Got any thoughts about the NHS and the way it is changing? Come and talk to shadow health minister Diane Abbott in our live webchat today (Tues 15 March), 1.15pm - 2.15pm

[KatieMumsnet]

Diane Abbott will be popping (back) to MNHQ for a webchat this Tuesday.

Diane was the first black woman ever elected to the British Parliament in 1987 and has been MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington ever since, building a career as a parliamentarian, broadcaster and standing for Labour's leadership in the election last year.

Following the leadership election she was appointed Shadow Minister for Public Health, covering a range of issues, including alcohol, children's health, fertility and embryology, maternity services, nursing and midwifery.

If you have a question you'd like to put to Diane, please join the webchat this Tuesday lunchtime, 1.15pm - 2.15pm. If you won't be around then, please post your question here.

@donnie

Hi Diane - I have another question if I may?

people are increasingly frustrated at the tax loopholes and exemptions which enable the very rich to escape personal and corporate taxation - I am thinkign of recent revelations about Philip Green. Vodaphone and so on. It seems to me there was never any real commitment by Labour (and certainly there will never be by the Tories) to tax the super rich more heavily. Is that a fair assessment or are there plans afoot to tax the super rich more?

thanks
Donnie

I agree with you tax evasion is wrong. It is noticeable that the Tories seem to get much more upset about benefit fraud than about the billions lost to the taxpayer by tax evasion. During the leadership campaign I argued that the 50p top rate of tax should be made permanent.

BIWI Sorry - feeling rather passionate - will go away now.

We all want a good education for our children though don't we ? Just as we want good health care for our families and loved ones.

Hopefully we also want these things for everyone.

My main point was certainly that I'd like to see improved maternity services for all women.

Will do, thanks.

My hour talking to Mumsnetters has flown past. Got to dash but always great to spend time at Mumsnet.

There is no doubt that health issues are very high up Mumsnetters' agenda. It's not surprising because we interact with the NHS at the times we are most vulnerable.

I want to continue to campaign against this government's so-called "reforms" of the NHS. I think they are a car crash in slow motion. And I think they are "a war against mums".

Millions of mums may lose their jobs and millions of mums will lose the services they and their children depend on.

The Labour Party's launching a new campaign on the NHS today
www.labouremail.org.uk/files/uploads/cddf502d-2649-2794-c94c-e2c1025d807d.pdf?utm_source=taomail&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=6554+Labour+has+today+launched+a+petition+to+protect+the+NHS&tmtid=28075-6554-2-15-285126

Thanks for coming in, Diane.

Thanks Diane. Some great posts. Can I just suggest, though, that the "war against mums" tagline is just a teensy bit crashingly patronising and soundbitey?

Thanks for coming in Diane (even though you didn't answer my question )

GorgeousX - I'm sure Diane can cope with you quite easily, but constantly harping on the same theme takes up time and space when others could be asking different questions, so is rather selfish, (hence the guidelines about one question and one follow up).

That went well then.

Thanks to Diane for coming on and to everyone who posted questions.

Diane left a few more answers, which we'll post on her behalf in a moment.

@Jacquois

I will be in the classroom on Tuesday so won't be able to follow the webchat live. Could you please Diane the following question:

Will you be taking any action to stop the Education department from abandoning cooking from the secondary school curriculum?

Although this may seem a question for education the issue has huge implications for public health. Unless we teach young people practical food preparation and cooking skills we deny them the opportunities to make informed choices with their own diet.

Money has already been spent over the last 3 years to re train teachers and equip classrooms which will be wasted unless schools are asked to retain this vital piece of the curriculum which only takes 24 hours in key stage 3.

Will the shadow health team support D&T teachers who teach these food skills - many of who are now facing redundancies?

DianeAbbott: thanks for your question on cooking and the secondary school curriculum.

I learnt to cook in school and I really value it. I think that teaching children to cook helps them understand nutrition in a practical way.

We must see it as part of the long-term strategy to tackle obesity. Almost a quarter of children are overweight or obese by the time they start primary school, and more than a third are by the time they leave.

Looking ahead, the number of overweight and obese people is likely to increase. The Foresight report has predicted that by 2025, nearly half of men and over a third of women will be obese.

The Department for Children, Schools and Families says that about 85% of secondary schools do offer cookery in some form. I think we need to focus on training higher level teaching assistants to do some of the teaching and to recruit more food technology teachers. We should support D&T teachers as much as we can, and I would like to see more cookery teachers trained.

@Crumblemum

A bit of a more trivial question.

I loved seeing you on Come Dine with Me (a bit of a guilty pleasure), thought you came across like a really fun dinner party guest. But how difficult do you find it to square stuff like this (which I think is really good way of letting people see politicians are normal people) with your policy brief - ie healthy eating/ drinking.

Is it possible to be a really open and successful politician, or do you have to become more bland to prevent being attacked by opponents or the media?

DianeAbbott: CrumbleMum ? thanks for your question. Yes, taking part in Come Dine With Me was a lot of fun, and I hope that came across!

The truth is that really good nutrition is not about banning any foods, but eating food in moderation. Occasionally eating a pudding or a glass of rum punch with good friends is fine! The problem is when people eat processed food, sweets and chocolate all day and everyday.

Bad nutrition is not just a matter of personal choice. It leads to acute health problems like cancer, diabetes and strokes.

But government action is not a licence to hector and lecture people on how they should spend their lives ? not least because that approach simply will not work.

@dawntigga

Marking my place as I can't think of a good question, except to say. Well done on raising womens issues in the leadership race. If you'd won I might think about voting at a national level again.

HighlyDisillusionedTiggaxx

DianeAbbott: Thanks to DawnTigga and also to painterlyswoosh for their questions about the leadership contest.

I really enjoyed being able to get out and talk to people up and down the country about their concerns and also their hopes for the future. I had a tremendous response from women, wherever I travelled to in the country.

In the end, we got a great new leader in Ed Miliband, and I am very pleased to be part of his team.

I am really sorry that I missed this as I am huge fan of Dianne Abbott.

I agree with BIWI, there are clear guidlines about how to act in a webchat and GorgeousX broke those. It was cringemaking and rude.

Rude! Are you joking .
She is a Westminster politician
Despite her attitude to you little people - "I'm so frantically busy doing grand things daaahlings", she does actually work for us and is very well remunerated for what is actually very cushy little number. she is a greasy pole climbing hack politician with a 6 in thick rhino hide like most of the inhabitants of the HoP.

MN webchats are lovely for people like her, she gets an incredibly easy ride from the deluded few who seem to love sucking up to these awful people.
I think GORGEOUSX is apparently on her own because poor old Diane is so irrelevant nobody else could be bothered tbh.

Goodness, what absolute twaddle.
Do people believe all this stuff?
Diane Abbott, championing the 'little folk' and all us brave young mums??

Hah!!!

I missed the webchat and wonder how many other people did.

As a teacher I work for you, if someone was rude to me I would not put up with it.

Moondog, we must have read different conversations. I see nothing here about "little folk"or "brave young mums".

Hey moondog, less of the 'young'!

I broke the guidelines, yes, guilty; I didn't set out to - I got carried away because I feel very strongly about the hypocrisy that is Diane Abbott.

Rude? Absolutely not.

Diane Abbott is a politician and, as someone pointed out, she gets paid very well for being an MP and is answerable to the public.

She certainly won't have given me, or any of her simpering 'fans' a second thought.

She didn't become an MP by being a sensitive little soul - the fact that she is black or single or female is totally irrelevent to me. Sadly others seem to think we should hold her with some sort of reverence merely because she is a black/single/female in parliament.

I look forward to seeing your polite, kind posts should Michael Gove or George Osborne decide to make an appearance on MN - no doubt you'll all stick to the guidelines and treat them with kid-gloves.

I believe that Lansley?s so-called reforms are actually a ?war against mums.? Tens of thousands of women currently working in hospitals are in primary care trusts are going to lose their jobs. Services that so many women and children rely on will be slashed and the health services which so many of us, as mothers, depend on, will be transformed. You could not have a more frontal assault on women and their families.

There is no doubt that health issues are very high up Mumsnetters' agenda. It's not surprising because we interact with the NHS at the times we are most vulnerable.

*Typical Labour ticks-make us all victims.

I want to continue to campaign against this government's so-called "reforms" of the NHS. I think they are a car crash in slow motion. And I think they are "a war against mums".

Millions of mums may lose their jobs and millions of mums will lose the services they and their children depend on.

*** Ditto. Add a liberal dollop of cheap sentimentaility

All I know is that my son had a less than ideal childhood because his mother was both a single parent and an MP. When he turned 11 I decided to make a decision that was (for once) about him

*** Yes, because y'know, Diane Abbott is a victim just like you brave mums, battling against the odds. She made a decision that was 'about him' for once. So what are her other decisions about?? You brave young mums/victims (delete as appropriate)or about Diane, Diane, Diane?

The greatest challenge of my career has always been handling the demands of being both a single mum and a politician. I?m sure there are many Mumsnet who understand where I?m coming from!

*** Oooh yes, simper simper.

The trouble with the Diane Abbott's of this world is they are so carried away with fighting a non existen class war that they confuse feelings with action. Thus her grandiose call to arms is more about making Diane feel good than about you or indeed any of us.

I find her views utterly repellant.

Fair point re the 'young' though Saggar.