DEM not gonna CON dis NATION: Rolling UK politics in the short-lived post-Murdoch era

I was going to say "let's have a riot" but you can go to prison for saying that these days (vote Liberal Democrat)

What the fuck has Diane Abbott got to apologise for?

It's the Labour Party who should apologise for being such spineless aspie COWARDS 'cos they're frightened Mr & Mrs Hitler of Dachau Avenue, Little Spitting, won't vote for them next time.

fucking useless Ed Milliband, grow some BALLS you fucking nonce.

Abbott should just have said fuck you and quit.

Don't think he reads ilx, marcello.

Does he read the New Statesman?

it's like Labour are tracking down the stupidest, most reactionary fuckwit in Britain and aiming all of their policies at him/her.

it's like Labour are tracking down the stupidest, most reactionary fuckwit in Britain and aiming all of their policies at him/her appointing them to senior shadow cabinet posts

What we've learned from this:

- No politician should even attempt to use Twitter as a forum for debate especially when a degree of nuance is required.
- It's futile to expect any career politician with a chance of getting into office to say what they think, because the level of hysteria from either the press or the internet is ridiculous.

What we knew anyway:

- Diane Abbott is both perceptive and naive
- Ed Miliband is a clown

i partially disagree with Abbott about the whole "unity of representation" ish but like i said it's a tactical question not a "kill all honkies" manifesto

I mean really Diane Abbott herself will probably roll through this basically the same as before but this is the worst possible timing for this sort of manufactured outrage. The Steven Lawrence verdict has allowed everyone in the UK who hasn't actually murdered a black person or joined the BNP to pat themselves on the back and agree that everyone agrees racism is bad, they're not racist, there's nothing to discuss.

- No politician should even attempt to use Twitter as a forum for debate especially when a degree of nuance is required.

yeah this is sad; there is an awful 'explanation' in the guardian report:

Although her comments were addressed to Adewunmi, Abbott did not use the Twitter direct message facility, which keeps messages private. As a result, they were available for anyone to read.

as if it's anthony weiner's dickshots rather than part of a conversation. UNFORTUNATELY ABBOTT WAS UNABLE TO KEEP HER RACISM PRIVATE, HOISTED BY HER OWN PETARD.

- Diane Abbott is both perceptive and naive

She's never struck me as the sharpest tool in the box

this is stupid.

Here be Health and Safety Monsters

"White people love playing 'divide & rule' We should not play their game #tacticasoldascolonialism."

twitter hashtags are the most banal thing ever and possibly the most pass/agg thing ever when they consist of #compoundphraseshighlightingenemiesnotionalfaults

Guardian commenter OTM:

Note to stupid Prime Minister. Cutting back on Health and Safety in the workplace is only a benefit to badly run businesses and makes it harder for well run, conscientious businesses to compete with them on costs.

We do not need more badly run businesses, we need more well run, innovative businesses creating long term value and spreading it around.

Rubbish small businessmen who don't care about their staff or customers are amongst his core voters tho

Janet Daley, Katherine "Auntie Tom" Berbalsingh - all the rats coming out of the woodwork to have a go at Abbott.

Apologise. All this fucking country does is apologise. Why? Because our politicians are frightened of a few newspaper editors who'll tell some of their batshit right-wing readers to keep voting Tory. None of them has the balls to tell them to fuck off. Even after the phone-hacking non-business, nobody has the fucking COURAGE to stand up for what they're supposed to believe in, if indeed they believe in anything beyond their own pathetic "career." To say, fine, go ahead and slag us off, we're not changing, if people base their vote on what Paul Dacre tells his slaves to say then they deserve the government they'll get.

And Abbott should have the guts to walk away from Labour until it becomes a proper socialist party again.

Has a paper gone with the text-vote poll question "Do you think the Leveson enquiry is a lot of hot air about nothing?" ...

yet?

xp Would be interesting to see if Abbott could hold on to her seat as an independent. Pretty sure she would. This was probably always intevitable - she's not always careful with her words and she's a lightning rod for the right-wing. I'd imagine she'll settle back into being a "difficult" Labour back bencher rather than a member of the shadow cabinet before long.

Not sure i buy her explanation of the context. She's right in relation to race and the 'white people' in power but divide and rule extends far beyond that. It's the hallmark of this government and the ones before it. It's time people started calling them on it.

has dorian's piece been linked to on this thread yet? it's excellent. http://33revolutionsperminute.wordpress.com/2012/01/05/racism-vs-racism-why-diane-abbott-was-right/

That's 100% otm. Very good stuff.

btw evening standards billboards helpfully pointing out that dianne abbot is the "black MP". also, tweeter at that insufferable dickhole alastair campbell points out that racism is prejudice+power, not just prejudice. also, fuck the world.

would join a march to argue that colonialism/racism still exists and hasn't been solved by some murderers getting put away for a crime committed 8 years ago and maybe we should tackle it rather than just dust it under the carpet?

ps campbell bleating on about how dianne abbot was dumb not to realise decent white people care about racism and are victims of racism too. IMHO decent white people are the ones who realise their relationship to racism goes deeper than saying "ooh, hey, i'm a victim too."

Read a horrific piece by some wind-up racist right-wing trendy Shoreditch-type who ought to know better, which I'm not going to link to here. Purports to be on Abbott's side but gleefully points out that she's a fattie and a woman and black and so must be a bit thick.

Just a bit of banter, lol wot a legernd etc.

Nice to see the BBC bring out Darcus Howe on Newsnight to give the racists, sexists and sizeists a chance to try out their bonus material on ageism and mental health.

i love Darcus

Michael Rosen, superb, on [Removed Illegal Link].

http://michaelrosenblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/start-of-2012-seems-to-have-put-race-at.html?spref=tw

...this and other related issues.

i love Darcus

I don't but his "She should tell Miliband to go to HELL!" was LOL + OTM

that Rosen blog post is excellent

http://p.twimg.com/Aie078uCMAAqkrl.png

:(

it's not like the 'a' and the 'o' are anywhere near each other on the keyboard

Freudian tweet

i assumed that was a Diane Abbott joke?

like ed miliband could ever make a joke

i know but surely somebody else has mocked that up??

it's corrected now anyway

god no, u can see from the comments that he did do it :O

haha no he actually tweeted that. then deleted/corrected

If he were a strong leader he'd fire himself

racist Miliband shd resign

Block Marks for Red Ed

hope diane's rung him up to give him a bollocking

Rung him up in the middle of an interview with Sky News, I hope

@LibDemPress Lib Dem Press Office
We can confirm that we have not hacked Ed Miliband's Twitter account. That's all him.
5 minutes ago via web

it must be bad when the Lib Dems are making jokes at your expense

Martin: Now Bart [mock cough] You must promise not to fall in love with me. [class laughs again]

Bart: Oh, now, Martin's scoring off me. Oh, that is it. [gets up on chair]

Good job he wasn't around when Les Dawson died.