I'd like to ask
496 people in 186 cities are asking questions to 1,047 people

Login

Username

Password
Remember me
Forgot your password?

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
28

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. MORE!

Comment

Topics you are talking about:

People you are asking:
Lynne Featherstone Gordon Brown Jo Swinson Kevin Keegan Alan Curbishly Pat Allen Gavi Strachan sir tim berners lee James Purnell Britney Spears George Osborne Jon Garfunkel Jeremy Hunt Banksy Inzamam ul Haq