Put your questions to Chris Grayling

Hereford

Hi Chris, Who are you and what do you do for a living?

JR

The Conservatives have criticised the tax credits system but not put forward any substantial plans for it's reforms - are you intending to reform the system fundementally or just tinker with its treatment of couples? Linked to this do accept that the huge expansion of tax credits to make work pay was a fundmental part of the radical 'Wisconcin' reforms to the American welfare system in 1995?

Marcus Cotswell

What are your plans for reducing the incidence of means-testing in the benefit system, with particular reference to the impact on incentives to save?

Guy Incognito

Who is the better Joker: Cesar Romero or Jack Nicholson?

Silent Hunter

Who is the better Joker?

It has to be Hereford for that witty one liner. :O)

Al Faturd

Seeing as the beastly Hereford stole my question I would like to ask: Do you believe in re-incarnation?

Hysteria

I am afraid that Hereford also stole my question - but I will re-phrase it - "what are you (and the other members of team DC) going to do to raise your profile and make you electable by right, not as a protest?"

Diana

Is there a place for Frank Field in your ministerial team, come a Tory government?

Al Faturd

OK seriously: how is it that I honestly don't know who you are and none of my workmates know who you are? (From the above, I glean that you are a Conservative MP. Beyond that, nothing)

Are you aware of the extent of the disengagement of the public from the job you do?

If so, are you dissatisfied with this situation?

If so, what do you plan to do to breathe life back into this, what has become a total non-event in the lives of the public?

Lastly. What guarantee can you give, that in voting Conservatives into power, we will not be subjected to the vicissitudes of their last reign?

Matt, US

What do you think is the single worst problem that will be left to you by Labour, and how do you plan to address it?

nicodemus31

Would a future conservative government accept the result of a Scottish referendum on independence, even if that meant an end to the Union?

If so, would it move for renaming the BBC the English, Welsh & Northern Irish Broadcasting Corporation & prohibit transmission of its output to Scotland?

Would it grant dispensation for Scots who still wish to call themselves British first to continue to apply for UK passports & driving licences, rather than "Scottish" ones?

Thanks

Forlornehope

What are you going to do about the fact that those of us in the private sector have to pay more for public sector pensions than we do for our own?

AndyS

Chris. Do you think it likely that the public sector Unions, in their current muscle flexing mood, would allow the wholesale transfer of benefit claimants to private companies tasked with managing their transition back in to work? Ideological anathema to an unreconstructed socialist I'd have thought. Which begs the question why is Purnell proposing this or similar? Is this an application to join the rather lonely "Frank Field" wing of the Labour party? It seems an odd platform from which to launch a bid for the leadership. What do you think he is up to?

Steven

Chris. Did you enjoy embarrassing James Purnell by condoning his welfare reform plans?

Robin

Chris,

are we anywhere close to that old rallying cry of the seventies and eighties 'back the workers not the shirkers'? I think we may be nearly there.

Tiberius

Do you have any plans to address the red tape on business caused by current employment legislation?

Philip Wright

Over the course of a first term Tory administration, say 4 years, what would you project are the potential costs, savings and numbers of people moved off the Invalidity Benefit roll likely to be? If there is a net saving will this be applied to further welfare schemes / projects or sunk in the general Treasury pot?

Cllr Ray Burston, Autism Champion, Dudley MBC

Chris,

Notwithstanding how this Government has frequently 'fiddled' figures to achieve 'targets', can you assure the genuinely disabled (including those with autism that often inhibits their employability) that any 'workfare' scheme that a Conservative government adopts will not unfairly victimise them because they are easier to browbeat than the real, more cunning and devious malingerers?

Gavin

With a bureaucracy obsessed with "targets",social/medical service providers programmed to dole out benefits, sick notes or tax credits and a pervasive culture of entitlement; how will you implement your proposals to reduce dependency on the welfare state ?