That Jo Swinson seems to be unpopular in general with most voters?

[Rosehip10]

Even most committed lib dems seem to agree she had a car crash on question time last night. I am a remainer but like most think it would have to be resolved by a second vote (I know the lib dems say they would reovoke if Swinson was PM and second vote otherwise).

Tbh I don't think the lib dems can move on until they have a leader who wasn't involved in the coalition.

And what is with all this attaching #girlyswot to most of her social media posts? It just looks idiotic and contrived and a product of a social media party focus group.

Mad leaflets saying "Your next PM Jo Swinson".........

BBC slanted the audience to "match" the number of seats the parties currently hold, so not surprising the audience majority was against the Lib Dems and she got the hardest questions.

Sorry, have you done any research on the place QT was held? It was in Sheffield. One of our major seats was held by Nick Clegg for a long time. He did things which had visible and obvious effects on my family, my children, their schools and the same for other families in our city through national policies like free school meals for KS1.

Clegg was the deputy PM. He still spent LOADS of time here. Everyone in our city knew his motorcade because he was everywhere from the steel works, unis, new tech investors, city farms, libraries to nursery schools.

Clegg is the only politician who represented my area that I have ever liked more when they were voted out than when they were voted in.

Labour replaced Clegg with a man who was well known in the city for being a threatening, misogynistic drug abusing drunk and then pretended to be surprised, not know a thing about it when lo and behold he was caught threatening and abusing people. He was also exposed by his own staff for being such an extreme substance abuser he had been unable to get out of bed and be coherent in months.

His own staff ended up exposing him to the press. Some of them because they were so concerned Labour just kept propping up a very unwell man to serve there on purposes regardless of his welfare. Instead of a deputy PM who always made time for his constituents and listened to us.

Ahem. Anyway. Carry on. Where were we again?

peers over glasses

Oh yes. "Why Sheffield doesn't like the LibDems"🙄

I agree that I also couldn’t “connect” with her. She really didn’t come across well, desperate, definitely the Bridget Jones of politics, but unlikeable and not loveable.

I wanted to be persuaded to vote for LD and people say that you shouldn’t be stirred by the leader, more the policies, but it’s the leader who people follow and if they aren’t credible or demonstrate the competence to lead effectively it’s incredibly hard to have any faith they’ll be able to achieve what they set out to do.

I tried to hear what she was saying, but there was no strength to her responses, no ownership and she just slated the other candidates when she could have been selling her vision. DH said she made valid points, but I felt this was lost in the noise of her trying not to sink. It just felt to me that this was (and is) too big of a role for someone with such little experience, as that’s exactly how she came across.

She’s not an academic I don’t think? I can’t see any evidence for this.

She was appalling last night, truly dreadful. If she is to ever to get over her awful voting record she needs to own it, and she hasn’t done this at all.

She also comes across as quite remote. She’s not warm and she seems like she’ll say anything for votes. I don’t think she’s going to last long on this post.

Ibiza.....I know that about Sheffield thanks. But that doesn't negate the fact of the BBC decided to allocate the audience to correspond with current party ratios. Sheffield as a city might be sympathetic to Lib Dem but that doesn't mean individuals are.

After the shit shower performance from Jo Swindon in Friday, they’ll have trouble finding anyone who’d admit to being a Lib Dem

The lib dems are going nowhere until they get a leader who isn't soiled having popped their head up the conservatives bottom.

Nothing needs resolving it was done in 2016.

YANBU @Rosehip10 . I really don't like Jo Swinson for SO many reasons. And yeah, as a few posters have said, she is deeply unlikeable.

She is the worst thing to happen to the Libdems. The people who seem to 'like' her, are ardent Remainers, and that's because she keeps saying she will cancel Brexit, and is very pro-remain.

She will never win this upcoming General election. In fact Lidbems will be lucky if they get a single seat in this election! I reckon within 6 months she will be booted out as leader. (After Libdems crushing defeat in the 12th of December General election.)

Then again, Johnson and Corbyn are awful too (for different reasons,) and I can't stand Nicola Sturgeon as she cares for nothing but Scotland. And the Brexit party have lost any support they MAY have had, (from some,) by Nigel Farage saying they won't contest safe Conservative seats. My area has a very safe Conservative seat, and so Brexit party won't be an option. Not saying I would have voted for them, but I couldn't if I wanted to.

So I am struggling. Seriously.

Going back to Johnson and Corbyn. I don't know who is worse.

A big clueless bigoted buffoon who would have sold us down the river with Theresa May's shitty exit deal, OR a deluded far left socialist who is promising the moon on a stick, and a unicorn for every family, and who will bankrupt the country within six months. (And who secretly hates the EU but is pretending he likes it to get people (especially the young,) to vote for him!)

Politics have never been so screwed. Seriously!

Not seen one single interview/speech that was any good, her voting record is atrocious and she generally seems just not a nice person.

Why anyone would vote for the Lib Dem’s. They will jump right back into bed with the Tories and sell out remainers that vote for them in a heartbeat. Be warned.

I like her. Her voting record reflects the fact she was in Government and had to follow the whip in votes.

This. The Lib Dems with their tiny minority part in the coalition managed to get a few of their good policies, like pupil premium funding, through government on the agreement that they voted with the government on other votes. That is how it works as the minority party in a coalition government.

One person I spoke to decided they didn't like her after hearing her speak, because they 'didn't realise she was Scottish'.

If you are in a Tory/Lib Dem marginal then you have a choice between a party led by Jo Swindon or a party led by Boris Johnson. I know who I think is worse.

How can the Lib Dems jump into bed with the Tories when the Tories are committed to leaving the EU on 31st Jan and the Lib Dems single defining policy is not leaving at all?

This isn’t a simple ‘tuition fees’ issue. It’s how the parties are defining themselves.

It really doesn't, plenty of other MPs voted as they pleased and their politics permitted. Jo could have done the same. Her voting record reflect how she felt. No ifs, buts or maybes. No one held a gun to her head.

Not if you're in government, in the cabinet. Fair enough she could have resigned from the Cabinet and voted against, but what would be the point? So the Tories could be in coalition but only have Tory MP's in cabinet?

You don't have to resign from cabinet to vote against the whip, if you look at others voting records you'll see that. Only Boris has taken the extra ordinary step of removing the whip.

Why try to make her out to be some powerless little woman that has to do. And yes if it came to it, she could have resigned and stood as an independent like others have done. Ie amber Rudd.

Until fairly recently, it was pretty uncommon to vote against the whip. If LD MPs had voted against the whip, they would have had no chance of getting the government to pass some of the policies the LDs wanted.

As they found out at the 2015 election, this made them unpopular with many of their voters, so it would be very surprising if they went into any coalition again. Confidence and supply (like the DUP/Tory arrangement) or issue-by-issue voting is probably as far as they would go with either main party.

In the old days of 2010 and before, collective cabinet responsibility meant that you were expected to vote with the government if you were in the Cabinet. You did have to resign if you didn't agree. Again, BJ has removed the whip from backbench MP's, who aren't part of the government but backbench Conservative MP's

She was on Andrew Marr this morning and when trans rights came up she annoyingly used the "cis" prefix a couple of times to differentiate between natal women and trans women, so annoying and so unnecessary.

The UK is a democracy so most people agree with that type of government, so someone wanting to overturn the vote.... Is not really how we do politics in the UK so it's no wonder she's unpopular. How could anyone trust her when she's shown contempt for a vote..

Well I think she’s great and I don’t know what people are taking about when they say she’s “remote” or “disengaging”. She’s the only one who speaks any sense about anything. Look at the other options - a lying snake of epic proportions and an OAP trying to appeal to the young by refusing to admit he’s a Brexiteer. Yet people are bothered about JS’ shoes

Writing off half the population by saying she would immediately halt Brexit should her party win the election, is absolutely bonkers. Straight away that reduces her target voter to half the U.K.

I just don't trust Lib dems, I want to, but I don't. I think they're just Tory-lite (esp Jo), who've latched onto the cancel Brexit idea to get them votes. But I don't think they have any real principles. I'm voting Labour.

Her voting record shocked me, I really disagree with so many things she has voted for

She's my MP. I'm not a massive fan.

However, I'd rather gouge my own eyeballs out than vote SNP, and it's a straight race between SNP and Lib Dem here. So Lib Dem it is.

I can't warm to her, she comes across as Jess Phillips' evil twin.