Swinson's swan song...

It comes as no surprise that Jo Swinson is going to lose her East Dunbartonsire constituency seat.

According to her, she has worked hard as a constituency MP. And, yes, she does whizz from photo op to photo op around East Dunbartonshire. She also claims local campaign after campaign "hers" and if won, "her victory," from the locally hard fought campaign for a youth cafe in Milngavie BEFORE she was an MP to the recent climb down by Tescos over a new superstore in the village. 

Even local Liberal Democrats are saying she is over stepping her own ego. 

After she sent out leaflets  congratulating herself over the Youth Cafe, a local youth worker I know who had worked on the project with local people for years, vowed never to vote Lib Dem again.

At the recent "victory rally" of the local anti Tescos group, she managed to alienate more local people- including a number of lifelong members of her own local party committee who left the celebrations in disgust- and obvious distress- after her now typical "praise me" speech to a disbelieving audience.

Add to this the various clubs hitherto having had no interest from her into which she parachutes for a photo, and hops in the car to meet the next deadline of a local paper's photographer and you have a huge population of people in East Dunbartonshire who know what her "hard work" adds up to- publicity and self congratulation.

Swinson is a "big hitter" in the cabinet not because she is a big ideas person, or even someone who has built anything of notable value in her constituency, but as someone who has entered the right wing world of Nick Clegg without question for careerist opportunity.  The people of her constituency did not vote for any of the Tory policies she has supported,like University fees, a privatised NHS and Royal Mail (in fact her election materials made big of the "fact" she would protect RM- we knew better when she publically condemned posties striking to save their jobs and conditions of work a few years ago), the dreadful welfare bill that impoverishes the vulnerable further (including the vicious bedroom tax) and her recent support for war and nuclear weapons. 

As well as "banking" lots of political dissatisfaction through her obvious self publicity, she has lost the support of the mainstay centre left East Dunbartonshire voter.

She is "a big hitter" in the dreadful double talk of the LibDem- "Everyone knows the Conservatives can't win in East Dunbartonshire," she says. Well yes, we do know that. ED has never come near to voting Tory- but she knows she has lost the Labour voters who had turned to her as a protest against their support for Iraq and Afghanistan invasions and dissatisfaction with what had happened to the economy post 2008 - so its time for her to court the nasty right wing tory anti-working class /anti-public sector worker/anti NHS poor baiting Westminster Etonian old boy network supporters and cap doffers.

Thank the stars East Dunbartonshire has few of those.

Regarding her support for war in Syria, we have sent her this FOI Request.

"In her blogpiece on the liberal democrat website, titled Syria Debate, Posted on August 30, 2013 Jo Swinson states "Parliament was recalled todebate and vote on the UK’s response to the use of chemical weapons in Syria, a serious and sombre issue that I know from my email inbox many of my constituents have been taking a keen interest in.  Here I set outhow I approached the issue and why I decided to support the motion." 

I would like the Minister and her office to send to me the total number of emails from constituents she had recieved prior to the debate on 29 August in Westminster on the topic of the Syria conflict. 

I would like this figure broken down into the total number of constituents emails that expressed the view that they were againstmilitary action in Syria / or asked her to vote against motion and the total number of constituent emails that expressed the view that theywere for military action in Syria/or asked her to vote for the motion."