Journalists often tell me that nobody cares about Scottish Liberal Democrats, and that’s why they can get away with abuse and assault. I’m told that the party is so small that they can slip under the radar (not this week, thanks to my incredible twitter followers!).
When I worked for the party in 2019 - 2020 our membership in Scotland stood at 5000, and I should imagine that it’s less now. So why is that I feel like I can’t move for Lib Dems?
This feeling has limited my ability to speak up or to take up as much space as I would like over the last few years. My so-called friends in the party have all deserted me (with the exception of one amazing woman in England, who I met when she saved me from being sexually harassed at a conference), some of the families of staffers who I supported during the General Election are supporting me behind the scenes but won’t speak up for me and The Scotsman made me very poorly when the Editor-in-Chief allowed journalists to inform Alex Cole Hamilton that I was whistleblowing (this was in 2021 when I was still relatively quiet), before pulling the story and giving Alex Cole Hamilton MSP the space in the newspaper to throw stones at Nicola Sturgeon.
I run a project called Change The Chat. We are working to make whistleblowing cool and NDA’s history. It stands to reason that, given what has happened to me in politics, I would like to work in the area of politics to ensure that it is safe and equal for women. I have been itching to work with Women 50:50, who do so much amazing work in this arena.
However I have been scared to push for a meeting because the Lib Dem ambassador for Women 50:50 also happens to be a senior spokesperson and staffer for Scottish Liberal Democrats. She has lied about me, supported twitter accounts that tried to stop me from sharing my experiences of sexual harassment and her colleague has admitted to me that she is trying to punish me for not protecting her during the General Election. This woman has “feminist” in her twitter bio. She is respected by women from across parties, which is clearly why on the face of it she would make such a great ambassador for gender equality. However her attacks on me are dangerous. Not only could they have silenced me for good, but it is also showing other women what they can expect from the senior women of the party if they were to ever speak up about their own experiences.
Watch this video and see how Lib Dems really do encroach into every area of my life.
Please ask Alex Cole Hamilton MSP when was the independent investigation into my complaints? I think he may have told a lie.
#AskAlex
Share this post