Top 100 Quotes & Sayings by Jo Swinson
Explore popular quotes and sayings by a British politician Jo Swinson.
Last updated on November 25, 2024.
But I don't feel that as a politician I'm hugely different. Obviously I have a different set of experiences that chime with experiences that many of my constituents have. I think I essentially still have the same set of values and the issues that are important to me don't seem to have changed hugely.
I would encourage anyone who shares our liberal values in or outside parliament to join our party and join our liberal movement. Our door is absolutely open.
While the problems facing the country are huge, it is in times of great disruption that we can make the most important changes to our society and help to rebuild our fractured, broken politics.
Having a child is difficult enough already, bringing with it a whole range of wonderful challenges, and we shouldn't be trying to guilt parents into 'there is just one way to do it'.
A book I often refer to by Naomi Klein is called 'No Is Not Enough'. It's not enough to be against something. You have to actually be for something. A better alternative. For me, that's about transformation.
We will never achieve equality in the workplace until we have more equality in the home. Our plans for an extra four weeks of parental leave specifically for fathers will help tackle the assumption that parenting is one of the 'girl jobs'.
There is this big yawning gap in the middle of British politics, the Conservative and Labour parties have gone to the edges. In this divided, polarised world, the pragmatic centre ground is a bit unloved.
I was elected to Westminster when I was 25; I was Britain's youngest MP.
If there was a Liberal Democrat government, there clearly would be women in the Liberal Democrat Cabinet.
Do I want more women elected to Parliament? Absolutely. I devote significant amounts of time to getting more women in that situation.
If you look at the role models that are out there, the women that tend to be photographed tend to be actresses and models, whereas the men are often in the media because of what they do in terms of business and sport.
Every January we see these fad diets promoted. These aren't promoting healthiness, these aren't promoting a way of embracing exercise and eating fruit and veg and doing things which will actually help people.
Education is there to help our children negotiate the world and understand the communities they're a part of. We owe it to them to provide them with the best information we can to live their lives happily, safely, and without discrimination.
I think it's been lovely the way people have been really supportive in parliament of my pregnancy.
My mum used to send me cuttings from the local paper about people who'd got married as a kind of 'hint hint'. But then there was one cutting about my home seat's boundary changes, and how it might be good for the Liberal Democrats, and I knew this was an opportunity.
I still have a good girl deep inside, but also recognise that it's worth saying things people will disagree with or get annoyed.
I respect everyone's right to their own religious beliefs, but for me, this cannot extend to our education system treating some people's lives and identities as if they are somehow less worthy of respect or love.
I'm not supporting Jeremy Corbyn. If we are to have an election I would fight as Lib Dem leader as the party of remain that hasn't equivocated on this like Jeremy Corbyn.
Having studied politics doesn't necessarily give you political nous.
I love Harriet Harman, she is a supporter of women of all parties, a kind word, a friendly voice, and this country is lucky to have her.
My experience in government is there is a whole host of unintended consequences you have to think through. I can't un-know that, I find it harder now to offer simple solutions.
My childhood was a mix of ballet classes and debating society. I liked arguing. As a teenager, I wanted to be an author. Later on, inspired by Young Enterprise and the Body Shop founder Anita Roddick, I decided I wanted to go into business.
The rise of populism has steadily coalesced movements of millions of people around its divisive us-against-them rhetoric, motivating so many more people to become active political campaigners and party members to champion the case for liberal democracy.
I have no limits to my ambition for the Liberal Democrats.
I loved reading. I was one of those kids who was supposed to go to bed but had a torch under the duvet. That love of reading stayed with me.
We champion freedom - but Brexit will mean the next generation is less free to live, work and love across Europe.
Politicians should be judged on their actions, rather than necessarily their views on scripture.
I think it's important that we challenge the idea that women who have babies are not fit for work and don't have value. There is massive pregnancy discrimination, in parliament and right across society.
Politics now is fractured. The rising tide of nationalism and populism threatens to consume our politics. Whether it is Trump or Putin abroad, or Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage at home, our political order is increasingly dominated by forces that seek to divide us.
A researcher has to be able to identify key points and suggest intelligent questions.
I have ruled out Coalitions with Brexiteers because it's so fundamentally opposed to our values.
I think our stance on Brexit has perhaps been one of the most powerful things in helping people to recognise the values of the Liberal Democrats.
I'm the leader that can be the rallying point for the liberal movement that we need to create to take on the forces of nationalism and populism, the likes of Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson.
In some ways the fact that you are sometimes confronted with people who have such an opposite view to you on certain issues in many ways reinforces that identity that you have.
I want to stay in the European Union which is the best trade deal we could possibly have, but we need to call out racism.
In Westminster, I make sure I maximise my ability to represent my constituents. I can do that in a variety of ways: by asking written questions or questions in the House of Commons, through the scrutiny of bills and by sitting on the environmental audit select committee every week, as well as other committees.
Two weeks into looking after a newborn, you don't necessarily feel as if you've got it all under control. It's just turned your life absolutely upside down, and I think there are a lot of parents who would feel that having the opportunity for both parents to be around in those early weeks would be something that would be really, really valuable.
You look at the sports pages and you'd often be forgiven for thinking women didn't do sport.
I'm a massive feminist, but I think it's a little unfair on the other sex saying they're not in it to change the world.
Equalities issues are a key part of the Liberal Democrats and under my leadership we would push for them at every opportunity - whether in government or not.
There is, I think, far too much guilt generally in society around parenthood, about whether or not you breastfeed or whether or not you bottle feed. We know the evidence is very strong in favour of breastfeeding and the benefits of that, but it shouldn't mean we make people feel bad if they can't do that for some reason.
We need to achieve a change in the media and in the way women are pressured to conform to a narrow image of beauty - it's a lofty ambition but it's important to make a start.
Being an MP is quite a strange job, because you do it in two different places. Half the time I'm in Westminster and the other half I'm in my constituency and the job is different in both of them.
People in Scotland want to have Scotland in the UK and the UK in the EU, and that's what the Liberal Democrats are arguing for.
Every day we let this Brexit mess go on means less money being invested in the UK, fewer jobs being created and less tax revenue to pay for our public services.
There is nothing that compares to the bonding between parent and child in that first year of life. Study after study shows how both parents being involved in the early weeks and months of a child's life is good for the child's development.
I'm perhaps not the most tribal of politicians. Working in a mature and adult way where you recognise what your shared goal is and you manage to work towards that... that is not something which I think would be particularly more difficult with Labour than it is with the Conservatives.
Whether it is throwing people under the bus or writing a lie on the side of one: Britain deserves better than Boris Johnson.
So I hope women will consider a life in politics. We need women, you see. We need them.
We have a massive shortage of engineers and one of the big glaring holes is that we have so few women doing engineering - it's less than 10 per cent of the workforce.
I know as an aunt, you fall into the trap of turning to your niece and saying, 'you look beautiful' - because of course all children do look beautiful - but if the message they get is that is what's important and that is what gets praise, then that's not necessarily the most positive message you want them to hear.
One of the things I love most about Lib Dem members is that for all our policy disagreements, we agree on why we're Lib Dems in the first place.
So much of what young people perceive about their body image is taken from watching their parents... I think we need to look at ways we can help parents pass on more positive messages to their children, and perhaps some of that can be done through health visitors, for example.
I want to lead the Liberal Democrats so that we can build a liberal movement to stand up to those nationalist forces and stop Brexit, then transform our broken economy so that it is focused on the long-term and works for both people and our planet, tackling poverty and averting climate crisis.
Research shows that when children have no body confidence at school they're less likely to put their hand up in class and ask a question.
With parenting, like any other skill in life, practice makes perfect.
When I was a little girl, about eight, I remember going into the Body Shop - that was my first introduction to campaigning. There would always be a petition at the till about fair-trade or stop testing on animals, and the message was: get involved and make change.
If you're going for an interview, you will dress smartly and look the part, that is absolutely fine, but it's just the level to which this becomes the ultimate focus of everything, where you have people who won't go to school unless they've put their make-up on, or won't leave the house unless they've spent two hours getting ready.
We need to transform the economy so it works for people and the planet.
The piece of legislation that I'm so excited and delighted to be doing is shared parental leave.
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