Spare us the virtue signalling, jo swinson | thearticle

Almost as soon as she became leader of the Liberal Democrats, Jo Swinson was quick to set the tone for the party’s direction. But it all sounded like more of the same, as she wrote in The

Times: “[we] say Bollocks to Brexit. And Bollocks to Boris while we’re at it.” This is presumably meant to appear revolutionary and anti-establishment, but only ever seems to be said by

middle-class Europhiles trying to sound cool. It convinced me that, far from being “fresh” and able to revive British liberalism, as my colleague Charlotte Henry suggests in TheArticle,

Swinson will represent the views of the Waitrose class. Of course, it would be hard to deny that Swinson is an incredibly impressive individual. Aged 39, she is the first woman and youngest

person to become leader of the Liberal Democrats. She has a wealth of experience standing up to strong figures, and is consistently a confident and articulate speaker. Some of her actions

have made life much easier for future female parliamentarians, too. When she took her baby into the Commons last year, for instance, it paved the way to modernising the institution. In spite

of all these achievements, for a multitude of reasons, she is in no way going to revolutionise modern Britain in the way Henry suggests. For one, a large number of progressive voters will

shun her, because she was part of the Tory-Liberal Democrat coalition blamed for austere policies. In many ways she is something of a controversial figure among them. To more mainstream

voters, her condescending rhetoric is even more off-putting. Often it is the Right that is accused of being divisive, but figures like Swinson have entrenched fractures in the country

through their patronising words. It’s not just the “Bollocks to Brexit” proclamations, it’s her hackneyed ideas, on full display in her piece for Red Box yesterday. “We cherish equality”,

she wrote, as if no one else does, and then she pulled out the most virtue signalling line of them all: “when all that Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson can offer is hate, we should give people

hope.” It has become so trite and simplistic to carve politics up this way, as if Remainer or Left-wing parties may only be a force for good – and everyone else is evil. This binary view

has alienated great swathes of the electorate, and should be avoided by politicians if they want to ever unite the country again. For all his faults, at least Boris Johnson charms voters of

all political persuasions. What’s more, I’m not convinced Swinson’s policies would take Britain in a great direction – not least because no one seems quite sure what they are. Liberal

Democrat members have said that they’d fight for a People’s Vote, but when grilled on this by the BBC, Swinson appeared to backtrack -indicating she’d only accept the result of a second

referendum if Remain won. The whole exercise seems a bit pointless if that’s the case. Indeed, as a Brexiteer, it strikes me that the best strategy for Remainers like her is to drop the

pretence they want a second referendum at all – and say they will simply revoke article 50. Though I can’t see them getting far. The EU elections offered a good measure of public opinion:

Leave sentiment continues to be incredibly high – as shown through the Brexit Party’s success. Far from being refreshing, Swinson seems to simply be regurgitating lines that have floated

around the Liberal Democrats for years. It is a protest party that never thinks to listen to why people wanted to leave the EU, and has prospered mainly through the hopelessness of Labour,

which forced Lefties to look elsewhere. The Liberal Democrats may be able to grow thanks to the dire state of politics currently, but they never thrive. More virtue signalling politicians is

exactly what this country does not need.