Anna Sabine on losing and partially regaining her voice

Anna Sabine MP (photo: Frome & East Somerset
Lib Dems)

Anna Sabine, the Liberal Democrat MP for Frome and East Somerset, has spoken about her experience of losing and then partly regaining her voice.

She lost her voice after a thyroid operation in June and used a microphone to speak in the House of Commons, but woke one morning a few weeks ago to find it had regained some of its natural strength.

LBC reports what she has told the Press Association about this experience:

"When I came back to work in September I really wanted to hide, I did not want to speak in the chamber with my voice, because it actually, at that point, when you stood up to speak, you weren’t really sure what was going to come out.

"But over that summer, I had heard from so many people because I’d done various radio and TV about it, and people had emailed me.

"I felt like there’s all these people that are genuinely finding it inspiring that I’m on the radio or on TV.

"I can’t now hide away, so I kind of felt inspired by them really to stand up in the chamber, which I did feel really embarrassed about. Even though no-one made me feel embarrassed, it felt extremely exposing.

"I’m glad I did it because I kind of then felt if I can do that, I shouldn’t be scared of being in the chamber any more. Because if I can do it with a very squeaky voice, I can do it in any way."

She also said that groups like the British Voice Association and the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists can provide support, and that she would be campaigning to get more therapy for adults with voice problems like hers.

The Joy of Six 1576

Anna Sabine, Liberal Democrat MP for Frome and East Somerset, has discovered what happens when a politician loses her voice: "There’s a thing about: do I seem weak now? Like, does this make me seem weaker? Which is another reason to be really clear: I will do national media, and I will carry on campaigning."

"The council’s constitution, which sets out how it is run, says it must have a cabinet and a leader at the top and this is required by UK law. The local authority is also required to have an elected member overseeing children’s services. The absence of this and the length of time the council has had no one in charge is what has led officers to make the highly unusual declaration the council is breaking the law." Edward Barnes reports from Oldham, where the elected councillors have failed to agree who should run the borough council after May's elections.

Alazne Mountjoy says women suffer because of the systemic misogyny in medical research and practice: "Women undergoing surgery are significantly more likely to experience complications, and even die, when the surgeon is a man as opposed to a woman. This is in conjunction with the fact that surgeons are overwhelmingly male, with fewer than a fifth of surgeons being female."

Anna Verhamme and John Britton, in a report for the Higher Education Policy Institute, say universities are their professional and support staff and then paying consultants more to provide these services.

"From Browne’s first instalment, featuring the character Sam Weller, sales for Pickwick rose and kept rising. Browne would go on to become Dickens’s principal illustrator, and Pickwick – helped enormously by his comic illustrations – became a literary sensation that revolutionised Victorian book publishing." Michael John Goodman looks at the relationship between Charles Dickens and his illustrator Hablot Knight Browne ('Phiz') and reminds us how strange it is that we now publish Victorian novels without their illustrations.

"Chris Isaak has carved out a singular career doing one thing so hauntingly well, it’s become his signature. He’s built a cathedral from heartbreak and despair, lit by the flickering neon of 3 a.m. regrets, and its served him well for over four decades." James Kenney on Chris Isaak and the art of staying sad.

A Lib Dem reshuffle is coming after this conference

Photo by Amanda Jones on Unsplash 

Senior party figures have told PoliticsHome that the Liberal Democrats will reshuffle their frontbench after their party conference in Bournemouth this weekend.

Among the names tipped for promotion in Harriet Symonds' article are Alex Brewer, Jess Brown-Fuller, Josh Reynolds, Anna Sabine, Mike Martin and Bobby Dean.

Given the calibre of the new Lib Dem MPs elected last year, this sounds like a positive move.

But don't get too excited:

Continuity will prevail in some key areas: deputy leader Daisy Cooper is expected to remain in the Treasury brief, as are Callum Miller in Foreign Affairs – seen as a "safe pair of hands" –and chief whip Wendy Chamberlain.

Steffan Aquarone is the new chair of the Lib Dem parliamentary party – read what it means in Liberator's Radical Bulletin

The new Liberator (issue 431) has dropped: you can download it for free from the magazine's website.

Don't tell Lord Bonkers, but I always turn first to Radical Bulletin, Liberator's well-informed gossip section. The first item begins:

Steff Aquarone has won a resounding victory for parliamentary party chair in a shot across Ed Davey’s bow. 

The North Norfolk MP beat Frome’s Anna Sabine by 44 to 27. The latter had tried not to be portrayed as the establishment candidate but as Davey’s parliamentary private secretary that was hard to sustain.

The item goes on to suggest that:

Aquarone’s 44 votes is enough to have some front benchers among it, suggesting dissatisfaction including with the Daveybunker’s power runs deeper than might have been thought.