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.

YAY Lib Dems win council by-elections in Earl's Court (LD 703; Con 594; Lab 151) and Preston (LD 721 Lab 476 Con 465).

Guardian article was good at keeping biscuit clichés out, I thought.

(dobre, Kveto, dekuji!)

The Guardian have called me Ledogy!

God i'd love to be his personal advisor. I'd be like the socialist devil on his shoulder.

Oh I was talking about cleggy. I couldn't be Mr Tumble's advisor i'm scared of clowns. :shudder:

I agree SGM, he was totally unprepared. Insulting, really

I didn't really mean they ''liked'' it nottirednow, rather that they covered it and thought it newsworthy.

Fio.

Let's see if the Big Man Dave has got the bollocks to come back on. That I would love to see!

Why do you say he was unprepared?

There seems to be this "Clegg has NO IDEA what we really think of him" thing - of course he knows what voters think. He talks to people, he reads polls. He's probably glad to get a few more opinions. Why wouldn't you be?

of course they've got *** bollocks, they're politicians! They get this all the time!

They get it and don't handle it like they've got bollocks, IMO.

I thought he'd come on and give some info about the UN conference. Instead he misenterpreted my question and didn't address my posts concerned about the dodgy ethos of this celebrity conference. I'D have though he could have brought a few excuses with him, at least. But he either didn't know what I was on about, or was avoiding talking about it. COnsidering he came on to talk about it, I'm a bit

I'm still genuinely baffled/irritated as to why he saw fit to respond to a snidey response by me to ShirleyKnot when there were loads of good questions begging to be answered. I guess he took the easy option

you mean the one about Thatcher? It's reasonable to challenge whether this is a return to Thatcherism or not, though. I mean, some people would have it as gospel that this is the 80s all over again, but not everybody would.

yy cupcakes

Well, I don't think that it is reasonable to respond to bitchy asides (which is what it was) when there are genuinely well-thought out and relevant questions being unanswered. From Nick's poor performance in answering, he seemed very pushed for time, my remark should have been ignored.

Yes, that's just what Labour wants, for remarks like "return to Thatcherism" to be ignored and not challenged.

They say the NHS budget has been ringfenced but conveniently forget to add the caveat that spending is being slashed by £20bn (1/5th of the budget). But that's OK because apparently it will all be 'reinvested'. Probably on the costs of yet another huge re-organisation (flogging off all the hospitals and tearing down PCTs and replacing them with GP commissioning groups). To be fair, Labour were also going to 'ringfence' the budget but slash costs by £20bn.

glad I went to bed early last night then

Labour wouldn't have reformed the NHS, just engaged in more cost-cutting and tinkering.

I just saw a man who thinks we don't understand what we have to say, so he has to keep repeating it e.g. why he formed a coalition with the Tories.

I (regrettably) voted LD at the last election. I still like their policies, it's just a shame that their leader doesn't.