Heidi Allen standing down

ofcourseidid you only need to look at her twitter feed to see how much abuse she gets. Whatever people's politics, there is absolutely no need for verbal abuse.

@PandaPaws99

At the last election Conservatives got 52% of the vote and Liberal Democrats 19% of the vote (South Cambridgeshire).

Would Heidi honestly have been able to attain such a massive swing in vote to win?

Heidi only joined the Liberal Democrats in October, but by 29th October she informs constituents she will not be standing for re-election. Is it coincidence that this is just when a date for a General Election looked imminent?

For the record I think the abuse towards all MP's is disgusting and I think the worst of this nastiness is directed at female MP's and it needs to be aggressively eradicated.

But I think Heidi is being disingenuous as to the real reason for her standing down.

Although I think reducing social media use would be a good protective measure for many MPs. It takes a lot more effort to turn up at a constituency surgery and be a twat than just fire off a tweet.

A few years I would have said that one of my ambitions was to stand as an MP, probably in later life.

The abuse suffered by female MPs has made me reconsider that as a longer-term aim.

Have you ofcourseidid?

@ShesDressedInBlackAgain

Woman says she is being abused. You leap to find another explanation. Go you.

Someone says something and you automatically believe it 100%.

Have you ever had a thought of your own?

Isn't she just resigning because she will get kicked out at the General Election anyway?

Woman says she is being abused. You leap to find another explanation. Go you.

Isn't she just resigning because she will get kicked out at the General Election anyway?

I feel really sorry for her. Below her tweet re leaving, it is just more people being abusive to her. I am not surprised she has had enough. How can people think it is ok to treat another person like this?

I have reported lots of the abusive comments but they are still there at the moment

Sorry Panda that reads a bit like I’m having a go at you - not what I meant at all! Just feeling extra ragey and hopeless about the complete lack of sense to be found in our esteemed leaders

I’m appalled by what female MPs seem to be expected to put up with. At a time when I would argue that we desperately need women to be standing for election, I can’t see why any sane woman would put themselves through it. It’s awful that a moderating voice like hers will now no longer be heard. I don’t particularly agree with her politics either but that’s the point of having different parties isn’t it; they provide checks and balances, they moderate shit decisions like universal credit and work to make changes. When women like Heidi Allen start to leave parliament, you’re left with the absolute bloody idiots who like to go hell for leather with terrible ideas. Obviously I’ll need to provide a caveat here of NAMALT and of course not all women are a moderating influence on policy but fuck me I do not want to be represented by a government of men because women are subjected to bucketloads of abuse for daring to stand for election.