Tag Archives: Politics

Nap times, politics and radical feminism? New book explores Mumsnet today.

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the politicisation of mumsnet, politiczation The Politicization of Mumsnet

 By Sarah Pedersen

Publication: 15th October 2020

PB, £16.99, ISBN: 9781839094712

I have to be honest. My feminism has dulled at the edges the past six months. Two children under five and numerous work commitments have left me with a lethargy towards feminism and politics in general. Well consider me awake now. I forgot about the feminism threads on Mumsnet. I also forgot at how much snark Mumsnet gets because of its perceived anti-trans reputation and middle class readership. Personally I think that everyone who attacks Mumsnet for being middle class, and for assuming it is so, rude. I also note that Reddit and 4Chan have users with controversial views and no one gangs up on them quite as much.

The Politicization of Mumsnet is a brilliant book that is well thought out and researched within an inch of its life. It had so many facts it blew my mind.  Mumsnet is a huge achievement and it has saved countless women lives. Women generally becoming Mumsnet users during the most vulnerable, and isolating time of their lives. Men and Women are relatively equal until women have babies. Women’s biological clocks also put them at an unfair disadvantage. Read this book and you will want to level the playing field. An absolute triumph for Sarah Pedersen.

You can listen to Sarah Pedersen on Women’s Hour here.

‘This book dispels two myths about Mumsnet:  that it is heaving with entitled, middle-class yummy mummies, or drowning in hate and bigotry… This book is informative, amusing and a call to feminist action.’ – Julie Bindel, writer and activist

Whether you love it, loath it or are totally baffled by it, Mumsnet is a social-media phenomenon.  It now has 14 million users and over the past two decades it has grown to become the largest parenting website in the UK.

As the site developed, Mumsnet discussion topics evolved beyond traditional ‘mothering’ subjects to encompass politics, feminism and current affairs.  In fact, it now bills itself as a ‘site for grown ups’ with limited moderation and a commitment to free speech.  Brands swarm to it and it is a ‘go to’ source for journalists seeking a female viewpoint.

 In The Politicization of Mumsnet, Sarah Pedersen from Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, explores Mumsnet’s role as a powerful and influential forum, including its use by politicians to try and secure the votes of middle-class women in the UK. The 2010 General Election was even dubbed “the Mumsnetelection” highlighting a growing awareness that women discuss politics online in places that have been traditionally perceived as non-political.

Its active community of users has led to high profile campaigns about rape awareness, miscarriage care and the premature sexualisation of children. The type of campaigns that Mumsnet supports is driven by the interests of its members, but also the realities that the site itself has had to face relating to libel.  Mumsnet has become part of the establishment in its contributions to government inquiries and as a place for ministers to air policies for families and children.

However, in recent years, Mumsnet has also become a central part of a resurgent women’s rights movement in the UK.  Understood as a safe space for gender-critical voices, the site has spawned real-life activism and continues to be both praised and attacked for its support of free speech on controversial subjects.  Pedersen argues that its openness to these discussions has allowed the site to function as a subaltern counter-public.  This development has led to both praise and bitter criticism of the site and a positioning within a resurgent grass-roots radical feminist movement in the UK.

Sarah Pedersen asks where does Mumsnet go from here?  While there is no doubt that the site will continue its campaigning on issues that concern its members, it must also continue to offer a space for women to discuss issues that are important to them, and to share and receive support and comradeship.

Fans and critics alike would do well to remember the quote from Robert Campbell after Mumsnetters had caused his agency’s advertising campaign to collapse within 48 hours……. “Don’t mess with Mumsnet”

About the Author:

Sarah Pedersen is Professor of Communication and Media at Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen. Her research focuses on women’s use of media, particularly for political purposes, using both contemporary and historical sources.

 

The Politicization of Mumsnet By Sarah Pedersen is available here. 

 

Exclusive Paddy Ashdown Interview ‘I Am Devoted To The Liberal Democrats’

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Here is part three of our exclusive Paddy Ashdown interview. Take a look at part one and two.

That’s a good answer. In your diaries you are clear about how close you were to Labour before and after the ’97 election, and that PR was the price of coalition. Given that the Lib Dems eventually went into coalition with the Tories, with just a promise of a referendum on AV, how do you think events would have unfolded if you’d accepted a similar deal in ’97?”

I don’t know. I mean I can’t take you through the what would have happened parts of history. I suspect the circumstances would have been very different if we also had the referendum on a sensible system rather than a lesser sensible one. I don’t think you would have had the leading party in the country at the time deliberately doing what they could at the time to destroy the motion and the national newspapers at the time supporting them. That is the ‘what would have happened’ bits of history and we could all spend hours deciding how the world would be different  if Britain hadn’t won the battle of Waterloo; It’s very interesting but it doesn’t bear much relevance.

Paddy_Ashdown_3You also said in your diaries that you were worried that the party would start with Gladstone and end with Ashdown, what do you think was your greatest achievement as the Liberal Democrat Leader?

I have never ever believed that I am a good judge of my own achievements, I leave that to others to decide on what your achievements are. I was very proud to lead the Liberal Democrats for eleven years, I loved it, I am devoted to them. I was also very proud to be the International High Representative in Bosnia for the British Government.  No doubt I made mistakes in both of those jobs, probably quite a lot of them. When you have the privilege of doing jobs like that you can use it to your advantage and I quickly realised what I was good at and what I was bad at.

What do you think will happen with the Liberal Democrats in 2015?

I actually think all the polls now are wrong. I have to rely, as I always have done, on the good judgement of the british electorate, I think we have a good story to tell, we have been in government, everyone said we couldn’t do it. I think we have been more united than the Tories, tougher than the Tories, and played a really serious role in bringing our country through a crisis. If I know the British electorate at all well, when the moment comes, I think we’ll reap the dividends of that. I also think that the British electorate probably, having had the benefit of the coalition may not be very happy returning to absolute power in anybody’s hands. Also, having a coalition of some sort forces people to work together instead of spending all their time scratching each other’s eyes out. Maybe that is a much better system than what we had in the past. Those two things will help us I think.
Who Is Your Favourite Politician?

I think as someone said to me; ‘Who is my hero?’ and I said William Wilberforce who is as unlike me as you could possibly get, apart from Gladstone of course, who is the greatest Prime Minister this country has ever had both internationally and domestically, he was a man who said, “We did not march across the law of anti-slavery, we did not march towards a monument in the distance, we gathered friends like flowers along the way.” and I think he was an extraordinary politician.

Do you think we should have intervened in Syria?

No, I don’t. I’m against intervening in Syria while the opposition is so fractured and defused. Anyways, they’re being funded by extremist elements and encouraging extremist elements so, no, I thought that would lead us towards an engagement in what I think is a widening religious war. I did however think we should intervene in defense of one of the principles pillars of international law; a prohibition on the use of chemical weapons that has stood since 1926 and strained even Hitler and Stalin, and I thought that unless we were prepared to show strength to Assad, not by intervention because we wouldn’t have done, but there was a price to pay that was painful for breaking this principle of international law, then it would only have encouraged the wider spread of chemical weapons. So, no, I don’t think we should have intervened in Syria but I do think we should defend International Law and indeed one of the most important pillars of the international law that preserves some semblance of civilised behaviour in the prosecution of wars.

You testified against Slobodan Milosevic. Was that scary?

No, it wasn’t scary. It was more scary being bombarded by his troops. I mean, I testified about being in the middle of the Albanian villages when they were being bombarded by the main battle units of his army, that was much more scary.

I can understand that. You have done a lot of different things in your life. What is your favourite?

I think there is nothing I’ve done that will match my sense of pride of being a member of parliament for my own community of Yeovil. There is no thing you could ever do that matched being the representative in Westminster of the community you live in and love. So if somebody said you can have one line to put on your gravestone it would be ‘Member of Parliament for Yeovil’.

What was it like being an intelligence officer?

I was a perfectly ordinary diplomat

What is the best advice you have ever received?

Never stop learning.

Thank you Paddy.

 What do you think?

Exclusive: Paddy Ashdown On Clegg, The Tories, The Liberal Democrats & The NHS

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Part two of our Interview with Paddy Ashdown. Here he talks about politics. Part three will be up tomorrow. Let us know what you think. Part one, where he talks about writing and his books,  is here.

Do you mind if I ask you some political questions as well?

No, go on.

Would you prefer the Liberal Democrats to side with Labour at the next election?

That is a matter not for me or my preference but it is a matter for the British electorate voting in the ballot box.

Do you think Nick Clegg has been true to liberal values?

Absolutely. I think he is remarkable. I think he is…I am devoted to the man, I think he is one of the most brilliant politicians in Britain today. Hugely, publicly, under-rated. He’s got very, very good judgement. He’s got extraordinary courage and he is a liberal down to the marrow of his bones. So I think he’d undoubtedly make the best Prime Minister that you could have today.

He has a very hard job. Doesn’t he? 

It’s a thankless job. I did it for eleven years and let me tell you it is the most thankless job  because you represent the only philosophy: liberalism, that makes any sense.

He has it tough because generally people don’t seem to like the Tories

No they don’t like the Tories and I don’t like them either. I spent my life fighting them. If the public elects a coalition where the only coalition that can have a majority in the House of Commons inherently, mathematically, adds up to ourselves and the Tories do they really want people that don’t listen to them?, the public democratic view. And you better ask yourself what they like best. Do they really like the complete and utter corrupt mess this country was left in by Labour, which would have bankrupted young people for the next twenty years or do they like two parties that put aside their differences for the national interest and work together to get us out of the worst recession we have had since the 1930s and back on the path of growth. Which of these two would you prefer?

I agree with that, Labour left the country in a very big mess.

Absolutely. People have likes and dislikes in politics and what I’m interested in is doing what’s right for my country. That is what I have always been interested in and if the Liberal Democrats pay an electoral price for that, and I think they will by the way, if they did, if I was doing what I believed to be right for my country and helping it out of a crisis then I am proud of that and that’s what politics is for.

Do you think the Liberal Democrats made an error over tuition fees?

Yes, they made an error by promising it when it couldn’t be delivered. We’ve been in opposition for a hundred years, we haven’t been in government, so of course from time to time decisions which were driven to a certain extent by opportunism. I said at the time that we were making a promise that I didn’t think in the economic climate could be delivered. If we had been in government by ourselves I think we might have decided to sacrifice other things in order to deliver what we promised but we weren’t in government, we were in coalition. So, no, neither parties manifesto has been in operation. Both parties have had to make some compromises. I don’t call that anti-democratic. I call that the operation of democracy.

Do you think the NHS is being privatised?

What concerns me more than anything else isn’t who owns the NHS but how the public is served. How the citizen is served. For instance, even under the last government, under Mr Blair’s government, I had to have some health checks done and I went to a private organisation run under contract from the health service as an alternative means of delivering health services, that is; free at the point of delivery health services, and they did a wonderful job. Now I could have gone to a health service hospital, it’s all paid out of our taxes, it’s all paid by the national health service. One of those organisations was privately run, one was publicly run. It doesn’t matter who runs it. I don’t believe in private health but if there is a private provider providing to the health service under health service conditions and they can do it better for the costumer, then that is surely what you want. I mean I don’t believe the argument that says private/public is the necessary argument. I am strongly in favour of public services being offered free at the point of delivery and paid for on taxation, but who actually runs the organisation that delivers it is far less important to me than how well the citizen is served.

I agree with that. That is a question we get asked a lot but I got an MRI on my back and it was done through the NHS via a private company and they did an amazing job. Very professional, very quick.

Yes, that’s right. If you had a monopoly public service I don’t even think it would be a better public service. It needs competition. It makes people live up to the mark. I bet you there were more people abused and receiving bad service and ignorant service when the NHS was a public monopoly. I don’t believe in public monopoly. I believe in things being paid for either by taxation, free at the point of delivery but then who does that?, providing it is subject to inspection and national control is a matter of irrelevance.

 

Gransthread on Kenneth Clarke’s overheard opinion on Theresa May.

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A ‘bloody difficult woman’. Compliment or Insult?

Recently Kenneth Clarke was overheard calling Theresa May a ‘bloody difficult woman’. So – insult, or a compliment?

 

I can’t claim to see inside anyone else’s head, but it was reported as an insult or if one is kind, an observation.

 

This is a label that has been directed towards me rather often, sometimes behind my back. Well usually, but I have ears like a bat, or a witch as some might say.

Without a doubt I take it as a compliment, because I feel I have earned such an accolade.

 

Why? A sense of self is hard fought for, and the confidence to stand one’s ground,  when societal or peer pressure is urging one to shut up, and go with the flow, is a precious commodity.

 

It doesn’t make for an easy life, though, because it equates to putting one’s head above the parapet, but I thought I’d ask around for the opinion of other women across the generations.

 

Tracy Baines, one of our most successful short story writers, who has three grandchildren, and looks ridiculously young, or is it that she knows some magic elixir says:

 

‘Depends who is calling me difficult. I think older women are called difficult and younger women are labelled Prima Donnas or drama queens. When I was younger I would have seen it as detrimental but now I think it’s an asset. It’s said by men and women who don’t like it when you are not a pushover. Bring it on I say.

 

So today I asked a girl who is quite the other end of the spectrum, a mere fourteen. Meg said:

 

I would take it as a compliment. I have a right to an opinion, and though I listen to the opinions of others, if I disagree I will say so. I know I need to make sure I have a reason for the way I think, but in the end, I have a right to transfer my thought into words, even if others don’t like it.

 

Another, a mother, said:

 

I do think men and women have different attitudes. Women are more used to placating others, so tend to keep their opinions to themselves, or subsume their actions into those which will make few ripples. I think they then feel increasingly frustrated by this and as they get older they realize that they have earned their place in the world, and increasingly will not necessarily toe the line just because it is inconvenient for someone else.

So, where are we with this? Perhaps being what is classed as difficult disturbs the status quo? If so, let it. Change is usually good except for the lazy, the scared or the narrow minded.

 

So, a firm decision from across the generations that to be called bloody difficult is a compliment. As Tracy Baines says: bring it on and more power to our elbows.
Any opinions amongst our Frost Magazine readers?
Would love to hear them at frost@margaret-graham.com

 

 

EU Referendum – If You Really Believe in Democracy There is Only One Way You Can Vote on Thursday

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eu referendum A couple of months ago I began this EU campaign genuinely undecided about how I would vote. I knew we sent the EU quite a lot of money and that it was bureaucratic. But I also believed fully in the idea that we were stronger together and that free trade is usually a good thing.

After much thought and research I have decided to vote to leave the EU. The final factor was the Paxman documentary which I would encourage everyone to watch.

Much as I love Europe. I cannot vote in favour of a system which is undemocratic and unaccountable. We must all fight to defend our democracy. So many have already sacrificed so much in the past to do so.

How is the EU undemocratic? Firstly, perhaps most importantly it lacks transparency. This system is unnecessarily and seemingly deliberately complex. Understanding how laws are actually made is difficult. There are three main bodies.

The European Council – Decides priorities and directions of the EU

The European Commission – Proposes legislation, policies and programmes of action and is responsible for implementing the decisions of the European Parliament and the Council.

The European Parliament – Amends and approves legislation

There are also a myriad of other bodies involved, of which there are far too many to list. When a system is this complex it becomes impossible for ordinary people to have any input or influence on the decision making process. Power becomes held in a smaller and smaller elite.

New laws are not proposed by elected members of the EU parliament. In almost all cases they are proposed by unelected commissioners. This is crucial. What is the point of having elected representatives if they are powerless to change anything? When I vote for my MP to go to Westminster he or she stands on a manifesto of policies he or she wishes to undertake on my behalf. My MEP stands for nothing. It’s little wonder that almost no one actually knows who their MEP is. The elected European Parliament, in those policy areas in which it is allowed a say, votes on directives in vast batches with very little opportunity for debate. Detailed scrutiny is given in committees, but only a tiny proportion of MEPs are able to participate. The ability to modify directives is itself subject to many rules. There is no accountability. Any laws which are created trump our own parliament. Whatever people may say, it is not democracy.

I do not pretend that leaving the EU would not be difficult and there would not be a great deal of upheaval. I have also been very disappointed with most of the arguments and figures from both sides. It saddens me that the debate has been dominated by immigration and the economy when to me the true issue is our relationship with the EU and our democracy.

But we cannot allow this undemocratic system to continue. The EU has shown itself to be completely unwilling to reform. David Cameron had a golden opportunity to work for proper democratic reform during his re-negotiation. He didn’t even bother because he, and most other politicians, have no interest in changing a system which favours them. It is time for us all to stand up and be counted and take back control of our democracy. We may not get another chance.

 

“Obama Out” President Obama Makes Brilliant Final White House Correspondents’ Dinner Speech

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%22Obama Out%22 President Obama Makes Brilliant Final White House Correspondents' Dinner Speech

Everyone who knows me knows I am a huge President Obama fan. I have read his books and I enjoy his speeches. I think he is the best President of my lifetime so far: progressive, intelligent, compassionate, witty, moral and articulate. Obama will be sorely missed and his speech at his final White House Correspondents’ dinner did not help. From the mic drop to the jokes, it was perfection. Goodbye Obama, I will miss you.

 

Why American People Love Donald Trump By Beate Chelette

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Why American People Love Trump By Beate Chelette

Credit: wikipedia 

At her lowest point, Beate Chelette was $135,000 in debt, a single mother, and forced to leave her home. Only 18 months later, she sold her image licensing business to Bill Gates in a multimillion dollar deal. Chelette is a nationally known ‘gender decoder,’ respected speaker, career coach, consummate entrepreneur, and author of Happy Woman Happy World. Beate is also the founder of The Women’s Code, a unique guide to women leadership and personal and career success that offers a new code of conduct for today’s business, private, and digital worlds.

 

The last few months have left me dazed and confused as to why the American people love Donald Trump. I’ve written about it, I’ve unfriended Facebook friends who asked me to endorse him, and I’ll admit I have even learned a few marketing tricks from his campaign.

 

By anyone’s playbook, Trump is a bully, a narcissist, a misogynist, and a racist. Plus, he’s attracting dangerous followers like members of the Ku Klux Klan. Even his right-hand salute was compared to Hitler’s hand gesture. Despite his politically incorrect behavior and self-bravado, again and again Trump comes out on top.

 

American people are loving Trump in record numbers. Why?

 

What we are seeing now is a passionate rift between those who like Trump for his brashness, and those who fear what could happen to our country with a man like him in power. This is what prompted me to take a deeper look at what exactly Trump says that resonates with Americans. It didn’t click until I read Thomas Frank’s article, which you can find here.

 

At the very bottom of this election sits a deep-rooted dissatisfaction with our systems. Let’s go through the list of what wiped out the American middle class and the hard-working, blue collar employee who used to be able to support his family.

 

  • We were told our children need college degrees. With rising tuition, shorter classes, more requirements, and schedules that keep our kids in school an average of one year longer, the stress of such an education puts families in debt, often for life.

 

  • The promised land of gainful employment that a college degree guarantees may as well be Shangri-La. In my daughter’s circle of friends, the picture is dire. They are disillusioned, unemployed or working less than part time, living at home, and fighting over minimum wage jobs just to stay afloat. One friend shares a single waitressing job with a woman who used to be a manager until her company laid off their middle-aged women.

 

  • Parents put a second mortgage on their homes to support their kids. If they were able to hold on to their houses during the big recession, they still have a long way to being mortgage-free. Many will die in debt. Parents used to be able to lean on their children for financial support in their later years, but now their children don’t have any money to spare. The slide into poverty seems inevitable.

 

  • Healthcare is out of control. How is it possible that an outpatient procedure like an Epidural  that lasts 10 minutes can put you back $15-25,000? Insane deductibles and co-pays add to the issues. Can anyone actually afford to get sick? If you do, you could be paying back those expenses for the rest of your life.

 

  • Corporations are under pressure. Americans can’t afford to buy as much now that production jobs have been outsourced to cheap labor countries like China, Vietnam, and the Philippines. Fewer jobs at home means less disposable income for Americans. Suddenly, organizations are in trouble and the middle class is wiped out. Right now you want to be either young with a great, sexy idea that disrupts the market, or already financially set for life. If you are anywhere in the middle, you are screwed.

 

  • When this country was doing well we opened the borders, as Reagan did, to invite farm workers. It made sense because we needed cheap laborers to do the less desirable jobs that we don’t want to do. We are college educated, after all. This works great when things are good. It falls apart when there are no jobs in the middle for Americans; the top and the bottom are already occupied.

 

And this is where Trump comes in.

 

People are tired of losing. They are afraid the little they have left could be lost at any moment. And who isn’t disgusted when a CEO gets fired and is given a multimillion dollar parting gift bonus? Trump nails these pains and fears and dissatisfactions. He promises to be the bully who will shake things up. He has no problem blackmailing, negotiating, or forcing the other side to relent to his wishes. And why wouldn’t they? He’s the Almighty Trump and this is his track record. Truly, he has no plan other than to “change it.”

 

The American people support Trump because they want to send a message to the system. This is his appeal. Trump will tell the establishments what we want to tell them ourselves, and Americans believe the establishments will listen to a bully.

 

The bank bailout did nothing for the people, or so we believe. Of course, we didn’t live through the outcome of not providing the bailout, so we don’t really know how bad it could have been if banks were allowed to fold. What we now witness is the effect on our lives and the people around us. Like my girlfriend who lost her house at 62-years-old after battling with the bank for five years. The refinancing they offered was merely an extension of her debt. Total fail. She can’t get back on her feet financially, is such an emotional mess that she can’t focus on work, and the stress of her fight for survival has literally paralyzed her—she awoke one morning unable to move her left arm. There are millions of stories like my friend’s.

 

That is why Trump is so popular—he promises to be strong enough, independent enough, and crazy enough to take the system on. He will send a message to anyone, anywhere.

 

Who wouldn’t want that? In some ways I do, too. Let’s shake things up.

 

But then…

 

On the flipside, those amongst us who look into the future and carefully examine the past know this type of populism comes with great danger.

 

History shows that great fear leaders who understand pain-point marketing can rise to unprecedented heights. And once they are in power, they keep manipulating the system, like Putin, Hitler, Castro and many other dictators have done before. In the long run they can cause irreparable harm to a country and its people. And that worries me more than anything else.

 

 

 

It Used To Be No Blacks, No Dogs, No Irish, Now It Is No Tories

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The election results of 2015 were shocking, but not as shocking as the reaction from the left. The level of bile and hatred has been truly shocking. I have seen signs on shops saying no Tories, signs requesting that Tories declare their political beliefs so they can be charged more, calls for Tories to be fired from their jobs. More famously the Women of World War Two memorial on Whitehall was vandalised.  by anti-Tory protesters who graffitied ‘Fuck Tory scum’ on the monument. Could there be a more disrespectful way to make a statement? I am not so sure. Although leftie darling Laurie Penny didn’t seem to have a problem with it.

My husband was sure Labour would get in and that there would be a coalition. You are wrong I said, you are forgetting about secret Tories. The truth is, tories have been openly discriminated against for years. In fact, they are one of the few people you can openly discriminate against and it is ‘okay’. The other is white working class males. (See Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class for details). There certainly is an irony there.

In 2010 I campaigned for Conservative MP Zac Goldsmith.  I campaigned for Zac because I thought he was a good, decent guy who could do good. I would have campaigned for him no matter what political party he was running for. The amount of abuse I got for campaigning for a Conservative was quite something. I lost friends and even work (I am an writer and actor. Both professions are notoriously left-wing). Even my own father commented that I was ‘no longer his daughter’. To this day we never talk about politics or my campaigning.

Social media is ablaze with comments about the destruction of the NHS (Spending actually increased under the last Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition) and comments about welfare cuts. The amount of status updates and tweets I have seen saying how anyone who voted Tory should be ashamed of themselves and are now responsible for the cuts and coming destruction is shocking. My friend Jeremy Drysdale referred to it as an ‘echo chamber’. People with the same thoughts and beliefs following other people with the same thoughts and beliefs, living in a bubble of their own political making. ‘You are an actor’. another said, which explains just how much left wing abuse and bullying I saw. But I am also friends with Conservatives so I get a more balanced view. My Conservative friends have been dignified in their silence. They are also some of the most decent, generous, caring and moral people I have ever met.

Truth is, I don’t hang my mast to any specific political party but I believe in Conservative values: small government, aspiration, working hard. What I don’t agree with is 11.3 million people being called ‘Tory scum’ just because they have a different political belief. There are even calls for a new voting system even though Labour won with less votes in 2005. Where was the protesting then? The Labour majority in 2005 was 66 with 35.2% of the vote and the Conservative majority in 2015 was 12 with 36.9% of the vote. The alternative voting system was rejected by the British Public four years ago. Now because some people did not get the outcome they want they are crying foul.

Truth is, as this excellent article by Byrony Gordon says, the left are just bad losers. You can’t abuse people with different opinions from you just because you didn’t get what you want. The truth is, both Ed Milliband and Nick Clegg were gracious in defeat. If only their followers did the same.

 What do you think?