Making 'The Candidate'

I really enjoyed making this month's edition of The Modern Mann - when we started recording it, we had no idea that our guest was going to a) be seriously talked about as the next leader of the Liberal Democrats and b) come out as pansexual and send Twitter in to a whirlwind!

We had intended merely to document the behind-the-scenes story of Layla Moran's 2019 general election campaign, since she was clinging on to a precariously tiny majority in Oxford West and Abingdon and we thought it would be fascinating to see how her strategy would evolve as she tried to survive.

She very kindly allowed producer Matt Hill and I to follow her for weeks, shadowing her at her campaign launch, door-knocking constituents, combatting fake news on Twitter, and taking part in bizarre local radio debates. Along the way, we got to know her parents, who were really charming, and I had my first experience of going to a vote count through-the-night - weirdly exciting if you're a sometime political geek...

Anyway Layla was incredibly honest and straightforward with us, just as you'd hope all MPs would be, really, but rarely are. I found listening to her to be a real insight into the democratic process, as it currently stands, in our politically divided nation.

She is very articulate, in particular, about all the misogynist shit that women MPs have to put up with, and why so many chose to drop out of the race rather than have to face the maelstrom. For what it's worth, I hope she stands for leader of the Lib Dems, and wins.

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