Cameron vows to promote 'good websites'

 He said that health visitors would be encouraged to tell parents about websites like Mumsnet and that information about these resources would be made available in all maternity units, early years settings and family information services.

A Tory government would also back a plan by Mumsnet to set up a mentoring scheme to connect new parents with experienced mothers. Cameron said that health visitors would be encouraged to direct parents to the service where appropriate.

Cameron made the announcement to coincide with his participation in a live webchat hosted by Mumsnet. Gordon Brown was criticised for failing to answer a question about his favourite type of biscuit when he took part in a similar exercise last month and yesterday Cameron encountered his own problems with the medium when a laptop crashed and he endured a barrage of complaints about his failure to respond to all the questions being posted.

In a statement issued yesterday, Cameron said that he saw Mumsnet as a good example of the way people can support each other, bypassing government bureaucracies. He described this as wanting "to move from state action to social action" when he spoke about this philosophy in his Hugo Young lecture last week.

To promote Mumsnet and similar sites, a Tory government would ensure that parents found out about them, using leaflets and other publicity material. Health visitors would be expected to provide this information and in some circumstances they would be encouraged to help parents navigate the internet and to use these websites, the Tories said.

The party also said that a Conservative government would publish government information in a standardised format so that websites like Mumsnet could reuse it to provide personalised online support.

— Guardian News & Media Ltd