Janet Street Porter-Do Shut Up Love!

As you know, myself and some fellow Mummy Bloggers had the pleasure (well, sort of) of having our (censored) views expressed on the coming election in the Indie on Sunday.

Now, with all the madness and general disdain that followed at them not covering what we'd said or the points we actually felt most important (which is why my Nan passed on this pearl of wisdom from my Great Uncle, who was once a Freelancer himself-"always get copy approval, or what you say will be wrung out and spat out"), I hadn't read the rest of the paper.

In fact, as Ed the ex had been at a daytime party (a fogey rave as I call it as they're too old to rave at night anymore), I didn't sit down and read it until just before X Factor.

I got to Janet Street Porters Editor at Large Column, and having grown up seeing this horsey toothed loud mouth on TV, thought I'd have a read.

Under the title "The Internet is no place to fight a general election" (and can be read in full here), Janet decided to basically harangue Mothers everywhere, especially us on the net via MumsNet and other similar sites.

One of her quotes made me absolutely livid, and question whether she'd actually gone back through the whole chat that Mum's at Mumsnet had with Gordon Brown. Picking up on the now yawnsome "Biscuit-gate" episode, which Mum's have already expressed anger that the weightier issues they brought up where ignored in favour of the PMs reluctance to mention his favourite biscuit of choice, she says his failure to name  it for 24 hours-

...doesn't make him a lesser politician in my book, but someone with a slightly weightier agenda than some of the nappy-rash gang on Mumsnet.

So angry at this point with the story, I had to make myself a cup of coffee (would've had a large glass of wine except we had none in the house).

She then continues to describe the same chatrooms verdict on David Cameron's live chat-

Cameron's critics claim he took too long to answer – well, nowt wrong with thinking before you articulate a response to a serious question. Sadly this is a relatively rare occurrence in chatrooms, and cyberspace has become a tidal wave of illiterate twaddle and knee-jerk reactions. Every time Cameron answered one mumsnetter, 10 more were trying to get through, so not surprisingly people were disgruntled. In the end, technology let him down and caused the delays. Reading through the debate, his answers are surprisingly coherent and direct. Sadly, going on Mumsnet is the modern equivalent of entering the gladiatorial arena – you're never going to win, and the crowd will just bay for your blood.

Err, Pardon?

So, now, because we Mum's use the net to discuss our views, we are spouting "Illiterate twaddle"? She even has the nerve to comment that she feels David Milliband may end up in the jungle-well, since she herself went on the show, isn't this a case of pot, kettle, black syndrome? Or would Janet have us illiterate fluffy celeb junkie mothers believe that she did it to prove a point on the celeb-ness, rather than as a way of widespread self-promotion like the rest of them?

Well, frankly I think she has a bloody nerve!

Considering she didn't have any problem with her staff writers posting urgent requests to us as individuals and on British Mummy Bloggers' for help for her paper, surely the article she wrote was very ill timed, and should never have been run? Considering also that we didn't get paid a penny, just did it out of our usual goodwill, I think she owes us an apology.

Reflections of The Pebble Dash Woman

Yes, I have made my gran proud of me.

I have been featured, along with some of my other Mummy Bloggers at large, in an article for the Independent on Sunday. And yes, I will happily be signing autographs at London Zoo next week!

There I was yesterday, buying some very nice ankle boots from Clarks when I decided to check my email on my phone. I've had to do this since last Sunday as my net was off again (look out for my review of 3 on my dedicated page, http://20somethingmumreviews.blogspot.com ).

In my inbox, along with the usual spam about having won gazillions of pounds and sex drugs for sale was an "Urgent Media Request" message.

Now, being an up and coming (tee hee) Blogger, I don't generally get messages of this nature. I get messages from PR companies offering me their wares (and my friends are doing rather well out of that now too), but never a media request, much less an urgent one. So I thought it was spam.

I have a bit of a confession to make at this point.

When I get those spam messages I mentioned above, about how I just have to lend them my bank details and they'll trust me to keep a great wodge of cash safe for them (yeah right!), I actually send a message back. It was Ed the Ex who originally started this. I like to think of these linked-to-terrorists-crims sitting in their lair (I take it they have these? They do in James Bond films) when a reply message pops up from me, and them stroking a cat in a big chair (Yep, James Bond again with a bit of Inspector Gadget there) thinking "ha ha (In evil laugh fashion), another gullible one of the English for me to rob so she can't spend her money on shoes and Heat magazine".

When they open my message I tell them exactly where they can shove their "money", and that I'm not a silly, gullible old lady doing knitting on my draylon sofa, so bog off.

So, it was probably a good thing I actually read the email first!

I got home and gave the guy a call, feeling very important as they'd picked me for my political knowledge. It should really have struck me that my political knowledge, despite studying A Level Politics for a year, is not what it once was. I do watch the news but either have to listen over Mini moaning for kids programmes, or Edward moaning because his teeth. Or I'm half asleep when its on in the evening. I do know that David Cameron was a Heat Torso of the week a few weeks back, and that Boris Johnson, who I thought was a politician send up comedian, actually is a politician, and the Mayor of London now too!

So, I gave my honest opinion, that I had voted Labour, because I was 19 and it was trendy, a fate worse than death to vote Tory, and my parents voted Lib Dem, so I didn't want to do copy them. When my Mum asked me who I'd voted for, she made me promise not to tell my Nan, who had canvassed support for Maggie Thatcher before she became the PM, so she would not be happy with me!

I am now, however, looking more favourably towards the Torys.

I did say that I felt quite sorry for poor Gordon. He kind of looks like Sad Sack from the Raggy Dolls (you'll know what I mean if you're an 80s child), and I do think that when he took over from Tony Blair he was spectacularly scape goated to take the blame for mistakes made prior to him taking up his position.

However, he slowly looks to be losing the will to live, when compared with Charismatic Mr Cameron. I did also say I felt that no politicians could ever be trusted, but that at least when he had been wrong about a policy David does seem to apologise and admit it.

I added that the main thing I thought the parties needed to act on was the scraping of the Child Care voucher scheme, in light of the recession and the knock on effect of more couples having to work and place the kids with a child minder.

I also said that I felt a big vote winner would be tackling the unfair immigration system we have. I feel that to get the country back on track we need to stop money being taken out of the country. We can do this by regulating the number of foreign workers our companies employ, as they then spend their wages abroad. If we employ mainly British workers, firstly the financial climate will be given a leg up, by this workforce spending their income in businesses on our shores, and secondly it will help turn the tide on the Unemployment figures, which continue to rise.I said that I felt most politicians are afraid to voice this, for fear of sounding like Nick Griffin, and being accused of racism. Another point was that if we look at Ireland, and Australia they have a booming economy, and are doing very well indeed compared to us.  They also operate a system for immigration whereby you must contribute a skill and have a minimum amount in the bank before you can claim citizenship. A marked difference to us who allow people to come over and sit on the dole, when schools and hospitals are desperate for cash.

So, my few lines are a little bit less then what I said on the phone, but it was nice to see Mini and I in the paper. She is baffled. Why is she suddenly in a paper, and sitting on the sofa too?

I have to say I'm not too keen on the term Pebble Dash Woman, as this is a slang term for having the runs where I'm from and missing the loo! Sorry if you're having your lunch!

*PS Thanks to Sandy for letting me steal the shot of the paper for my blog post!