She's a shoe in!!

[Gob]

Wow. Boyfriend-slapping, pan-sexual* Christian Arab!!! Ticks (nearly) all the Lib Dem boxes.

Oxford West and Abingdon MP Layla Moran has said she will be standing in the contest to become the leader of the Liberal Democrats.



She said her party faced an "existential challenge" and needed to focus on a positive vision for the UK.

Jo Swinson resigned after losing her seat at the general election in December, in which the Lib Dems dropped from 12 to 11 seats.

Nominations for candidates will open on 11 May, the party has said.

Ms Moran, who is currently the Lib Dem spokesperson for education, has been an MP since 2017.

The daughter of a former EU ambassador and a Christian Arab from Jerusalem, she said she was the first ethnic minority Lib Dem MP and the first MP of Palestinian descent.

In Oxford West and Abingdon, she overturned a Conservative majority of 9,582 to narrowly gain the seat in 2017, and increased her majority to nearly 9,000 in the 2019 election.

Last year Ms Moran admitted slapping her then-boyfriend at a party conference in 2013, leading to them both being arrested.

In January, the former maths and physics teacher announced she was pansexual and in a relationship with a woman.

Nominations for the contest will close on 28 May, before the ballot opens on 18 June and concludes on 15 July.

The party said it had more than 100,000 members who will be eligible to take part in the selection process.

Last month, Bath MP Wera Hobhouse announced she was entering the race.

Ex-cabinet minister Sir Ed Davey MP and St Albans MP Daisy Cooper have also been tipped to run for leader.

Mr Davey and party president Mark Pack are currently joint acting leaders of the party until the election process is completed.

*Pan-sexual? Is that "shagging over a full kitchen sink" or something?

[MajGenl.Meade]

I think it means having it off with or without a Peter?

[Bicycle Bill]

Not to be pedantic or anything (HA!!), but isn't the idiom "shoo-in", as in "being a shoo-in"?

-"BB"-

[Econoline]

She's also got a theme song by Eric Clapton, with a guitar riff by Duane Allman.

[Gob]

Not to be pedantic or anything (HA!!), but isn't the idiom "shoo-in", as in "being a shoo-in"?

-"BB"-

You are correct sir! My bad.

She's also got a theme song by Eric Clapton, with a guitar riff by Duane Allman.

She's got me on my knees.

[Big RR]

Let's hope she's that version and not the easy listening acoustic one.

[eddieq]

For those who may not know and don't have access to google, Pansexual is a label given to folks who don't care about gender identity or biologic sex when choosing a partner. A bisexual, for example, may love either males or females, but may draw the line at a transgender or non-binary individual. A pansexual may choose that non-binary or transgender individual anyway.

For comic book fans, Marvel's Deadpool is supposedly pansexual.

[TPFKA@W]

I wonder what sort of attention one would garner if one were to run for office as a straight female and announce that one is strictly dickly as part of one's public statement. Not sure why they feel compelled to announce it to the world one way or another. If you can do a better job than what we have currently, either in the office or running for it, I don't care if you are strictly donkey.

[Lord Jim]

[eddieq]

Realistically in our current societal norms, absent any announcement/info to the contrary, cisgender heterosexual is the assumption. People who are either gender non conforming, non-binary or otherwise not heteronormative have been "coming out" more in the last few years because it seems that society as a whole is more ready to accept them as what they are - simply people like you and I.

It will be great if/when we get to a point where someone's "naughty bits" (or lack there of) is not seen as a qualifer/disqualifer for public office, service in the military, etc.

[Scooter]

Pretty sure that het people running for office almost always make reference to the existence of their spouses and children, and thus their heterosexuality is understood even if they don't utter the words "I am heterosexual."

[Joe Guy]

Yes, but there's quite a difference between a person making a reference or introduction to a spouse and a person making an announcement that they'll have sexual intercourse with any gender of human, whether natural or surgically altered.

[Scooter]

The reference to an opposite-sex spouse is in itself akin to wearing a sign that says "I am heterosexual", unless they specify otherwise. Just as the reference to a same-sex spouse is in itself akin to wearing a sign that says "I am gay/lesbian", unless they specify otherwise. In this case, she chose not to be misidentified as a lesbian by concealing her actual orientation. Apparently her decision to avoid lying by omission is a problem for some.

[Joe Guy]

Why do I need to know her sexual preference or tell anyone mine? When I'm introduced to a heterosexual couple, I don't think to myself, "Oh, these people are quite obviously wanting me to know they are heterosexuals". Nor do I think anything similar when I meet homosexual or whateversexual someone prefers nowadays. I have no interest in the sexual preference of people I meet or see on the street. To me someone announcing their sexual preference is no different than meeting a person who says, "Nice to meet you. I stand up when I pee and I always wash my butt."

[Scooter]

The fact that you are not interested in knowing does not somehow make it wrong/inappropriate/ill-advised for her to disclose it.

[Joe Guy]

If I were her advisor, I'd advise against it. It's seems more like she's putting out an ad for what type of relationship she would be open to in case this one doesn't work out. If she felt the need to explain the fact that she has a female partner, she could simply say that she is having a relationship with a woman. Was she hinting that the woman she's with wasn't born a woman? Who cares?

[Scooter]

Perhaps she felt the need to say it because her previous relationship was with a man.

[Econoline]

I have a feeling that if she DIDN'T volunteer this information upfront and the press subsequently discovered it, it would then become a scandal of monumental proportions — obliterating anything else she might want to say or do....

[BoSoxGal]

[Joe Guy]

As a public figure, I would be more concerned with having been arrested for hitting someone than my sexual preference being publicized.