Diane Abbott to stand for Labour leadership

[Suffragette1]

We await to see if Diane Abbott can actually obtain the requisite number of Labour MP nominations to allow her name on the ballot paper. That also applies to a number of other potential candidates.

 

I suspect there may be a degree of kite flying going on at the moment.

On today's Today programme, she claimed to have the requisite number of nominations, from both those on the left and female MPs. Good for her, I say.

[Darth Vader]

She's further alienated her former supporters, in my view, by, when questioned on This Week about sending her sons to private school, saying, 'It's tough being a single mother and I have done what's best for my sons' etc. She's been in power long enough to have made sure that her local schools were good enough for all local children.

 

If she is Labour's attempt at a 'left' candidate for the race, heaven help us.

[redrobbo]

On today's Today programme, she claimed to have the requisite number of nominations, from both those on the left and female MPs. Good for her, I say.

 

Although I don't rate Diane Abbott's chances of winning the Labour leadership contest, assuming she will have enough nominees to enter the race, I would be delighted if we did at least have one female candidate.

 

I was on the verge of voting for Alan Johnson in the last deputy leadership contest. I know Alan and he is my partner's MP. But when I actually came to mark my cross on the ballot paper, I put it against Harriet Harman in the belief that our leadership team should not be an all-male preserve.

 

At the general election, I felt that there was a notable absence of top political women by all three major parties. Labour's Deputy leader is a woman and Theresa May has been appointed as the Conservative Home Secretary. Yet they were almost invisible during the election.

 

So, if Diane Abbott or any other Labour woman enters this leadership contest, I'll be delighted.

[Darth Vader]

.

 

So, if Diane Abbott or any other Labour woman enters this leadership contest, I'll be delighted.

 

I'd prefer someone who sticks to their principles. I do like her for not being 'lobby fodder', but it ends there.

 

I loved Ed Milliband's speech when declaring himself a candidate. I think he read the feeling of the nation extremely well. However, admittedly, I know little of him. He might be as unpricipled as the rest, for all I know.

[PC Brigade]

Unfortunately she believes that magic beans with nothing in them can stop you being ill.

[callippo]

You can make a case for Benn's 1988 leadership challenge being unrealistic (not that it was ever expected to be anything other then a focus through which the left could raise their profile). The 1981 deputy leadership campaign, however, was altogether different and but for the abstention of Kinnock and the group around him, would almost certainly have been successful.

 

thank the stars he wasn't and that Healey managed to win a contest for a post that he didn't even want, just to make sure that bozo couldn't get it.

 

had Healey won the election he really wanted, the 1980 leadership election, there's every chance the SDP could have been strangled pre-birth and Labour could have been back in power by about 1990.

[Treatment]

I hope that she does better than she did on her specialist subject, Jamaica, on Mastermind.

 

Even I know that Bob Marley never had a hit with '' It's not unusual ''.

[Bozo]

thank the stars he wasn't and that Healey managed to win a contest for a post that he didn't even want, just to make sure that bozo couldn't get it.

 

had Healey won the election he really wanted, the 1980 leadership election, there's every chance the SDP could have been strangled pre-birth and Labour could have been back in power by about 1990.

 

I believe it is only recently that Healey expressed regret at never being PM, while astutely observing "It is better for people to ask why you never were Prime Minister then for people to be asking why you were" (paraphrase). In that sentiment he may have inadvertently summarised the whole Blair/Brown succession dilemma.

[alchresearch]

I was on the verge of voting for Alan Johnson in the last deputy leadership contest. I know Alan and he is my partner's MP. But when I actually came to mark my cross on the ballot paper, I put it against Harriet Harman in the belief that our leadership team should not be an all-male preserve.

 

Surely you should vote for who you think is best for your party? The wording above makes it sound like you voted for Harman purely out of sympathy, to put a token woman on the list.

[julado]

Straight from the tap room its the cliche brigade. Have you ever visited the London Borough of Hackney? Walked past her house? I have many times and its tougher than anything Sheffield has to offer. She is in the thick of this and has a good reputation hence her vote.

 

Middle class? Of course she is on an MP's salary, would you prefer it if she pretentiously claimed to be working class?

 

Drop the tiresome "they're all the bleedin same (sups 8th pint)" cliches, they are deadly boring. There is variation and her vote and outspokeness proves it. Some on here call her a nutcase. Perhaps you would prefer an on message clonedrone? Do people expect MP's to be gods? Does anyone have a realistic alternative? Do her critics or the critics of any MP think they could get more votes? Independents stand in every constituency in every election. 99% fail and there is a reason for that. Facts not image or cliches please.

 

The point I was making was that she is standing because she is not the same as those who are standing for Party Leadership.....but underneath the female black exterior she is exactly the same. What "different" ticket is she riding on then.....female??? I think Thatcher put anyone off ever wanting a female leader again.....black???? We can all see that but she is hardly representative of the black community in Hackney.....or elsewhere come to think of it.

 

And as for have I ever been to Hackney....not that it makes a difference well YES...I used to live in nearby Tottenham - London Borough of Haringey (another predominantly black area)...and used to frequent Hackney on a regular basis for all kinds of things. There's a cracking kebab shop if only I could remember where it was....was a long time ago

 

My "interest" in Ms Abbott stems from the time when she was part of the local council in Hackney - at a similar time when Bernie Grant was local council leader in Haringey and Margaret Hodge local council leader in Islington. Like others I believed (before I knew her history) that she would well represent the black community not realising that just about the only thing she had in common was indeed the skin colour.

 

So this leaves me wondering about her original reason for standing for Labour Party leader....this being because she does not look the same as the others who are standing means????