If 2006 is remembered as the year that the Lib Dems leader bowed out of politics, 2005 may be remembered for a massive swing from Labour to the Liberal Democrats in the constituency of East Dunbartonshire to support Westminster's youngest MP.

Prior to the recent furore over leader Charles Kennedy resignation, which threatens to overshadow the party's many recent achievements, nuts4chic talked to Liberal Democrats' Shadow Minister for Culture Media and Sport, Jo Swinson MP.

nuts4chic: It was something of a landslide victory when you came to be elected.

Jo: The majority was certainly surprising. I don’t know if you’ve read a very good book called 'The Tipping Point' which is really about the theory that if it was going to happen it then happens, and, existential is the wrong word but, it then happens with a big swing. Its in lots of different phonomena this is observed, and I think we reached that point in my seat where actually, in order to win it, we had to gather such pace and such momentum that it would have been quite difficult to win it by a few votes.

Hindsight's a great thing. I didn't know that at the time. At the time I was just doing everything I possibly could to win it and every vote mattered. Depending on which poll you looked at, we had a two and a half thousand to five thousand majority to overturn, so it was never going to be easy, and obviously I was absolutely delighted with the result.

nuts4chic: I got the impression that you were quite confident when it came to the counting of the votes. How confident were you?

Jo: By the count? By the time I walked in to the count I had a pretty good idea that I’d won, because the way that it works is, when the ballot papers are verified, political parties are allowed to watch that process. So actually by looking at them, at that point, you can get quite a good idea. If its going to be very close, you don’t know, but if it’s a majority of about four thousand, you get a good idea.

So in a sense I had all the immediacy of finding out that was what was probably going to happen in the privacy of my own home, which gave me a bit of space to go and write a speech and think about it before arriving.

Its funny in many ways, you don’t know how its going to be, but something kicks in and you start focusing on ‘What do I need to do next?'... Write a speech, go to count, do whatever interviews and that.
It was a BBC thing, and there was a radio thing, and that night, in many ways when I look back on it, it was a blur because it was just one thing after the other that I just had to focus on doing.

nuts4chic: When did you first decide to follow a career in politics?

Jo: I think it was, bizarrely, around about the time of the 2001 general election, when I was already standing for Parliament.
Standing for Parliament, I would say, does not necessarily mean that you intend to follow a career in politics. In many cases it can be an interesting and useful experience of itself, in terms of the skills that you develop.
I was standing in 2001, and I was fighting the Deputy Prime Minister. I wasn’t going to win the seat, but I knew whatever happened that it was going to be an interesting and a good thing developmentally to do.

I have always found that my politics has given me skills within my business career that have been helpful. But it was when I did that, that actually I saw the contrast.
I enjoyed my day job, but what I was doing in the evenings and weekends; campaigning, speaking to people, that was making me incredibly passionate. And I figured, well actually, I feel this way about it, why don’t I just go for it?’

nuts4chic: It reads a bit like a ‘local girl makes good' story, in as much as you represent the community that you grew up in. Was it your ambition specifically to represent East Dunbartonshire?

Jo: Its very, very special to be representing my home seat. I think in many ways, I wouldn’t say I believe in fate, because I think we make our own opportunities very often, but equally, there was a lot of things that happened at the right time.

At the time as I was pretty much starting to work out this was what I wanted to do. I was still living in Yorkshire at the time, and my mum sent me a cutting of the local paper, as mothers do.
I used to get the 'who's just graduated, who’s got married, who’s had kids'. But this cutting was about boundry changes which were happening in the local area which meant the seat would be a good prospect for the Lib Dems.

So this coincided with me thinking of what I wanted to do, and I looked into it more. I spoke to the party staff in Scotland, and it just became incredibly obvious to me that that’s what I had to go for. In many ways it happened just at the right time.

A lot of people don’t represent their home seat and they can do an incredibly good job at doing that, but I have to say for me doing that makes it all the more special.

nuts4chic: You’ve been quoted as saying ‘If you’re good enough, you’re old enough'. Do you feel that you’re making politics for an increasingly younger electorate?

Jo: The electorate isn’t increasingly younger, unfortunately, because we’re not extending the franchise to sixteen and seventeen year olds, yet. And actually we’ve got an ageing population. So in many ways its an ageing electorate, but I hope we can get more young people voting.

It did go up slightly at this election but its still nowhere near what it should be, I believe. There is a disconnect there in terms of what is being communicated to the young people.
I don’t have any magic answers to that any more than anyone else does. But I suppose when I go to the schools and I chat to them, I am a little bit closer to where they’re at.
But this is part of the problem. People say 'Well you’re the youngest MP.'

Someone of 16 has very little in common with a 25 year old, to be honest. I’m looking to buy a property, I’m already paying off debts, I’ve finished university, I’ve had five years of a career, so to them, that’s not the stage they’re at.

They don’t think of me as young, I’m only really young in the political context. I have to say, Its probably one of the best things for feeling young because if I can hold my seat, because this is the kind of game in which you are young for a very long time. MPs are still called young when they’re 40. Who needs oil of Ulay?

nuts4chic: You were quite active in campaigning for the scrapping of tuition fees, which is something quite close to your heart. They're still with us.....

Jo: Not in Scotland! We got rid of them in Scotland! Lib Dems in Government! This is why its so exciting. It’s a policy that I argued for at the Lib Dem conference, that I campaigned for within the party, and then we get into government, and in the first parliament, the 1999-2003 parliament, it was one of the first things. They did an investigation, the Cubie Commission, and they scrapped upfront tuition fees.

In Scotland they’ve not just done that, they now have introduced grants for poorer students, which are paid for through an endowment payment which is made by graduates at the end of the course. So Scottish students still pay something, when they graduate, but none of that goes towards tuition. That goes towards funding maintenance for poorer students. And obviously the other side of the border, England and Wales, we’ve got tuition fees and top-up fees.

Again top-up fees we don’t have in Scotland. So you can see very sharply the contrast. I would say the difference is the Lib Dems in government in Scotland. We still need to win the argument in England.

nuts4chic: Do you feel that is the direction its going to take?

Jo: Well, our policy is to get rid of tuition fees. Labour seem very wedded to them, they've still got a majority, and the Tories, well it depends. Cameron has said that he might be changing his mind and supporting tuition fees, and so it doesn't make it easy to actually overturn that.

But I think we should keep campaigning for it, because, ultimately, if you look at my constituency, which is one of the most middle class constituencies in Scotland, there is still a problem. In one District, Bearsden, I think that 84 percent of young people go to university. Not even ten miles down the road in Gavin, the percentage of people going to university is 4 percent.

That is the problem, and so if you introduce tuition fees and top up fees, that just makes that gap worse. What we need to be doing is saying its not about some magic 50 percent figure of people going into university, its about making sure that people who are good enough have got that opportunity, and that currently is not the case, clearly, and I don’t think that’s being addressed.

nuts4chic: You are the Lib Dem Shadow minister of Culture, Media and Sport. Are these areas of particular interest?

Jo: Yeah. In my career I worked for a radio station and then for a media company, so the media side was obvious, and certainly Culture and the Arts was something that I have had a passion in in terms of I went to a school in Scotland that had a specialist music school attached to it , which I wasn't good enough to be in.
Certainly, that meant there was a big focus on orchestras and choirs and so on. In tems of music and dance and so on, in my spare time I do Salsa, I used to do ballet. So that aspect is certainly very close to my heart. Its something that affects so many years of your life. As a brief it's great. It's everything from the digital switchover at the BBC to the Olympics, to how we’re using our libraries in this day and age. It’s a fascinating profile and I’m really getting stuck into it.

nuts4chic: Do you feel enough is being done to encourage people in Media and the Arts?

I think its one of those industries that,.I was a dinner last night with some people from the creative industries Certainly I would have thought in sports, and certainly in Media and Advertising, Museums and the Arts, these are he type of industries that are very heavily over subscribed, and very often to get involved actually you have to work for free, and not everyone is able to do that. I think that is a problem in terms of the talent that we miss out on. I think there are a lot of talented people that do go into these industries, but is access equal?

I know there are some interesting programmes, in, for example, museums. To increase the diversity of black and ethnic minority people going into it, and giving them the support which they don’t neccessarily have the funds to work for next to no money for the best part of a year, but still to make sure that they can actually provide routes in. So I think there are some moves to encourage young people but I dont think the problem is necessarily enough people not wanting to do that, its about how we actually enable people to move into these sectors. And theres always going to be an element of, like in so many careers, if you get some work experience, it gives you a huge advantage.

nuts4chic: And for sport, do you feel enough is being done to encourage young athletes?

Jo: Again, there’s actually a lot that is now being done for the Olympics, in terms of programmes supporting young potential olympians and parolympians, and obviously people have now got a seven year window to look forward and to train and that’s great.
What I would like to see in the Olympics is that in Local communities, not just an elite band of people who have already been identified in local communities around the country, and I do believe this will be happening, is Sports Clubs using it as an opportunity to fire and inspire young people to stick with sport and to go for it, because it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity.
The prospect to be able to compete at the Olympics in your home country. So even for the many thousands and thousands of children that wont make it to the Olympics. That can be used as a goal and an aim, and hopefully encourage more people to get involved in sport. I think it’s a fabulous opportunity.

nuts4chic: A lot of your politics seem to focus on local issues. The banks, the Post Offices and the fight that you had to keep the beds at Stobhill Hospital. Do you see the local community as something that is disappearing and something that we have to fight to preserve?

Jo: I think its changing. I think part of the thing is that we view communities in different ways, and I think London is a very interesting place for that, actually. For example, I stay here in a flat, when I'm down in London. I hardly see my neighbours. I don't know all of their names. I arrive home at half past eleven at night, and I'm out the door at half past seven, eight in the morning. So I wouldn't say I necessarily feel part of a community there. But I'm part of different communities, and so are very many people.

Whether its the pub quiz they go to on a Thursday night, or its the local Gym, or the classes they go to every week, or the Dance Classes or whatever. People are finding communities in different ways. On line, people create virtual communities to do with something that is of real interest to them. So maybe we have the same number of community interactions, but they are less geographically based.

That does have an impact on our local communities, I think we need to preserve a basic amount of services and communities.

Im lucky, in my constituency there is a strong sense of community spirit. Work in many areas it is the same sort of people who will get involved in anything and do the same work. You go to the community council, and you go to the church meetings and you go to all these things and its the same people.

That's a good thing, because those people are very committed, but we must always try to involve more people. There's a limited amount politicians can do about that. There are certain policies that can be put in place obviously, but communities end up being about people and individuals,and other than facilitating that and encouraging that and making sure there is space for people to meet, whether its transport for people to get around, and all of these things that make that happen, Ultimitely that is is down to the the health of local community.

nuts4chic: Looking at the wider picture. You have spoken out about (the war in) Iraq, and you are an active member of Amnesty International. Do you see yourself playing a part in international politics in the future?

Jo: In so much as Members of Parliament can do, and they do, I clearly have an interest in a lot of these issues. I had an adjournment debate last week on trade with developing countries, and I think we've seen with the 'Make Poverty History' campaign, a passion that has really ignited amongst the people and one of the things that really shook me about the Make Poverty History marches and Vigils was that it was young faces in the crowd. And that is a very good thing. So I do have those interests, and will want to persue them.

I have a special interest in Eastern Europe. My dad actually works out there as a consultant. So I have been to Rumania on several occasions, and I think when you get to know a country, you get to understand the people and the psyche.
So there are various interests that I have, and there are various ways a Member of Parliament can be involved in terms of campaigning, highlighting issues.
There are obviously some MPs you can look at and they have actually gone out on these fact finding trips. There is either an expertise in particular issues or expertise in particular countries.

You just need to look at Paddy Ashdown and the links he has made with Bosnia, and of course he's now out there and is doing sterling work there. Its certainly something that I do think is important. It has to be balanced, obviously, with the local side and the fact that there are a lot of people, even within Britain, you shouldn't forget, who are living in poverty.
I see it every week in my surgeries. They come in with the problems that people still have. Though while we are the fourth richest country in the world, we haven't got it all sorted yet.

nuts4chic: So, with all of your political career, do you have time for a private life?

Jo: Well you have to make time, but I think its one of the things that I've been learning over the past six months.

Its very easy to try and fit in a five day working week from Monday afternoon to Thursday afternoon, in Westminster and it seems you've not really got enough time. And then you get to your constituency, and you get to see your staff. They haven't seen you since Monday morning, at your surgery, and then you try and fit in a whole working week in the constituency.

This means from Thursday afternoon to Monday morning. So you do this '...and then you think 'I never get a weekend'. Thats fine.

You can do that for a limited amount of time. But you realise that you have to make time for yourself. Its just about being disciplined and blocking out time in the diary, for important things.

The first full day off I had after the election was my sister's wedding in July. I said that's non-negotaible. I can't be checking emails that day, I can't be doing anything else, I just need to focus. Its just about being disciplined with yourself and making sure you give the time to your friendships and your family. These are people who are obviously hugely important.

nuts4chic: What would you say was your career high?

Jo: Gosh. Well so far the early hours of the Sixth of May was probably the most exciting time. Certainly that’s the one event that sticks in my mind. But then even so there have been things over the past six months. Even last month, being asked to lead the debate on trade with developing countries, was a fabulous opportunity.

I mean, you maybe only get the chance to lead one of those one and a half hour debates once in a parliament, so I felt very lucky to – Well everything is luck in this place whether you get a parliamentary question or anything else it’s all drawn out of a hat - so there’s been some fabulous experiences since then. And actually just the nice comments you get when you go to a community event, and someone says 'Oh yes, you've been doing lots of work, thanks for doing all that, we really appreciate it ' and they’ll send you a card. I’m just doing my job but you’ve managed top touch peoples lives.

nuts4chic: What about a career low?

Jo: Being a parliamentary candidate is tough. There’s times when you are trying to keep the campaign on track, you're trying to do ten million things, you’ve got a full time job, you’re having to juggle that, to take any holiday even to do something like go to a community meeting, its got to be a half day holiday, and, you know, your expecting so much of yourself, and everybody else round you, there’s times when you just think ‘What am I doing this for?’

But you get through this, and you have people supporting you . At the end of the day you don’t regret any of that, for all those times. You just shake it off and you say 'I know why I’m doing this'. And then you remember the moments that you have been able to help somebody or get something changed, or a small win. Getting something fixed locally, and you just remember that it is important.

nuts4chic: What advice would you give to somebody who’s thinking of following a career in politics?

Jo: Do it. I think that a lot of people get put off and think its not for them. And the one thing I have always said is ‘If you really care passionately about your local area, about political issues, you’re half way there. The other stuff you can learn – you can learn how to make polished speeches, you can learn how to write a press release, ….. you can learn how to interpret legislation, I've been doing a fair bit of that over the past six months, but you can't really learn to care, if you dont really care. So,if you care about issues, and generally if someone is considering a career in politics you would imagine they do, then really the advice is to go for it. But with your eyes open in that there’s no guarantees.

You can do a fabulous job and still get kicked out. There are very few jobs in the world where actually that’s the case.
Generally if you do a good job, that's fine, you actually get promoted. I’m sure there was a lot of good MP who lost their seats in '97 just because they happened to be members of the Tory party, and again in '79 there were a lot of good Labour MPs lost their seats.

So go for it and get involved would be my main advice.