Jo Swinson

MaggieTulliver
what an ignorant thing to say, MerylStreep
Your comment suggests that I know nothing about the word tragedy: believe me, i do.

Compared to what is happening to people in this country and around the world be it famine, war, homelessness, having to flee your country etc etc this election and Brexit means jack shit.

I only discovered in the last few days that Jo Swinson has her home, not in her constituency but near London, so probably was able to be home most nights for bedtime.

As a campaigning feminist throughout my life, I find this thread incredibly depressing. My mother always worked, fitting her 'shifts' around my father's shift pattern, thus ensuring that at least one parent was always at home. I too always worked. No maternity leave in 1970, left the bank 21 days before DD1 was born but carried on doing the bookwork for DH's business, singing in a folk group, running a huge catalogue agency, etc. All things I could do around being a parent. Then as soon as DDs were both at school, part time work, then later full time.

My DD's followed the same work pattern, aided by DH and I having retired just before the 3 DGC arrived.

Are (some of) you really suggesting that there should be NO working Mums in Parliament? or in any high profile jobs? Is it only those who earn enough to send their children to Boarding School or employ a Nanny who are entitled to have a career while their children are young? Or perhaps you think that only childless women should pursue a prominent role. Who then would represent the views of working Mums in parliament, trade unions etc?

Do you honestly think - having looked at Brexit and Tory policies in detail - that they will be good for homelessness and people fleeing their countries Meryl? I certainly don’t.

I was not surprised to see Nicola Sturgeon's lacquered mask slip as she triumphantly gloated at Jo Swindon's election defeat. I've seen her looking similarly unattractive while decrying those of us who want to remain in the union rather than be stuck with the SNP's staggeringly inept running of Scotland.
Our LibDem MP kept her seat. Thank God.

I was deeply unedifying Jane10.

Jane10, Nicola Sturgeon was celebrating her party's win in a hard-fought seat - what's wrong with that? Don't fall for the spin. And it's pretty pathetic to say the least to see women criticising others' appearances. I thought we were better than that these days...

spin ?

I only saw her face and fist pumping on the tv, no spin put on it whatsoever.

It (not I as in previous post) was deeply unedifying.
Quite cruel in fact.

Jo Swinson was one of the most irritating politicians.
She talked to you as if she was head girl of your school,
Too preachy; too smiley; too good to be true with a unpopular agenda.

There's been plenty of spin about it in the media, but having been at more election counts over the years than I care to remember, trust me, I've seen far worse "celebrations" from candidates of varying parties. As far as I'm concerned, she's entitled to celebrate her own party candidate's win in a hard-fought seat, but of course her many detractors will see it in a different light.

I thought she was going to go into full Gwyneth Paltrow mode when giving her resignation speech.

that`s cos they`re boring

I was not a Swinson fan, even so I felt sorry for her.
I'd like to have seen her wipe the glee off Sturgeon's face.

Granny23; it said on The Last Leg last night that there are now more women MP's than ever before. So those people [mainly women it seems] who think women shouldn't have babies and be involved in politics will have an awful lot of people to criticise in future...

There is a House of Commons Community Nursery for children and grandchildren of MPs, Peers, staff etc.

Good. We need more women in politics.

I honestly hope the LibDems will go back to grassroots and become a formidable force at local level. That's why I joined years ago. I've nearly always lived in Conservative constituencies and the LDs have been the opposition. In some cases, we have proposed policies to the left of the local Labour party!

Of the 11 LibDem Mps, the majority are women.

We are a force at local level in many areas. While Thursday's failure was partly self-inflicted, I think the problem was that with 2 such large brutish parties with distasteful leaders slugging it out, it is inevitable that any third party would get squeezed.

In my Conservative held remain constituency where Labour was never a threat, the Lib Dem vote increased by nearly 20%. I think that will be found to be general in many similar constituencies.

And the LibDems just don't have the money that the big two have. Our local group achieved quite a lot on a very limited budget.

And on a national level we increased our share of the vote more than the Tories or the SNP. Under PR we would have 75MPs.