It's the nappies, stupid
ON reading the papers lately, it seems the election could be decided on one issue alone.
Not the economy, health, education, crime or war.
It's the nappies, stupid.
The website Mumsnet has become a formidable pressure group, as politicians strive to woo the yummy mummy vote.
But Mumsnet is also fast becoming to politicians what Shilpa Shetty was to showbiz celebrities a while ago - an apparently innocuous and attractive entity with hidden potential to tangle you in a smothering web of career-blighting controversy.
And nappies have threatened to become to Ed Miliband what the infamous banana photograph was to his brother David at the Labour Party Conference.
You'll remember that Gordon Brown's image took yet another blow when he failed to give a straight answer to Mumsnet over the question of what his favourite biscuit was.
Presumably having learned from his boss's mistake, Ed Miliband was assured on the biscuit issue - his favourite was a Jaffa Cake.
(Good choice, Ed. Jaffa Cakes are lean, tangy, cosily traditional, probably contain a vitamin or two, and are unlikely to incur a bothersome press release from the anti-obesity lobby).
On nappies, however, the secretary of state for energy and climate change was on thinner ice.
He admitted that he uses disposable ones for his son, Daniel, citing an Environment Agency report that found that, once you factor in the laundering that has to go into reusable nappies, the disposable sort are no less green.
But that wasn't good enough for Mumsnet.
One response was: "Oh dear. That report was very flawed, Mr Miliband, and doesn't take into account the landfill aspect."
Oh dear indeed.
You need your wits about you when you when you take on the Mumsnetters, and you need to have done your homework.
David Cameron was criticised when he took seven minutes to answer a nappy question.
He was asked if the Tories would change the allowance of four nappies a day for parents with severely disabled children.
Seven minutes doesn't seem all that long to answer a question so fraught with potential controversy.
Personally, if I were a party leader of the opposition, I'd be looking to appoint a dedicated nappy tsar to handle such delicate matters. Perhaps an entire department or quango.
The rise of Mumsnet is not without its attendant backlash.
A former Mumsnet devotee, Isabel Oakenshott, wrote in the Times recently of the bullying tone of some of the correspondents.
She condemned "the relentless finger-wagging by a cabal of sanctimonious bossy-boots on the discussion boards, who consider it their duty to comb messages for evidence of heterodoxy."
No doubt Mumsnet offers valuable support to most of its users.
But we've seen many examples, and not just on Mumsnet, of how the forum of anonymous online postings can appeal to people's nastier side.
And nothing brings out the bossiness in some people like the subject of how best to raise children.
With the birth of my second child fast approaching, I'm braced for a fresh immersion into the world of dilemmas and confusingly contradictory advice that surrounds childbirth and childcare.
It's bad enough negotiating this minefield without having to justify every decision publicly. Especially when the outcome of a general election - the entire future of the country - could depend on my answers.
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Monday 28 May 2012
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