." In 1935, Stanley Baldwin, as Prime Minister of the last Conservative/Liberal Coalition government established a national midwifery service. This move, coupled with the necessary policies and resources, saw maternal deaths in the UK fall by 80% in just 15 years. The resonance with where we are today is uncanny and only serves to sharpen this government's resolve to seek and equally radical result.

@SpeedyGonzalez

Well. I gave birth to my second child the day before the election, but managed to hoik my arse down to the polling station . Since then, however, I have had my head firmly in BabyLand so, despite being a lifelong LibDem voter, all this anti-Nick Clegg vitriol has passed me by. Clearly I have a good deal of catching up to do.

Señor Clegg. Eres casado con una Española. Espero que tu hables Español, ¿si? ¡Arriba!

This is a long, but hopefully interesting preamble to a very short question.

On the subject of maternal mortality, this is a subject which is very close to my heart. I do hope that Ina May Gaskin will be attending the conference - to my knowledge she is possibly one of the most knowledgeable and experienced of the well-known faces in the field of maternal health. Her birthing centre, which has been operating for 30+ years, has a c-section rate of around 1-2%, which is unrivalled among hospitals just about anywhere in the western world.

Did you know (according to a recent Radio 4 doco) that during WW2 the infant mortality rate fell significantly? This is said to be because so many obstetricians were on the battlefield. Good obstetricians are absolutely vital and their knowledge and experience is invaluable. However. For most women having babies, the best possible care comes from midwife-led units. One of the measures used by this UN summit to evaluate the quality of maternal care is "Proportion of births attended by skilled health personnel". In order to succeed, this MUST refer to midwives FIRST, not obstetricians.

The reason for me detailing all of this is that it seems ironic to me that this conference is being hosted in the USA. Their maternal mortality rate is appallingly low - according to the WHO they rank around 42nd in the WORLD for deaths in labour - in fact, they have remained at this position for many years. Indeed, the only woman I've ever known to die in childbirth was in the US. Bearing in mind that, according to Gaskin, US hospitals do not keep accurate records of maternal and infant mortality. So, since their position of 42nd is based on the deaths that they do record it's likely that their ranking is actually worse than that.

The USA has a heavily obstetrician-based approach to maternal care, and it's all driven by money. Women with health insurance get shoved onto the conveyor belt of intervention so that (a) they spend lots of lovely money for the insurance companies to pay up; (b) medics can measure everything to the nth degree in order to avoid the possibility of lawsuits. As for poor women in the US, they have an excessively high C-section rate and are frequently sent home far too early after this major surgery. Why? Because that's the cheapest way to get their babies out. No surprise, then, that women and babies are more likely to die in the USA than in Europe.

So the scope of this conference should include the USA as a place where maternal (and infant) health desperately needs attention. Contrary to the summit paraphernalia (from their website) it is not just a problem affecting developing countries.

Nick, are you brave enough to raise this issue at the conference?

My sources are the following books, written by American women:

Naomi Wolf 'Misconceptions' (source of information about how insured and uninsured women are treated)

'Ina May Gaskin's Guide To Childbirth' (includes details on the history of how the field of obstetrics changed in the US in the 1980s, to the detriment of pregnant women).

I can lend you my copies if your assistants can't get hold of them .

How about staying in the uk and looking at how to sort to out disabled childrens services?

Oh god yes please answer the female genital mutilation question - the fact that it is happening both here and abroad is absolutely sickening.

Nick
What are the Government plans for the School Food Trust? Who will safeguard food & drink policies in schools if the Trust is removed?

It does state tin the OP that he is also here to answer questions about his role as Deputy PM.

Hilarious

Nick can't seriously think he's going to come off well from tonight if the issues important to us are ignored can he?

Fawcett Society question please

Or Andy Coulson (cleaning up politics)

Dear Mr Clegg

It's all very well and good focusing on maternal health in developing countries but when the "radical plans" of the coalition result in ward staff reapplying for their posts in this one (see above) something stinks....

So my questions is what is the MDG summit actually going to cost (the airfares, hotels, policing for dignitories, hangers on etc etc) and how much do you honestly think it will change things in the real world? Would the money not be better taken from all those who would have participated and the same targets agreed by other less costly (as is the case currently in the public sector)methods?

Is this not just as case of those in power needing to be seen to be doing something, without actually really doing anything....

I think the maternal mortality coalition plan is A Good Thing, or at least would be, if it weren't being discussed in a climate where most of us are genuinely worried about the impending spending review and what it might mean.

To paraphrase Philip Larkin, their life may be the harder course I see, but on the other hand, mine is happening to me.

It's very difficult to discuss this issue with you Nick, as important as it is, when afraid that public services will be decimated and the poor in our society cast aside in favour of benefits for the more well-off.

I am surprised you did not expect these questions, and will be even more surprised if you do not answer them..

Have you got anything to say on immigration? Surely yours and the Conservative approach is vastly different in this regard, and I cannot believe you are going along with their plans for this emotive issue.

As an immigrant to the UK (who has now left, as the hate getting too much for us to handle), this has been an issue my husband and I have battled with all our time in the UK. Shame no one else seems to care.

It was not only establishing a midwifery service that meant a decline in maternal death rate: improved nutrition, generation upon generation, since at least the late 19th century, played a big part too.