Live webchat with Harriet Harman MP on Tues Nov 25th 1-2pm

[HelenMumsnet]

We're pleased to announce that, as part of our ongoing Home Front debate, we've invited Harriet Harman MP to drop by MNHQ for a live webchat on Tuesday November 25th at 1pm.

As well as being Deputy Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the House of Commons, Harriet is Secretary of State for Equalities and Minister for Women.

Please join us to put your questions to Harriet on anything from the Government's plans for flexible working to Gordon's performance in the present economic crisis.

And, as usual, you're welcome to post any questions here in advance if you can't make it on the day.

smallwhitecat, the op invited questions on anything. If Harriet had a serious department then she would have a budget which presumably would be facing substantial cuts value for money reviews.

How do you justify sending your child to a grammar school when the Labour party strongly disagrees with selective education? (sorry, someone had to ask it....) Same question would have been put to Diane Abbott and private sector education for her child.

Having said that, I admire you greatly for even using the state system at all, most MPs don't.

Please urge your collegues to rethink forcing
lone parents back to work.Many jobs require
after school hours and weekend shift work, what effect is this going to have on the next generation of children with only one significant adult in thier lives that they see for a handful of hours a week!!!
This will not end child poverty but create a
massive social problem.If the goverment wants to create capital how about challenging
corporate tax evaders rather than depriving innocent children of parental support and guidance.Enough of 19th century right wing attitudes to social policy!My labour vote will be lost if there is not an end to this lone parent bullying!!!

It seems I have made five mistakes according to the government.1. getting married, 2. having children, 3. owning my own house, 4. having a degree & 5. becoming a teacher.
If I had not got married I would be receiving over £1000 a month in benefits and living rent free, if I had not had children I would not be scared about bringing up black boys in London, if I hadn't bought a house or gone to university I would not be in debt,If I hadn't become a teacher I wouldn't have suffered from depression or been falsely accused of assault.
My question is- How can you convince me that my life is the better option? The fact is, your government is not doing anything to help people like me.

Dear Ms Harman

We knew things were bad when Peter Lord Mandelson was brought back into the Cabinet.

It is clear that he is there for one purpose only, to attempt to spin Labour through the next election.

I've only got one question for you, "Do you think the electorate are stupid?"

Ooh, there are some good questions here! Well done Mumsnet for having Harriet Harman on! See you at 1.00 all!

Herbieteas question related- as parents of disabled children we will now gwt a one off fuel payment, thank you. Why is this not on offer to adults with disabilities?
Do you imagine the riosk of pneumonia to someone with CP or the effects of being housebound on someone with ASD or mobility issues ends at 16?

Would it be sensible for councils to provide decent grants for washable nappies rather than tax / limit bin collections? I know some do, many do not including ours.

With regards to caring and studying, I am not certain finance is the key; my childcare grant at University covered my costs. Its the simple basic lack of provision.

Getting social services to provide childcare for disabled children would be self funding in terms of taxes recovered from working parents / benefits savings but it seems Social Services are not interested in supporting anyone not on the brink of colapse, and only help if they think they are at risk of having a child to find foster care for. I couldn't even get respite for the day of delivery of my baby and had to give birth downstairs whilst my autistic boys and their sibling were upstairs- thank goodness for the doula (extra expense), night and quick births!

Hi Harriet, do you not feel that 'the oldest profession' is called that for a reason: it's been around for a long time and isn't going to go away? Isn't Labour's latest announcement on prostitution merely going to make life even harder for prostitutes by driving it even further underground? Can we all stop pretending that sex doesn't happen and that those who want to/have to pay for it should be able to do so? If we could get prostitution out of the world of criminality then it would be a whole lot healthier.

Major changes have been announced in tax policy. As a self-employed (barrister) mum doing not particularly highly paid work with high overheads (£650 plus 16% of my fees to chambers each month) and a husband who earns less than I do, life is a struggle (and we are better off than many others).

I appreciate and understand that taxes must rise to fund concessions such as the reduction in VAT, but given the widely acknowledged problems for working mothers (retention in the professions, lower pay, downgrading of status etc.) why does no consideration appear to have been given to tax breaks for child care?

This would also be a way to support single parents without penalising them. Don't you think a golden opportunity has been missed?

If you were to legalise all illegal drugs, you would 'win the war' against them. The drug barons and dealers would then either have to find something else to do or wind up paying tax by going legit. You would be able to impose quality control, rake in more on VAT, and do some real research on the effects. You would also be able to educate people on the effects of drugs both short-term and long-term, as well as on the safest way to take them, what sort of indications to look out for vis a vis bad reactions/problems. If drugs are legal they will lose appeal to some people who take them as a form of rebellion. Is it not better to have all this out in the open; people will always take drugs, like people will always use prostitutes. These things will never go away.

Hi Harriet - my husband and I have both chosen to put our careers on the back burner and lose some days at work so that we share the care of our DC. I accept that we are in a fortunate position to have both supportive employers and enough money between us to be able to lose a whole salary. When is the government going to recognise that financially supporting parents who want to stay at home and look after their children is as valid as financially supporting parents who want/need to work and choose to put their children into childcare.

Can you please explain to someone who isn't particularly money-minded how much you need to be earning to be hit by Alistair Darling's measures announced today. I have heard varying reports of 19k (Tories), 40k (John Humphreys), 100k (AD). Which is correct please?

Harriet, funny isn't it how when it comes to YOUR children a state selective grammar school fits the bill?

How about giving every parent that opportunity?

?It is easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.?

I would like to ask a question, why if I gave my child to someone else to look after would my husband get to buy childcare vouchers yet because I choose to look after the children we don't get anything. the loss of my income isn't huge but it is significant to us, I don't want to pay someone else to look after the children I am capable of looking after.

In the light of your speech to the WI today, why do you not feel it more important to get the police to close down known brothels and massage parlours ? They trade openly and with public signage, but yet never seem to be visited by the police, let alone shut down.

As a WOHM (and WOHD) we'd appreciate having a tax allowance that could be shared between us (or transferred as the married couples allowance was)that might offset our childcare costs. And for those parents where one chooses to SAH, the tax saving for the working parent would give extra income for the SAHP.

tort everyone will be hit by the 0.5% on NI

Hi everyone. It's great to chat to you today. and please bear with me as I'm not the world's greatest typist!

My Red Cardigan. For very well-off families taking time out of work with the children is not a problem. But we want to help parents take as much time out of work as they feel the child needs - that's why we've doubled maternity pay and leave. And we've introduced paid paternity leave too. Fathers as well as mothers can use the right to request flexible work if they have a child up to age 6 and in April next year we'll extend that to parents with a child up to 16. We will bring in 26 weeks additional parental leave. This will also give fathers the right to take leave adn statutory pay if the mother returns to work after 6 months but before the end of her maternitly leave and pay period. This is to give parents more choice in sharing child care and work. This will be before june 2010.

Hi Saz36, Veni Vidi Vicky QV and Herbitea, The people who find it hardeest to take the time they need with their children are the people who are struggling to make ends meet. That's why we've brought in tax credits and a national minimum wage. If one parent can earn more then the other can stay at home. Using public money, it must be right to direct it towards those who most need help. We are not dictating who should work and who should stay at home - just wanting everyone to have the greatest choice. But we also don't think its good for children to be brought up in a household where no-one is working or even looking for work. that's why we are requiring lone parents to look for work which suits their family arrangements.

Hi Harriet.
What do you think of the police being given taser guns?

Also, didn't you think the loose women were a bit, shall we say 'ignorant' in the political sense.

this government is failing

full stop!

Hi cmotdibbler,

We do want the police to be raiding brothels where they suspect women are being held against their will. and running a brothel is illegal. but we allso want to clamp down on the "demand side" of the evil trade of human trafficking. Its not just the trafficker and the victim - the person who makes the whole exploitative trade continue is the man who pays.
And Jux, just because something has been around for a long time does not mean we have to put up with it. the same could be said for domestic violence. anyway, what's happening now is very different. 80% of the women in these brothels are from abroad and have been brought here - mostly - under false pretences told they will get a good job in a bar or a hotel. And it's serious organised crime of international gangs who do gun and drug dealing as well as trading in women. when i was solicitor general i saw a case where a woman was sold in a supermarket car park by one gang to another for £6,000. This is modern day slavery and we're going to do something about it. And Rights Matter, I just don't agree that being a "sex worker" is a reasonable choice for women. surely we can aspire to more than that relations between men and women can be commercialised sex. This is the 21st century for heavans sake!

'This is modern day slavery and we're going to do something about it'

totally agree

because these workers are in the sex industry its all to easy to look away; in any other sector they'd be labelled as victims of slvery and the world would step in with cries of unacceptable.

Slavery is wrong wjether on the basis of colour, nationlity, religion or naivety in the sex market.