Gordon Brown on Mumsnet this Friday (16th October) lunchtime between 1-2 pm

[JustineMumsnet]

We're delighted to announce that the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, will be logging on to Mumsnet for a live webchat on Friday (tomorrow) lunchtime from 1 to 2. The PM is ready to answer Mumsnetters' questions on a wide-range of policy issues from the economy to education and from childcare to climate change.

As you know we're not great ones for rule books here at MNHQ, but we'd like this to be as useful and enlightening an event as it can be, for all involved. We aren't going to pre-moderate or pre-select questions - the format will be as per usual - but given the likely popularity of this webchat, the sheer number of you all and our past experience of trying to fit everything in, we've come up with a few ground rules which we'd be very grateful if you'd follow.

Guidelines for MN webchat with PM

1. To allow as many folks as possible to be involved, please restrict your questions to one per member plus a follow up question if appropriate, i.e. once you've had a response. (NB don't even think about name changing to ask another, we'll be watching!).

1. Please keep your question reasonably brief (we'll not doing a word count but it will increase your chance of getting an answer, we suspect, if you don't bang on for paragraphs)

1. It's highly unlikely he'll be able to answer everyone's question but we'll make every effort to bring common themes to his attention. Please don't be too disappointed if your specific question doesn't get answered and do try not to keep posting "What about me?". He can't answer them all and he is the PM after all - so has a quite few time constraints.

1. Obviously you're free to voice your opinion but do be civil/polite - the PM is our guest on Mumsnet so, whatever your politics, please afford him the same cordiality you would if he stopped by your own house.

Many thanks - feel free to put your question up in advance if you can't make the live chat on Friday lunchtime.

My DH asks wouldn't it have been better to let the banks go under and loans written off. Then we'd all have had more to spend, improving the economy?

Not my choice of question. I want to know about the biscuits.

Mr.Brown.
I would be interested in any answers to WhispyWhisps post?
Ta.

Hi Gordon,

what is the point of raising the pension age when there aren't enough full time jobs for young people?

Dear Gordon

Could you define 'low and middle income' earners? It is an easy phrase to use but until we know exactly who you think it means we can't tell if it applies to us.

Thank you

Mr Brown,
When are you going to allow us to exercise our democratic right and hold an election?

Seconds JoeyBettany

when Aggie came for a webchat her fave biscuit was Nice....forgot to ask Ed Balls his favourite.

Mr Brown...do you have a favourite biscuit? please keep up the tradition...

Can I ask if the govt truly didn't see the credit crunch/house price drops/bank collapses coming?I am an interior designer/developer and was warned at xmas 06/7 that this was about to occur and so sold up.I cannot believe that advice from local estate agents combined with others who had seen this type of cycle before was available to me yet the govt were in the dark?

Hello PM what are you most proud of during your time at no.10? and what would you most like to acheive?

'These nursery places are really popular with parents and they give children the very best start in life' Agree with JodieO - this isn't always the case. I'm sure the people in Plymouth thought they were giving their children the best start at nursery...

I'd also like more information on the swine flu vaccine for pregnant women.

I'm pregnant, and now in a rock and a hard place situation - damned if I have the jab, damned if I don't.

Pregnancy makes me scared enough without worrying about what my child will turn out like simply because I had a poorly-tested vaccine while pregnant.

A thought just occurred to me - didn't ask this earlier and I don't know if anyone did. I'm really concerned about the influence that the media has over events in our country. I think they are partly to blame for the way in which we went into recession, as all that was being reported was doom and gloom - and the forecast for more doom and gloom. Even when there were good news stories they managed to find negative ways of reporting on them.

I don't want a controlled press - I think the press should have freedom - but how do we deal with this undue influence?

Or is it only me who perceived that?

Do you think it's fair to say there is a higher priority in government on getting mums back to work in the early years rather than giving women REAL choice and making it financially worthwhile to look after your kids yourself or choose to pay someone else to look after them?

The tax, tax credits, child benefit and childcare voucher sytems seem overly complicated and intimidating and none of them ever contain any provisions for being self employed.

Dear Gordon Brown

Do you cook and whats your best meal? It would have to be beloved by all the family and come in at under £10.

Tough times and all that.

HeBewitcheditude - on the Cambridge Report,

It's useful to consult with experts - that's why we commissioned own independent review by Sir Jim Rose which has been backed by experts, teachers and parents. On the back of the Rose review we're already putting in place the biggest reform of the primary curriculum in decades but the Cambridge report doesn't take into account we're already taking action.

And it overlooks that we're recruiting 13,000 specialist maths teachers and giving one-to-one tuition in English and maths to tens of thousands of children. And it also ignores the hugely successful Every Child Counts and Every Child A Reader programmes that give specialist early support for six and seven-year-olds.

Our reports suggest that it's better to start earlier than six. Indeed we want to make sure children are learning and playing from an early age and it's for that reasons we've reduced the nursery starting age to three, now looking at how some children can start at two, and introduced Sure Start in every community. If you want to add in more ideas for kids for the future go to www.labourspace.com.

Dear Gordon Brown,

As a very recent naturalised citizen, I am proud to call myself British. However, I find myself disturbed by the slew of measures that demonise immigrants, as well as asylum seekers as 'living off benefits'. As someone who has paid high taxes, plus not received any benefits, I find it distasteful that the government seeks to make more money from legal immigrants, while doing nothing to stem the tide of illegal immigration.

What would you have to say to people like myself and my husband who have faithfully followed every legal change in immigration law, however unjustified, but now find ourselves in the position of having paid out a few months' worth of salaries to be naturalised? Are we paying for the mistakes you have made by not putting in place stronger measure to curb illegal immigration?

Mr Brown
Can you tell me why a four or five year old is exoected to do the same length of school day as a ten year old? Do you think it is beneficial to a child this young to spend more time at school than with their parent? Is it just to accommodate working parents? Surely it should be about the child. So many children struggle to cope with such long days and may be put off school forever. Let children be children and let parents raise their children, not teachers!

Mr Brown,

Will labour be looking at the pensions of public sector employees and letting us know how these will ever be paid in 30 or 40 years time. I'm specifically thinking of final salary schemes.

Thank you.

Mr. Brown
Maggie Thatcher famously survived on 4 hours sleep. How many hours sleep a night do you need to run the country?

To RnB - I've been meeting people who represent autistic children and I'm very happy to hear your ideas to improve the situation. We are looking at this, and please do write to me.

Dear Mr Brown

I'm not a labour voter, and I probably never will be. On a global level, I'm extremely concerned about our presence in Afghanistan, and on a personal level, I feel that as a 'middle class' family, we have been penalised over and over again by the last years of Labour power.

However, one thing that I do always feel is that your personal commitment to doing the right thing, the very difficult job you do, and the terrible decisions you often have to make are often under-played in the media. I think you are a good decent person who works incredibly hard, and I think its important to say that, however personal and intrusive the media coverage is of you, there are people who do respect you and appreciate a lot of what you do.

Hello PM.

What would you most like to be remembered for?

Please tell us what measures are in place/will be in place for dealing with alcohol? Why can we not commit to the sale of alcohol as a minimum price pre unit??