Layla Moran on Nick Robinson's Political Thinking on Radio 4

[nauticant]

He asked her "What is a woman?" You can imagine how that went. "Word soup" would be a kind assessment.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08lqgvv

What I really meant was that for a drug company, you'd think they would want a political party with influence, so they could get their drugs used in the NHS?

Have noticed date 20/3/19 of acceptance. So way before their disaster in the election

Have noticed date 20/3/19 of acceptance. So way before their disaster in the election

There was another £100,000 in November 2019. For some reason there's no date for that in the 'accepted date' column, you have to scroll over to the right of the table to see the date.

The donations started in 2013 when the Lib Dems were part of the coalition government with the Tories, so could have been viewed as a party with influence. But that doesn't explain why they continued after 2015.

"Mind you doesn't say much about her private school that they turned out someone so ignorant of biological fact. But I'm guessing the incidence of sexual assault or period shaming is considerable lower at Roedean than your average UK comprehensive."

I don't think she is ignorant of biological fact. I think it's far worse, that she is prepared to LIE about reality for ideological ends. She knows women are adult human females. But that doesn't fit in with the narrative she wants to spin, so she bends words to suit her purpose. Yes, all politicians do that; but traditionally, facts (e.g. unemployment levels) were acknowledged and then the ideology would influence what the politician believed to be the cause and what was the solution. Here, we have bare-faced denial of facts. And not even a difficult fact, just the definition of a word. (And then building from there.)

She also spoke in that interview of having trans friends. So we've got the 'well my trans friends are nice people and therefore all transpeople are nice people' misconception too. She can't see that her 'nice' trans friends are individuals who are no more representative of trans people in general than she is representative of women in general; I expect they're from the same privileged background that Moran has. A background where you are protected and coddled and SAFE. And she lacks the empathy required to put herself in the shoes of women who are not protected and coddled and safe. And can't see that a politician's job is to look out for those whose lives aren't as nice as hers, whereas she's more for those just like her.

If anything, her warbling on about what Liberalism is has put me off the party as a whole. I foolishly used to think of them as 'middle-ground' but they're not, are they? And knowing that, I don't think I could ever vote LibDem. Ever.

If anything, her warbling on about what Liberalism is has put me off the party as a whole. I foolishly used to think of them as 'middle-ground' but they're not, are they? And knowing that, I don't think I could ever vote LibDem. Ever.

I think that is a common mistake that I have made too. If you think right wing/ left wing then they are middle. There is probably a reason they lost their power in the early C20th and have since made coalitions that result in them being rejected.

That’s exactly it whereyouleftit

Moran clearly knows what a woman is but having lived an immensely privileged life (I mean roedean is posh af) she has no idea what it’s like to not have choices or simply throw money to the problem

I’m sure she’s spent many a night with Helen belcher telling her empowering tale of how they became a woman and his helens wife doesn’t mind at all and that therefore all women who mind are hateful bigots plus she’s got the lesbian baronesses telling her the same. I mean how can she be wrong eh?

@OldCrone puzzling???

There used to be intellectuals associated with the Liberal Party such as John Stuart Mill, Keynes and Beveridge.

Do Layla Moran and Ed Davy measure up😁

To be fair, that could be said of most parties. I expect the LibDem support to continue to plumet

Another thing she said in the interview was that it wasn't until she was doing a masters in education that she realised that there were poor people in the UK, and that the outcome for children from impoverished backgrounds was strongly linked to the socio-economic background of their parents.

She's not only from an incredibly privileged and sheltered background, but she's obviously found it hard to see what life is like for people outside that privileged bubble.

She also spoke in that interview of having trans friends.
I do wonder if she really means she knows some trans people - the trans activists who have ingratiated themselves in with the LibDems, and are trying to direct policy. Not really that they are her genuine friends.

So if her friends turned out to be horrible people she wouldn’t be so keen? Interesting policy.

Not really that they are her genuine friends.

I wonder if you can get a GCSE in naivety, because there's shed loads of people out there acting like they've got one

Another thing she said in the interview was that it wasn't until she was doing a masters in education that she realised that there were poor people in the UK, and that the outcome for children from impoverished backgrounds was strongly linked to the socio-economic background of their parents.

What the actual fuck?? How thick is she?

I don't think she ever taught in schools where it would have been blindingly obvious tbh.

@SirSamuelVimesBlackboardMonito

Another thing she said in the interview was that it wasn't until she was doing a masters in education that she realised that there were poor people in the UK, and that the outcome for children from impoverished backgrounds was strongly linked to the socio-economic background of their parents.

What the actual fuck?? How thick is she?

You can’t blame the posh school education for that gap in knowledge/understanding.

She just isn’t very... observant. And she wants to represent ‘the people’ (that she didn’t know even existed until she was an adult). Wowzers.

My favourite "who are these people?" with the Lib Dems was when Mark Oaten had to resign over allegations about his private life, which even the News of the World wouldn't discuss beyond referring to a "bizarre sex act too revolting to describe".

Of the three main parties, it seems that when it comes to the really unpleasant personal stuff, the Lib Dems might hold the crown.

I was musing on what it must be like to grow up as a little fat girl (and a morbidly obese young woman from the sounds of it) whose body became a problem in the eyes of the family and the world. I was thinking about the reality of being moved from country to country and school to school, being very 'clever' in the cello-playing and passing exams sense but possibly not brilliant socially. Lots of the details are the kind that ring slight alarm bells. Dropping out of college at one point, going home to mum and dad — and mum and dad fixing everything by arranging for her to have her stomach stapled. I was surprised to find myself thinking how vulnerable and unworldly she sounded.

Suddenly the weirdness and awkwardness became understandable. Someone who's grown up with interesting, high-achieving but unstable roots, someone whose schooling was sporadic and possibly problematic. Someone whose issues arising from her unhappiness (the overeating) were fixed by medical intervention.

She'll know what it is to feel like an outsider. She'll know what it's like to feel uncomfortable and unhappy with your body. So she'll be all sympathy to the nice transpeople she encounters. It won't have occurred to her that people like Karen White exist.

Was that her story then? Still doesn’t explain lack of basic knowledge.

I was listening while I was doing admin work, so it's possible that I didn't hear or take in every word — but yes, she did talk about those things.

I taught in two private schools and several state (did a bit of supply between babies). Even going through school in that kind of environment you would have to be spectacularly dim witted not to know that you are incredibly lucky and privileged and that others are not. I can think of a handful of kids who would have been in the "gosh, are some people actually poor then?" camp. None of them should have been going anywhere near politics. Because they were insufferable.

Even going through school in that kind of environment you would have to be spectacularly dim witted not to know that you are incredibly lucky and privileged and that others are not.
I've met gels who went to Roedean and its competitors who genuinely thought the school was diverse because pupils came from all over the world

I worked with a woman who went there (was expelled - but then she was expelled from quite a few schools for being a very naughty girl). She sounded like Peggy Butcher.

A background where you are protected and coddled and SAFE. And she lacks the empathy required to put herself in the shoes of women who are not protected and coddled and safe. And can't see that a politician's job is to look out for those whose lives aren't as nice as hers, whereas she's more for those just like her.

I think to be honest this sums up the entire political class these days (with a few honourable exceptions). And that's why we're in this fix, because when working class people genuinely think - for actually quite understandable reasons - that the Tories are their best bet, we're probably quite fucked. When reality bites (which it is already doing but add coronavirus and brexit) then we're really in the shit. It's why it's important to push back. Science matters, facts matter. Politicians should be held to account.

If what's written about her history is true I can see why she might sympathise with transpeople. What I can't understand is why she is throwing away any protections that young girls - like she was - have. Throwing them away: making the overweight, sad young girls in state schools have no-where safe to go no-where to turn, no sense that they are important and matter. Shame on you Layla.

Goodness @Shedbuilder if that's her background it is quite sad. I know a few people with similar boarding/international school upbringings, and they all share a desperation to belong. Well educated but quite otherworldly and gullible as their experience of the world is so narrow and without context. The ones I know are rudderless and so latch onto any passing political cause and often become real adherents and make it part of their identity. I've also thought of it as a desperate hunt for belonging and a tribe.

Gormless? Or - as we say in Scotland - glaekit?

You can listen to it yourself: I wasn't taking notes, but the more she revealed the more vulnerable I felt her to be. My parents moved several times during my childhood for work and I know the dislocation involved: the settling into a new place, making friends and then being whisked away to do it again, so perhaps I'm projecting my own stuff on her.

I don't know why she's gone into politics. Possibly because of her father. Perhaps being a science teacher wasn't important enough. I certainly don't think she's got what it takes.

I do feel quite sad for her - she’s had a difficult upbringing (I only think of it as privileged if she had parents that did the right thing for her - otherwise it is just dysfunctional with extra money) and it has clearly had an impact on her but she does need to understand that her place is not in politics if she has such a poor understanding of people and such little empathy.
I wonder what drove her to enter politics- it is a punishing life by all accounts especially for a woman.