Tag Archives: Jo Swinson

Mark Pack

Rehsuffles, reasonable Liberal Democrats and Jo Swinson’s rising star: Guardian podcast

By Mark Pack | Fri 7th September 2012 - 8:56 am

This week’s Politics Weekly podcast from The Guardian features, ahem, myself alongside Dan Sabbagh, Juliette Jowit and Tom Clark. Amazingly, we talked reshuffle, then reshuffle and a bit more reshuffle, including how Jo Swinson is now one of the party’s main rising stars.

All three of the Guardianistas are their own people with their own views, yet I was struck how between them they didn’t particularly paint the reshuffle as a lurch to the right – more a nudge of a few points – and also how they were relatively kind to the Liberal Democrats too. Not quite the collective Guardian …

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Transfer deadline day: Laws, Brake, Foster & Swinson in, Burstow, Teather, Harvey & Stunell out, Clarke loan finishes

By James Percival | Wed 5th September 2012 - 1:32 pm

I love reshuffle days, they’re just like transfer deadline day. You sit there at your office computer pretending to work while secretly updating the Guardian live blog to see who your side has brought in and let go.

So, have we strengthened the side for the second half of the season or left gaping holes in our defence?

Well, we have managed to hold on to all our big players – Cable, Alexander, Davey and Moore – and, despite losing his place to Alexander after his suspension early in the season, we now have a fighting fit Laws back and ready …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , and | 3 Comments
Mark Pack

Reshuffle thoughts: how does it score against my four criteria?

By Mark Pack | Tue 4th September 2012 - 9:31 pm

Ahead of the reshuffle, I posted four criteria against which the Liberal Democrat part of the shuffling should be judged. Now nearly all the details are in, how does it look?

 

Most importantly, have people been put in jobs they’ve got a decent chance of doing well? It’s hard enough being a minister in the smaller party in a coalition government without having lots of people thrown into policy areas they are completely new to.

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Caron Lindsay

SNP MP’s Twitter tirade against Moore and Swinson

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 4th September 2012 - 8:09 am

One of the problems faced by the SNP is the army of so called cybernats who spew nasty, insulting bile across the internet at anyone who dares to question SNP policy or independence – which, of course, are one and the same thing. Alan Cochrane from the Telegraph wrote earlier this year about these toxic, often anonymous individuals.

Those who cannot take part in this great debate without questioning the patriotism, and often the parentage, of those who don’t agree with them are much more accurately described as Cyberscum. As such they are, of course, a legitimate target for those

…

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Stephen Tall

Reshuffle round-up: it looks like good news for Swinson & Laws

By Stephen Tall | Mon 27th August 2012 - 12:00 pm

There’s been plenty of reshuffle chit-chat overt the past few weeks, much of it speculative. However, the Sunday papers appears to included some pretty well-sourced information which went beyond the usual space-filling ‘who knows?’, and appears to suggest good news for both Jo Swinson and David Laws — both of whom enjoyed strong support in our recent survey of members’ preferred back-bencher promotions.

First, The Observer reported that David Cameron’s reshuffle will bring whips back to the fore, with an enhanced whips office incorporating both old-handers and young-turks to help the Tory leader re-assert a grip on his increasingly …

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Caron Lindsay

Inspiration Day for Scottish Liberal Democrat women

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 23rd August 2012 - 6:55 pm

Credit Katy Gordon

I have attended hundreds of extremely useful Liberal Democrat training sessions over the years. Virtually all of them have been very good, but the ones which have been most helpful have been those run by Women Liberal Democrats. I’ve been to several “inspiration days” now and always learn something new or meet fabulous new people who become great colleagues.

My most recent session took place in Glasgow last Saturday. The idea of these sessions is to give women members an idea of the wide range of options …

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Stephen Tall

Jo Swinson, Julian Huppert & David Laws top Lib Dem members’ reshuffle promotion wish-list

By Stephen Tall | Thu 23rd August 2012 - 7:55 am

Lib Dem Voice polled our members-only forum recently to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Some 500 party members have responded, and we’re publishing the full results.

LDV asked: Which backbench Lib Dem MPs who are not current ministers would you like to see promoted? (Please write-in.) (NB: I’ve set the cut-off for inclusion in this list at 5 individual mentions.)

    Jo Swinson 77
    Julian Huppert 73
    David Laws 66
    Tim Farron 25
    Duncan Hames 21
    Simon Hughes 19
    Andrew George 16
    Tessa Munt 16
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Posted in LDV Members poll | Also tagged , , , , , and | 7 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Who are your favourite commentators? Nominate them for Comment awards by 31 July

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 26th July 2012 - 11:28 am

The Comment Awards, run by Editorial Intelligence take place in October and aim to celebrate the “achievement of the UK’s finest print and online commentors”.

A wide ranging panel of judges, including our very own Jo Swinson MP, will judge 16 categories from Independent Blogger to commentators of the year on politics, business, foreign affairs, sport, media and culture. There are also Twitter categories, for politician and public figure.

Nominations are welcome from any individual or organisation, which obviously includes all of you. They close next Tuesday, 31st July. If you look at the list of winners from last year, …

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Sara Bedford

RIP Nikki Thomson

By Sara Bedford | Fri 29th June 2012 - 8:55 am

I first met Nikki Thomson at the inaugural party conference of the Social and Liberal Democrats, back in September 1988. You couldn’t miss Nikki: she exuded energy and determination.

A liberal to the core, she had had her misgivings about the merger of the two Alliance parties, but once she had decided to join, she threw herself into the new party with the vigour and passion that was her trademark.

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Posted in News and Obituaries | Also tagged and | 14 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Jo Swinson MP says “Let’s Fix Parliament”

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 27th June 2012 - 6:56 pm

Liberal Democrat MP for East Dunbartonshire Jo Swinson has today sent out an e-mail to Liberal Democrat members and supporters asking them to spread the word about the need for Lords Reform on the day the Bill was published. This is what she had to say:

Did you know that only the UK and Lesotho allow people to inherit seats in Parliament? In the 21st century, that’s simply embarrassing, and it has to end.

We can only do this with your help. Today, the Bill for an elected House of Lords has been published. Over the coming weeks I’ll be asking you

…

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The Voice

Jo Swinson: there are questions to be answered over Jeremy Hunt

By The Voice | Wed 13th June 2012 - 9:50 am

Nick Clegg’s Parliamentary aide Jo Swinson was up early on BBC Breakfast this morning to talk about Liberal Democrat MPs’ decision not to support Jeremy Hunt in the Commons tonight.

She started off by saying that the Prime Minister’s decision not to refer the Culture Secretary to the Independent Adviser on the Ministerial Code was not a collective one therefore the Liberal Democrats were not bound by collective responsibility. The decision not to refer Hunt is not endorsed by the Liberal Democrats therefore we would not be voting with the Conservatives tonight.

The Voice wonders if the real issue is the exclusivity …

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Stephen Tall

LDV poll: Vince or Tim are Lib Dem members’ top choices for leader in event of vacancy

By Stephen Tall | Thu 7th June 2012 - 8:57 am

Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Some 560 party members responded, and we’re publishing the full results.

28% choose Vince, 21% tip Tim: how you voted

Yesterday we reported the finding that 34% of Lib Dem members surveyed thought Nick Clegg should step down as party leader before the 2015 general election compared to 59% who thought he should stay to fight it. Today we report the hypothetical question we then posed: who should take up the reins if for …

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Posted in LDV Members poll | Also tagged , , , , , and | 14 Comments
Caron Lindsay

LDVideo: Jo Swinson MP on new body image report

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 30th May 2012 - 8:21 pm

Liberal Democrat MP Jo Swinson has today launched Reflections  on Body Image, a report of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Body Image, which suggests that children as young as five years old can be worried about their weight and looks.

The report makes a number of wide ranging recommendations from giving children body image and self esteem lessons in school to requiring advertisers to use a more diverse range of models to looking at whether the Equality Act needs to be amended to cover appearance related discrimination to challenging the evidence base that supports dieting and the idea that low weight guarantees health.

Jo has had an exhilarating day doing the rounds of the various media outlets from the Today programme to BBC Breakfast to Sky News.

Here she is talking to Bill Turnbull on BBC Breakfast this morning:

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Caron Lindsay

Liberal Democrat MPs fight for blind people hit by welfare changes

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 16th May 2012 - 12:23 pm

The Independent reports that Liberal Democrat MPs are trying to change the new assessment process for the Personal Independence Payments  which will replace Disability Living Allowance. They believe that they may lead to blind people being denied the help that they need. This is a measure introduced by the Welfare Reform Act. The MPs are concerned that the new assessment process focuses on mobility  and does not sufficiently take into account the ways in which being blind or partially sighted can affect everyday life.

People who have sight loss need the extra help to, for example, help with cleaning, ironing …

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Mark Pack

Which of the five Lib Dem reshuffle options will Nick Clegg pick?

By Mark Pack | Mon 14th May 2012 - 2:23 pm

Five scenarios for your delectation:

The Lib Dem night of the long beards

The drastic, dramatic and painful option. Clegg says the Liberal Democrats need David Laws’s expertise and media savvy at the heart of economic decision making, restoring him to Chief Secretary to the Treasury and expressing tearful regret that Danny Alexander is off out of the Cabinet, with a resting place as a new Parliamentary Private Secretary in the Cabinet Office where he will not have to handle quite so many tricky TV interviews.

Education, education, education

Too problematic to bring back Laws in a tax and cut role? Bring him …

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Posted in Humour and Op-eds | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , and | 45 Comments
Stephen Tall

In other news… Michael Brown extradited, unpaid party internships, Jo Swinson for cabinet? & other stories

By Stephen Tall | Tue 24th April 2012 - 5:37 pm

Here’s a round-up of stories we haven’t had time to cover on the site this past few days…

Lib Dem donor Michael Brown to be extradited to UK (BBC News)

Convicted fraudster and former Lib Dem donor Michael Brown is facing a hearing in Spain for extradition to the UK. He was flown to Madrid on Saturday to be handed to UK officials after being arrested in the Dominican Republic. In 2008 Brown, who had gone on the run to the Dominican Republic from the UK, was jailed in his absence for seven years for stealing £36m from clients after posing

…

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Stephen Tall

In other news… Jo on Easter eggs, Brian interviewed, Dr Pack post-budget wallchart, and more…

By Stephen Tall | Sun 1st April 2012 - 4:45 pm

Here’s a round-up of stories we haven’t had time to cover on the site this past few days…

Confectionery giants ‘not doing enough’ to reduce Easter egg packaging (Daily Mail)

Easter egg manufacturers have been criticised for not doing enough to reduce packaging and improve how much can be recycled. Currently, an estimated 3,000 tonnes of waste is produced in the UK every year just from Easter egg packaging alone. And an annual survey by Liberal Democrat MP Jo Swinson has found the percentage of Easter egg boxes actually filled by chocolate was 38 per cent – the same figure as

…

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The Voice

LDVideo: Jo Swinson’s Political Slot: The Liberal Democrats are in government on your side

By The Voice | Mon 5th March 2012 - 1:07 pm

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Posted in Lib Dem TV and News | Also tagged , , , and | 6 Comments
Caron Lindsay

So, what was Jo Swinson doing in Private Eye?

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 15th February 2012 - 11:55 am

You always take a bit of a sharp intake of breath if you see one of your lot mentioned in Private Eye. However, this time, our Jo Swinson is the hero of the story. The current issue drew my attention to her most recent victory over cosmetics giant L’Oreal although the article isn’t available online. The Advertising Standards Authority recently banned another advert from the company, the third complained about by Jo. It featured actress Rachel Weisz and the ASA concluded that:

Although we considered that the image in the ad did not misrepresent the luminosity or wrinkling of

…

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Mark Pack

The fallout from Chris Huhne’s resignation

By Mark Pack | Sat 4th February 2012 - 6:10 pm

I’ve been busy with the media yesterday and today giving my take on Chris Huhne’s resignation, so here are the two main highlights if you missed them:

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Prateek Buch

New Lib Dem appointments to government

By Prateek Buch | Fri 3rd February 2012 - 1:39 pm

According to the No. 10 website, Ed Davey MP will replace Chris Huhne as Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, with Norman Lamb to replace Davey in his role at the Department for Business.

Completing the changes, Jenny Willott becomes an Assisstant Government Whip, and Jo Swinson replaces Norman Lamb as Nick Clegg’s PPS.

Congratulations to those Lib Dem MPs taking up new positions in government.

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Caron Lindsay

Jo Swinson urges action to help young develop positive body image

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 4th January 2012 - 7:59 pm

Scottish Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader and MP for East Dunbartonshire Jo Swinson, has again urged advertisers and retailers to use models covering a diverse of sizes, ages and shapes in their advertising and media campaigns to reflect the reality of different body shapes and to promote healthy body image.

Co-founder of the Campaign for Body Confidence, Jo is currently chairing a Parliamentary Inquiry into the causes and consequences of body image anxiety.

Her calls come as the retail market floods with health fads and “miracle weight-loss products screaming out at people to diet as part of New Year resolutions.  Jo  is concerned that this will …

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Paul Walter

PMQs: Jo Swinson on the role of women in Aghanistan

By Paul Walter | Thu 1st December 2011 - 10:23 am

Liberal Democrat questions first this week:

Jo Swinson asked:

Ten years on from the military intervention, more than 3 million girls in Afghanistan are now in school. With the Bonn conference on Monday, will the Prime Minister send a clear message that the rights of those girls should not be traded away in a false choice between women’s rights and security? The evidence shows that women’s involvement in post-conflict resolution is essential for stability.

The Prime Minister agreed:

All those of us who have been to Afghanistan and met women MPs and other leaders in that country who want to stand up for women’s

…

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Caron Lindsay

Jo Swinson MP questions BBC on all male Sports Personality shortlist

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 30th November 2011 - 2:25 pm

The very first thing that Alex Jones said on Monday evening when the shortlist for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year was announced live on the One Show was “they’re all men”. She sounded quite shocked – and rightly so.

She was not alone. World champion swimmer Rebecca Adlington took to Twitter to say that there were many women in sport who deserve recognition this year.

Attention was also given to how those shortlists were made up – voted for  predominantly by male sports editors of national newspapers and, inexplicably,  representatives of lads’ Mags Nuts and Zoo.

Four MPs, …

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Posted in News and Parliament | Also tagged and | 15 Comments

Opinion: Why Liberal Youth is worth funding

By Tom Wood | Fri 25th November 2011 - 4:53 pm

On Saturday morning the English Council will debate their budget for the year ahead which, for the first time in at least ten years, will not include a rebate for Liberal Youth membership.
 
The English party is the Youth party’s single largest source of funding. Immediately cutting off this funding with such short notice will leave our organisations unable to meet its most basic operating costs and permanently cripple our youth party.
 
I know, like everyone else, these are tough times financially for our party; however Liberal Youth performs a vital role for young people and for the party

…

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Posted in Op-eds and Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged , , and | 16 Comments
Helen Duffett

Advertising watchdog upholds Jo Swinson MP’s complaints about overly airbrushed ads

By Helen Duffett | Wed 27th July 2011 - 8:53 am

The Guardian reports:

L’Oréal has been forced to pull ad campaigns featuring Pretty Woman star Julia Roberts and supermodel Christy Turlington, after the advertising watchdog upheld complaints by Liberal Democrat MP Jo Swinson that the images were overly airbrushed.

Swinson, who has waged a long-running campaign against “overly perfected and unrealistic images” of women in adverts, lodged complaints with the Advertising Standards Authority about the magazine campaigns for L’Oréal-owned brands Lancôme and Maybelline. The ASA ruled that both ads breached the advertising standards code for exaggeration and being misleading and banned them from future publication.

L’Oréal’s two-page ad featuring Roberts, who is

…

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Caron Lindsay

Liberal Youth Scotland’s Sophie Bridger to fight Inverclyde for the Liberal Democrats

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 14th June 2011 - 6:49 pm


Liberal Youth Scotland President Sophie Bridger has been selected as the Scottish Liberal Democrat candidate to fight the Inverclyde by-election, caused by the sad death of Labour MP David Cairns last month. The by-election takes place on 30th June.

Sophie, who’s 20, is studying Psychology at Glasgow University. Sophie has campaigned with Liberal Youth Scotland on issues such as equal marriage, a fair deal for students and increased powers for the Scottish parliament.

Sophie was a key member of Katy Gordon’s campaign team in Glasgow North last year and stood herself in Glasgow …

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Posted in News, Parliamentary by-elections and Selection news | Also tagged , , , and | 12 Comments
Helen Duffett

Jo Swinson MP urges applications for Speaker’s internships scheme

By Helen Duffett | Tue 14th June 2011 - 3:55 pm

Jo Swinson MP has joined a cross-party group of MPs to launch an internship scheme which will open Parliament’s doors to young people of all backgrounds.

Jo launched the Speaker’s Parliamentary Placements Scheme last week, along with Labour and Conservative MPs Hazel Blears and Eric Ollerenshaw.

In a bid to make Parliament more inclusive and open, the scheme hopes to attract 12 young people from disadvantaged and diverse backgrounds, who’ll be given the opportunity to complete a paid internship in Parliament. They will begin their placements after conference season this autumn.

Jo said:

I am delighted this scheme has now been launched and

…

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Mark Pack

Good question from Jo Swinson, good answer from Nick Clegg

By Mark Pack | Tue 24th May 2011 - 10:20 pm

Earlier today there was this exchange in Parliament:

Jo Swinson (East Dunbartonshire) (LD): Will the Deputy Prime Minister reassure my constituents that the Government will resist any siren calls to water down the Equality Act as part of the red tape challenge?

The Deputy Prime Minister: I can certainly confirm that, as far as I am concerned, there will be no move to dilute incredibly important protections to enshrine and bolster equality in this country under the guise of dealing with unnecessary or intrusive regulation.

Good.

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Helen Duffett

LibLink: Jo Swinson – “You just don’t need voting machines for AV”

By Helen Duffett | Tue 19th April 2011 - 5:47 pm

The TotalPolitics blog has an interview this week with Jo Swinson MP, in which she gets down to some mythbusting about the referendum on the voting system for the UK Parliament. Here’s an excerpt:

The only voting machines that I’ve been aware of were for counting the local council elections. I mean you just don’t need voting machines for AV. Have they ever managed to answer that question as to why they think it would? I’ll give you an example right, in my constituency, in the last two years we’ve had two by-elections in the council. Now when

…

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged and | 17 Comments
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