Question

Jo Swinson, Have you ever been discriminated against in Parliament because of your age? Do you feel that your opinion has ever counted for less due to your age?
Asked by tnreeves on Oct 30 2007 5:07:28 PM and supported by 28 members MORE!

Answer

I think discriminated against is perhaps too strong it’s certainly been used against me by interestingly enough not by back benchers but by front benchers on the labour and tory benches. In fact, a week after the government introduced the age discrimination legislation, I asked a question about the number of young Scottish people who getting paid less because of their age and the government minister shouted out “are you one of them?” – completely undermining his government’s introduction of age discrimination legislation. I don’t mind the odd bit of banter but it is possibly a bit inappropriate coming from the front bench spokespeople. I don’t think that means they are taking what I am saying less seriously but it is a bit irritating as they wouldn’t necessarily shout something sexist at me if I stood up and asked a question about maternity services.

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