Live online chat with The Rt Hon Beverley Hughes MP, Minister for Children, on Thursday 24th May 1-2pm

[carriemumsnet]

Hi all

Ok this is your chance to have your say about what, in an ideal world, you'd like to happen to childcare, nurseries and pre-schools (as well as debate what's happening in the sometimes non ideal world). The Rt Hon Beverley Hughes, Minister for Children and mum of three, will be joining us for a lunchtime chat on Thursday 24th May, so bring your sarnies, get your questions ready and join us then. For those of you who have unavoidable lunchtime commitments (and letters from your mum to prove it) we'll let you post your questions in advance here. For the rest of you, we'll see you on the 24th.

but if she'd said 'it's not my remit, you need to speak to Ivan' then that would have had to be an end of it.
or if carrie et al had been briefed that it wasn't her dept when she saw the pre-chat questions.
it's just Stoopid to think that this is our fault. someone from her team should have bothered there arses to clarify her remit from the beginning and they didn't. not our fault. she had ample opportunity to say that she couldn't answer those questions (although in truth she didn't know if it was her dept or not and evidently had to get on the phone to find out.) not impressive.

She only had an hour though and there were tons of questions firing at here, some on echo

anyway, Labour are rubbish, what do I care

yo hunker - i never said you.

they were on echo because she wasn't answering them. i don't for a mintue think she was sitting there typing herself, but she could have said 'hang on, i'm getting to that' and it would have stopped. it's just basic manners, fgs.

I'm not talkin' about making a minister feel bad, i was talkin' about other mums. bf ing went fine for me an' there's nothing to distance myself from. sayin' your op is the point of this chat but bfing is hard subject for some mums (seriously not me) and it's real easy to loose confidence in yourself cause other peoples judgments -

och no one's judging anyone, morechoc, you've got the wrong end of the stick. you really do not need to be lecturing me about sensitivity to 'failing' to bf, especially if it went well for you...
and why are you dropping your Gs but goin' to the effort of replacing them with an apostrophe? [pedant]

i would say that becuase shes typing how she talks.

dae ye wunt me tae dae aw ma typin' in a glesga accent fae now oan, custy?

don't Ministers have to deal with rude people?

would have thought it's nothing new to them

aye if thee wants tu. put wood inth 'ole on thee way out lass

I also think on these chat things the people should make clear if they are chatting in their capacity as a person or as a government/ party mouthpiece

That would save a lot of irritation, I feel

ooooh i didn't catch a word of that...

bad habits i think - i don't mean to lecyture anyone it's just an emotive subject that's all - each to their own

it is an emotive subject, morechoc, we're all very aware of that, don't worry. and welcome to MN.
anyway, what do you think of my new name?

Why on earth didn't she just say breastfeeding wasn't her remit and that she'd pass the message on ?

Me thinks she is poor at thinking on her feet, after all she had to resign a previous ministership (Immigration) when she misled the house rather than check her facts first.

I think i prefer the meaning behind mine!

I think you've been quite patronising, Morechoc, really.

This is a live chat thread, not a breastfeeding support thread.

To come on here saying you've had a good HV, breastfeeding went fine for you, but to ask people not to talk about it in case they upset mums for whom that's not the case - I'm not quite sure what your point is, as I said.

she did say she was a new poster.

She did.

I'm sorry if what I've just posted has upset you, Morechoc.

But I don't understand why you'd be trying to stop people asking for more support for women to breastfeed.

Thanks Custardo. Hunkermunker nothing has upset me and i'm not offended at all but it does seem that i've offended you by voicing a differing opinion - which was kind of my point in the first place. I;m not saying that people should stop asking for support either or to stop talking about it

You've irritated me by suggesting I was being militant by asking questions of a minister who I (mistakenly as it turned out) thought had bfing policy as part of her remit.

And I also don't agree with you saying that breastfeeding shouldn't be spoken about in case it makes mums who didn't bf feel "slated".

"By morechoc on Thu 24-May-07 15:17:05
well -militant attitudes about bfing make the problem worse, mums aren't going to ask for help if they feel they're going to get slated for not being able to bf?"

My overriding point on this thread is there's often nobody to ASK for help, because it's not funded and what is there is undermined by formula companies and their sly marketing tactics.

I am not sure why you are having a go at women who want more support for breastfeeding?

lol, i can confirm that hunker likes nothing more than a differing opinion and is most unlikely to be offended. however that wasn't really the point, was it? your friends who were left on their own to bf and didn't make it might have been better served by having someone like hunker there to demand support for them when they and their bfing were at their most vulnerable rather than everyone sticking their heads in the sand and not talking about bfing for 'fear' of seeming militant. i'm totally militant about it for the next time, btw, i can see i'll have to be, given what i went through first time round.

can we go back to slating the Minister for obtuse answers instead of each other

x-posted.

Can I just clarify what your "differing opinion" is, since you say you don't want women to stop talking about it or asking for support?