Prescott was the after dinner speaker at one of our events a few years back. He was a rambling shambles, spouting random anecdotes then a bit on look east for growth.
Even the Tory-leaning crowd felt sorry him cos it was so excruciating.
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Even the Tory-leaning crowd felt sorry him cos it was so excruciating.
There are and to be honest I wasn't entirely comfortable with the way Prescott was choosing his phrasing as to May in that video just posted.
There is of course no preferred alternative to scrutinising her. Just when we're debating whether the levels of hatred for her are purely to do with her politics or not I think we have to accept that for a fair few in this country that hatred is influenced by her being a black woman.
I don't personally think a white bloke would be quite as unpopular as she is if he'd said the same things she has. We'd still think he's a pillock, of course, though.
Here's the Prescott video btw. Watch this and tell me you don't kind of miss the crazy old fecker.
That ITV comment.
She's made more racist remarks than any other MP, maybe barring Boris tbf. As a black woman who has risen so high in politics, she should be a role model in many ways, but it's hard to see her as such tbh.
Have you seen Corbyn's approval ratings?
On another note
For a member of a routinely discriminated against minority to call out that oppression is not racist. Being a black woman in politics gives her a pretty unique right to discuss how she's experienced racial issues in a predominantly white and male environment like the commons. Perhaps she wouldn't need to do that if there had been more black people in parliament?
Which ones? I've seen some and I've seen some for Abbot and she did not come out favourably in comparison to him, at all. I forget the figures but she was a long way behind him.
But, then, he is less of a pillock.
Paul Nuttall's like a once lovable TV personality from the 90s show the Big Breakfast who sadly ruined all our teenage memories by growing up to be a horrible racist.
Sorry to hear that. Sounds like he's not so good 'after dinner'. Looking east to him probably means Hull as well.
Still loving me some Labour "moderates"
I don't doubt that there's an element of glee in some of the reporting of some of her comments, which is distasteful, but she certainly doesn't help herself at times.
For me the 'West Indian mothers care more about their kids' thing was more about her hypocrisy in sending her kids to a private school, while seemingly opposing them in policy terms.
If you look east from his old constituency you're pretty much in the North Sea!
"maybe barring Boris" honestly? Boris the watermelon smiles Johnson is 'maybe' more racist than Abbot. Jesus wept.
As a black woman, I don't see how you decide whether Abbott is or isn't a role model to other black woman, you don't speak for us.
I do see some Bungle from Rainbow resemblance with Nuttall. The speech patterns, being a complete bellend, that kind of thing.
Bungle from Rainbow also never came close to being an MP. Another similarity.
Bungle didn't look like Eddie Hitler though.
Oh god, I'd forgotten about that Boris quote.
I'm not 'deciding' whether she should be deemed a role model or not, just saying I don't see her as such. Maybe I'm being harsh, I don't know.
Nah, you're definitely not.
Did you know that quote is actually inaccurate? That what she actually said was "West Indian mums will go to the wall for their children". The whole 'care more about their kids' was the media spin on it.
Also, there's an interesting story there though, apparently it was her child who was desperate to attend a private school and she didn't want them to because it goes against her strong beliefs in the state school system. She gave in because the happiness of her child mattered more to her than the political attacks and accusations of hypocrisy she knew she'd have to face as a result.
I don't know how true that story is, but it puts that quote into a rather different perspective doesn't it.
Just went and stuck a few hundred on a conservative majority so it's not all doom and gloom on the 8th
You say that like it's the only questionable quote he & others have said, but that's besides the point.
And yes, you don't know.
For a bit of perspective, I just asked my wife what she thinks about DA- she said 'she seems very real, but I wish she had more brains'.
She is kind of alluding to the same thing, ie others wouldn't.
Good on her for putting her kids first, but does undermine her if she campaigns against private schools.
It wasn't a media savvy or smart way to phrase it, but given the context it's a long way from the spin the media put on it.
McDonnell is far, far, far worse than Abbott and is in a more powerful position, yet gets spoken about in the media far less. Her higher profile from TV work no doubt contributes, but it does feel like she's seen as an easier target.
She's been prominent on TV for years though, whereas loads of people still don't know who he is. I barely see him on TV ever and can only really remember the little red book thing on Budget day.
That quote doesn't improve with time or your attempts to explain it away. Remember she gave out a lot of stick to various Labour MP's who sent their children to private schools. When she herself does it she can't come up with a reasonable excuse other than a pretty insulting racial slur.
Its the same with the divide and rule comment. Its a racist attack on the majority of the population for no reason other than stupidity.
If the remain campaign teaches us anything it would be that people won't vote for you if you put their backs up by calling them racist.
She is a politician and you assume she should be able to choose her words better than most.
That's a better description than almost every other British politician, I would compliment only a handful by calling them real.
For what it's worth, I judge Abbott in the same view as other politicians, and I view few of them highly, I don't particularly view her highly either.
However she is absolutely a role model for young black women who try to pursue careers in politics, law, journalism etc. doesn't mean she is perfect, but there's very few of us in such high positions of power. If there were 10-15 other female black politicians in similar positions, maybe Abbott wouldn't be as problematic.
But then you have to question why there's a clear lack of representation - and it's not like none of us try, but even then given the treatment she gets, I don't blame anyone for not wanting to pursue it either.
I've no problem with you being harsh with me for saying this but I don't think being part of the political mainstream suits her at all.
Oh yeah, I'd forgotten how hard done by and oppressed us poor white people are, and what terrible racism we constantly face by those mean minorities..
You're deflecting here. We may be the majority and for the most part don't face any racial prejudice, especially compared with minorities who tend to get it much harder, but that doesn't mean that Abbott gets off the hook for making racist comments. Especially when she's done it on multiple occasions.
I think that depends on exactly what you want the 'political mainstream' to represent. Personally, I think the entirety of it is a shambles.
Abbott is a worse actor than almost every politician, Boris gets by on being a goof that waffles a lot so people are endeared towards him. Abbott has no such personality, and doesn't try to pretend to be anything she is not. Are they both ideal representations to lead us? No.
Most of them aren't. However the focus is almost always on Dianne, at some point you have to wonder why.
Pointed this out before but the chancellor of the exchequer thought HS2 cost £32bn not £52bn. The Tory manifesto costed 7p per child for their breakfast policy. Amber Rudd claimed the average police officer earned £40,000 a year. Anyone who says those incidents got even 1% of the ridicule Diane Abbott got is a fecking liar.
Sure.
I was just about to add this edit to my previous post. Johnson being at the forefront of my thinking, obviously.
''Having said that, it shouldn't suit some of the Tory absolute weapons either but they seem to get away with it, much more than (any of, even) their Labour counterparts. The Conservative (conservative) message is more prevailing status quo & Establishment (characterised by being generally white, middle class & their home ownership) I suppose.''
My wife's from Mauritius and has a low opinion of politicians too, as corruption is endemic over there.
The issue of representation obviously remains huge and one we wrestle with when it comes to choosing cover stars for our magazine, for example. Finding senior black women in investment management is like looking for a needle in a haystack.
It's true, and they're doing a decent job of hiding him away whilst she has to be towards the forefront in the wake of Manchester, but generally he deserves far more criticism than she does (and it still reflects badly on Corbyn that he appointed both).
The only thing I've ever heard from her that I'd consider at risk of actually being racist was the incident with the Finnish nurses. What seems to be continually overlooked however is that if you're subject to constant racism throughout your life, and you're representing large numbers of people in your constituency and nationally who have also faced institutional and societal racism, then you're going to be talking about race a lot more than a comparable MP from the ethnic majority.
What really pisses me off though is this idea that a black MP calling out racism is itself racist. It's an appalling attempt to silence minorities and its coming up more and more with the recent wave of populism. It really hurts peope's feelings to be called racist, well I'm sorry but the vast majority of British people ARE racist, whether they mean to be or not. It's largely because of us being such a hugely majority white country, and but it doesn't make it any less true.
I'd challenge anyone who thinks that's wrong, to go take this test from Harvard university..
https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/Study?tid=-1
It only takes about 5-10 minutes, and please complete it honestly and quickly as they ask, and then come back with your results.
This says it all.
No politician should continue to have a career after the things Johnson has said, however what he says falls in line with many people's thinking therefore it's not a problem.
But Abbott doing anything that could even imply racism? It follows her entire career and she will forever be tarnished as a racism.
Again - you have to ask yourself why that is.
Representation of people of colour, let alone female people is going to be difficult in this country & most western countries, we could talk deeply about that, but it will derail the thread.