{"id":100,"date":"2006-02-02T23:18:44","date_gmt":"2006-02-02T23:18:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.campbellcampaign.org\/2006\/02\/02\/transcript-of-jo-swinson-podcast\/"},"modified":"2006-02-03T01:12:05","modified_gmt":"2006-02-03T01:12:05","slug":"transcript-of-jo-swinson-podcast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mingcampbell.org.uk\/ccarchive\/2006\/02\/02\/transcript-of-jo-swinson-podcast\/","title":{"rendered":"Transcript of Jo Swinson podcast"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Walter: <\/strong>Jo Swinson you\u2019re the youngest MP supporting one of the oldest MPs. Why?<\/em><\/p>\n

Jo Swinson:<\/strong> Well I think Ming Campbell\u2019s got the credibility and the experience that we need to lead our party and to be a, to be a winner actually, I think he\u2019s the kind of politician that people can imagine in Number Ten and that\u2019s something which will be a huge strength for the party in the months and years to come.<\/p>\n

DW:<\/strong>How does he go down in your constituency?<\/em><\/p>\n

JS:<\/strong> Well I think Ming\u2019s very popular. Obviously he\u2019s a well recognised expert and commentator on foreign affairs but he\u2019s also as we\u2019ve seen in recent weeks in Prime Minister\u2019s Questions been raising issues domestically such as the education reforms, such as our public services, and he\u2019s also been talking a lot in this campaign about tackling poverty, and that\u2019s something which certainly in Scotland and I know in, in the rest of the country is of great importance.<\/p>\n

I can look at, at areas of my constituency which are very, very wealthy and you know two miles down the road the life expectancy is a full ten years less. Now that\u2019s the kind of inequality and poverty that we do need to be addressing in society.<\/p>\n

DW: <\/strong>Do you think he\u2019s the kind of Leader who will appeal to women and to young people?<\/em><\/p>\n

JS: <\/strong>Absolutely. I mean just today in fact we\u2019ve, we\u2019ve had a celebration of many of the women who are supporting Ming Campbell and in fact all of the, the young women MPs are backing Ming, Jenny Willett, Sarah Teather, Julia Goldsworthy and myself. He\u2019s certainly got the confidence and the experience in the issues that many young people are interested in.<\/p>\n

Now when I knocked on doors at the General Election a lot of young people were very angry about the war in Iraq, they were very keen that we tackle issues such as climate change and if you look at the statements that Ming has set out in his policy documents the environment and obviously international policy and, and leading the, the charge for us against the war in Iraq are two things that Ming is very much associated with.<\/p>\n

DW:<\/strong>And do you feel he\u2019ll pull the party together after the recent troubles?<\/em><\/p>\n

JS: <\/strong>Yeah, I mean I think it\u2019s certainly true to say this has been a difficult few weeks for the Liberal Democrats and I\u2019m sure that many members, councillors, activists and Members of Parliament feel a bit bruised from this. But what Ming is offering is a way of pulling everybody together, we\u2019re all looking forward to the future and very much want to see our new Leader in place on the 2^{nd<\/sup> of March going forward to winning in local elections in England in May and then on towards the important elections certainly from my point of view in Scotland in 2007, both locally and for the Scottish Parliament.<\/p>\n}

Listen to Jo Swinson’s podcast »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"