Diane Abbott

[daisya]

http://www.politics.c...ter-white-people-jibe

Would be interested to hear what people have to say about this one.

[joggerjayne]

No. I'm going to COSTCO.

Any requests?

[tamborine]

I'm gonna don a burkha for Tesco; the PCs will protect me & I can park in disabled bays.....lol

[mickrog]

not a prob space cadet

[flip_flop]

If the comment was racist, I've got to say, as a white man, I can't say I'm particularly bothered - I won't be getting bent out of shape, swivel-eyed, offended and demand action, partly because this woman is a joke and partly because I just don't care. If a black person wants to make a sweeping generalisation about white people (and I suspect I'm going to get hammered here) I really couldn't care less.

I haven't been able to stand this woman ever since her 'defending the indefensible' saga of a few years ago. Part of her election platform at the General Election before she sent her son to a fee paying school, was the need to support the local schools in Hackney.

I can't stand this type of hypocrisy, but Labour seem very adept at the 'do as I say not as I do' philosophy when it comes to schooling their children - see Blair, Harperson and Kelly.

[ludwig]

Yes, I have something else to say.

Austrians are all facists with silly moustaches and one ball.

JJ - can you get me a case of Cobra.

[joggerjayne]

flip_flop ...

What do you call a French man wearing sandals?

Philippe Phlop

[joggerjayne]

Cobra ... like Indian restaurant beer?

[ludwig]

..I'd like to explain that my above post was in the context of speaking specifically about Adolf Hitler, and therefore not actually a generalisation about Austrians which it may have inadvertently appeared to be at first.

[ludwig]

JJ - yes, that's the one

[joggerjayne]

Although it's true in my experience of Austrians.

And don't forget the leather shorts!

[rojash]

"Rather a naive comment by her perhaps but not racist. Lots of people make ill-advised, sweeping statements about "white people" and "black people"."

Clearly, ichkeria, your definition of the word racist is different from the that found in most dictionaries.

[rockyracoon]

I've just seen the interview on Sky News where her phone rang half way through, she didn't seem to me to have any intention of apologising, the phone call as been reported to be fom a steaming EdM telling her to apologise. You shouldn't need to be tolld to apologise, it doesn't mean anything if you're told to do it, completely pointless. I can't stand the two-faced female dog myself but only she knows if it has racist undertones.

[jomifl]

I expect she will always be very popular in her constituency because they are mostly 'her people'. not that they would be in any way influenced by any of her personal attributes. That of course is not racism. Absolutely not.

[joko]

if she meant 19th century european colonialism, then she should have said 'used to' or 'in the past' or something to clarify her remark was regarding the old ways.

she claims she didnt because of the twitter character limit... her sentence only took about 50 characters...plenty of room to make sure that a statement, that she must have known could be taken as a racist jibe, would not be....if she had wanted or intended to...

as a politician she should know better....she is either an idiot or a racist.

[Gromit]

It is impossible to defend. It was either racist, sloppy or silly.

She was saying to the woman she was replying to, that she was falling for the 'divide and rule' agenda. This was clearing in the present tense. She was claiming there is such an agenda now. The excuse that she was referring to 19th Century colonialism is clearly not true. To additionally claim that it is hard to make yourself understood in 140 characters is also a feeble excuse. If she cannot do that, she should not be using twitter.

When she did the double act with on the telly it was always embarrassing. Despite her plump figure, she will always be a political lightweight.

[birdie1971]

It was a racist comment - no question about it. It described an entire ethnic group and accused each and every one of them as having an identical negative character trait.

I was listening to the Jeremy Vine shown on Radio 2 yesterday and during the broadcast, a black guy (who was a friend of the Lawrence family) accused every single white person of harbouring racist views. That was racist too.

Racism is racism. Just because the person speaking the words belongs to a particular ethnic group doesn't change that one iota.

[anotheoldgit]

As a white person I am getting rather fed up with being criticised in such a way, and yet are deemed racist if I retaliate.

On numerous radio phone-ins during the Stephen Lawrence trial black person's have phoned in to continuously criticise and stereotype white persons, and have been allowed to do so by the presenters, who generally patronisingly congratulate the caller remarking on what a good point that particular person has put over.

This opposite would never be allowed to happen, and if it was, instead of the presenter congratulating the white person for also making a good point, the caller would most likely be cut-off along with the presenter getting a little jittery in case he lost his job.