Labour leadership hustings - on Mumsnet!

[GeraldineMumsnet]

The Labour leadership election is coming up, so we're putting on our very own Mumsnet hustings. We've invited all five candidates - Diane Abbott, Ed Balls, Andy Burnham, Ed Miliband and David Miliband - to submit to a proper MN grilling.

We want to send the same ten killer questions to all the candidates, so, whether you're a Labour voter or not, please post your killer question of choice here.

They can be as serious or semi-serious as you like, but up to usual MN-piercing-and-incisive standards please - as ex-leader Gordon Brown put it: "You [Mumsnetters] certainly ask more difficult questions than television's Question Time or any other question time that I'm part of."

(To avoid any accusations of favouritism by other politicians, we'll cover the biscuit question as a starter for ten ).

We'll select the ten questions that seem to be the most recurring/insightful and give each of the candidates a week to respond to them.

We'll then publish all their responses so you can compare and contrast. We're hoping they will come on to Mumsnet on Monday 6th Sept from noon to 1pm to talk about their answers in more detail.

So far, David Miliband and Andy Burnham have said yes; Ed Miliband, Diane Abbott and Ed Balls have said yes in principle. We'll update the thread as soon as we know who else can make it.

BTW, the ballot results for the new Labour leader will be announced on 25th Sept.

Over to you...

My question

Why on earth take such a long time electing a leader? It plays into the ConDems hands.

which one of you is going to promise to get rid of union-hating academies and ban bloody AQA from changing the syllabus/texts every 3-5 years because 'teachers get bored of teaching the same thing'?

Which one of you is going to tell OFSTED that their view of a good teacher is not necessarily the same view shared by those who actually do the job?

Which one of you is going to have the guts to say: 'ok, let's not do any more cocking about with schools, but let's leave them alone for 5 years and see how they get on'. Can't be any worse can it?

The coalition are hiving off the NHS to social enterprises - if Prime Minster will you reverse the sell off. So that my children have a National Health Service - free at the point of delivery?

1. Do you intend to continue expanding PFI projects, which saddle our children with debt for years to come? I work in a school and there is a horrible, horrible dynamic between the teaching staff and the site staff because we're not on the same team - everything the site management team do is about spending as little as possible and things are constantly falling apart, cleaning is awful and the canteen is disgusting. There's nothing the school staff or management can do as it's run by [insert name of well-known contractor] not the borough. They can profit by flogging use of our school in evenings or weekends, meaning I have to vacate my department by 4pm unless I've 'pre-booked' an activity with said contractor. my room is then frequently left in a tip as they clean as infrequently as they can get away with, ooh unless Oftsed are in. It's effing ridiculous.

/rant

2. And I can't believe no-one's mentioned SureStart centres. Rumour has it the coalition govt want to limit access to only low-income families, whereas the benefits of the centres are immense to all parents regardless of income, and help strengthen communities and parenting confidence. Reassure us please that you will expand, not cut, SureStart and other services which help parents, especially first-time parents.

I popped in to my local SureStart centre recently as I'm currently ttc and I find childcare issues really confusing, and they gave me brilliant advice on the options available. I'm internet-savvy but nothing replaces local, professional knowledge. I also spent time chatting to local mums, which was amazing - I felt immediately less isolated.

Oh but I'm probably 'middle-class' according to my income, so I don't matter. [sulk]

Oh and what Astronaut said, leave teachers alone please, we have to spend every summer bloody learning a new curriculum instead of building on resources we already have to improve them, it feels like re-inventing the wheel every bloody time, espeically for BTEC where you have to write a course handbook which takes bloody ages, i did this last year and have to write a new one this year as the whole bloody course has changed.

Iraq.

Why should any of us ever trust anything you say again?

Also a question on Iraq but not the same as the others - will any of you be brave enough to say that we did the right thing, that dictators should be brought down where possible and that being leader of the Labour party is about standing up for oppressed people around the world?

And a second question too - can you restructure the party so the meetings aren't so tedious. I'd get involved except everyone at local meetings seem utterly mad and quite smelly!

My question is that the Public Sector is becoming unsustainable. What are you going to do about the unfair contracted out system for public sector pensions and the inequality between private sector pensions and public sector pensions. Unions appear to have all their strength in limited sections of the working population and therefore this in enhancing the inequality. What would you do about these issues? Also why did Labour always seem to give in the Grey vote at the expense of the future generations?

Firstly, I'd ask the other candidates to stand aside in order let Ed Balls sail through unopposed.

And then I'd ask him how he feels about leading a party that will never win again for as long as he is in charge...

How would you increase opportunities for young people esp re work and education? Young generation seems to be getting rough deal.... (agree with fsmail on last point re grey vote).

What qualities do you think a good opposition leader needs to have and how will you be a good opp leader?

How would you deal with, or attempt to reverse, voter insouciance?

How would you reduce the number of NEETs?

Given that the UK is an ageing population, what is your solution to the finance of social care for the elderly?

Whatwould you do to address the problem that we need more midwives, we have lots of trained midwives, yet we have a health service which cannot afford to employ them?

What are you going to do about illegal economic immigrants and the strain that puts on public services? (don't bash me here Mumsnetters, I'm mixed race and married to a son of an immigrant)

What are you going to do about Neets?

What are you going to do about the amazing disaffected former Labour voters to get them back on board to win the next election?

Are you going to safeguard Child Tax Credits and Child Benefit?

What plans do you have for encouraging people to use sustainable energy in their homes? (the £15k for solar panels is way out of most people's budgets).

Thanks and best of luck!

Scotland and Wales have gained devolution under a labour government. Both are seeking more powers.

What are the candidates views on further powers for the devolved governments?

What would you do to address the gulf in academic attainment between state schools and independent schools?

According to the Lancet there are 1.5mn dead in Iraq due to the direct and indirect consequences of the war.

How many Iranian civilians would it be legitimate to kill to achieve your political ambitions?

What are you going to do about helping the over-50's gain employment given that the state pension age is predicted to rise to 72 for people in my age group?

my question

why such a drawn out contest?

Are you going to campaign to protect our public libraries both from direct cuts AND privitisation?

If not, why not?

Many Mumsnetters are exteremely concerned about "The Future Libraries Programme" which contains amoung other things, proposals such as selling off libraries, running them on a volunteer basis or paying supermarkets to run them.

Libraries are vital, they are the last truly free educational resource available to all.

Are you going to save them?

Why did you leave the coalition with the legacy of every man, woman and child owing £22,000 to the treasury and now have the gall to blame the new government for making cuts that you yourself were planning? How do you sleep at night - any of you???

why is it taking so long?

Have heard through a reliable MN source that David Cameron smells very nice and expensive.

What do you smell of?

I'd like to repeat StuckInTheMiddleWithYou's remark and question.

'Libraries are vital, they are the last truly free educational resource available to all.

Are you going to save them?'

When Culture Secretary Andy, I believe you were refusing to use your powers of the 1964 Public Libraries and Museums act to protect the closure of 11 local libraries on the Wirral and 4 in Swindon. How do you defend this?

Have any of you ever had a real job. By that I mean one that does not involve politics on one level or another (no consultancy work for think tanks etc), pays less than the median wage and is subject to the whims of the market (i.e. facing the real possibility of redundancy)? If so, for how long? If not, how can the public trust you to have any real, visceral understanding of how life is actually lived for the vast majority of the population outside the westminster bubble?