Louise Mensch resigns...

[propercharlie]

too hard to balance famaily life :(

[fatfloosie]

Didn't know her ex was American OlympyWindowMash, that's very illuminating.

Maybe it's her ex who wants to move back to the US, which would explain perfectly why she would have to make the decision that is best for all parties and move there too, despite being devastated for her career. I'm happy to believe that until I hear different.

[NetworkGuy]

What a lot of negative, bitchy, comments about someone.

I don't know whether this is a typical 'politics' thing ("she's a rich Tory" so I must detest her with every ounce of my being) or because she's been able to get somewhere in politics (anyone posting a failed candidate and green with envy), or is it because "there must be some scandal" (given she's used family reasons) ?

I admired her ability to stand up for herself on QT, and be dead against drugs, and using her experience to underscore her thinking. Far more credibility than a 'goody goody' who is anti-drug on moral / religious / other grounds than her reasoning...

Whether she is a good or bad writer, I cannot comment on. Whether she has been successful [in pure monetary terms] (just as womens' mags are successful but include pages of fiction, and could encourage all sorts of health and other problems, because they go out of their way to suggest what is and is not 'beautiful' or 'fashionable') is another matter.

Sad to lose someone young and with fresher ideas from politics, but worse to see nasty comments from those who should have been more supportive, if there is to be greater equality in our society.

[radiohelen]

fridge I wish I was LM I might not be struggling to afford the £350 for a new car part right now, I'd be flying off to New York to waft my husband's credit card around a bit.

[Denise34]

How on earth is Corby a Tory seat?

[nononotmyname]

It's surrounded by leafy lanes. See today's article in the huffington post uk politics section.

[Xenia]

She is amassive disappointment to women and feminists already by changing her name to that of her second husband. Now she resigns to spend more time with family -why not ship her new husband over here to do hours of childcare in 2012. Loads of stepfathers help a lot with children. But no - she's female so she will always follow men's careers. What a terrible led down and example.

One take is that she was not promoted by Cameron - that might well be the reason.

[squoosh]

So people who oppose her politics should be supportive of her because she's young and fresh?

[AGiraffeOnTheDivingBoard]

I don't get it - is it normal practise for the resignation letter and reply from the PM to hit the press? Should we be bothered how and why these have even been given to the press?

I'm not sure she is a loss to British politics as I don't know anything about her performance as a back bencher. I do know about her face lifts and have seen her photo shoots and troll spats. I just haven't warmed to her.

I wasn't impressed when she left the House of Commons select committee early to pick her kids up from school. I don't think she did strike a blow for flexible working or for working parents. I thought it was embarrassing. If I had a crucial meeting at work I'd ensure I had water tight childcare for that day and wouldn't be announcing that I was leaving early. I'd quietly let my boss know that I might need extra time another day.

I did like how she foiled the attempts of a tabloid journalist to expose her earlier drug use by forwarding his very unpleasant (blackmail) email to another paper along with her reply. She showed great guts then.

[Xenia]

I do support her politics and still feel let down. Noone with backbone and grit and doing what is right leaves a consistuency at this stage in a Parliament with only 1900 majority. Whether she's young and fresh or not is nothing to do with this. She is letting women down and giving a poor example to her children.

[radiohelen]

No squoosh supporting her because she is young and fresh is ridiculous. However other women shouldn't drag her through the mud BECAUSE she's a woman. You might not like her politics but you can keep out of the mud slinging and be supportive of a woman who tried to make a difference but decided her family came first.
Feminist disappointment or not she had a go, which is more than most people can be bothered to do.
For the record, I'm not a particular fan of hers.

[mrsbaldwin]

Networkguy - what fresh ideas did LM have? When I last saw her on Newsnight she was saying something or the other about some sort of 'women's issue' (I can't remember what it was) that sounded as if it came out of the 50s.

We should be more supportive of her??? No it's the other way round - she is/was supposed to support (and represent) (some of) us.

[Clytaemnestra]

I'd be fascinated to see if a man quitting his position to spend time with his family would be treated the same here.

[squoosh]

I think a lot of people are highly doubtful whether she is quitting politics 'to spend time with herfamily'.

Highly doubtful.

[mam29]

I might be wrong but she was preselected candiate or even after election was before she remarried although her new husbands ex reckons one of her books written in past was about her husband shes known him a while maybe from her prievious jobs when she worked for a record company.

But still she must have know a constituency outside londona nd being an my would be a time commitment. if she wanted to stand down at next election think its june 2015 then fair enough.

I did think she would get a job in cabinet.
I have no doubt she could easily get a job in the media.

I dount we will ever know the real reason.

I feel dissapointed in her as thinks eh could have made a difference.

being in public eyes not like any other job
im sure shes probably full aware of the backlash.

I imagine the pms annoyed. it was a labour seat before she took it.

[Metabilis3]

No Helen I see absolutely no reason to be supportive of a woman who uses the excuse that she is going to 'put her family first' in order to get out of doing an irksome, poorly paid job in a country in which she clearly no longer wants to live for reasons which have nothing to do with her children. Had she pointed out that MPs aren't paid anything like enough for the job that we would like the to be doing, even before you consider the sort of sexist press attention that female MPs like her have to put up with, that I could have happily supported. But not this.

[Viviennemary]

I agree with she is a poor example and gives the impression of just playing around with politics. Dipping her toe in, finding it doesn't suit and then off to do something else. Many many women haven't her option of just walking out of jobs. They need the money too much. She doesn't. All in all it's a pretty poor show and does nothing for the cause of women in the workplace.

[radiohelen]

mrsbaldwin I meant in the same way as you might be supportive and think well of any woman who reached high office or success, like Jessica Ennis for instance.
Yes she LM is supposed to support and represent her constituency which she does by turning up to work each day but it doesn't mean we can't be supportive of her as an achieving woman. Why would those things be mutually exclusive?
aGiraffe So you've never ever had a childcare failure? A nanny walked out and left you in the mire? Childminder got sick? This stuff happens and sometimes the buck stops with mum. I don't care if it's a select committee or a meeting with the Queen. If I have to get my lo I'll go get him. Parliament could do with a spate of childcare based incidents. Remind them what it's like for us normal folks.

[AGiraffeOnTheDivingBoard]

Yes I have and of course it was a total nightmare and ironically my career did completely plateau after I had DS. I was a lone parent and the juggling was impossible.

But I don't think she left the select committee early because she'd been let down by her nanny / Ex Husband. I just felt it was a hugely important day, loads of publicity and press interest. Cynically I felt she was drawing attention to herself rather than actually had to pick up her kids and absolutely no one could. Though I agree with you Radio it sort of highlights what it's like for normal people - but also got my back up - because she's not normal - she's got heaps of money and no doubt brilliant support. I thought it was an opportunistic way of getting a message across.

Also - if this was a man I think we'd think "spending more time with the family" would be a euphemism for "scandal coming, shit is about hit the fan"

[clemetteattlee]

Radiohelen do I have to be supportive of Margaret Thatcher as well?

How about Sarah Palin or Rebecca Brookes?

Just so I know that the new line is be supportive of ANY woman no matter how objectionable solely because of her gender

[radiohelen]

I think you are right about our assumptions around of the phrase "spending more time with the family" although I do think that is a bloke's issue so let them deal with it.
I think if I were her I would have put out a press release saying I'd applied for Stewardship of the Chiltern Hundreds.

Then there would have been no discussion about her suitability, gender, moral or otherwise for the role of MP.

[albertswearengen]

Olympywindowmash - I didn't mean to imply she wasn't interested in politics but I do wonder whether she put in the hard graft that most politicians have to do before they get selected.
I have a friend who has basically given years of her life to a political party -pounding the streets handing out leaflets or glad handing people or stuffing envelopes for all sorts of crap local and national elections all over the country in order to get herself into a position where she could be selected. In the end when it was her time the leadership pushed someone else - who wasn't famous but was regarded as up and coming.

[mrsbaldwin]

RadioHelen - I'm supportive of the principle that there can women holding high office, achieving in sport, doing jobs that used to be done solely by men, and where that means changing the rules a bit to aid their progress, so be it (eg in her resignation letter LM says that Cameron gave her special dispensation to work flexibly - that's great in principle).

But supporting the principle doesn't mean I have to be a supporter of an individual woman. I'm not a Tory. There have been some Tory women (by this I mean politicians) I could probably say I admire, if not agree with. But not LM.

[fatfloosie]

AGiraffeOnTheDivingBoard my original thoughts on her leaving the select committee early were similar to yours (attention seeking) but I recall I subsequently read that it was her changeover day with ex and therefore a non-negotiable as her children had not seen her for some time anyway. I still think she could have left the select committee with less fuss but can see why she didn't just arrange additional childcare.

[Denise34]

I don't think you can be an MP and a mother to young children. It's really not the kind of job that can be juggled around.

[clemetteattlee]

?? Denise. So can you be an MP and FATHER of young children? What an odd assertion!