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.

god, so many questions

so unable to ask them. marking my place though for an "interesting" conversation im sure.

I voted LD in the election because Labour have such a small vote in the constituency where I live. I might have well have voted Tory. I will never vote LD again.

I wonder whether NC thinks that the personal achievement of becoming DPM was worth sacrificing the credibility of the LDs as a political party?

I like to ask him if selling his soul to the devil Mr Cameron was worth it for the title of Deputy PM?

Oh and thank him for the future sacking of all public services. How much money will need to be pumped back into front line services to restore public confidence when another Baby P/Fiona Pilkington happens or when someone gets away with murder because there aren't enough police officers or forensic support to prevent/catch them?

Mr Clegg - well done for joining MN for a webchat - I am sure it will be interesting and the first one I have ever felt compelled to mark my place for.
I am a lifeling liberal voter and sometime party member, canvasser and local supporter. When I say I am I really should say I was.
That said I have a question to ask you about infant mortality. As you will be aware stopping smoking in pregnancy, breastfeeding and good maternal nutrition are all important factors in reducing infant mortlaity. How does the government plan to support women and their partners to quit smoking, initiate and continue breastfeeding until 6 months and improve maternal nutrition when they are closing Primary Care Trusts and their public health teams and handing over the responibilities for this work to overstretched GPs and Local Authorities ? In addition the disbanding of of regional and national support teams covering the above areas seems to suggest a lack of commitment from the government to these areas of work.
Short sighted doesn't even begin to describe what you and your colleagues are proposing.

Thanks in advance

I went through a real dilemma on who to vote for in the general election. I'm glad I won't have that again.
First and last Lib Dem vote from me too.
I can't think of a single question for the deputy PM.

Ponders - well, why is Cable saying it, then? He's a grown man, he's responsible for his own words and actions. Clegg may be the Blair-style leader taking his party on a journey, but the rest of the Lib Dems aren't obliged to provide cover for the Tories while they attack public services, civil society, women, children and the poor.

Clegg and his lot are all for Liberal free market economics but have abandoned social liberalism. I can hear Lloyd George spinning and I'm something like 200m away from his grave.

Nick, you're doing a great job. I'm glad you had the guts to enter government. You're doing the right thing.

If people vote Lib Dem thinking they couldn't possibly join with the Tories when it had been made clear, time after time, that they'd support either party and would talk first with the party that had the greatest mandate, that is their fault. If people confused keeping the Tories out at a constituency level with the same thing at a national level, that's their fault too.

My question: can you just drop the stupid rape defendant anonymity thing, though?

oops, missed Lady Blah blah.

So not only are the Lib Dems going along with attacks on women and children, they don't even have the decency to respond when this is pointed out?

Nick, do you really expect us to believe you give a toss about maternal mortality when you clearly have nothing but contempt for women?

Vince did disappint mne; I had faith in him, his autobio and what he ahd to say about this hsambles of a Tory party.....

I feel more let down by him than anything else- i'd heard rumours about nick being anti LD policy on student finance etc, but I did think Vince was true. I eman, how do you combine LD, Labour and Tory in one lifetime?

vesela - I really don't want to get into a political argument on this thread, but isn't that just...well..icky? Y'know, we'll get into bed with whichever party as long as we get into bed with someone?

Where's the principles in that? where? I always believed that the LibDems were more left than right wing.

God, it's depressing.

EEK.No question,don't see the point.You have alienated many lib dem voters and have sold out.Do not believe you have the necessary to stick to your guns [if you had any].Disappointing.

There is no bloody way I would let Clegg inside my house.

Not if Expat wasn't there anyway

edam, what I'm desperately hoping is that Vince is staying afloat, clinging to the wreckage, so that he can climb back on board & steer the ship to safety at the last moment (because if he doesn't, those with principles are sunk without trace )

sazlocks - on the smoking point. I read yesterday that 80% of the 'stop smoking' schemes are to be scrapped.

Tis the deficit and all that

We are not 'all in this together, Nick'. The Bankers caused it, the vunerable are paying for it so stop spinning the crap!

Helloooo

we used (pre election) to call you Nick Legg which- at the time- we found amusing

now we call you summat else less amusing. Interestingly it's the same as we used to call Tony Blair Gordon Ramsey and Clarkson- and now we have to use it for Osborne as well-of course- which is a bit confusing...

...it begins with "That"

here is confirmation that they have not responded to the Fawcett Society

The FS have said that they are particularly interested in what Nick Clegg has to say on this matter because "during the general election campaign he personally pledged to ?Work with Fawcett and others to ensure that both local and national deficit cutting proposals are assessed in terms of how they would impact on women ? both regarding access to public services and women?s income?s"."

\link{http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5g2XpfIA1n57qSNyHCeL2kFRMmcUA"poll pact" for next election"?}

'the Conservatives should agree not to put up candidates in Lib Dem-held constituencies, while the Lib Dems should not field candidates in Tory-held seats.
"The Labour Party would find it very, very difficult then to beat the combined forces of Tories and Lib Dems in all of their seats," he said.'

He seems to be assuming that former Lib-Dem voters, & former Tory voters in those seats, & vice versa - would all vote the "right" way again next time...I think not, Mr Boles

Oh yes, please stop the 'we're all in this together'. That would be why the richest are being affected the least, and the poorest the most. That would be why the poorest are losing jobs and homes, whilst the richest STILL get bonuses and expenses. And please tell your mate Dave that he is not by any stretch of the imagination 'middle class'.

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 .

Further to previous disability comments there's this as well

I had quite a big crush on you after the infamous debates

But Tories aren't sexy.

OK my question.

Do you believe you are building a fairer Britain?

speedy, that reminds me of GCSE Spanish - I loved the way the Spaniards repeat punctuation marks upside down at the end of words, gives them a real flourish. Much more entertaining than flaming French or ghastly German (not my favourite subjects, obv.).