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.

I actually feel more positive about him now than I did prior to the web chat. Hurrah.

He shouldn't have ended with the PPB, really takes the biscuit (sorry, sorry )

Disagree Bumper. It's about time we asked the other side some tough questions - they're riding high on the 'we're not labour' bandwagon but really, would you trust the NHS in their hands? Nope. Me neither.

I think we have a right to be bemused Hat and Bossy, because yes you're right, he came on here as part of the election campaign, but he used methods which don't belong on MN. If he's going to use a chat forum to electioneer, that's absolutely fine by me, but he needs to use it competently. IE, not do the obvious spin and PPB, which belongs to a party rally, not to Mumsnet.

I'm going to vote labour because I'm a lone parent and turkeys don't vote for christmas, so he doesn't have to convince me - but for lots of people who aren't in my position, this little exercise probably hasn't done him any favours.

It will have to be LibDem bumbling I suppose. I really was ready to be swayed, old loyalty dies hard. Naive of me to think so though.

Hello David Cameron, I'm sure your reading this!.
or at least your people are!

would you please answer my question?

what are your views on tax relief for stay at home parents?
ie, taxing the working parent less?

has to be said I laughed out loud at the idea that labour won't abolish childcare vouchers - just the tax/ni relief on them. as i said in a follow up q - how then will childcare vouchers differ from, erm, money

other than perhaps we will only be able to exchange them for govt-approved services, whereas we are (still, I believe) entitled to exchange our money for whatever the f we like.

What is PPB?

perhaps GB should pay MN for advertising!

Party political broadcast?

actually several people did say (in effect) why should I vote labour.

Someone said they were thinking of not voting labour and asked, "give me a reason to change my mind", and Whispy wrote "please can you convince me to vote labour at the next election?"

So I think that a bit of canvassing was fair game.

LOL at cut and pasted stump speech at the end to -the- -one- -poster- everyone who had asked why they should vote Labour.

I am always amused at how rubbish politicians actually are at really communicating their message.

Did he answer my question (and the one that over 45,000 have asked on the No. 10 e-petitions) regarding Employer Supported Childcare Vouchers, and whether this Govt really do plan to scrap them?

Or maybe my cynical self missed that post?

I didn't like the last post myself but I doubt DC would have missed an opportunity to do similar if he were doing the webchat.

Maybe MNHQ will get DC next then? It's only right that we have both leaders come to talk to us (and maybe the others too).

InmyheadIminParis, no, I think you are right, we should ask those questions, but I don't think this was the forum for that business, this was an opportunity for GB to answer our questions.

I really hope he looks in depth at this thread later and takes away the points we've made.

But TYV everybody who actually does canvassing knows that you don't stand there and give an off the peg speech, you have to actually listen to people and respond to their concerns.

I know Lenin, but isn't it crap that it comes down to that alone? Lib dems do have a chance here.

"By hatwoman on Fri 16-Oct-09 14:11:42
has to be said I laughed out loud at the idea that labour won't abolish childcare vouchers - just the tax/ni relief on them. as i said in a follow up q - how then will childcare vouchers differ from, erm, money"

Well at the moment for eg, childcare vouchers don't count as income for the purposes of tax credits. So if they continue that, it's a fairly major difference.

I asked him what he can do to convince me to vote Labour, and from what I can see he didn't reply.

I was tending to agree with you Pofaced until party conference season. I listened to speeches by all three and finally decided New Labour are rubbish and I'm so disappointed about what they haven't achieved, but they have achieved some things that no one else would ever have done. I just can't forget that they intorudced a minimum wage, who else would have done that? Everything would have been worse under the Tories, expecially everything that's happened since crash/credit crunch.

My biggest concern about voting Lib Dem is that it might let the Tories get in... and I think Labour are probably counting on that, the sad thing is for someone like me they're probably right ... it's all so depressing really. Specially when you think how bad things are lkely to be economically in the next few years...

I DO hope that the PM seriously considers the focus group idea. I think it would be Properly Useful to him, for all the reasons mentioned (breadth, not backwards-in-coming-forwards etc)

Thanks Mich.