Does it annoy you that mumsnet is being portrayed as a major election tool?

[nosferatu]

it has been mentioned in a few mainstream papers recently that "winning Mumsnet's hearts'" is going to be one of the key battlefields in the forthcoming election.
How do you feel about it?

It's all a bit spin doctory for me..

The thing that really annoys me is the conscious decision to include the wives in the campaigning. I am sure they are great women and are supportive of their husband and families, but really are just the political equivalent of a WAG ... and add nothing to the debate.

Surely the the way to do it is to have some policies and to find the audience, not try to sell hot air and platitudes to some select audience ... I feel quite patronised ...

the secondary reporting of Mumsnet is probably more important - not what we say, but what the papers said we said IYSWIM...

it doesn't annoy me. because all this attention probably earns mumsnet more advertising revenue...which makes my fave site stronger...

"it has been mentioned in a few mainstream papers recently that "winning Mumsnet's hearts"

Because it's one of the easiest ways for political leaders to connect with any women at all [that they're not related to/employing/both].

Roll out a policy announcement and see how many outraged messages in AIBU you've got a few hours later. Dead easy, and you don't need to pay MORI a penny. I reckon they're just using 'Mumsnet' as a proxy for 'women in general'

Nah, the Sunday Times has decided we're more interested in discussing sex than politics nowadays.

Journos seem to have failed to spot that what we actually talk about most is school admissions, reading schemes, parking and dogs.

It's only going to be news for a couple of months until the election's done and dusted. And then there'll be a few weeks of the obligatory, innacurate anti-MN backlash - "MN put itself up as the voice of the modern woman but its influence was all too small" etc. After that we'll largely be left alone again

"Nah, the Sunday Times has decided we're more interested in discussing sex than politics nowadays."

And if the Sunday Times says so, it must be true...

BTW, Grimma, top name.

Yes. I've been bitching and whingeing about it for months!