General Election 2017 | Cabinet reshuffle: Hunt re-appointed Health Secretary for record third time

How do you intend to vote in the 2017 General Election if eligible?

  • Conservatives

    Votes: 80 14.5%
  • Labour

    Votes: 322 58.4%
  • Lib Dems

    Votes: 57 10.3%
  • Green

    Votes: 20 3.6%
  • SNP

    Votes: 13 2.4%
  • UKIP

    Votes: 29 5.3%
  • Independent

    Votes: 3 0.5%
  • Plaid Cymru

    Votes: 2 0.4%
  • Sinn Fein

    Votes: 11 2.0%
  • Other (UUP, DUP, BNP, and anyone else I have forgotten)

    Votes: 14 2.5%

  • Total voters
    551
  • Poll closed .
Yes, she is pretty awful. But she's surrounded by a lot of equally awful people and some that are considerably more awful. Yet she's far too often singled out as especially worthy of attack.

She's said in the past that white people love playing divide and rule, and previously backed the IRA, saying she would be pleased if they obtained victory over Britain. That's...pretty bad. Especially when she can only seem to half-apologise for some of the stuff she's said.
 
It's either that people think the response 'I once had an afro...' is a weird way to answer a question about supporting the IRA, or everyone's racist.

Abbott is terrible when questioned on an almost unparalleled scale. Dislike thinly veiled suggestions that if we don't pretend she isn't utterly incompetent under pressure that there's some kind of bigoted motive.

She gets the same treatment as any MP who's useless on TV who goes on TV and is useless. It seems as if people want us not to notice because of her gender and/or skin colour. May's car crash interview with Neil or Fallon's embarrassment on Channel 4 news got plenty of attention. The insinuation that it's racist if a black MPs cock-ups aren't treated differently, is odd.
 
She's said in the past that white people love playing divide and rule

White people do love playing divide and rule. It was the entire basis of Britain's colonial strategy, and it continues to be used in front line politics in the US to this very day. We don't see as many direct examples these days in the UK purely because we don't have a very big black demographic, but you can see it perfectly well with how some politicians talk about British Muslims and non-white immigrants when they want to stir up discontent.
 
He is a decent orator, but not sure the public warm to him, given he's left of Lenin.

I actually liked her on that show with Neil and Portillo. The had a somewhat weird, but charming chemistry.
I think they're basically indifferent, which is still remarkable given the "bombs and bullets" thing.
 
I actually liked her on that show with Neil and Portillo. The had a somewhat weird, but charming chemistry.

It was entertaining but she still talked bollocks. Johnson's head and shoulders above her in every way. Except he sometimes lets slip a little flash of temper that he should have learned to hide long ago.
 
Dislike thinly veiled suggestions that if we don't pretend she isn't utterly incompetent under pressure that there's some kind of bigoted motive.

That's a shame. Would it help if I removed the veil and just said that we're still quite racist in Britain?
 
White people do love playing divide and rule. It was the entire basis of Britain's colonial strategy, and it continues to be used in front line politics in the US to this very day. We don't see as many direct examples these days in the UK purely because we don't have a very big black demographic, but you can see it perfectly well with how some politicians talk about British Muslims and non-white immigrants when they want to stir up discontent.
Your problem here is that white people think different things these days.

That said, I've no doubt that she's endured a hell of a lot of racist abuse over the years so I don't judge her too harshly on that one.
 
It was entertaining but she still talked bollocks. Johnson's head and shoulders above her in every way. Except he sometimes lets slip a little flash of temper that he should have learned to hide long ago.
I like Johnson too. Always seemed a genuine bloke.
 
Not really. There's a possibility that most people think it's a bad answer and a minority think it's a bad answer from someone their hatred for does not seem entirely based on her politics.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/diane-abbott-reveals-vile-racist-9848832


But there'll be people who hate May because she's a woman. It doesn't mean that when she messes up we should be reluctant in pointing that out.

I don't get what the preferred alternative is. Pretend that we don't notice when she thinks you can employ a police officer on £30 a year because she's black and racism is bad?

If an MP is female, non-white, non-heterosexual doesn't mean when they feck up we should just nod and pretend we didn't notice because racism, sexism, homophobia and everything else exists.
 
Your problem here is that white people think different things these days.

We like to think that we do, and hopefully many of us actually do, but there are still many, many instances of divide and rule continuing to be used. Like I said, its used constantly in America by Republicans to get poor working whites to vote for them despite them not representing their needs in any way, and in the UK its used by the likes of UKIP and the Tory right wing to segment British Muslims and immigrants off into a special category they can make people afraid off, so they can pickup votes their actual policies would never otherwise attract.
 
Maybe next time Diane Abbott has a car-crash interview the other person should lean over and supportively ruffle her hair.

"Last time you checked it was about 50 was it? Aww, well done!"
 
If an MP is female, non-white, non-heterosexual doesn't mean when they feck up we should just nod and pretend we didn't notice because racism, sexism, homophobia and everything else exists.

No, quite right. However when someone who is from a group that have historically faced a lot of oppression and bigotry seems to face a level of abuse that other equally inept people in comparable jobs don't, then you can't ignore that. It's especially telling that a lot of people have started saying shes a 'racist' because then of course it means they can more easily avoid that same charge being levelled at them.
 
He'll be 79 on Tuesday. Amazing.
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.
 
But there'll be people who hate May because she's a woman. It doesn't mean that when she messes up we should be reluctant in pointing that out.

I don't get what the preferred alternative is. Pretend that we don't notice when she thinks you can employ a police officer on £30 a year because she's black?
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.
 
No, quite right. However when someone who is from a group that have historically faced a lot of oppression and bigotry seems to face a level of abuse that other equally inept people in comparable jobs don't, then you can't ignore that. It's especially telling that a lot of people have started saying shes a 'racist' because then of course it means they can more easily avoid that same charge being levelled at them.
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.
 
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 as unpopular as she is if he'd said the same things she has.

Have you seen Corbyn's approval ratings?
 
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.

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?
 
Have you seen Corbyn's approval ratings?
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.
 
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.

Sorry to hear that. Sounds like he's not so good 'after dinner'. Looking east to him probably means Hull as well.
 
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?
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.
 
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.

"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.
 
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 from Rainbow also never came close to being an MP. Another similarity.
Bungle didn't look like Eddie Hitler though.
 
"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.
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.
 
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.
 
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.

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
 
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.

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.