Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, on Mumsnet for a webchat

[JustineMumsnet]

Do post your advance questions here.

Mr Brown

Tis a hard job, you do. I don't envy you, and I genuinely think you are doing your best.

Good luck on Thursday.

And how many hours sleep do you get each night, seeing as (a) you run the country and (b) you have two small boys?

And which is harder?

frakkinnut

i quoted this bit
"I am pleased that following a positive response to our consultation, and overwhelming public support, friends supporting one another with unpaid childcare will be exempt from the registration and inspection process. This amendment has been made to ensure that hard-working parents are not penalised for supporting their friends with unpaid childcare.

to my council when I enquired about my situation and they stated it was not in force and my friend will have to pay £200 to go on the voluntary register to look after her in my home
or
train as a child minder neither of which we can afford. She also said that it would be benfit fraud for my friend if we share child care????

She then stated that if at any time I looked after her children in return then if the council found out about it then my friend would be in breach - she quoted the case of the two police women and stated "gorden brown backtracked on those statements and you CANNOT have your friend look after your child in her home for ANY kind of reward and reciprocal childcare is reward". She then proceeded to tell me that of the two policewomen one now uses a a child minder and the other a nursery.

I am now even MORE confused about childcare.

Mr Brown why should I vote labour on thursday ? My little boys is in a class of 30 children what are you planning to do about education and in particular large class sizes ?

I think Nick Clegg dosent really have a clue about his policies and David Cameron is way to creepy to be in charge.

Good luck for thursday .

At the moment i am thinking of voting lib dems, what can you offer me(a single mother, working part-time & struggling to pay for childcare/mortgage/council tax etc) to change my mind & vote labour????

Good evening Mr Brown,

I am still undecided on my national vote for Thursdays election.

For me, my main concern is that my children have the best schooling available to them, and that my family is not penalised by benefits cuts. My husband claims incapacity benefit, and also gets a War Pension, and because of his disabilities, I am unable to return to work until all my children are in school as he is unable to look after them day in day out. We are being scared by the removal of his incapacity benefit, and the talk of cutting Tax credits - we live week to week on the tax credits as everything else has to come out of the incapacity and war pension money. We have no savings and no luxuries.

From the information above, and from watching the debates on TV and listening to all 3 leaders, I am torn between Lib Dem and Labour. As far as I am concerned DC wants the country to be full of wealthy toffs and will ignore the lower end of the scale, but how do I decide between Labour and Lib Dem?! What exactly will you do for ME and MY FAMILY above the lib dems?!

I would just like to ask why I, as a fervent labour supporter and past member (prevented from activism by Tory legislation)all my life, shouldn't give up on you now? It seems to me that you have all, ie ministers and MPs, taken absolute power to a corrupt level. Surely you could have avoided this?

I do not blame you for the global economic downturn but letting the banks off the hook? allowing people like my hardworking dh who works in social services work for the last three years with no pay rise whatsoever (ie a pay cut in real terms) and ensuring that our 3 bright children will end their university lives in huge debt (assuming they choose to go)? And the NHS - you do know, don't you, that they will never be out of deficit.

I am so very, very disappointed in you all. When Labour came to power in 1997 I was one of those still up for Portillo and I wept with joy...

Will you genuinely consider alternative methods of bringing funding into the NHS - e.g wider copayments, a formal top up system - in your next term.

ps Sarah deserves a medal. Make sure you give her at least the massivest bunch of flowers that you can get delivered on Thursday. at the very least..

"She then stated that if at any time I looked after her children in return then if the council found out about it then my friend would be in breach "

This is thenanny state gone loolaa why is it anyone elses business if you want your friend to watch your kids and visaversa jesus we're big enough to have kids, we're big enough to decide who looks after them, eurgghhh. Theyll be making grandmas register soon.

Here comes the serious question! My husband is a full time student, I'm working part time and we're desperately hoping our daughter gets into the local school nursery come August. I really hope that our tax credits don't get cut because they're a huge part of our income at the moment and until the wee one gets her nursery place my working hours are severely limited. What I'd like to know is what incentives can we look forward to that will make me staying in work worthwhile?

i quoted this bit
"I am pleased that following a positive response to our consultation, and overwhelming public support, friends supporting one another with unpaid childcare will be exempt from the registration and inspection process. This amendment has been made to ensure that hard-working parents are not penalised for supporting their friends with unpaid childcare.

to my council when I enquired about my situation and they stated it was not in force and my friend will have to pay £200 to go on the voluntary register to look after her in my home WRONG - SHE CAN BE AN UNREGISTERED NANNY BUT YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO USE VOUCHERS OR TAX CREDITS
or
train as a child minder neither of which we can afford. She also said that it would be benfit fraud for my friend if we share child care???? I DON'T KNOW HOW IT WOULD BE BENEFIT FRAUD

She then stated that if at any time I looked after her children in return then if the council found out about it then my friend would be in breach - she quoted the case of the two police women and stated "gorden brown backtracked on those statements and you CANNOT have your friend look after your child in her home for ANY kind of reward and reciprocal childcare is reward". She then proceeded to tell me that of the two policewomen one now uses a a child minder and the other a nursery. NO. WHAT HAPPENED WAS EVERYONE JUMPED ON THE POOR WOMEN, WHO CHANGED THEIR CHILDCARE, THEN THERE WAS THE BACKTRACKING AND A STATEMENT WAS ISSUED AND AN AMMENDMENT PASSED SAYING THAT RECIPROCAL CHILDCARE FOR NO PAYMENT WAS ALLOWED AND WASN'T COVERED UNDER OFSTED'S REMIT. YOUR COUNCIL WOMAN IS WRONG.

I am now even MORE confused about childcare.
AM NOT SUPRISED

"This instrument will add a further category of exempt childminding to the 2008 Order:
childminding for the children of friends where this is not provided in return for payment. Payment
is defined in the Order as a payment of money or money?s worth which does not include the
provision of goods or services. This will allow the exemption from registration with Ofsted of
childminding for the children of friends where this is in exchange for goods or services such as
reciprocal childcare, ironing or gardening, but not for payments that could be considered as equivalent to money such as store gift vouchers or the payment of the childminder?s rent or
mortgage."
from here

AM ANNOYED ON YOUR BEHALF - I WAS TOTALLY AGAINST BREAKING THE LAW RE: RECIPROCAL CHILDCARE BUT IT'S CHANGED AND NOW I'M AGAINST OFFICIOUS COUNCIL WORKERS WHO AREN'T UP TO DATE. IT WAS A SILLY RULE. IF YOUR FRIEND WILL DO IT FOR FREE IN HER OWN HOME THEN YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF IT.

SORRY EVERYONE ELSE

I'd firstly like to say I am very disappointed in the media circus that has plagued you since you became PM. You have my utmost respect, an honest man who just wants to get on with his job. I will be voting for you on Thursday and I just hope that everyone else sees sense and does the same.

My question would be:

How will you ensure that those that can work but are claiming benefits, get back into the workplace. I hear so many times that people say it isn't financially viable for them to work.

Thank you and the very best of luck for Thursday, I do hope and pray that I wake up to a Labour government on Friday .

Hello Prime Minister Gordon Brown

I was reading an article in the current issue of the Economist (May 1st - 7th 2010) titled 'Who Should Govern Britain?'

It seems to say that part of the reason you will not be able to sort out the budget deficit "time-bomb" that was caused by your "pouring" money into he public services, is because you are against the reform of public services, but it does add that "There are mutterings of choice in Labour's manifesto, but Mr Brown too often reverts to old-fashioned statism".

Please could you explain what they meant by there being choices in your manifesto regarding reform and how can these choices help with the budget deficit problem?

Many thanks for reading this question,

Duffet (mum with 13 month old - p.s. remembered to bank my childs sure-start voucher today thank you

I have a suggestion for cuts - stop spending our money on consultancy, i.e. the management consultancy to come in and tell the NHS, schools, council and government itself how they should manage things.
The answer is usually to enlist either them, or one of their larger corporate structure in providing the solution. This a clear conflict of interest.
The amount that's spent, (which no amount of FOI requests get an answer to) must be in the billions of pounds.

Cut out the consultancy corporations and let us get on with our jobs!

PS sympathy re: last week's events, media portrayal disingenous as all media and politicians are never, ever themselves.

As others on the thread have said, what we want is for political parties to be honest about what is needed to sort the country out; not working round the edges.

Please could you do me a favour ? The next time you see Ed Balls, kick him up the arse as hard as you can.

Thanks

Good evening Mr. Brown,

I don't have a question which hasn't been asked but I will be watching your answers with interest, as I am unfortunately now undecided (one sure vote from my household from my husband though). Good luck for Thursday, I sincerely hope the best man for the job wins.

OK a question: I have asked this before of people and never get a reply. Why can't carers get Carers Allowance when they are enrolled at Univeristy or college? Caring responsibilities don't just stop, most carer / students I know study in school hours and can't take the summer jobs that keep the others afloat. I accept asking for it in term time alongside student finance may be off in the current financial crisis, but why not in the holidays to balance the lack of ability to get that all important summer employment? It seems a hurdle to getting back into work and securing the sort of employment likely to have flexible working and the sort of pay level able to covere extra high chidlcare costs.

For what it's worth, I think you have done far mroe than many realise for the good of the very poor, and that you are someone who always tries to do good. Whatever happens, I wish you luck, and as a carer (graduated- no self interest I promise!) whose Dh has faced redundancy in the past year, your policies have certainly helped us immensely and I thank you for that.

ps, he's not that brave. he's coming on at 7.15 when most mums will be doing the bedtime routine.

Gordon

My vote will be red on thursday. I am very proud of that fact.
I believe you have been scapegoated for the immense national debt that every Tom Dick and Harry subscribed to - we all wanted our schools and hospitals at the time but seem unwilling to face the fact that these things cost.

I think in our modern culture in the shadow of the Thatcher years - people just 'want' and they 'want now' without the foresight to see that they have to pay for it. Any country with that attitude is difficult to govern. Tax rises are as unpopular as ever but people demand -for example - out of hours health care.

You took over office just too late - Blair should have let you have some of the glory years instead of hanging on until things started to slide. You have had an incredibly difficult task and I believe you have handled the Prime ministership (!) with strength and a great deal of dignity.

Under a different world economic climate you would have shone! Whoever takes office it will be a hell of a task.... not the easiest term to inherit.

Sarah's fabulous too - whilst out on Saturday night I met someone who had recently met her and told me "She's far more beautiful in the flesh!'

No question Gordon - just support . I have six children and I have brought them all up to fly the red flag

If you do not win - you have those lovely boys to enjoy !

All the best

Your Number One Fan

In fairness foureleven, thre dads could do it in many famillies, and quite a few of us have older children- people will be here I am sure.

cheers frankkinuts

Just one thing - Benefits

THe whole system needs reviewing !