Q&A with Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg - catch up here

[KateMumsnet]

Hello all

At lunchtime today we'll be holding a live, in-person Q&A session with Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, with an audience composed entirely of Mumsnetters.

With luck (and a decent wireless connection) we'll be live-blogging the whole thing, so do join us between 12.45 and 2pm to hear how the DPM responds to MNers' searching questions - and let us know what you think as the session unfolds.

Keep telling yourself that, love. Or be honest and get yourself a bumper prescription for Zoplicone.

(Advice to Clegg on sleeping at night, obv.)

Q: do you see any benefit in taking maternity pay away from workplaces, making it a state benefit and introducing more universal childcare entitlements?

A: a massive 'yes' to the last bit. There needs to be more free provision to fill the gap between mat leave ending and free childcare entitlement starting.

Q: Should manifestos be published further in advance of the election?

A: if you'd lived through the truly laborious way the LibDems produce the manifesto... maybe you've got a point. Now we've got fixed-term parliaments and everyone knows when the elections are, we should bring them forward.

Q: what are LibDems going to do about making renting more secure for people in the south-east?

A: legislation about revenge evictions is underway and our manifesto will include an idea called 'rent to own' - a new sort of tenancy with housing associations that allows you too develop a share of ownership as you pay rent.

How do you feel about history remembering you as the man who drove the Lib Dems to the point of extinction as a parliamentary party?

Nick, I think the LibDems have broadly done a good job despite being such a small part of the coalition. I'm sticking with you. And I admire your resilience under fire.
If you are in coalition again will you fight to make sure there is enough money for social care? It's creaking and buckling under the strain. The projected funding gap is £4 billion. This morning a care worker on You and Yours was talking about how badly she was treated. This can't carry on.
Older people really deserve to be looked after properly and carers are the unsung heroes in our community.
Will you find the money?

Q: question about long waiting lists for CAMHS services

A: it's egregious - the state of CAMHS is woeful. Two big things: as of next month (April 5) the same access and waiting times standards will apply to mental health as currently apply to physical health. This has never happened before. And we've announced a quarter-billion pound investment in CAMHS.

Q about the NHS relying on expensive agency staff. Isn't it better to use the money to keep beds open and wards fully staffed?

A: there's only one way around this - employ more people sustainably within the NHS. It's under huge pressure (ageing population etc) and some trusts are running to stand still. We need to fill the NHS funding gap - £8bn by the end of the next parliament. We have a plan to fill that gap - but we also have to do something about demand; social care doesn't work well within the NHS, with people with age-related conditions in hospital beds.

So many people rent and are at the mercy of rouge landlords, that councils are un willingling to contain, regulate and prosecute. thousands of people are living in mouldly and unsuitable dwellings with no redress, no money for legal help and no support from councils, and in fear if they complain they will simply be chucked out.

What can you do to get LL into line, make sure councils get all HMO's recognised etc and help thousands, hundreds of thousands of vulnerable renters who are usually vulnerable people too.

Do the LibDems still do their fundraising from a leaky basement in Brixton with all the members' details on bits of paper in piles round the edges of the room, including top party leaders'?

'civilised compared to PMQ' - yes, well that's another reason we don't like politicians isn't it? Are you going to act like statesmen, because you are of course mostly men, and actually run the country, or muck about jeering like a pack of overgrown public schoolboys destroying people's lives for a joke?

Also do show him this thread before he goes MNHQ, for all of us who don't live in London. We can rake him a bit more while he's not talking to us .

If that was my question about CAMHS, thank you very much.

Q: does it matter to you that your party has a lower proportion of women MPs than Labour and Conservative parties - and what are you going to do about it?

A: yes of course it matters. And we don't have any BAME MPs either. It matters massively - modern Britain isn't represented in our party. Our dilemma is that we don't have many safe seats; we have to work very hard to win seats. We're making sure that MPs standing down are being replaced by women and/or BAME candidates where possible. We've got a support and mentoring programme for those candidates. If that doesn't work and it continues to be this unrepresentative after the election, I personally think we should introduce quotas. That's my personal view - it may feel uncomfortable for some people in our party.

I am meant to be there but had to pull out because my DS was ill and off school the last 2 days and I need to make up my hours at work.

To make up for this please can MNHQ ask Nick:

"Does he support the 50:50 Parliament campaign which is calling for a debate in the House of Commons on better gender equality balance for MPs"

change.org/5050parliament

Also - why are there so few female LibDem MPs

Excited to see Nick Clegg talking about quotas!

Q: the child sex abuse inquiry - do you regret your decision to initially refuse to back the inquiry?

A: we quite quickly moved to the view that what was being uncovered was so horrific that it had to be dealt with via a proper inquiry. I don't quite remember the chronology but we're all in agreement. It's shaken everyone to the core - it's taken society a while to adapt to the horrendous depravity that's been outlined.

Q: do you really believe that nobody knew it was happening - or was there a cover-up by successive governments?

[Clegg splutters a bit at this] A: Of course I don't believe there was a government cover-up. It's such a hidden thing. Maybe individual parts of British society knew what was going on - but just because you can point to an individual allegation, I don't think you can say it's a society-wide thing that everyone knows about. These are depraved individuals - I don't think you can assume that everyone knew.

PLEASE MNHQ, a follow up question to the CSA one:

WHY did the majority of your MPs vote against amendments to the Official Secrets Act to give protection to those giving evidence to the CSA Inquiry?

Do you support The Republic Campaign for an elected head of state and the end of the anachronism that is the monarchy?

Sex abuse and the dismissal thereof is something a hell of a lot of women individually know a hell of a lot about. Occasionally we even know it collectively - anyone interested could visit the feminist boards here.

More reason for more women MPs, among other things.

Q: what is Clegg going to do to ensure that people with acute mental health conditions get treatment close to home?

A: the situation is very, very patchy. We spend a lot but we need to spend more. How that money percolates down to individual health trusts and is spent at that level is very inconsistent and I've found it really frustrating - too many local health bodies make decisions that short-change mental health services. I think the message it getting through now that the government spending on mental health needs to be passed on to the appropriate services.

Q: in real terms, mental health funding has been cut by 8%. You've got great staff working for very little money - it needs to change.

A: [Clegg says 'no' about the 8% cut] It's just not the case that real terms spending has gone down 8%.

Q: what do you think about the anti-terror and security bill (CTS)?

A: [Clegg rejects the allegation that the bill requires government agencies to spy on people] It simply doesn't do that. I've crawled over it in minute detail. I'm a liberal to my core - I've got more battle scars to show for it than most British politicians. The Prevent strategy just doesn't do what you're saying it does.

" It's such a hidden thing."
but the Liberal MP Cyril Smith seems to have been acting with impunity for years. How was that 'hidden'?

And that's it - he's off to his next appointment - so sorry we couldn't get to the questions from this thread but the MNers in the room were very determined!

Thank you Rowan.
However only allowing questions from those who were in travelling distance of North London seems a bit exclusive tbh.

WHY did the majority of your MPs vote against amendments to the Official Secrets Act to give protection to those giving evidence to the CSA Inquiry?

yes when its been said there is already TOO MUCH SECRECY around child abuse!

Perhaps you could send them on to him. Thanks MN, it's confirmed that I won't be touching them with a barge pole (unless repeatedly and v. hard) again.

So a late start and a hasty retreat eh?

Not to mention a load of half-truths and excuses. Apart from the 'no lib dem mandate'. He really does believe that sadly, that was where the problem was imo. Aethelraed Unraed, and the vikings already here.