Solidarity with Diane Abbott
JVL Introduction
The heinous abuse directed by Tory donor Hester, was finally condemned as racist, although not yet for misogyny and he has not been questioned about incitement to violence or hate crime and we are supposed to let it go because he has apologised for rudeness! Labour is not doing much better: “It was good to hear Sir Keir Starmer defend Ms Abbott, who lost the Labour whip 11 months ago for writing an ill-judged letter to the Observer. It’s high time she was allowed to sit again on the Labour benches, in a pluralistic Labour party” (Guardian Editorial)
Local residents and former office holders in her local Constituency Labour Party have issued a call for solidarity with their MP but eleven months on from her suspension over a letter she had written, for which she immediately apologised, nothing has changed. Black people note the blatant hypocrisy and double standards. The perceived threats to MPs from supporters of Palestinian rights led to promises of draconian restrictions on our right to dissent; what protection is being offered to Diane Abbott?
Even today when the appalling comments were discussed in Parliament, the Speaker failed to call Diane Abbott to speak for herself as reported by the BBC here and via Skwawbox video here.
LL
This article was originally published by Labour Hub on Wed 13 Mar 2024. Read the original here.
Solidarity With Diane Abbott!
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Yes she should have the whip restored, and Keir Starmer should haveinstantly demanded the police question Hester. Why didn’t he? Why didn’t Lindsey Hoyle let her speak? Only two weeks ago he was apparently so distressed about MPs suffering threats that he let the SNPs ceasefire amendment be hijacked by his own party. It seems to be different when its Diane Abbott. Every day you think political life ca get any lower. Every day proves you wrong.
I would like to express full solidarity with Diana. It’s total disgrace that Diana was not allowed to speak today during the debate which was about her, it shows a lack of democratic debate at the House of Commons. Plus a very bias Speaker in the House of Commons.
Why did not a single LP MP who was on the list to ask a question not stand up and say that s/he relinquishes their right to ask their question in order for Diane to be able to ask her? That’s what solidarity should mean.
Hester is a strange and asocial man. But then so are other tech co owners. His comments about Diane Abbot are disgusting. But his behaviour has long been known. However there is more going on here under the surface. Hester’s TPP and Peter Thiel’s Palantir are desperate to get the contract to integrate NHS hospital records. TPP make SystmOne chosen by half the GP practices in the UK. It empowers patients. I can use it access my full medical records with three taps on my phone screen and interact with my GP. It was designed to be patient and practitioner focussed. Palantir was allegedly sponsored by the CIA. It is said to be heavily infiltrated by Israeli secret services. Palantir is paid to use its AI engine to select targets for the IDF. They are paid to target Palestinians for the IDF to murder. And they want to use their AI to ‘manage’ NHS records in return for a lot of our money and access to the personal details of most of the UK population.
Is it a coincidence that Hester has been called out at this moment?
Alison Vaspe is absolutely right about Hoyle’s double standards. When, some ten days ago, he caved in to Starmer’s arguments about MPs’ safety (an argument rolled out only to deprive Parliament of the chance of debating a pro-Palestine motion), it was possible to believe that Hoyle really was concerned about threats to parliamentarians. Now we see that he is a faker and a liar. To refuse Diane Abbott the right to speak on an issue where she was a direct victim was outrageous.
And what’s all this crap about the investigation taking a long time? There is no investigation. What could there be to investigate? Diane’s office released a stupid letter to The Observer, which she immediately reopudiated and apologised for. That should have been an end to the matter. Instead the New Labour faction saw its chance and, backed as usual by the Board of Deputies, saw its chance to rid the Party of yet another radical socialist.
Fight on Diane! You have no choice…and, shoulder to shoulder with you, neither have we.
Solidarity with Diane Abbott an inspirational and amazing person who has done so much to fight injustice and continues to do so.Restore the whip.
I think we need a Real Labour Party asap.
Good point, Jenny. An MP making a speech in the H of C can, and often does, ‘give way’ to an interruption from another MP. I don’t think this requires the permission of the speaker. George Galloway was, like Diane, trying unsuccessfully to catch the speaker’s eye, probably in order to be able to give way to Diane.
The most striking point about Hester’s comments is their similarity to the things said about Diane Abbott by Labour Party officials opposed to Jeremy Corbyn, as described in the Forde report. There we see the same sense of visceral disgust and the same fantasies of physical violence. It is hard to see how Starmer can condemn Hester without putting his own house in order, which he shows no inclination to do.
I see from today’s papers that Diane Abbott has now made this connection herself. It is surprising however that this was not the first thought of everyone who had seen what Hester said.
Diane Abbott has been treated despicably for the last few years, particularly within the Labour Party and by its permanent hierarchy, Diane being racially abused in really nasty ways but then herself suspended indefinitely on a false charge of as if anti-Jewish racism for just making comparisons about the tiers of racism which exist in our country, with, as Diane as an example of it, dark-skinned and socialist-minded people regularly being oppressed.
It’s a bit off-topic, but I’m curious to know whether anyone else finds plausible – as I do – the suggestion that the letter to the Observer that caused Diane’s disgrace was not, in fact, written by her but was a clumsy first draft by an intern, rather mangling a discussion in the office, that was sent by accident and, being a mensch, Diane took responsibility for it and apologised for it rather than say it was someone else’s mistake.
Diane Abbott’s letter to the Observer was not antisemitic at all. A person of colour among many white faces is easily recognisable. Therefore, white Jews or other white minorities are not discriminated because of their colour as they blend in with the rest of the white people. That is the point Diane was trying to make. Actually, Starmer was just looking for an excuse to expel Diane because she is a lefty and an ardent supporter of Corbyn.