Abbott's hypocrisy

fergus pickering

And if it was racist, so what. Do not we true born English persons have the right to say racist things if we wish. Actually we don't but shouldn't we? Incitement to violence is an obvious crime, but racism? Or sexism? Or whatever ism it is that means you don't like homosexual people. After all, one can be a socialist or a marxist, and these isms are far more dangerous to the commonweal.

Wilhelm

Those who squeal '' waaycist '' the loudest at anyone and everyone are usually themselves the biggest waaycists.

And Hattie McDaniel look a like Diane Abbot is the biggest waaycist squealer of them all.

MikeF

Indeed, Rod, her comments weren't racist as you or I would understand them - they weren't immediately insulting remarks aimed at any particular group of people or individual on account of their ethnicity. They were accusations of mercenary or ungracious behaviour as a general and consistent character trait of the members of a particular ethnic group - in this case 'white' people. As such they were racist in the way that Diane Abbott consistently employs the term because she would scream the word to the rooftops if any 'white' person made a similar observation about 'black' people. Her words were, therefore, hypocritical in the way that you or I would understand the term.

S Arse

No not racist but hypocritical and a small light to hold up against accusations made of racism in others...

Eddie

Rod, time for a song (or at last a rap) methinks:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKRi6VyEv-k

All together now:

Diane Abbott, Hackney MP,
First black woman in da history
To win da vote and take da seat,
She speak up loud and turn up da heat

Yep, fergus, you're right: being racist, sexist, fascist, bigoted, or having weird or violent views is not a crime - yet! Acting on such views is. I sometimes feel that some people get suspended or even arrested because of the 'thought-crime' rather than the committing of any act though... And of course, plenty of black and asian people are very racist and bigoted, of course, yet do not get suspended from their jobs as white people would who have said similar things (cf Diana Abbott).

and I'll go to bed at noon

Actually, she's already apologised: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-16423278

Don't let that knock you off your high horse, of course. An actual example of Abbott unreasonably accusing someone of racism would also be nice.

Frank P

What keptcha Rod?

Mind you ... the picture is worth the wait, but the summary was below par - even the irony in the last line.
;-)

Frank P

What keptcha Rod?

Mind you ... the picture is worth the wait, but the summary was below par - even the irony in the last line.
;-)

Jack

Such would be true if Diane and her fellow race warriors believed in equality.

They don't.

The spurious argument over economic power and historical guilt is being wheeled out to justify the rejection of equality in favour of an expectation for enhanced rights, treatment and standards.

To argue for mere equality is, to the race warriors, a racial attack to be chased through the courts if necessary.

Biggestaspidistra

Ms Abbott is a car crash. What Mr Liddle and Mr Pickering said, all true. Personally I am immune to isms but prejudice hurts young people, like the young footballer in Liverpool. So he and others on his behalf should be able to whack offenders with a 2x4. Swift retribution and move on.

Jeremy

Lovely photograph. Robert Mugabe after he ate all the pies and dressed up as a woman.

Eddie

People who hate Dianne Abbott do not hate her because she is black - nor because she is fat and ugly, or stinking rich thanks to her media 'work' (her full time job surely - being an MP is just her hobby and something to raise her media profile).

No, people hate her because she is an irritating, silly, gobby, self-obsessed, vain, victimhood-clinging, politically-correct, white-hating, anti-British, anti-integration, intolerant, white-hating racist, slimy and sanctimonious self-righteous little hypocrite with one of the most irritating voices in politics, and a laugh that makes anyone who hears it puke.

Even the Labour party members I know hate her!

I do actually think she is a racist and does have 'issues' with white people - because she clings to the 'them and us' segregationist model of race and society, as put forward by Marcus Garvey. Everything comes down to race for her - everything. That is not a healthy way for anyone, black or white, to think.

Austin Barry

Blimey, Rod, that picture reminds me of an inflatable lady I bought in Mombasa styled the "Admonisher" for masochistic loners. Please take it down before the flashbacks occur.

Eddie

It seems a football player has burst into tears at being called a name this afternoon in Liverpool. So thousands of pounds and man hours are to be spent in finding the 'anti-social elements' who might have said something not approved by the self-appointed judges of what we can and can't say (I wish the average mugging got this kind of attention!).

If found guilty, the name-callers face public humiliation, loss of job and income, and possible deportation and banishment to a gulag in Siberia - or if their racial language is considered really offensive and bad, to a BBC wasteland called Salford...

Anyone else get the feeling that people are getting things completely out of proportion these days?

I do so hope any black people spewing racist - or anti-gay - abuse are treated the same - in the name of equality, of course...

Richard Bale

I am a WASC (Catholic) and am appalled by all the self seeking rubbish spoken by people in high places and others. We seem to have become a nation of hypersensitive inward looking PR dominated pigmies. What was a main plank of British overseas diplomacy for about 3 centuries?
Nuff said.
Richard Bale

Nicholas

She got away with it though and it was quickly brushed under the carpet. The tragedy of this is not what she said but the double standards in play. Whilst this duplicitous cow was achieving her racist hat trick (blonde nurses and black mums being the previous) the police were in full investigative pursuit of nasty things shouted at a football match. And if a Tory cabinet minister had made a similar remark about black people we would not have been allowed to forget it until he was hounded out of office.

You couldn't make this up but I hope socialists like "I'll go to bed at noon" are satisfied with the dogs breakfast of truth and justice that is the Peoples Democratic Republic of Britain they have created. Hypocrites, propaganda monkeys and manipulators the whole damn lot of them.

"Labour: Britain's progressive future" My arse.

WetherspoonThree

I have a feeling that Diane's phone will gradually stop ringing in the days and weeks ahead which will be a merciful release for all of us, but particularly her 'comrades' in the House of Commons tearoom and her 'ackney constituents. Lets me honest, there is absolutely no glory to be had from scoring a hit anywhere near such a ponderous target.

No, this week it was the calibre of the Republican candidates in Iowa that gave me the creeps and their frighteneing calls to the Almighty, the Family and Patriotism.

Diane's foolish utterances were welcome 'light relief' and an amusing distraction from the horror unfolding in Republican America.

David Ossitt

This fat, stupid, irritating gobshite, has for many years got away with her outrageous comments and condemnations of all things white, rich, posh (to her mind) because she is so obviously black.

She wears her blackness as a shield but also as a free pass to express her loathing of whites, conservatives, and ironically other less fortunate black people.

I have read somewhere that on a program (might have been Question time) she claimed not to know an individual, it later turned out that he was godfather to her child.

Tron

I heard a Black Labour MP on TV, when asked if Abbott's Tweet was racist, say "I think people use the "Racist" term too easily." Ha!
That's right, a member of the party that has screamed "Racist" at anyone who wanted to talk about immigration for the past 40 years.
Remember when they said Michael Howard was using a "dog whistle to racists" when he wanted a cap on immigration?

Labour, of course, tried to put a cap on immigration. But only when they were 20 points behind in the polls and 13 years too late.

Keep voting Labour, Rod.

rogerhudson

How she keeps getting re-elected is a complete mystery, I hope her constituent Ed Balls gets her de-selected.

Annie Allan

Blimey, Eddie, why don't you say what you really think?
BTW, Rod's column this week is about the breast implant hoo-ha. Stand by for accusations of boobism / titism / or possibly insulting Bristol.

DougS

I personally can't stand the woman - she's close to the top of my 'Super-Hypocrite' list.

But what she said was of absolutely no consequence and I can't imagine any of us 'whities' being upset in the slightest.

It was probably inevitable, however, that some would race (NPI) to take advantage and 'stick' it to Abbott the way she's 'stuck' it to others.

Michael Sweeney

The irony is she was accusing a black feminist of being pro-colonialist for querying those regarded as black 'leaders'.

It's all a bit Student Grant really. The left as a comedy gift that keeps on giving...

DougS

Eddie
January 7th, 2012 3:05pm:

"....people hate her because she is an irritating, silly, gobby, self-obsessed, vain, victimhood-clinging, politically-correct, white-hating, anti-British, anti-integration, intolerant, white-hating racist, slimy and sanctimonious self-righteous little hypocrite with one of the most irritating voices in politics, and a laugh that makes anyone who hears it puke....."

Stop wrapping it up in cotton-wool Eddie - tell it like it is!

ben

i fink there are ranbow range of areas that should b no go area when it comes to sucking it up unto people.U dont put people down cos of their race gender, disability d way people look or choose to look we dont give tongue lashing to people cos of their age or religion and ours is a civilised society people sexual orientation should b a no go area
d sooner we realise d society has changed nd begin to tackle d challenges but not only tacking d challenges but allowng d values it has brought with it to get accrued to us d better
i believe everyone of us has got smthing to learn fm these pls lets move on

GWB

Hey, let's just be nice to each other.

Reg Davis

Is she unwell perhaps?

Maybe a visit from one of those blue-eyed blond nurses from Finland that she's so fond of, would perk her up a bit?

Erica Blair

Diane Abbot was 100% correct, and most of the posts here prove it. Is Rod pissed off because his 'contemptible' attempt to get his mates off failed?

rod liddle

Noon - well, she put down a motion in the House of Commons which suggested that among other things i was a racist. Only one MP signed up and he later withdrew his name when he realised it wasn't true.

Erica - you thick cow, I was saying that she WAS right. What's the rest got to do with it? And they're not my mates.

David Ossitt

Is it not a sad indictment of how low we have sunk, that a poster here can think of using the words Almighty, the Family and Patriotism as negatives, as words to scorn at?.

Robert Taggart

'Cry Racist'... have none of those numpties who do so at the first opportunity (usually those on the left of the political spectrum) never read 'Cry wolf' ?
It was written more than two and a half thousand years ago ! Given such ignorance it can come as no surprise that Blighty (both society and the political class) be unable to discuss racial concerns in a balanced and measured way.

That said, DA, will always try to make mischief when it suits her. Time to 'make hay while the sun shines' and hope she withers !

Archibald

Diane's logic is impeccable. Impeccably bad. She thinks white people love playing divide and rule, and the black community should not play their game. So to tackle this she suggests division. She praises other ethnic communities for showing more public unity and solidarity, using the hash tag 'don't wash dirty linen in public'. What a horrific world view - that the best way to succeed and beat racism and prejudice is to close your community (a community defined by the colour of your skin) off from public view, as proven by some of the UK's more closed-off communities. Thankfully I don't think many people support her separatist views that define a community by the colour of its skin. A large part of her own constituency is mixed race, and must be dumbfounded. They should set up their own community immediately, the Skittles© 'Taste the Rainbow'® Community, so they can compete with the 'Black Community' – one that includes a Muslim Somali refuge in London, a Christian Nigerian taxi driver in Cardiff and a 3rd generation Jamaican businessman in Birmingham, who apparently are all in the same group. They must be thanking God(s) for Facebook.

Old Slaughter

Rod, love your work.

I was not particularly offended by what she said and hate the whole 'offence' culture. Particularly this being offended for other schtick.

However, please, please please, clarify that bit about what she said not being racist. Of course it was.

Nothing you have written that I have read has ever appeared racist, just so you know where abouts I stand, but how is attributing a personality trait to a race rather than a culture or class not racist. I don;t understand.

WetherspoonThree

David Ossitt @ 7.14pm

The Almighty, the Family and Patriotism are all worthy of our respect particularly in the private sphere. But not, in my opinion, when they are used casually by shallow candidates as a substitute for policy, or in a desperate attempt to persuade others of their virility or attractiveness in a political beauty contest..

ginger

Even more irritating than her voice
is her flinging her arms around like a whirling dervish, as she did on the Andrew Neil show. Hard to bear having to look/listen to her. Poor Portillo having to sit next to her.

Richard of Abbottabad

Can she not use the "Tony Blair" defence, pioneered on these very pages by Arnaldo and others? Namely, she's such a slobbering cretin she is incapable of knowing what she is saying or doing.

S. Griffiths

There are a lot of derogatory comments here about the appearance of Dianne Abbott.. what the hell has that got to do with anything (except devaluing and trivialising anything else you might have to say)? Far more important - and worrying - is what she said. It is astounding that someone so prominent in public life can refer to colonial attitudes as if they were still commonplace today. What more do white people have to do to convince the likes of Abbott? Can she really be so thick and ignorant not to have noticed the transformation this country has undergone in the last 25 years? For a race that supposedly still likes to divide and rule we are not doing such a great job. You only have to look at the number of mixed race couples and the levels of immigration to realise that. Hearing Abbott's 'them and us' rhetoric makes me slightly fearful for Britain's white minority (as it will become in the not distant future). Africa doesn't have a great reputation when it comes to looking after minority ethic groups (re:Kenya, Uganda) but, unlike Abbott, I think it would be an unfair and sweeping generalisation to use incidents from a different time and place to tar everyone who happens to be of the same race.

gerontius

"Erica - you thick cow, I was saying that she WAS right. What's the rest got to do with it? And they're not my mates."

Rod,

I have suspected for some time that you are Erica Blair. It's a good joke, but don't argue with yourself - you'll go mad.

Trofim

The number of people who suffer as the consequences of racism is dwarfed by the number of old people who die of ageism in our hospitals and in our community in general. But even sensible people now have been so strongly inculcated with the grotesque idea that "racism" is the most horrendous phenomenon in this universe and all other parallel universes which may exist. In the USSR only 30 years ago, a joke about Lenin was disgraceful, disrespectful and even treasonable to your average soviet citizen. As Brendan O'Neill says in Spiked online: "racism" is now our most salient secular crime.

john steadman

Hey, don't knock Diane - she serves as the embodiment of hypocrisy and wot Eddie said, and stuff,and, more importantly, to enhance further with pleasing regularity, my enjoyment of this blog.

Eddie

Has anyone calculated the damage done to this country - its economy, tourism etc - by the constant massive bleating on about largely-invented racism here? (Lawrence, the Indian student, football incidents). The media is feeding off this is a vile and exploitative, distasteful, parasitic way - inflaming tensions and causing the problem, in the first place!

There is very little racism in the UK - it is massively exaggerated. Why? Because this supports a whole industry and keeps lots of people in well-paid careers - and is also the go-to excuse for any bad behaviour by 'the black community' such as the Tottenham riots, mugging. drug dealing etc.

The EU released a survey a while ago saying the UK was the most tolerant and least racist EU country. Top of the racist bigot league came the southern Europeans (and I can vouch for that because I lived there once) Would a Spaniard, Italian or Greek be ostracised or arrested if he called a swarthy football player a bad name at a basketball match? No - he'd be congratulated, esp if said ethnic was a dastardly Turk!

Hugh Jardon

The word «Racism» was invented by a 1930s Marxist, Magnus Hirschfeld

In 1989 the Marxists realised that «class struggle» was bust and abandoned it in favour of «race struggle».

All Marxists require an «oppressor class» to formulate their theories. Instead of «the rich» now the oppressor class is white people.

That's why «racism» is a one way street.

«Racist» is a word used to bully Whites into submission and to justify their race- replacement and eventual genocide.

Marxists killed 100 million people for the sake of their «class struggle», so just think how many will die because of their «race struggle».

Only the nation state can guarantee the chance of freedom and prosperity for the masses, and this requires an homogenous population with a shared sense of nationhood.

Look at so-called multicultural, multiracial Britain. It is only being held together by huge state coercion through the race relations industry.
A viable society combining individual freedom, welfare and altruism requires a level of social cohesion only obtained through a population which is essentially an extended family.

How about the welfare state? It can't work if there are more tax-eaters than tax-providers. Simple mathematics.
Unfortunately the left needs to continue to import its Third World victim class in order to make its «race struggle» and as most of these immigrants are tax-eaters it's accelerating the welfare state's demise.

Don't be fooled by the Marxists. Bias towards one's own kind is perfectly natural and practised by all races and ethnicities

The Marxists can't win, man-made law will never triumph over nature,
All they can achieve is a huge pile of bodies, don't let this be your children and grandchildren

Daniel Heslop

@Austin Barry

Whoa Christmas is over, too much sharing! :)

Amanda

Jeremy at 2:08

:^)

Andy Gill

I suspect she won't be so eager to throw gratuitous accusations of racism around in future.

It would be like the pot calling the kettle ...er...you know..