The Chairman of Gosport Conservative Association is the latest to show the party’s true colours by making sexist comments in an interview for Channel 4 News.
Alan Scard is overseeing the selection of a Parliamentary candidate for Gosport, to replace Peter Viggers MP who is standing down after claiming £1645 on his expenses for a duck house.
When asked whether he would support David Cameron’s appeal for more women in Parliament, Mr Scard said,
“I suppose a woman…if they are attractive…I know it’s a sexist thing to say but you could get the blokes saying ‘Oh you know I would vote for her because she’s really attractive’ but then the other women say ‘Oh I don’t like her she’s too attractive.'”
He concluded,
“If they are attractive yeah I would go for it.”
Watch the Channel 4 News report:
Follow @libdemvoice.org on Bluesky
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
Michael Meadowcroft: A Liberal of Intellectual Rigour and Uncommon Integrity
Debt-ridden graduates claim they are seen as cash cows
Why non-fiction books need their indexes
Changes in status: Local Elections wrap up
Tom Bailey
Daniel Walker
Matt (Bristol)
Hywel
17 Comments
This is the only thing I love about the Tories.
They are so at least honest. Well, vocally so, which is an odd way very british-in terms of respect.
Alan Scard is an obnoxious individual and Gosport Tory Councillor Graham ‘Bully’ Burgess who also appears in the Channel 4 interview is no better. Gosport Lib. Dems. will be swift to condemn their sexist views and call for them to be thrown out of the Tory Party.
P.S. As Scard was one of the Tories who reported me to the Standards Board a year ago and got me disqualified from the Council for 2 years (I’m currently back on pending a High Court Appeal), I’m delighted to see him in a spot of bother of his own making. It couldn’t happen to a more deserving person.
P.P.S. As Leader of the Lib. Dem. Group on Gosport Council I’ll be tabling a Council Motion calling on Tory Councillors to disassociate themselves from their Chairman’s sexist comments. It’s worth noting though that out of 16 Conservatives on Gosport Council, only one is a woman. The Conservatives appear to have a policy of not choosing women for winnable seats in Gosport.
Is there actual research on whether voters prefer male v. female candidates, or attractive v. unattractive ones?
@philip – I seem to recall from somewhere that women voters prefer male candidates and therefore vote disproportionaly against women, but I don’t know about male voters and can’t remember where I heard this.
Philip: the evidence is rather nuanced in that it’s not a simple case of voters preferring male or female candidates. See http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/117980976/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0 as an example. What’s significant for the Lib Dems is that (a) overall the evidence seems to be that women prefer female candidates, and (b) our swing voters are disproportionately female – so even though the overall net effect across all voters and all candidates may be complex and nuanced, given who our swing voters are it suggests that, other things being equal, we would do better with more female candidates. But that wouldn’t necessarily apply to other parties.
He’s hardly a stunner himself, is he?
Let’s get this into perspective guys (and girls)
For one, this country, and even this Party, are far too politically correct. for any rational person’s liking. People use ‘being offended’ as a weapon and we all allow them to get away with it. There used to be a phrase saying that “sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never hurt me”.
So; why should we have to worry all the time about idiots who use words against them…when no offense is made or meant. The Law states that if no offense is meant, no offense is committed.
Example: this guy was having a laugh, pure and simple. Leave him alone!!!!!!!!!
And so what if he mentions something that some idiots see as sexist. Get a life!
Have a go at the Muslim Council of Great Britain for their racist, terrorist and highly abusive views.
Have a go at Trevor Philips for his dubious subtext views and actions.
Have a go at organisations who use positive discrimination as a tool, which the act of is simply racist and immoral in all of its forms.
Let’s get a sense of rationality back into this country for goodness sake and get rid of the loony PC factions.
And as far as humour; have a laugh. And if you cannot laugh at yourself, your religion, or your ethnic background…I suggest you bury your head in the sand and turn off the light.
@ mark – I must have heard/got it wrong then, apols all
Too true Asquith.
Asquith is right. Alan Scard is even worse in the flesh. He’s actually one of the most unpleasant, self-centered, obsessive, vindictive, right-wing nutters in a party still full of them. And if ‘Lib. Dem. Guru’ thinks he was joking I can tell you that Alan Scard is exactly the kind of guy who would only vote for a woman because of her looks. The Gosport Conservative Association has a policy of not selecting women in winnable council seats. Only one of their sixteen borough councillors is a woman.
People should be selected on ability and not on sex, race, religion, or what school you went to
so what about the libdem front benches? (schools, universities, nepotism, class)
and to be honest we do need some totty in the lower house. all we have is nadine dorries, jo swinson and lynne featherstone (or maybe anne widdecombe for the weirdos out there!)
maybe the guy is doing us all a favour selecting on looks.
now lighten up the lot of you. burlusconi has the right attitude.
Well have a laugh, but if you really do vote for a candidate because of their looks rather than their ability, then this invasion of the “celebrity culture attitude” will simply ensure we are more poorly governed. Italy is actually a good example of that.
There is a difference between voting for Miss World and voting for a politician with a serious job to do, no matter how much you want to laugh about it. Good looking politicians are not by definition experts on Afghanistan, the NHS, running the economy.
Neither are many of the ugly ones, or many of the existing MP’s
We have too many that are: self-obsessed, deviant, fraudulent, naive, disconnected, devious, uncaring…and too quick to toe the party line. That is why they are selected after all.
We need more mavericks! And yes, some eye candy would be nice (haha).
Gosport is in the news. Norman Lamb MP raised it at PMQ on 20/6/2018. Stephen Lloyd MP has a constituent affected and is calling for an investigation by a police force other than Hampshire who are compromised. The report is apparently gruesome. Stephen called it “unbelievable”. The issue of whistleblowers from the early 1990s needs more attention because of a “culture”.
Following Dr Shipman, following the Gosport report, BBC2 Newsnight on 21/6/2018 asked if there could be another such issue.
Statistical analysis is part of a solution, but is it effective enough? Not sure really.