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.

1. Is there a link between talk of an increased police state, me asking more than the allowed number of questions and my PC shutting down immediaely after I posted them?

(amnd if you answer that isntead of my others I will vote Lib Dem or something instead, it was a joke I promise!)

Blimey - well done MNHQ.

I'm going to think of a good and intelligent question just so he can answer to 'MyCatsAScarierBastardThanYours'

Gordon, would you consider a windfall tax on banks? Considering the generosity of the tax-payer in bailing out and propping up the entire banking system last year, shouldn't some of the profits be socialised if the losses were?

Bossykate - well then you'll know that during the good years the government netted billions and billions in tax revenues from these institutions. The gov didn't question their risky behaviour then. You should be asking GB why he didn't set any money aside as we all know markets can go down as well as up. And the taxpayer didn't prop up the entire banking system. Barclays and HSBC, amongst others, received no government assistance whatsoever.

Prime Minister, David Freud's changes to the incapacity benefit system have resulted in great distress and alarm among some very vulnerable members of our society, particularly those with acute physical or mental disabilities. Claimants report that representatives of ATOS, the private company that is assessing people's claims, are simply not sufficiently trained. Tens of thousands of ESA claimants are having their benefit stopped, sometimes for weeks at a time, before the ATOS ruling is overturned on appeal.

I'd like to hear your views on the suitability of ATOS to carry out this work, and it would be fantastic if you would undertake to look closely at its performance, and make changes if necessary.

And this isn't a question, but I'd like to congratulate you warmly on the fantastic achievements of DFID over the last 12 years. You, Clare Short, Hilary Benn and Douglas Alexander deserve a sustained round of applause.

Testing, testing 1-2-3

oh shit oyu beat me to it Justine

woo-hoo! well done for getting this, justine!

second swedes' windfall tax on banks. a mahoosive vote winner as well.

I have a question.

Gordon, I am a magistrate in a small market town. We see the effects of a drink based culture all the time in violence and disorder.

It has got so bad that certain parts of the town are a no go for non drinkers after 10pm at night.

What are you going to do about it apart from increasing pub booze prices? and dont say ANYTHING about more flipping fixed penalties please... Or cuts to HMCS.

ithankyou.

I accept it is my choice to stay at home and look after my husband and my children, but why is it we would be better off if we split up?

And if you feel that isn't the case (DH is a FD btw) why is there no tax breaks for full time mums from their husbands?

Dear PM,

What do you think of Willetts' claim that you have dashed the hopes of a generation by not opening up University places this year? The Universities are ready to teach the students, the students want to come, your own policy aspires to increase the number of young people in higher education.

Resolving this issue, surely, is a clear vote winner for you, and for the millions of families for whom education is a route to wider horizons.

Prime Minister, Should anything be done to ensure that politicians can get on with governing the country in a fair & consistent manner without having to spend an ever increasing amount of time (& money) on media relations & spin? Would it not be easier to have more referendums rather than constantly responding to attacks on policy by journalists who very often have their own agendas rather than the interests of the general public?
Do you think that the media portrayal of your time in office has been fair & balanced?

Just one question here:

I'm self-employed and need to have childcare in order to work. Why can't my childcare costs be treated as a claimable expense on my tax return? - they are, after all, a necessary cost for me to be able to work.

I believe changing this situation would make a great deal of sense not only for me, but for many of those who are now starting out as freelancers or self-employed workers following redundancy.

In the light of the great expenses scandal, it seems particularly unfair that childcare must be paid for from my profit (or our profit - my husband is also self-employed) when as a tax payer I've been financing duck houses, moat - and house - cleaning for our elected representatives.

wow - well done MN!

I'd like to know the Prime Ministers thoughts on the increasing 'Under Class' society we see across the UK. There are teenagers leaving school with no intention of working for a living, (and why would they, their own parents, and possibly even grandparents didn't either). There is a very obvious 'moral decline' within the Uk, and it saddens me greatly.

no aitch, it was my suggestion for a windfall tax

swedes is merely rubbishing it.

i'm happy with my question, swedes, if you think there is another question to put - then put it.

i disagree that banks who were not recipients of govt funding didn't benefit from the measures taken by the taxpayer to support the entire system yes the entire system. the entire market was propped up by the willingness of the taxpayer to support failing banks, to offer an asset protection scheme, to engage in quantitative easing.

very good. and that if someone some where spent some money on problems rather than trying to save money on everything we might actually SORt some of these issues out.

Instead of making it easy to stay on benefits would it not make more sense to offer people a small amount of help towards council tax benefit /rent for the first few months of a new job rather than just cutting everything off straight away?

I am sure more people would want to get back into work if they knew they had some sort of safety net to help them out for a short while.

Thankyou.

My question:

Can Sarah come next time and we chat to her oh and Gordon you can stay home and cook tea or soemthing

of course there are arguments against a windfall tax, i'd like to hear what the prime minister's are, if any.

I so agree with that about the benefits.
it seems that is why peopel are often done for fraud in court( unlike some other fiddlers of expenses - god imagine if I had fiddled mine..)

they are unsure if seasonal work will pan out and know its such a hassle to de register that they just claim, then are foudn out. Particularly in farming and horse type jobs.

..
a reference to farming on a PM thread

cometrickortreat the way to do that would be to allow claims up to pay day, to cover the gap between benefit and pay.

You balance that by not paying the first claim until a week / month (whatever the pay epriod was) from the first day of unemployment.

For short trmn claimants the difference will be minimal as you can save the difference, but for long term claimants, or even those coming off IB, CA etc who have never worked, it would help enormously.

Sorry hijack over