Live webchat with David Cameron - this Thursday 19th, 1.45 pm

[JustineMumsnet]

Hello all - David Cameron is coming on to Mumsnet to answer your questions this Thursday at 1.45-2.45. Please post advance questions here if you can't make it on Thursday. (And please read our Webchat guidelines above before posting ie only one question each). Many thanks.

dignan, eye tests for children are free on the NHS at the moment.

Parents can book them with their local optician on their high street and they don't have to pay.

I've just had my daughters eyes tested and didn't pay a penny. It was a very thorough test with very good equipment and a very nice optician.

My dd didn't need glasses much to her disappointment but if she did, they would have been free too.

And the choices of frames were pretty snazzy I thought.

Dear David,

With many problems currently obvious within the social care system - caused by an over-controlling government. How does the Conservative Party plan to address these issues in order to offer a solution within which parents are truly supported rather than live in fear of a department that is surely there to protect?

Thank you

I'm wondering how the questions we have put are presented to DC and how they are chosen? I'm dreading another biscuit-gate. It looked like that was the only level of discussion we were capable of. Perhaps MN HQ could explain how this a'noon will work?

Dear Mr Cameron

What is your policy on the childcare vouchers? As a working mother, the continuation of this scheme will be a deciding factor for me at the next election. So far, your party has been pretty silent on the issue.

Mollythetortoise

The standard NHS eye tests are not capable of picking up Binocular Instability because the opticians are neither trained to do it nor have the equipment needed to pick it up.

It has nothing at all to do with eyesight which often will be perfect. These children will experience problems with blurred vision, letters moving on the page, eye watering, headaches and visual tracking problems when reading. All these factors make learning to read quite tricky for these children.

My daughter was lucky and her problem is sorted out but it was not down to our (excellent) optician - it was down to an equally excellent optometrist i stumbled upon.

mackerel - I thought we were going to choose the main questions democratically (as suggested by another mumsnetter) then follow those up with slightly more personal questions.
It seemed like a good idea and the major issues would have been answered.

Morning David:

Forgive my less than eloquent question as I have the pig flu and a crashing headache at the moment.

I am wondering what you would like tell us about Lord Ashcroft, the billionaire deputy chairman of the Conservative Party.

Is he still a tax refugee from the United Kingdom? It still seems to me that this is something privy to him and HMRC, as it ought to be. Although I think you agree that you as party leader have every right to know his current tax status. (And you do know how these things can leak out before or after a general election and bite the leader in the backside!)

So do you think you will be able to convince Lord Ashcroft to voluntarily share his tax status with the British Public soon?

I am a dual citizen of the UK and Belize. (Blimey! I have something in common with the Lord!) And as a Belizean I am quite concerned about his way of dealing with small governments like Belize and the Turks and Caicos where he is perceived as a bully and a catalyst for corruption in the government and local business.

I wonder about these things because they have a lot of bearing on our Overseas Development policy and their grand ideas of reducing corruption in foreign governments by tying it with our donations.

Hope you enjoy you MN visit.

Hello Mr Cameron

On an earlier question on the style of politcal debate in this country it should be noted that you promised to end ?the Punch and Judy show that younger voters in particular find so alienating? when you became leader but you have spectacularly failed to do so. A good opportunity would have been to say something re: the way the Sun were treating GB over the the Jamie Janes issue. Most of the country would have agreed with you and it would have been seen as moral leadership IMO.

Anyway, my question. What is your view on the Cambridge report on primary education?

I am amazed that a 80 page report by educational professionals which was the result of six years? work has been dismissed by both Government and opposition in such a kneejerk way. The report is clear that the primary school getting the best results in maths and Englisha are also those which teach a broader curriculum. To me this evidence should end the polarised debate re: the 3Rs versus progressive play based learning. However the very little we hear from Michael Gove suggests that he is strongly in favour of more traditional methods of teaching and learning, including a much narrower curriculum. Is that a correct view of your policy?

Thanks gentleotter. I must have missed that.

Dear David

Just wondered what help there would be for familes like us.

when my daughter was 1 I went back to work full time and out daughter in day nursury.
Nursury fees were £850 per month and adding petrol to get me to work left me few hundred net pay and didnet make it worth both of us working fulltime so I quit.

However childcare vouchers did help but current administation wants to remove this .
what is your stance on this matter?

My daughters now in preschool funded by nursury maintainanace grant ,term after 3rd birthday which is great her pre school is infact a charity as very few state nursuries within our county but the 2.5hour sessions are not long enough to allow parents to go out to work so whats the solution to childcare as its so expensive?

The problem as I seen it the benefits system traps so many of the poorest in soceity as it does not pay them to work.

For us stuck in middle we seem to get clobbered all time.

I chose to try and go back to work therefore paying taxes and ni but after childcare and commuting wasent worth it.
My husband has a good job however sometimes he feels we penalised because of this.
he worked hard to get to salary hes on and as hes in retail works long hours and has lost bonus this year due to credit crunch yet bankers still seem to be getting theirs!

Last year they started taxing his private healthcare, it covers the whole family was good benefit of the job.

Surly if someone goes private then they save NHS money then that deserves to be tax free?
Whats conservative stance on private healthcare? As the nhs can not go on as it is but people seem afraid to tackle the issue.

His salary is £35,000 gross sounds a lot but once taxed and bills., rent paid as even when we both worked fulltime we couldent afford a morgage theres not much left.

The flawed tax credits system means for one child we entitled to £40 amonth for 1child.
Sometime I think if he had a lower paid job and was boosted by tax credits than we would be better off than we are now.

How will the conservatives tackle the benefit and tax credit system?

Recently applied for school place for 2010 yet all the best schools in area are oversubscribed, even I can see that theres a postcode lottery in my area as all the top performing primaries are in very affluent areas where house prices are high.
How do we solve our eduaction system problems as they seem to think knocking sink school down building brand new academy through pfis are are the answer!

I agree that more needs to be done to help the families on low income but they already get a lot but the middle gets very little.

Are you planning to bring back married couples tax allowance and reward couples for staying together as I have heard of few people deliberatly living apartin order to get more which seems crazy.

PS: I bet you he ignore will not answer my question. humph.

maybe I should have asked instead if his party would consider scrapping Child Care Vouchers and replace it with across the board tax relief and the basic rate for all child care bills. I think that system would be fairer, cheaper to administer and a bloody lot more sensible.

but I missed my opportunity.

my apologies Dinan, I did not read your question properly

No worries Mollythetortoise - i probably didn't explain it properly!

Mr Cameron,

Are you Banksy?

I would like to echo the request By WilfSell Tue 17-Nov-09 17:50:28 to read our thread (it is one of many!) about the plight of children who are not ready to start school at 4.0.

My son had a severe problem understanding language. He is 4 years 3 months and overcoming his issues slowly, but there is simply no way he could access the curriculum in reception. I am very lucky in that Bradford Council has allowed me to do the blindingly obvious thing - repeat his year in nursery and start reception a year later - as strongly recommended by (i) my consultant paediatrician (ii) my speech therapist (iii) my school's headmistress and (iv)the school's nursery manager.

Countless others on mumsnet have had comparable plights where their child has the double whammy of a summer birth and some form of immaturities/delay-based special needs, but they have been denied this common-sense option. Instead, their child has been forced into reception too soon (under the threat of simply forcing them into year 1 at 5.0 otherwise).

The Government specifically briefed Sir Jim Rose to advise them on greater flexiblity for school starting age in the face of overwhelming calls for it from teachers and parents. This Jim Rose spectacularly failed to do. I have talked with Ed Balls about this issue. He worries that if he increases flexibility, then the children of parents who do not defer will suffer even more because they will stand out more. I see his concern, but believe it could be met through education and better nursery provision, after taking a long look at the successful Scottish system (which is universally praised in regard to this issue on mumsnet).

I've fought and won this battle for my child and he is thriving now - absolutely thriving - it has transformed his life chances. I've also saved the taxpayer huge amounts of money that would otherwise have been spent on a costly statementing process and one-to-one suport had he been forced into school this year.

Please will you pledge to help other children who are in the same or similar plights?

I would like to know David's opinion of the announcement, via the Queens speech,of a change in law regarding home-education; this being before the results of a public consultation and before the report from the select committee into the Badman fiasco is published.

It is often very hard to understand what a conservative government would do in real terms to support working families. Many families have one or two parents working long hours and very hard simply to meet the cost of living and childcare.

What exactly does a conservative government plan to do regarding tax credits and childcare vouchers for middle income families?

Also do you support the idea of 'transferable' maternity leave and for how long?

Thankyou

Karen pearce

David,

I live in an area which at general election is always Lib Dem v Tory- Labour just don't figure in the numbers. At the time of the last by-election I went on holiday for 2 weeks and came back to dozens of conservative election leaflets which were mainly aimed at insulting the Lib Dem candidate and very little else. I recently met your parliamentary candidate for our area and chewed his ear off about this- will your forthcoming campaign be based on policy or will I be lining my recycling bin every day again? I dislike these tactics- such as repeatedly pointing out that the Lib Dem candidate does "not even live in the constituency"- and it makes me not want to vote for you. Also, will we be seeing you round here in the run up to the election, campaigning alongside him?

Lastly do you wish you had not done the remembrance garden photo shoot?

Many thanks

Dear Mr. Cameron,
This website has been very much in the news recently, mostly because of Gordon Brown's preferred biscuit choice. Are you aware that he never actually saw the biscuit question? What is your opinion on recent stories regarding Gordon Brown (biscuitgate and the handwritten letter come to mind) that are being twisted out of all proportion by the media? Is this the Tory party tackling the man, not the ball?

I too would like to know exactly what you intend to do with tax credits if you win. Please state clearly your intentions.

Also, please answer LadyBlaBlah's question regarding empathy

Dear Mr Cameron,

Please would you give us an undertaking that, should you get into power and as part of your 'review of the welfare system', you will not seek to dismantle the funding and provisions put into place by the 1997 government to help victims of domestic abuse? Specifically the funding to refuges and out-reach workers, and the requirement on local councils to provide accommodation for those fleeing abuse.

Because it's hard not to suspect the conservative party as seeing this sort of provision as encouraging family breakdown...

I am LOVING the serious tone of this thread and lack of fluffy questions.

Hope DC can step up to it and not just waffle.

Why do you care so much what Mumsnetters think? Are you just trying to keep up with the latest fad in deigning to listen to 'us mums'?

He can't waffle or he'll be toast.

Asked already I think... Anyhoo, Mr Cameron, do you think that mothers and fathers should play an equal (not necessarily the same) role in bringing up the kids? If so, what plans are there to increase paternity leave or at least give parents the right to choose to share the current 12 months between mum and dad? This does not mean dads have to take any but at least they have the option.

I say this because my husband is, in effect, a weekend and evening dad only as I'm the one who gets the time off. We would share the leave if we could!!