Suggestion for next guest?

[Marylou]

Hi Justine and Carrie,

How about a high profile mum such as Cherie Blair or even Madonna?! Would be great to ask them about juggling career and family......

Thanks,

MaryLou

[Tigermoth]

Yes, Madonna or especially Cherie Blair (we could ask her about the progress of this parental leave legislation). Or a high profile father. Can't think of one at the moment though.

[Marina]

So long as the high-profile dad isn't "money for old rope" bore Nigel Planer!
I checked out Tom's site and quite enjoyed Wayne Hemingway's rant about label-infested childrenswear. We could always ask Tom to recommend a celebrity dad...
I'd also like to vote for Christopher Green. Or William Sears, American attachment-parenting specialist. And Kia's suggestion was a timely one. And Frank Furedi's apparently got an "interesting" book coming up, on how we should all just chill out and stop worrying about MMR, abuse, paedophiles etc. I read an amusing snippet this morning that the national paper which bought up the serialisation rights to Furedi's book has had second thoughts after seeing the content in detail, and has hurriedly relegated him to the "ladeez" weekend mag supplement! He sounds intriguing.

[Tigermoth]

Wayne Hemmingway would be good. And yes, a good idea to ask Tom. I havn't a clue who Frank Furedi is but he sounds a very likely canditdate. Bob Geldrof possibly? or, and this is highly controversial, but following on from the male child-minding discussion, how about a reformed child abuser, male or female?

[Kathmary]

What about Fatboy Slim?? I saw him on the Brits and he's got a baby to combine with his Big Beats lifestyle now! (I think that's probably a non serious trivial suggestion).

[Gracie]

Or Nigella?

[Ems]

Nigella would be great, food chat yummeeeee! (and of course juggling work/children etc). Ive just been baking some of her yummy domestic goddess stuff for school fayre. My kitchen smells heavenly and I do feel ever so proud of myself!

[Justiner]

Ok so that's Madonna, Cherie Blair, Nigella Lawson, Fatboy Slim and a few others. Shouldn't be a problem! I'll let you know...

[Marina]

Guess it may not be Nigella this time at least. Very, very sorry to hear the news about John Diamond. He was an entertaining journalist and a good, loving dad.

[Rhiannon]

How about George Davies, I'd love to know how he's going to revive M & S now he's left Asda.

Is that too boring?

[Justiner]

Well I guess it doesn't have to be and I agree Clarissa is entertaining. We'll add them to the list of people to try.
Thanks for the suggestions, Justine

[Jac]

Hello, how about Vanessa Feltz!!?? Or Pamela Armstrong, the broadcaster, I had a feeling she breastfed for about 5 years, not quite sure, but it might be interesting to hear what she says, in light of the discussions on breastfeeding difficulties board.

[Marina]

Argh no to Vanessa (don't give this poor soul any further oxygen of publicity) but I'd be interested to hear about Pamela Armstrong if what you heard is true Jac.
Pointy-head query for Justine or Carrie - why is this board reversed so that we always see the earliest post first when we open it? Is it deliberate or just one of those things?

[Tlb]

How about Michel odent

he does quite a few talks local to me ( Balham Yoga centre Art of health) so maybe we could have a controversial tete a tete viz heem???

Actually I was desperate have a water birth (didn't) and though he was quite an intersting guy - he's the chap who pioneered a lot of those and also said blokes should stay out of the labour room...

[Tigger]

My friend and I have talked this over and we think that Gordon Brown should be the next guest to exxplain the thinking behind his maternity policies. This would be an excellent chance for all mums to have their say and Tom could back him up!

[Kia]

Just had a thought what about the lady CEO that wrote that book 'you can have it all' she had 5 kids and a big job in the City and caused a big stir when she was fired? Nicola Horlicks or Something..help?!

[Tech]

Hi Marina,
Re: this topic being upside down. There is a sort of reason for it. It's that the "live events" section is mostly used for live events, which generally go on for a fixed period, with people posting messages that then get responded to quickly. With most of these the conversation ends as the event finishes, with maybe some later comments from people. For these, we leave them the "right way up" to make them easier to read, then rearrange them sometimes after the event so that answers go with their questions (as in the Gina Ford thread). The threads in the other sections are much more open-ended - people might leave a message then check later to see if someone has responded, or there might be several sub-conversations going on. For those, we figured it was better to show the most recent messages at the top so it's easy to catch up on something that you've read part of before without scrolling down to see the latest messages - but you can scroll down to re-read an older message if you need to.

Hope this makes some kind of sense,
Steven (tech person for mumsnet)

[Bugsy]

How about India Knight? She always has plenty to say about mum stuff in her Sunday Times articles. She is also pretty funny too.

[Marina]

I'd second that. She wrote something a while back that made me a bit cross (can't remember what now...) but I found the mum bits of My Life on a Plate extremely funny.

[Croppy]

She makes me v cross (she is virtually anti-breastfeeding, pro-caesarian etc etc) but I would welcome the opportunity too put her under the Mumsnet spotlight!

[Kathmary]

Hey Marina, I've often enjoyed your wise and witty contributions to the mumsnet discussions - so what's this with India Knight?? OK I agree bits of her pink book were mildly funny, but she really annoys me generally - I suppose there's a bit of the agent provocateur about her (probably under her clothes as well know what I mean?) but her comments about Hackney schools (dear to my heart as a resident of Hackers sending their darling child to local school) really really got up my nose massively. She often winds me up. She WOULD probably be a good guest tho, if only for the wind up factor - I could log on and defend blighted Hackney.

[Tigermoth]

Shhhh...she might be reading this! I get the impression that a number of journalists do find their way here, especially after reading Observer article.

I have read her columns, not her book but, yes, she make me cross too. At times she seems rather too rich, privileged and idle to be true. Makes me jealous! But she does raise a reaction so would like to talk to her on mumsnet.

[Marina]

Ah, Kathmary, you have found my blind spot (well one of many). I felt pretty disgusted with myself after finishing said book, but reading the occasional pink and gold trash-fest is my alternative to eating a giant bar of Galaxy or drinking too much chianti - neither of which I can do on my daily commute but which I am happy to do at all other times. I haven't read her columns on a regular basis and did not realise she made a lifelong career out of being controversial and flippant. I'd still like to see her on because it sounds as though it might be a lively discussion. Mind you, according to the home page they've already booked Frank Furedi and the review I saw of Paranoid Parenting made me really look forward to his appearance...light blue touch paper and stand well back.

[Tigger]

What about Kirsty Young or Kirsty Wark, both are mothers and whats even better they are both SCOTTISH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. Kirsty Wark has a family and a very hectic career and doesn't pull any punches when it comes to an interview, so I'd like to hear her comments etc on parenting and wroking.

[Tigger]

Wroking I think that should say working, sorry ..., red wine levels are pretty low, the dreaded lurgy has taken its toll on my after dinnner habits!