State of Labour
Diane Abbott has been off the airwaves recently and for good reason, because every time Labour's shadow home secretary opens her mouth Ms Abbott confirms how unsuited she is to lead anything - never mind hold high public office.
Labour's 'Keystone Cops' (04/05/17)
The Times cartoonist Peter Brookes has some fun with Diane Abbott's car crash interview on LBC Radio.
"Has this been thought through?" (03/05/17)
"Has this been thought through?', is likely to be one of the big highlights of the 2017 general election.
The question was posed by LBC Radio presenter Nick Ferrari as he interviewed Diane Abbott, Labour's shadow home secretary and a key ally of her fellow London MP Jeremy Corbyn.
As I said in a recent post in the unlikely even of a Labour victory Diane would be in line for one of the great offices of state; a prospect that must frighten even Labour voters.
If you ask me, the reason for this is that Team Corbyn is full of 'politically driven ideologues whose 'leftist' view of the world is rejected by most Labour MPs never mind the wider voting public.
Follow the link below to the 'car crash' interview of the campaign - so far at least.
The Corbyn Effect (15/04/17)
Diane Abbott is a London Labour MP and shadow home secretary.
In the highly unlikely event of a Labour victory at the next general election there's a fair chance that Diane would be in charge of one of the great offices of state, such the home office or the national health service (NHS).
Now that's a truly frightening prospect given that Diane believes Jeremy Corbyn is popular figure whom she showered with praise the other day:
“One of [Mr Corbyn’s opponents'] current arguments is that Labour’s difficulties in the polls are all attributable to him and that if only we had a new leader, almost any leader, then this would resolve our problems.
“This is completely untrue. We can go further. Compared to all his critics, Jeremy Corbyn is worth about 18-20 percentage points to Labour’s vote.
“Without him, and led by any one of his vocal critics we could easily be languishing in single digits in polls.”
I don't know of anyone who believes that all of Labour's problems would disappear overnight by getting rid of Jeremy Corbyn, but nor do I know of anyone who regards Jezza as anything other than an albatross around Labour's neck.
Labour's biggest problem is that there are enough supporters like Diane Abbot around who are willing to forgive Corbyn anything - even his inability to connect with the wider voting public.
Rank Hypocrisy (06/02/17)
The Sunday Times reports that the knives are out for Diane Abbott, London Labour MP and big ally of Jeremy Corbyn.
I can't say I'm surprised because Diane has always struck me as a terrible hypocrite, especially after she criticised Tony Blair fiercely for sending one of his children to a Catholic school (outside the local Islington catchment area), but went to place her own son at a fee-paying private school.
Fellow Labour MPs must be aghast at her behaviour though not astonished given her brazen track record.
Ronnie Campbell, Labour MP for Blyth Valley who has been off work for a year having cancer treatment said:
“I had a big operation just after New Year, I am getting over it and came back to work this week. I saw Diane Abbott in the tearoom before the vote - I held the door open for her.”
Meanwhile some wag has opened a #PrayForDiane hashtag on Twitter.
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/mps-urge-axe-for-abbott-over-bottling-brexit-0k6vgpd56
MPs urge axe for Abbott over bottling Brexit
By James Lyons - The Sunday Times
Diane Abbott, second from left, at the Red Lion pub in Whitehall on Tuesday, the day before she missed the vote on article 50, blaming a ‘really bad migraine’
Jeremy Corbyn will come under pressure this week to sack Diane Abbott for missing a crucial vote on Brexit. Angry MPs are expected to raise the issue at a private meeting of the parliamentary Labour Party tomorrow night.
Corbyn is also expected to face questions about her future at a meeting of the parliamentary committee, which represents MPs and peers, later in the week. The shadow home secretary went home shortly before the vote last week on giving Theresa May the power to trigger article 50. Abbott had argued publicly that Labour MPs should have to vote in favour of the bill but her local party in London came within two votes of mandating her to vote against.
Dawn Butler, who resigned from Labour’s shadow cabinet before the vote, is said to have sought permission to abstain but was told she had to toe the line or quit.
Unless she was in bloody intensive care she should have been on the premises
Abbott was accused of “bottling” the crucial vote. There were also questions about the severity of the illness that she said had forced her to return home. The MP for Hackney North was seen enjoying a drink at the Red Lion pub in Whitehall on Tuesday night. On Wednesday, the day of the vote, she spoke at a debate in Westminster Hall in the afternoon.
At least two seriously ill MPs were brought to the Commons to vote but Abbott went home after developing what friends described as a “really bad migraine” shortly before 5pm.
Labour MPs pointed out that if she had been on the premises at the time of the vote she could have been “nodded through” while remaining in her office rather than having to go into the division lobby.
“Unless she was in bloody intensive care she should have been on the premises,” a senior backbencher said. “It is an outrage. It is completely incompatible to be sacking other people and keep her.”
Abbott’s absence will fuel a rebellion when MPs vote on the bill again this week. The shadow cabinet will meet on Tuesday to agree whether to insist again that MPs must vote for the measure but a shadow cabinet source said it would be ridiculous for Corbyn to do a U-turn.
If anything, the term 'London Labour' is proving to be a much bigger problem for Jeremy Corbyn's leadership of the People's Party than was ever the case for three time election winner Tony Blair.
Because while New Labour always featured lots of prominent Scots, including Gordon Brown, John Reid, Robin Cook and Alistair Darling to balance the UK party leadership, Jeremy Corbyn seems to have gone native with a very London-centric team.
Jezza's key advisers and spokespeople are all London based and his kitchen cabinet boasts such luminaries as John McDonnell, Diane Abbott and Ken Livingstone, the former London Mayor.
When you include others now on the party payroll such as the former Guardian columnist Seumas Milne and 'fellow travellers' like Lindsey German and Andrew Murray from Stop the War Coalition, Labour seems to be heading back to the bad old days of the 1980s when, for a time, London Labour Briefing threatened to rule the party's roost.
Labour's top-heavy London team is making the party look ridiculous as Jeremy Corbyn surrounds himself with like-minded people who may share his politics, but haven't a clue what they're doing.
Diane Abbott for example who said the other day that it was "too late now" for the party to recover in Scotland in time for next year's Scottish Parliament elections.
I imagine Labour in Scotland need that kind of comment like they need another hole in the head at the moment and the Scottish party hit back at Abbott by saying that "Nobody up here takes her seriously".
As the old saying goes, with friends like these............
Jeremy Corbyn will come under pressure this week to sack Diane Abbott for missing a crucial vote on Brexit. Angry MPs are expected to raise the issue at a private meeting of the parliamentary Labour Party tomorrow night.
Corbyn is also expected to face questions about her future at a meeting of the parliamentary committee, which represents MPs and peers, later in the week. The shadow home secretary went home shortly before the vote last week on giving Theresa May the power to trigger article 50. Abbott had argued publicly that Labour MPs should have to vote in favour of the bill but her local party in London came within two votes of mandating her to vote against.
Dawn Butler, who resigned from Labour’s shadow cabinet before the vote, is said to have sought permission to abstain but was told she had to toe the line or quit.
Unless she was in bloody intensive care she should have been on the premises
Abbott was accused of “bottling” the crucial vote. There were also questions about the severity of the illness that she said had forced her to return home. The MP for Hackney North was seen enjoying a drink at the Red Lion pub in Whitehall on Tuesday night. On Wednesday, the day of the vote, she spoke at a debate in Westminster Hall in the afternoon.
At least two seriously ill MPs were brought to the Commons to vote but Abbott went home after developing what friends described as a “really bad migraine” shortly before 5pm.
Labour MPs pointed out that if she had been on the premises at the time of the vote she could have been “nodded through” while remaining in her office rather than having to go into the division lobby.
“Unless she was in bloody intensive care she should have been on the premises,” a senior backbencher said. “It is an outrage. It is completely incompatible to be sacking other people and keep her.”
Abbott’s absence will fuel a rebellion when MPs vote on the bill again this week. The shadow cabinet will meet on Tuesday to agree whether to insist again that MPs must vote for the measure but a shadow cabinet source said it would be ridiculous for Corbyn to do a U-turn.
London Labour (19/12/15)
Because while New Labour always featured lots of prominent Scots, including Gordon Brown, John Reid, Robin Cook and Alistair Darling to balance the UK party leadership, Jeremy Corbyn seems to have gone native with a very London-centric team.
Jezza's key advisers and spokespeople are all London based and his kitchen cabinet boasts such luminaries as John McDonnell, Diane Abbott and Ken Livingstone, the former London Mayor.
When you include others now on the party payroll such as the former Guardian columnist Seumas Milne and 'fellow travellers' like Lindsey German and Andrew Murray from Stop the War Coalition, Labour seems to be heading back to the bad old days of the 1980s when, for a time, London Labour Briefing threatened to rule the party's roost.
Labour's top-heavy London team is making the party look ridiculous as Jeremy Corbyn surrounds himself with like-minded people who may share his politics, but haven't a clue what they're doing.
Diane Abbott for example who said the other day that it was "too late now" for the party to recover in Scotland in time for next year's Scottish Parliament elections.
I imagine Labour in Scotland need that kind of comment like they need another hole in the head at the moment and the Scottish party hit back at Abbott by saying that "Nobody up here takes her seriously".
As the old saying goes, with friends like these............
Corbyn's Labour Party (03/02/17)
The Labour Party is in a dreadful mess, not least because Jeremy Corbyn clings to the delusion that he is doing a great job as a leader with a 'big mandate'.
Well mandates count for nothing when the party is falling apart as it did the other day over the Brexit vote which had Labour facing more ways than the town hall clock.
Not just that one of the party's senior figures and close friend of Jeremy Corbyn failed to turn up for the vote in the House of Commons after claiming she was ill.
Here's what The Times reported about Diane Abbott's mysterious absence:
"Diane Abbott, the shadow home secretary, missed the vote through illness. Cynical Labour MPs who turned out to back Brexit joked that they were organising her a get well card and that they were sure that she would be back next week for the third reading vote. It is worth noting that she spoke in a Westminster Hall debate which ended only three hours before the vote."
And here. rather less charitably, is what the Guido Fawkes web site had to say.
Well done to Diane Abbott for struggling through this contribution to the Westminster Hall debate on Prevent yesterday, just hours before the Article 50 vote, despite being “unwell“. What a trooper.
