Louise Mensch resigns...

Corby is a marginal and tends to end up having voted for whoever comes to power. So Con at moment, prev Labour, earlier Con.

yup, and that accounts (probably) for the increased votes for 'other' parties

Isn't her majority less than 2000?

arf at Corby being a safe seat

IIRC the Tories recruited a few 'celebraTories', whom the complacent voters might identify with, at a time when the Labour Party were at an all time low - they were very clever and won over the electorate. I think a lot of habitual Labour voters went with the Lib Dems and the Green Party (i have no figures to quote, just a straw poll at the time between friends and family) so they snuck in via the back door.

Corby had been a Labour stronghold for (i think) 17 years before this

So still not one person can write about one thing she has done for Corby. Kind of makes my point for me. Average looking blonde gets a safe seat because she filled the quota and not up to the job.

I mean what kind of woman remarries without telling her children. A selfish one.

As for those writing she is young. She's over 40 and well into middle age. She should be able to stick at something for more than 2 years especially if you have sought and been given the peoples trust.

Sardine, I wonder why you say "can't be doctoring"?
Plenty of raised eyebrows when I even me tion the needs of my children in the doctors' mess.

Oh sorry shouldn't assume you're a feminist!

But still.

Is this the new feminism?

I know a really shitty industry which is simply awful to women.
Oh I am a woman and I have two daughters will you tell me what industry it is?
NO.

Thanks!

@sardine Please stop trying to out me.

There probably is enough money in managing Metallica to not need an MP's salary. Or maybe she thinks her twitter style website is going to take off .

The family reason is a bit lazy, IMO, though I'm glad she is going as I don't think she was very good.

So a doctor or a lawyer?

Can't be doctoring so I guess it's lawyering!

I'm not sure why you're being so cagey I doubt anyone will guess who you are from a simple "this is my field" comment!

@Sardine I do not work in trading or sales. I'm in a traditional profession at director level.

Sorry, Yvette. My brain is in meltdown after a hour speaking in German. My grasp of german is bobbins.

@Denise Yvonne Cooper seems to manage OK.

Haven't read the thread completely but saw someone compare her to Jessica Ennis. Really??? I would have liked to see her dedication to her chosen profession, a la Ms Ennis.
She was elected to represent a constituency. If she did not think it was compatible with her family life, she still ought to have fulfilled her promise and worked the next two years, then decided not to stand for re election.
Watch the space, she will be soon working on a much more profitable project. Hasn't she launched a software to rival twitter recently? The two years as an MP was to raise her profile and get a touch of gravitas to her chick lit milquetoast persona!

She no doubt has a script in the pipeline about a female in politics and wants to pitch it to the USA !

Two years in post to do the research no doubt.

metabilis that is interesting. What are you in? I was in the financial sector in a risk based role with client facing aspects. I have worked for quite a few companies in that capacity both local to my home and in town and while the industry is inherently sexist the individual men do not have that type of sexism in their conversation - it's more to do with leering at girls and sniggering at strip clubs and stuff and the higher up director level types were generally pretty careful what they said full stop. Certainly the sexism was entrenched in the system so there was no need for it to be discussed - men didn't have to say to women that they shouldn't be there as over a certain level there were hardly any there and the ones who were there wouldn't take that kind of shit without saying something.

This sort of thing does vary widely between industries, so it would be good to know what you are in so I can warn my daughters!!! Sounds awful. Guessing trading / sales of some sort? They are the worst stories that I have heard.

?? Denise. So can you be an MP and FATHER of young children? What an odd assertion!

I don't think you can be an MP and a mother to young children. It's really not the kind of job that can be juggled around.

AGiraffeOnTheDivingBoard my original thoughts on her leaving the select committee early were similar to yours (attention seeking) but I recall I subsequently read that it was her changeover day with ex and therefore a non-negotiable as her children had not seen her for some time anyway. I still think she could have left the select committee with less fuss but can see why she didn't just arrange additional childcare.

RadioHelen - I'm supportive of the principle that there can women holding high office, achieving in sport, doing jobs that used to be done solely by men, and where that means changing the rules a bit to aid their progress, so be it (eg in her resignation letter LM says that Cameron gave her special dispensation to work flexibly - that's great in principle).

But supporting the principle doesn't mean I have to be a supporter of an individual woman. I'm not a Tory. There have been some Tory women (by this I mean politicians) I could probably say I admire, if not agree with. But not LM.

Olympywindowmash - I didn't mean to imply she wasn't interested in politics but I do wonder whether she put in the hard graft that most politicians have to do before they get selected.
I have a friend who has basically given years of her life to a political party -pounding the streets handing out leaflets or glad handing people or stuffing envelopes for all sorts of crap local and national elections all over the country in order to get herself into a position where she could be selected. In the end when it was her time the leadership pushed someone else - who wasn't famous but was regarded as up and coming.

I think you are right about our assumptions around of the phrase "spending more time with the family" although I do think that is a bloke's issue so let them deal with it.
I think if I were her I would have put out a press release saying I'd applied for Stewardship of the Chiltern Hundreds.

Then there would have been no discussion about her suitability, gender, moral or otherwise for the role of MP.

Radiohelen do I have to be supportive of Margaret Thatcher as well?

How about Sarah Palin or Rebecca Brookes?

Just so I know that the new line is be supportive of ANY woman no matter how objectionable solely because of her gender