Louise Mensch resigns...

[propercharlie]

too hard to balance famaily life :(

The morla issue is should mothers or fathers move chidlren away. There is another mumsnet thread at the moment about a parent whose ex spouse has moved the children to NZ and they are trying to get them back. This problem tends to occur if you marry a foreigner and is a risk all women and men need to consider if they marry someone who has all their connections and family abroad.

Perhaps the children should say in the UK where they are stable and established and fly to the US for holidays at the mother's expense as she is choose to gad off there.

Like I said, her ex is an American. They met in New York and lived their initially. I wouldn't assume that she he is dragging his kids away from him without his agreement.

I think its a real shame. We need more women in politics not less, and she certainly brought the house into the 21st century. I hope that she remains on twitter as she is fun imho

I agree with BornStroppy - only on pregnancy number 1 but I do know the commute and would resign in a second if I could afford to!
Anyway whatever we may think of Mrs Mensch I hope she's doing it for her own good reasons (family etc) and would like to give her the benefit of the doubt until I hear otherwise. Anyone who uses this as an excuse to be judgemental and/or to lecture the rest of us on how to live our lives should probably just look after their own stuff and let others get on with it.

I am idly considering that Mumsnet should stand a candidate against Boris in the forthcoming Corby by-election

That would be very modern. After all if diplomats now do digital diplomacy why can't we have digital constituencies eh?

Xenia my husband moved countries for the sake of my career (and had to restart his own from scratch at the same time)

I just don't see LM being the little woman running after her man... that's why I think there's more to this than meets the eye.

I agree with Hassled's assessment of her... "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." (apart from the bit about being a Labour member. I'm just a Labour voter.

"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."

Do you have inside information here? Do you know where the father even lives, i.e. what country?

@Sardinequeen At least I didn't accuse people who disagree with me of reading the Daily Mail. Which is somewhat offensive TBH.

I work in the city and have done for my entire career (23 years now, although at some points the city has actually been Manhattan rather than the Square Mile). I do not work in IT.

Surely Boris would need a London seat? Or are they trying to widen his appeal? His popularity is pretty much assured in London at the moment it seems.

It's quite a marginal seat for Boris. He would want a safer seat than that.

Well headfairy Boris would want a safer seat than Corby I should think. I'm only idly daydreaming. I will stick my neck out and say I reckon Labour will take it at the by-election if Andy Sawford (who is the Labour PPC, I think, from a quick Google) is personable and has been out trudging the streets hard enough already.

Olympy x post

radiohelen are you actually LM?

why the hell we even discussing boris.
if he does stand will be at next election.

I wasent being mean just saying its lot more complex then we know.

Her new husband resides in usa for his job and his kids.
she and her ex reside in uk nd share custody of their kids.

I just feel this is really crappy time to quit and trigger bi -election she knew the commitment could she have not stuck it out the extra 2years.
if there had been some scandel I would understand.
but just cant see jow her reason she can cope is the right one.

I like her its real shame.

im mostly tory and think its real loss to the party.

crochet et al, I hope you think these comical women are equally amusing when their policies close your Sure Start centre, sack your teaching assistants, cut your pension etc etc
More women in poltics doesn't mean 'more women friendly policies'

Just because something is "hard" doesn't mean you shouldn't do it. She's setting a bad example. But I don't like her anyway, she's an idiot, so good riddance.

Sorry mam there are two discussions going on at once here.

One about women, work and family life.

One about party politics because as you say she has triggered a by-election in a fairly marginal constituency. I hope they are calling a planning meeting in Labour HQ as we speak.

Ever the self publicist she ties to bury the news of her failure to be effective the first work day after super Saturday and supersonic Sunday. Give it a few weeks and she'll be working for a Murdoch company out of New York where the botox is no doubt cheaper.

At least maybe the people of Corby will get a proper representative in parliament who is a local who knows about local issues not a self absorbed Notting Hill coffee shop tattle who only got her job to fill a quota.

She didn't really think things through then did she? That's if the stuff about family is the real reason. I have never heard a politician say how brilliant being an MP is for family life quite the opposite. She has 3 young children and a husband in New York I'm not sure how she thought that was going to be easy for any sort of family life. Maybe it's because she wasn't really involved in politics before she was parachuted in as the 'celeb' candidate. In future they should stick to candidates who actually want to be politicians- might be better for the constituents.

OK so that rules out LM stepping aside for Boris... I couldn't see her doing that to be honest anyway. She seemed far to ambitious to do that.

"Give it a few weeks and she'll be working for a Murdoch company out of New York where the botox is no doubt cheaper" I'm not sure Novak... her comment about being devastated makes me think this is not what she wants but what she thinks she has to do. Devastated is a pretty strong word to use.

Hmm, albertswearengen she did actually want to be a politician though. She has always been interested in politics. Ok, I'll fess up. I knew her at school. She was very interested in politics even then, and highly ambitious. It was no surprise to me years later to find out she was standing to be an MP. I suspect the daily drudgery of it doesn't really stack up though. She probably has some more exciting things lined up.

Or a celebrity husband who has threatened divorce if she doesn't go?

I think it's all a convenient cover story- either she's got something waiting for her in NY or she's pre-empting some scandal. She's always seemed like a very driven, ambitious individual and it's hard to believe she would hand her notice in a week before a cabinet re-shuffle in which it was anticipated she would do well in.

It's not like her husband moved to New York out of the blue; he was living there when they met and married, she knew it was going to be difficult with the kids, juggling a demanding career, etc. So why give it all up halfway through? I can't wait for the big reveal in the drawing room.

It's the use of words like devastated that show how false her actions are. Devasted is a country after a tsunami or a tornado or how you feel if your family are brutal murdered... Chick lit author Mensch would use that word to describe a rip in her tights on a night on so I doubt she truly is devastated. As I say give it a few weeks and we'll see where ends up working in NY won't we. One of the empires education exam marking companies perhaps picking up her rewards for sticking up for him