Louise Mensch resigns...

[propercharlie]

too hard to balance famaily life :(

She didnt do a thing for her constituents .( according to dcousin who is also in local politics in corby ) .

Aleagedly there will be celebrations in the non-Tory constituents homes .

She is an MP, he is a rock band manager. Why hasn't he resigned??

So she is taking the chilldren away from their father as well?

nah, it's more than a rumour droves

i'm skipping

I'm with mam29, there must be more to it.

I'm guessing she is giving up her job as an MP, because she has something else she wants to do.

I'm also guessing she will not disappear from Twitter or any other media

"she is taking the chilldren away from their father"

Loving these type of comments.

Oooohhhhhhhhhhhh she is EVIL.

Unimaginable that she might have discussed it and agreed a plan like a grown up

Now i don't know what is the case but quite a lot of people are casting her in some kind of child-snatcher role and it's quite amusing.

This would have been a good one for medieval MN

She be a WITCH

BURN HER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

@sardine so that's two things you don't understand then. If you genuinely have never encountered sexism in the workplace then you are either a very lucky woman, or you don't work with men, or you only work with nice men (I know there are plenty of them around but I've never worked in an environment where they were in the majority) - or you don't work at all. However for those of us who work in more typical environments this will undoubtedly at the least come up in conversation as yet another example of why women can't hack it at the top levels. With no nuance, no understanding of the complex issues involved, no recognition that Mensch might well be about to make a fortune from her Internet related activities and probably only became an MPin the first place as a publicity stunt and no understanding of the actual facts (ie that she married a man who lives in America so she isn't your run of the mill working mother).

Your smug comments about what newspapers people who think this will be yet another issue for us to refute read were somewhat off the mark too - I read the Graun, and that's it.

Sardine, if her motive is to "keep her family together" it is a reasonable question to ask why she is then taking her children to a different continent to their father.
Given her history I can imagine that none of this was "grown up".

Do you think Boris will stand in her seat?

I doubt it will happen, but I like the idea of Boris replacing LM. Swapping one HIGNFY celeb for another.

Not so good for the citizens of Corby, though ...

I have a grudging respect for her - and I say this as a Labour member. A sort of love to hate sort of thing - I admired her, while disagreeing with pretty much everything she said.

Boris standing in her seat

maybe that's why the train station was allowed to stay open

I don't think she's done women in general any favours with this. I'm wondering why she had to give up her role but her husband makes no adjustments. How hard can it be to manage a well established rock band? Does he have to be there all the time - or does he want to be there all the time and she's given way? Having over a family over two continents would always be hard. I think her ex has been very involved with the dcs and presumably isn't going to agree to them all moving to the US so she will keep on shuttling between the two.

Seems a coincidence that we have had a few days of the Boris for PM campaign gathering momentum then a high profile Tory quitting. Did they have an inkling she would quit?? Old duffer tories say they like the fact that Boris appeals to non-Tories so my money is on the people of Corby taking the hit...

fridge that would be so funny

False - he doesn't need a train, he can commute by zipwire

Northern apparently the children are going too. She didn't want them to get "too settled in England" given that she was planning on going in 2015 anyway.

It was this that caught my eye

1st part resignation letter

As you know, I have been struggling for some time to find the best outcome for my family life, and have decided, in order to keep us together, to move to New York. With the greatest regret, I am thus resigning as a Member of Parliament.

It is only through your personal intervention, delivered quietly and without fanfare, that I have been able to manage my duties for this long. Your allowing me to work in Corby and East Northamptonshire each Thursday and Friday has enabled me to do weekly surgeries while Parliament has been in session, and to visit many more people and places around our local area, whilst still spending time with my children. Unfortunately, it has not proved to be enough. I am very sorry that despite my best efforts, I have been unable to make the balancing act work for our family. You have been unfailingly generous and supportive.

so they had made allowances for her?
always thourght their schedules was at discretion of mp.
shes only a backbencher shes not in cabinet
she did more media than other mps.she was a tory poster girl.

when gordon brown lost election i dident see him in parliament.
I think i read it was their choice. which i felt wrong as members of sinn fein were mps but never took tehir seats yet got paid what exactly did they do for their constituents.

its why i feel theres more to it.

found old telegraph article obviously shes divorced now and re married

Not for Bagshawe, who duly bagged Anthony LoCicero, a dashing property developer of Italian origin, two years her senior. They have four properties they rent out in the US, and Bagshawe plans to have a total of 15 by the time she retires, which won't be any time soon.
With three children, ranging in age from one to five, the couple live in a four-bedroom Georgian cottage in the Northamptonshire village of Lowick and juggle work and childcare without so much as an au pair to take up the slack.

I guessing her ex maybe spends some time in states so shes not taking the kids away from their father.
does she own any property over there from divorce settlement.
does her ex reside in uk and have active role with 3kids.
that I do not know?

Well, LM won't be the first woman politician to feel obliged to stand down because too much with small kids if husband also has high-powered job (although other examples I am thinking of haven't been so newsworthy).

But I am with the cynics on this one, I'm afraid.

The life of a constituency MP is not very glamorous - the bread and butter of it is, of course, sorting out people's problems with housing and crime, not forgetting the waste disposal and the sewage. Maybe you have an office above a shop. You spend Friday-Sunday holding court in shabby rooms at the local library or sports centre (where if you are unlucky someone comes at you with a samurai sword), followed by visits to local shopkeepers, school fetes and so on - and then you do it all over again the next week. And then there is the scrutiny - I don't mean the Daily Mail particularly in this case, I mean the local opposition keeping on at you via the media about your every slip. You really have to feel the love for the people's democracy to be able to keep it all up for very long.

She can only move the children if their father agrees. He can obtain a prohibited steps order.

Even if she obtain court consent as she probably will as the courts are sexist unless there is a househusband, it is morally wrong. Either she abandons the children for her new OAP husband in NY or else she wrests them from the bosom of their father and all they know and love in the UK ahnd their culture.

What we really need is Mr Mensch giving it all up and moving to London to be with his wife. That's the good non sexist feminist example we need. Not this kind of little woman follows man stuff. If my husband could move cities for my career I don't see why Mr Mensch the second cannot do so particularly as he's old enough to get his pension.

good old daily telegraph had to google under her maiden name.

I?m divorced and share the care of my three children, aged seven, six and three with my ex-husband [Anthony LoCicero, a property developer]. He looks after them at the start of the week when I?m in London and I take over on Thursday and Friday when I?m working in the constituency. I reserve Saturdays and half of my Sundays exclusively for them. I don?t do anything political and I don?t take it kindly if anyone tries to talk politics to me when my children are around. The kids have no idea about politics ? and long may that last. During the election campaign last year my daughter picked up a blue rosette and asked, ?is it for a pony show??.

it seems her ex is very active in kids lives.
that he nears near corby.

doesnt say if they have any hired help I imagine they did.

she praises her ex as a good father.

her new husband has 3kids from previous marriage and they have 3kids and reside in usa.

her new husban works and lives in usa.

her ex i assume lives in uk but owns usa property,

I do imagine it was a juggling act of kids in oen uk place and job in london and relationship on another continent.

but doi feel she could have stuck it out. but she may have lost her seat, shes made a few enemies.
media seem to love her or loathe her she gets attention.
shes nota typicial tory she likes to come across as quite down to earth working class but infact has a very well to do background.

I do think she likes the usa and who can blame her
but i do belive she knew at election what she was getting into.

so yes still think theres more to it.

And this thread is why women don't want to go into politics. No-one wants to feel like their every move is picked over and turned into something awful.
Whatever her party politics, she has made a decision to quit her seat. The reasons behind it are hers and hers alone. They certainly do not need us to comb through it with our assumptions and guesswork to come up with a conspiracy theory and fantasise about what job she will get next.
I'm amazed at how much vitriol there is because she is independently wealthy. She earned it. So what if you don't like her books, she did the graft and got the reward. Celebrate her for it rather than sniping. She also did the graft to get elected. This stuff doesn't just happen overnight. She had to work at it.
The ONLY discussion we should be having is how this will highlight the issue of women in the workplace and how we can make the working environment more family friendly, all else is whimsy.

I absolutely agree with Xenia.

To perpetuate a mumsnet classic I think she should 'leave the bastard'

metabilis what industry do you work in?

I honestly cannot imagine a man telling me that women should not be in decent jobs at work. That would be a matter for hR, quite frankly.

And yes I have been in roles in a very "traditional" environment where I discovered I was being paid less than men who were in the same role as me, that I was not allowed to challenge it as we were not supposed to know others salaries and I may get fired, I experienced discrimination due to pregnancy and they tried to do me out of statutory mat money.

Your tone on this thread is quite aggressive TBH.

Honestly in all the workplaces I have been in even the most sexist twonk would think twice before telling a women who was also a parent and in a position of resonsibility that women who are parents cannot cut it in positions of responsibility! The people I have worked with have been sexist in many ways but for that to be standard is not something I have experienced.

Really what industry are you in? I've been financial services in the city, currently in an IT role and previous experience in public sector as well.

if a man said that to me I'd tell him to piss off, and so would all teh people at the surrounding desks! Everyone would be

Have to go out now but interested to hear more of your experiences.

i still think the answer is for more flexibility for all rather than this willy-waggling presentee bollocks that is all too prevalent (again, IME).