We need to talk about Sarah Teather

In order to actually understand why so many left-wing and socially progressive people are horrified at the elevation of Jo Swinson to the Lib-Dem leadership, it's useful to look beyond her outrageous voting record, and consider the fate of Sarah Teather.

Sarah Teather

Teather, who was the youngest MP elected to the 2005 parliament, was once touted as a potential future leader of the Lib-Dems, and for around two and a half years she served in the Coalition government, but then she finally did the decent thing and resigned in protest.

The specific issues she raised were the xenophobic anti-immigrant policies being pushed by Theresa May's Home Office, David Cameron's imperialist war-mongering in Syria, and the continual assaults on poor, disabled and vulnerable people orchestrated by Iain Duncan Smith through relentless vandalism of the social safety.

She was sick of rubber-stamping this bombardment of Tory malice, and one day she finally got up off her knees, did the decent thing, and resigned, explaining how her party's collusion with the monstrous Tory agenda left her feeling "desolate" and "depressed".

It can be argued that her resignation came far too late (which is exactly how I felt at the time) but the reality is that at least she eventually did the decent thing, and doing the decent thing ended up costing her her political career.

She was marginalised and ostracised, just like the minority of other decent Lib-Dems like Charles Kennedy who recoiled in horror at what the party had been enabling, and she left politics entirely in 2015.

Jo Swinson

Swinson remained an ultra-loyal government minister throughout the Austerity Coalition, and in 2013 she had her opportunity to stand up and and oppose over the issue of anti-worker Tribunal Fees (which was such a despicable policy it was ruled unlawful in the Supreme Court in 2017).

Swinson now loves to claim that she fought back against these outrageous £1,200 upfront fees, designed as a barrier to the justice system to protect bad bosses from paying compensation to the low-income workers they've been exploiting and abusing.

But the reality is that she actually voted in favour of the anti-worker attack she now claims to have opposed, and even praised the policy in interviews and press releases at the time.

As Employment Minister in the Austerity Coalition she could have made a real impact by resigning over this attack on workers' rights, but she chose not to, because to resign as a government minister would have meaint forfeiting her six figure ministerial salary, her ministerial car and all the perks.

But more importantly she would have put herself on the blacklist of disloyal Lib-Dem MPs, meaning she'd be permanently out of favour with the Lib-Dem hierarchy, which would have delivered a massive blow to her ambitions to one day lead the party.

She put her own material circumstances, and her own political ambitions above the right of millions of British workers to seek justice from bad bosses when she voted to unlawfully scrap it., and now she lies through her teeth to pretend that she didn't.
The contrast

Had the Lib-Dems chosen someone like Sarah Teather to lead their party then it would be possible to see it as an act of contrition, a demonstration that they want to move on from the terrible crimes they committed against the British people between 2010 and 2015 (similar to the way the election of the anti-war campaigner Jeremy Corbyn illustrated the Labour Party membership's contrition over the devastating invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003).

But the Lib-Dems didn't choose someone from the principled sidelines. They chose one of the worst and most unapologetic workers' rights-attacking, austerity-enabling, wage-repressing, welfare-vandalising, public service-slashing, bought and paid for nasties from the worst period in their political history.

They cast Sarah Teather adrift for her disloyalty to the party leadership and their neoliberal agenda, and they've amply rewarded Swinson for her slavish loyalty.

It's absolutely horrifying to see so many self-declared "centrists" falling for the absurd Lib-Dem portrayal of the rise of Swinson as some kind of new dawn for the party, when in reality it's nought but their reward to her for her slavish subservience to the old order.

Had she ever actually stood up and fought for the rights of ordinary people during the Austerity Coalition era, she would have been marginalised by the party leadership, ostracised, and almost certainly prevented from trying to win back the seat she lost to the SNP in the 2015 Lib-Dem wipeout.

She would have suffered the same political fate as Sarah Teather.

If the Lib-Dems were willing to demonstrate that they were actually sorry and genuinely intended to change, then they'd still have a lot of work to do to earn back the trust they burned to ashes in return for a tiny taste of 2nd hand Tory power, but at least we could accept their intentions in good faith if it involved picking a new leader who either stood up and opposed austerity fanaticism (or who became an MP after the austerity-collusion period ended in 2015 at the least).

But as it stands now their insincerity is absolutely obvious.

And it's especially obvious given the fact they've picked a leader who was slavishly loyal to Tory austerity fanaticism, and insists on repeatedly deflecting from criticism of her voting record with absurdly dishonest claims that she opposed sicking and unlawful anti-worker legislation that she actually voted in favour of!

If they'd elected Sarah Teather as their new leader instead of marginalising her for her disloyalty, then I'd understand people giving them a second look.

But the election of Swinson is spit in the eye of everyone who suffered the dire consequences of all the austerity fanaticism, and wage repression, and privatisation mania, and attacks on workers' rights, and disability persecution, and infrastructure under-investment, and social security vandalism that she wilfully rubber stamped in return for keeping herself in the Lib-Dem inner circle.

So despite wracking their party to the edge of destruction, the Lib-Dems still insist on demonstrating that self-serving expedience is a virtue to be rewarded in their ranks, while displays of integrity and moral decency are aberrations that need to be punished and driven out.

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