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.

Again, not a question (have asked mine below), but can I encourage Mr Clegg to give us honest answers, not 'politician's answers', because you know what, we all know about politician's answers, a 'none-answer' speaks a thousand words.

Regarding Child Tax Credits and the situation of those earning 40k plus per family.

It has been decided that as of April the threashold for basic qualification will fall from 50k pa to 40k pa. DH works a 50 hour at £9,50 per hour, and I a 23 hour week at £15 per hour. We scrape over the 40k with some overtime from me.

Has anyone in government put any consideration into people who will owe the system money - as is designed into the system - and would be relying on future awards to pay this back?

I am one, and the tax credit people always said...don't worry, next years award will pay back the remainder of your overpayment. The overpayment being no fault of my own. I asked and asked them to take the whole amount asap, to stop payments, to avoid me owing them hundreds, but no. The same answer - overpayments will be taken from future awards.

Now there is no award as of April, and I will owe about £600

That's not fair - the goal posts have moved. The tax credits lady I spoke to said they have had people sobbing, worrying about the future and absolutely no gudance from the government about how this will be handled.

A rash electon winning announcement, no homework done, no answers in place for basic questions - it's ok though. It's only peoples lives.

treedelivery - that sounds a nightmare. Unfortunately I think it's one of many such scenarios which will be happening as the budget bites. For example, take the various announcements about benefits;
Lone Parents will be switched to Jobseekers Allowance when their youngest goes to school.
Anyone on Jobseekers Allowance for 1 year + has their Housing Benefit cut.

So the Lone Parent has to find some sort of job that is term time and school hours only, (otherwise all the money goes on childcare) but pays enough to make up for the loss of benefits. After a year, if they have not found such a job, they are likely to lose their home as their housing benefit is cut in value.

Mr Clegg, do you see this is part of a wider programme to increase life chances/quality of life for women as a whole? I don't see any point campaigning simply to avoid maternal and infant deaths while condemning them to go on to suffer appalling discrimination and poverty through their lives simply due to being female.

How will the government address this wider issue both home and abroad?

I have no questions for him, Only statements, and none of them are in the least pleasant but are along the lines of what Pfft posted, only worse.

I hope he reads this thread, but even if he did, it wouldn't make any difference.

Hello Mr Clegg

What do you envisage the answers to high maternal mortality rates (and, crucially too, incidence of maternal morbidity) being? What are you learning as you take on this task? Does any of it surprise you?

LilyBolero - Thanks. I agree with you, and I actually have no problem with the reduction in the banding. I understand the need. I don't think it's fair for them to effectively turn a payment into a loan. They have given the money n good faith, it was taken in good faith, and now they have decided they couldn't afford it and want it back.

Well that isn't real life is it? I can't insist someone given me back last years Christmas pressi because times are hard.

The sad thing is this thread is futile. We don't matter. I don't matter. I get it.

Deputy PM comes on to a website and only 58 responses so far.

Says it all, really.

Lack of morale, it's a terrible thing.

The opposite of hate isn't love, it's apathy.

In this case wouldn;t it be that the opposite of love is apathy ExP?

I hope.

As a family we don;t get out and protest, we hmm about it and have a cuppa instead. that's changing and we'll be there for any that happen but like Tree says, I ahve gone from being very political, considering standing etc to accepting my irrelevance to those that have the power.

fab! can't wait.

What exactly is your position on Tuition fees for Undergraduates, Mr Clegg? At one time you wanted to abolish them....

ANd this

here

Also: George Osborne said that DLA is a disincentive to work. DLA is paid alongside work for many and is the benefit designed to cover the costs of being disabled; EMA is the one paid to people out of work. Just a heads up really: it does make one look rather ..... daft.... not to know what teh diffeences are

I can't see him answering any of these questions. I do envisage lots of shaking of his head with that faux boyish smirk smile because we "don't understand".

I keep typing questions and then deleting them.

Nick, as you will know, the Fawcett Society is seeking a judicial review of your government's failure to carry out the required equality audit before the budget.

How can you persuade women - and men who care about equality - that your party notices or cares about discrimination when you've been happy to help the Tories attack women, children, the poor and those least able to help themselves? That's not just my view of the budget, it's what the IFS data and the equality data in the House of Commons library statistics showed.

It's all very well to go to international conventions and talk about deaths during pregancy and childbirth, but so far your actions don't suggest you are actually committed to equality.

Show me one person in the Cabinet who has ever lived in poverty, or has the faintest idea what life is like for ordinary families. That doesn't include Old Etonians or people married to bankers, btw.

Ok. Question: In my constituency the Lib Dems campaigned on a "Labour cannot win here. Vote Lib Dem to keep out the Tories". Do you accept that this was now a lie?

Well said if we can avoid people posting about biscuits, favourite colours or any such then he will have to answer something won't he?

No doubt there's a thing about asnwering question related to the two in the OP: m,aternal deaths and his role. Well, I know what his job is and maternal deaths are loinked to poverty which is what most of the other questions loosely allude to.

So they are related.

But I expect poli-talk, yes.

I have voted LibDem once or twice in the past (not in the last general election, thank the heavens) and it is now extremely unlikely I will ever vote for them again.

Does Nick Clegg realise what huge damage he has done to his party for the sake of having some pretence at power?

If I am to treat Mr Clegg as if he were a guest in my home, then, I shall.

If he were to visit my home I would offer him tea and then very politely ask him why his government's policies threaten my job, my husband's job, our tax credits and the services and allowances for my child's disability?

I would ask him this: do you think that society cannot afford responsible parents, who work long hours to support their families? Do you think that taking with both hands from households that have always worked very hard to afford quite a basic standard of living is the way forward in cutting the deficit?

I have asked my socialist husband to not discuss politics anymore.

It hurts too much.

Life long Liberal.

Same as pointydog - I have been tempted to dally with the LibDems in the past, but never ever again.

My parents always said the Lib Dems were Tories in sheep's clothing. Nick Clegg just proved them right.

Also noted today it's schools with high proportions of children on free school meals and speakers of English as a second language that have lost out most in the cancellation of school building projects. As well as all the construction companies that will be laying people off.

Edam - they have missed the deadline in responding to the Fawcett Society

Not even responding is either blatant arrogance (we dont care) or dithering incompetence. Either option doesn't look fantastic.

Nick Clegg has proved that he is a secret Tory, edam - I don't believe for a minute that they all are (you can still hear Vince Cable cringing at some of what he is forced to say these days )