Lib Dem deputy slammed over outburst
LIBERAL Democrat deputy leader Jo Swinson stunned viewers and panellists by saying the word “c**k” on live TV yesterday morning.
Ms Swinson, MP for East Dunbartonshire, had been taking part in a debate on misogyny on the BBC show Victoria Derbyshire when she used the word.
The Scottish politician was voicing her support for a pilot scheme set up last year by Nottinghamshire police, which enables women to report misogyny-fuelled abuse as a hate crime.
It includes sexist language or behaviour, like wolf whistling, street harassment, verbal abuse and taking photographs without consent. A MAN has admitted attempting to murder four young children in his car by beating them about the head with a hammer then crashing into a pub at high speed.
Owen Scott, 29, was arrested after the vehicle ploughed into the brick building shortly after midnight on August 23 last year.
Two girls, aged seven and eight, and two boys, aged 21 months and nine months, were in the car. The children cannot be named for legal reasons.
They were all taken to hospital in a serious condition with injuries “not all thought to be consistent with the collision”.
At a previous hearing, prosecutors said Scott had used a hammer to inflict blows on the children in the car and then driven deliberately at the front wall of The Travellers Inn, near Oxspring, on the A629 between Sheffield and Huddersfield.
Yesterday, Scott stood in the dock at Sheffield Crown Court wearing a grey buttoned-up shirt and dark Police forces are considering if it would require a statutory change in the law or if it could be done through guidance to individual forces.
Ms Swinson said: “The chief constable of Nottinghamshire, I think, summed it up very well when she said, ‘There’s a big difference between saying ‘can I buy you a drink?’ and saying ‘do you want some c**k?’ Now I apologise for using that language on a programme at this time in the morning.
“If it’s not acceptable to say on your show, why is it acceptable to say to a 15-year-old girl on her way to school?” Shocked viewers criticised the MP for what she said on social media.
Steff Georgiou wrote on Twitter: “Let’s not ignore the fact some woman just said ‘oi do you want my c**k’ before 10.30am.”
Edwards Cambs wrote: “At least you caused some panic in some sleepy BBC producers, lol.”
Meanwhile, presenter Victoria Derbyshire tweeted the clip of Ms Swinson, with the caption: “When an MP swears on live TV.”
The MP quoted the tweet and said: “Not a word I’d usually use on daytime TV but…”
Ms Swinson said she wanted the Nottinghamshire Force’s pilot scheme to be rolled out nationwide. She added: “This is a hate crime that is directed towards you because you happen to be a woman.
“For schoolgirls walking to school getting leered at, getting shouted at, that kind of harassment is happening on an everyday basis.
“We’ve seen some of that being called out with campaigns like #metoo.
“But we also know, all of us women on the panel have all experienced it.
“Most women have experienced some sort of harassment in their daily life at some point. And it goes without saying, this is not acceptable, this is not OK.”