Liberal Democrats

If Jo Swinson is included in the leadership debates, the debates would be too heavily weighted towards right wing policies. Things looked a bit different when Nick Clegg was the leader, the LibDems did not seem so closely alignned with the Conservatives.
Plus, Nicola Sturgeon would have good reason to make a case for her own inclusion, as would the leaders of Plaid, and the Greens and even the Brexit party.

Maybe that would be a good thing - get input from all of them and thrash out a way forward. It would be good practice for working together in the future, which they are going to have to do. No one party can sort out the mess.

What is more likely to happen is that each leader will treat it as a party political broadcast, and use it to boast about themselves and talk down the others.

The Liberal Democrats are a centre left party and nowhere near to being aligned with the conservatives. LibDem policies are much closer to Labour.

Remember that in the most recent national election (for the EU Parliament) the LibDems got more votes than the Cons and Lab Parties put together.

Jo Swinson, like Johnson and Corbyn, is a candidate for PM. There is no-one in the nationalist, Green or brexit parties who is a possible national leader.

Is this discrimination based on the fact that Jo is not a man, or that they are frightened of her out-debating the pair of them as happened when Cameron and Brown had to keep saying "I agree with Nick"?

Liberal Democrats are threatening legal action against ITV if Jo Swinson is blocked from taking on Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn in its general election leaders’ debate.

Ms Swinson responded with fury to the announcement that only the Conservative and Labour leaders are being invited to take part in the first TV debate of the campaign on 19 November.

She said that the decision would mean that there was no woman and no representative of Remain in the televised showdown.

And she said that if Mr Johnson and Mr Corbyn refused to debate with her, it suggested that "they are sexist or they are scared or possibly both”.

Accusing the two leaders of engaging in an "establishment stitch-up", she asked: "Why are they so scared of taking on a girly swot?"

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/general-election-tv-debate-jo-swinson-lib-dems-itv-corbyn-johnson-a9184736.html

Seems obvious to me - the number of constituencies in which tory and labour will be head-on is small. In most tory or labour held constituencies the Lib Dems are the greatest electoral threat. Therefore to the advantage of both to exclude Jo Swinson. Nothing to do with gender, wh I think a silly argument here.

Is that democratic or fair?

Sky News have invited Jo Swinson, Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn to take part in a tv debate.

So far only Jo Swinson has accepted the invitation.

?
@0Calamity

53m
I'll sthkweam and sthkweam and sthkweam until I'm sthick! And I can!
Violet Elizabeth Swinson is now threatening to sue ITV if they don't let her debate with the "boys".
FFS.

How are the Lib Dem’s centre left? Surely they are centre right. They have so many ex Tory MPs now they can’t possible be left.

Sturgeon is only of interest to voters in Scotland,

I feel the same as you Dyffryn The Lib Dems are a right wing party now, under Jo Swinson

Ilovecheese, Swinson’s voting record is awful. Very right wing.

@CraigMurrayOrg

Asked this morning why she could never support a Corbyn government, Jo Swinson's first and instant response was that he would not be prepared to order submarine commanders to fire nuclear missiles.
Her constituents might want to think very hard about that before they vote.

Who would vote for a PM that would take us back to the 1950s? - if that's what you want vote for Boris Johnson.

Who would vote for a PM that would take us back to the 1970s? - if that's what you want vote for Jeremy Corbyn.

If you prefer a PM for the 2020s vote for Jo SWinson. Vote Liberal Democrat.

Only if the Government you want for the 2020s is a right wing one.

Only if the government you want for the 2020s is a centre left government for all the people who will stop brexit so that we can do all the other important things which need to be done.

The LibDems are taking legal action against ITV for their outrageous decision to exclude Jo Swinson, the strongest voice for millions of Remainers across the country, from their TV debates.

Add your name if you think Corbyn and Johnson must #DebateHer ⬇️

libdems.org.uk/debateher

The two old parties have failed Britain.

The Liberal Democrats are fighting to stop Brexit and build a brighter future for Britain.

Jo Swinson is still not in touching distance of leading a future government, although it suits her party to kick up a fuss about Corbyn-Johnson debates excluding her and generally act as if they have a serious chance at doing so!

The polls show that La Swinson tends to rate better among voters than JC in the leadership stakes, and on Brexit policy, although the Boris continues to trump them both.

While we are talking about Jo Swinson, here is an account of how that misleading story went viral about "her husband's company" getting EU money.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-50160148
As election campaigning starts, it would be a good idea to be aware of how twisted facts can catch on and zoom round the internet.

John Crace gives La Swinson a pasting this morning in the Guardian:

“Having reached the end of her somewhat disconnected, passionless speech, Swinson invited questions from the media. Almost all of which involved trying to talk her down from her own megalomania. At this rate there will soon be no one in Westminster with any passing contact with reality.”

I think It will be hilarious if she ends up not getting elected as an MP - the SNP could take her constituency! From delusions of being a PM-wannabe to no longer an MP in one election campaign.

Bozo's seat is not looking too healthy either!

At the last election his majority was halved to 5,000 - now that would be hilarious if a prime minister was unseated

It would surpass the Portillo Moment!

And the Clegg one!

This is the message from the Liberal Democrats

www.libdems.org.uk/plan?utm_campaign=plan_launch_1&utm_medium=email&utm_source=libdems