Diane Abbott suspended as Labour MP.

[Pickman's model]

He was seventy seats short of a majority, that’s not agonisingly close at all.

It is when you consider who was knocking him,the tories,the parliamentary Labour Party, the media, people like you...

 

[Pickman's model]

He was seventy seats short of a majority, that’s not agonisingly close at all.

Tories had 42.2% of the vote. Labour 40%

 

[phildwyer]

Corbyn got a lot closer than anyone similarly left-wing ever has.

 

[DotCommunist]

.

 

[planetgeli]

.

Communist

 

[DotCommunist]

I remember the time where I didn't care about the minute details of exactly how the labour party is rigging its shit this week and seek to return to those halcyon days by not talking about it, but it is hard.

 

[nino_savatte]

not only did they do nothing to challenge the rise of the far-right but both then and under blair and brown they pursued policies which facilitated the rise of the national front and british national party. and of course before founding the new party and the british union of fascists sir oswald mosley was a labour mp

Aye. It's interesting to note that after Blair's flaccid response to Howard's dog-whistling in 2005, Farage was elected leader of UKIP two years later. A bigger space was effectively opened up for the circulation of far-right ideas, many of which have been normalised in recent years.

 

[PTK]

The Two Child Limit

Prior to April 2017, people with children in receipt of social security benefits received cash for each child.

The Conservative government introduced a regulation in whereby new claimants would only receive payments for their first two children.

An exception is made if third child is born as a result of the mother being raped. This is the so-called “rape clause”.

The affected families lose at least £3,000 per annum.

It is estimated that abolishing the two-child limit would lift 250,000 children out of poverty.

It was Labour Party policy to repeal the two-child limit.

In July 2023, Keir Starmer reversed this policy.

The announcement that a Labour government would retain the two-child limit was beneath contempt. It demonstrated that the leadership of the Labour Party hate the poorest people in our society, and want to keep them in misery.

However, one of the posters on this thread is happy about this policy about-face by Starmer. One of the posters on this thread justifies Starmer’s U-turn on the basis that the Labour Party Manifesto did not explicitly state that it would abolish the two-child limit.

The 2017 Labour Party Manifesto promised the abolition of the “rape clause”, which measure would entail the abolition of the two-child limit. (Unless said poster is claiming that the Labour Party was promising to be even harsher than the Conservative government, by removing the exemption for a third child born as a consequence of rape). The 2019 Labour Party Manifesto explicitly states that a Labour government would abolish the two-child limit. This was Labour Party policy, which Starmer endorsed.

I think that someone who justifies Starmer’s support for the continuation of the two-child limit has lost their moral compass. They can certainly not be classed as being “left-wing” or even “centrist”.

 

[Cerv]

so how about that Diane Abbot then?
has she weighed in on the upcoming Hackney mayoral competition

 

[gosub]

In countries with PR, being the biggest party doesn't count for much if no other parties will work with you. Tories were lucky they had the Headbangers to prop them up. Nobody else was going to.

The UK's crazy system more or less ensures a minority government every single time. Last time any single party got even close to 50% of the vote was many decades ago.

We had PR in the Euros. Which UKIP did well under....then people seemed surprised by the referendum result

 

[Fozzie Bear]

so how about that Diane Abbot then?
has she weighed in on the upcoming Hackney mayoral competition

Not yet afaik.

The deadline for candidates is Friday 13th, lol. So if there are any exciting independents we will know then.

If not then I dare say it won’t matter too much what Diane says.

 

[CH1]

We had PR in the Euros. Which UKIP did well under....then people seemed surprised by the referendum result

Are you advising the media on who "won" in Slovakia then? (with 26% of the vote!!!).

 

[GarveyLives]

Poor Diane can barely get a mention on a thread about ... poor Diane!

Still defying expectations: Diane Abbott at 70

One hopes that she had a happy birthday.

 

[PR1Berske]

From the Telegraph

Diane Abbott has been given a trigger warning to protect school pupils from her views, The Telegraph can reveal.

The MP’s career is covered by a range of classroom resources for primary schools, but the teaching materials come with a disclaimer about her “controversial” opinions.

Teachers are advised to shield pupils from Ms Abbott’s potentially “offensive” views in warnings included in pre-prepared lesson plans and presentations.

The off-the-shelf classroom resources created by British educational publisher Twinkl suggest that young children should not be allowed to research the politician too thoroughly.

Illustrated resources seen by The Telegraph include an overview of “Diane Abbott and black UK politicians”, and a template for a KS1 school assembly on “black British history”.

All materials carry a warning, for the benefit of teachers, which states: “Please note: although Diane Abbott has achieved great things in politics, we would advise against allowing your class to freely research more about her life.”

It adds: “Some of her recent comments have been controversial and potentially offensive.”

The teaching materials containing the disclaimers have been produced by teachers for the publisher Twinkl, which for a fee provides ready-made presentations and resources

for schools.
A KS2 overview covering 2,000 years of black British history from the Roman invasion to the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020 carried disclaimers for only two issues: the subject of slavery, which may be “too upsetting for children”, and the opinions of Ms Abbott.

The series of ready-made presentations for young children do celebrate the career of Ms Abbott.

One states of her becoming an MP: “The 1987 general election was a watershed moment, not just for Diane Abbott but also for the representation of black and minority ethnic people in British politics.”

Another presentation for primary school pupils states: “She has been vocal about what she believes in and doesn’t change her mind easily. Diane took up jobs she believed would help her make a difference.”

Teaching materials also comment on racist abuse Ms Abbott has received.

Diane Abbott and Twinkl were contacted for comment.

 

[Wilf]

From the Telegraph

There's something deeply fucked up about our times. The leader of the Labour Party shouts 'not yet' when it comes to stopping mass slaughter and a black MP who has suffered decades of racism is presented as a threat to children's emotional state. I'm not invested in DA or the Labour Party and I'm sure twinkl publishing are a bunch of no marks, but still, fucking hell, this is just absurd.

 

[oryx]

From the Telegraph

Would be interesting to see what they make of some of Boris Johnson's views, bearing in mind how offensive they are.

 

[not a trot]

Would be interesting to see what they make of some of Boris Johnson's views, bearing in mind how offensive they are.

In some peoples minds, Boris, gets a free pass on anything he says or does, because he's Boris.

 

[PR1Berske]

 

[Dystopiary]

Who is she speaking to please? Without signing in, can only see the tweet linked to these days. (Nitter stopped working.)

 

[teqniq]

Who is she speaking to please? Without signing in, can only see the tweet linked to these days. (Nitter stopped working.)

 

[Dystopiary]

View attachment 415343

Thanks. Diane Abbott is right there. I don't always agree with her but she does at least have some principles unlike most MPs still with the Labour Party.

 

[PR1Berske]

Who is she speaking to please? Without signing in, can only see the tweet linked to these days. (Nitter stopped working.)

Aah, sorry. I keep slapping my wrists about not doing screenshots rather than links. New year resolution - more screenshots, less links.

 

[BusLanes]

Who is she speaking to please? Without signing in, can only see the tweet linked to these days. (Nitter stopped working.)

Sonia was a local councillor in Lambeth till a week ago too. By election probably will be in May with London elections

 

[teqniq]

What an absolute scumbag:

Labour calls on Sunak to return Frank Hester’s £10m Tory donation

Donor told colleagues looking at Diane Abbott made you ‘want to hate all black women’ and she ‘should be shot’

www.theguardian.com

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Well that's not going to happen.

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

TBH the Labour leadership can fuck off with getting all prissy about it given the way they've treated her.

 

[Silas Loom]

It’s not really about Diane Abbott. If she had accepted Hester’s apology, there would still be an issue about whether he is tolerable as the controller of a duopolistic NHS IT supplier and as the largest private donor in a meaningful time period to a governable political party.

So Abbott’s fraught relationship with Labour is irrelevant to what the leadership says about Hester.

 

[Louis MacNeice]

...Abbott’s fraught relationship with Labour is irrelevant to what the leadership says about Hester.

Really?

Thanks for making me smile - Louis MacNeice

 

[kabbes]

It’s not really about Diane Abbott. If she had accepted Hester’s apology, there would still be an issue about whether he is tolerable as the controller of a duopolistic NHS IT supplier and as the largest private donor in a meaningful time period to a governable political party.

So Abbott’s fraught relationship with Labour is irrelevant to what the leadership says about Hester.

It’s also not really about Dianne Abbott because racism is a social violence, not just a personal attack. It doesn’t matter if Dianne Abbott herself or the Labour Party forgive the individual concerned. He has still highlighted that he views the actions of one person as representing everybody with the same skin colour — literally, “they’re all the same”. His words betray racism at its most venal, regardless of what he may or may not have meant or thought about this single individual.

 

[Silas Loom]

It’s also not really about Dianne Abbott because racism is a social violence, not just a personal attack. It doesn’t matter if Dianne Abbott herself or the Labour Party forgive the individual concerned. He has still highlighted that he views the actions of one person as representing everybody with the same skin colour — literally, “they’re all the same”. His words betray racism at its most venal, regardless of what he may or may not have meant or thought about this single individual.

Yes, exactly. That was implicit in what I meant by saying that an apology would be irrelevant, but that spells out exactly why this discussion is happening on the wrong thread