Jennie Rigg is one of my favourite people on the planet. The former Chair of Calderdale Lib Dems is a plain-speaking, hilarious Yorkshire woman who has lit up the Lib Dem end of the blogosphere for getting on for a decade. She is one of these people who can express really complicated concepts that tie some up in knots in a way that the reader can really relate to. She comments regularly on here and is very good at explaining the barriers that women and people of colour and other marginalised groups face.
She made a brilliant speech at Conference in the social security debate last year blowing apart the arguments for the maintenance of some sort of sanctions regime.
I really have to think about it when I disagree with her because her instincts are liberal to her core. We have had some fairly robust arguments on these comparatively few issues but can go down the pub for a pint afterwards. Apart from lib demmy stuff, we both share a passion for our doggies, Doctor Who and gin.
I am delighted that she is now on the Federal Conference Committee. You need people on that committee who have no compunction about speaking truth to power and Jennie is very good about doing that in a way that takes people with her.
When Jennie was elected, she was very clear that she would report back to members. We knew that her reports were never going to be boring and she showed the human side of being involved in a federal committee.
If you came to the Glee Club in Brighton last year, you will have seen her there as she hosted the infamous event.
Her twitter feed is pithy, funny and fantastically liberal, compassionate and humane. When I grow up, I want to be Jennie.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social
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6 Comments
Hear, hear!
Jennie’s reply is “I can’t see my phone for crying. She could’ve f***ing warned me.”
Of course one of the major flaws in this piece is that you are FAR more grown up than me…
*hug*
Thank you. Genuinely honoured. And stunned. You could have bleedin’ warned me :þ
For not-me readers: My list of inspiring women for IWD is on my Twitter feed and starts here: https://twitter.com/miss_s_b/status/839544940313133058
OfC its got Caron on it.
Jennie is one of my dearest friends in the Lib Dems, and inspires me constantly. Even if I do annoy her from time to time 😉
Jennie is a stallwart Lib Dem woman and an inspiration to many!
Truly four inspiring Lib Dems. However, a bit disappointing that no Lib Dem women from the past were included. Too often on the internet we focus almost entirely on the generation who have lived and posted here, but we can too easily forget to mention those who built the foundations we now stand on.
My choice would have been Patsy, a wonderful woman, a dedicated Lib Dem and an inspiration to us all. She believed in Liberal Democracy, lived it and through personal integrity and dogged determination became an MP who delivered it to her community and the wider country at large.
Perhaps a series on “What have Lib Dem women ever done for us?” would be a useful follow up.