Genuinely feeling mortified for Jo Swinson

[Considermesometimes]

Wow that was kick in the balls if ever I have seen one. Jesus how absolutely humiliating. I was curling up just watching the footage last night, and then the clip about her claims that she will be PM.

Just mortifying on every level.

I hope she is able to leave with a shred of dignity, because I am not sure she is ever going to recover her creditability after last night's carnage. She was seriously out of touch, and she paid the ultimate price.

[Butchyrestingface]

Just saw this on Twitter. . Of course, it might be shite.

As much as I disliked her, I have to say I don’t think asking for a recount given the small numbers involved was unreasonable.

[SandySpain9]

I don't even know what she means by glass ceilings..anyone explain? The lib(un)dems started at 7am on Thursday on an equal basis!

[AllideasAndNoAction]

I think there is some misogyny directed at Jo Swinson and she does get criticised for stuff that would never be aimed at men

Like?

If you mean her appearance, I can think of plenty of times male MPs have been mocked for their appearance. MPs get mocked in general, regardless of their sex. I really don't think it's misogyny.

[PhilCornwall1]

I hope she is able to leave with a shred of dignity, because I am not sure she is ever going to recover her creditability after last night's carnage.

She had zero credibility in the first place. Politics can be brutal if you are an MP, she has just discovered how brutal.

[PudOnFire]

Her ridiculous position on sex and gender was the final nail in the coffin for me, but I’m pretty sure that’s not why she lost her seat.

Brexit, obviously.

But to be honest she came across as a complete bloody chancer. She just had zero credibility and although I’m pretty sure misogyny played a part in some people’s ability to take her seriously, her own inability to make coherent arguments or explain her own party’s policies played a bigger part in her downfall.

I have no sympathy for her whatsoever. Politics is a tough arena and she was, frankly, not up to it. #nodebate

I don’t think I can remember such

[PudOnFire]

ignore random last sentence of my post

[Butchyrestingface]

Brexit, obviously.

How could Brexit be in any way relevant to why a Remainer MP lost her seat in Scotland?

She wanted to cancel Brexit. That alone may have saved her from a worse thumping.

[OllyBJolly]

Like? If you mean her appearance

Her voice, her "head girl" approach, her boobs (there was some convo on Twitter about boob jobs, whereas in truth any change in shape is probably down to two recent births), her earrings... I think criticism of her accent was fair as it was so obviously manufactured, but her voice was described as shrieking, hectoring, bossy.

Yes, men get mocked for appearance but usually because they are dishevelled. Their appearance is not critiqued to the same extent. Female MPs put up with far more personal attacks than women do.

[CatherineOfAragonsPrayerBook]

Watching the news with DH last night and he said "If she (Jo Swinson) self identifies as an MP, do you think she'll get her seat back?"

I think you and DH have a duty to write to her and suggest it @mudpiesfortea. Presumably she has a lot to gain from trying....

[mudpiesfortea]

@CatherineOfAragonsPrayerBook 😬

[AndromedaPerseus]

JS position personifies pride coming before a fall

[angstridden2]

There is a whole different language in which women in the public eye are described.’bossy, head girl....shrill’ . Their appearance and voice are examined and derided as were Margaret Thatcher, then until recently Nicola Sturgeon, who now seems to have got wise to it and introduced an element of humour to her armoury. Yes the LDs ran a rubbish campaign ,but when a female politician’s boobs are critiqued we have reached a whole new level of misogyny.

[cardibach]

I agree the terms are often misogynistic in tone, but is the criticism that Corbyn is like a student activist much different from ‘head girl’? He has also been criticised for his choice of hat and coat. And Johnson is often criticised for his hair style.
Swinson lost because she wasn’t a good leader or MP.

[CatInTheDaytime]

Her accent is totally bizarre but I don't think that's anything to do with being female - just the weirdness of coming from scotland, being scottish, in a scottish seat, and having an accent that changes all the time from west country to Glasgow and everywhere in between. WHAT is that about?

It is true that men get mocked for their appearance - maybe not as much as women or not in the same ways. But mockery related to supposed penis size is pretty common.

[lljkk]

I can't see JS losing seat had anything to do with her alleged hubris, she lost this very seat previously in 2015 after all. It's been a tight marginal with SNP since 2015 and was a tight marginal with Labour before that.

[lljkk]

... also, imho, JS handled her loss with huge grace. JS hasn't done a thing to annoy me in her election campaigns. I wish her well.

[kikisparks]

@PudOnFire it definitely wasn’t brexit. Both Jo Swinson and the candidate who won are remainers in remain focused parties.

My guess as a constituent is that she lost for 3 reasons:

1. As a party leader she was more absent as an MP.
   

1. As a party leader she was visible and performed very poorly in speeches and debates.
   

1. The prospect she might go into coalition with the tories aligned with the fact that Scotland is generally unhappy with being ruled by a far right Westminster that doesn’t care about us.

[SandySpain9]

I have never ever seen anyone perform so poorly in interview and debates. ...there was a toe curling moment in main leader debate when she felt so under fire that she started laying into Corbyn on racism and it occurred to me that id never even seen Boris mention that once in the campaign.

[PineappleDanish]

All the constituents on the thread, me included, are saying her defeat was down to a lack of visibility in the constituency and the fact she lives in the west country with her family.

Everyone else is saying it's Brexit and gender self-id.

I think we know what issues we were voting on locally. As for John Nicholson... just urgh. He took the seat in 2015 and lost it back to Swinson in 2017. He wasn't any more visible than she was. He also blocks anyone on social media who isn't pro-independence. I was blocked on twitter by my own MP by pointing out he was using a picture on his election literature which was 25 years out of date. He's a vain, silly little man who didn't even know where he was at hustings this year. My commiserations to the people of Ochil and South Perthshire.

[AlecTrevelyan006]

Swinson was awful in every respect. She came across more like a deluded Apprentice candidate rather than a potential Prime Minister.

[Butchyrestingface]

All the constituents on the thread, me included, are saying her defeat was down to a lack of visibility in the constituency and the fact she lives in the west country with her family.

Everyone else is saying it's Brexit and gender self-id.

Hardly, I’m not a constituent and I said the same thing. There may be others who’ve likewise rejected the brexit/self ID motives and are also not constituents.

[Interestedwoman]

I don't feel for her. I voted Remain, but the Lib Dems were undemocratic and disregarding the views of so many working class, poor people, or people from the north. It's hilarious that she lost her seat. Couldn't happen to a 'better' woman.

[UpperLowercaseSymbolNumber]

I’m not sorry she has gone. She needed a lot more media training and practice on how to do interviews well. But she was on a sticky wicket on some issues and I think she knew it which made some of her later appearances seem awful.

I do agree that there were some comments made about her that a man in her shoes wouldn’t get. I particularly dislike it when women are called shrill - such a nasty dismissive phrase. But not half as many comments as about her party’s stance on certain things.

She will be ok though. Her husband was also a Lib Dem MP until he lost his seat and he does ok now.

As an aside I think trying to do everything she has tried to do, by which I mean run a party, be a constituency MP, have young children, is an incredibly tough job. Particularly if they have kept their family where he used to have his seat (Chippenham). So I can see why you end up in the constituency less than people would like to be. And yes of course this is all self inflicted and her constituents are free to pick someone they think would better represent them. But my point is that being an MP and a parent is very tough going - add on party leadership on and you must be pulled so thin as to be transparent.

[7to25]

Another East Dunbartonshire voter here, agreeing with Clara and Pineapple. I would also add that Amy Callaghan comes across very well in person. I have spoken to her twice. I was the only member of the public to ask her about self-id but one of hundreds to ask about secondary school allocation (a local issue) She answered all questions well.
Jo Swinson was invisible here. It was obviously too early for her to be leader. Competing family issues and a leaders job are almost impossible.
If she had lived in the constituency, sent her children to school here, dropped the English accent and kept away from the media she might have held her seat.
I don't think that people realise how Scots see things....the suspicion that she was actively trying to seem English to appeal to the English electorate.
Her "Tory" voting record was the nail in the coffin.

[StreetwiseHercules]

She is an absolute imbecile and always has been. The outcome is richly deserved.