You are here: Home » News »

Labour Party statement on Diane Abbott Tweet

5th January, 2012 11:36 am

Tags:

“We disagree with Diane’s tweet. It is wrong to make sweeping generalisations about any race, creed, or culture. The Labour Party has always campaigned against such behaviour – and so has Diane Abbott.”

Update: Abbott is reported to have apologised:

“I apologise for any offence caused. I understand people have interpreted my comments as making generalisations about white people. I do not believe in doing that.”

Update: Paul Waugh has more from a “Senior Labour Source”:

Value our free and unique service?

LabourList has more readers than ever before - but we need your support. Our dedicated coverage of Labour's policies and personalities, internal debates, selections and elections relies on donations from our readers.

If you can support LabourList’s unique and free service then please click here.

To report anything from the comment section, please e-mail [email protected]
  • Martyn Findley

    Nothing to apologise for. Being offended now and again is character building. Please move on.

  • Why should she apologise for holding an opinion? Ridiculous that people (whether Diane Abbott or Jeremy Clarkson) cannot stand up, make a comment or a joke and debate it without calls for resignation and sanctioning. A politically correct society is not a free society.

  • Anonymous

    LOL 

    “I do not believe in doing that.” Except for when she actually does it of course.

    A bit like she didn’t believe in people sending their kids to private schools….

  • Anonymous

    Jolly good.

    How long until her next episode of perceived racism or hypocrisy? A shame it overshadows all the good she actually can and does do.

  • Barnie

    Her explaination of referencing 19th century colonialism doesn’t hold water unless non-white rulers don’t play “divide and rule” which is patently not true.  Her attempted cover-up merely re-asserts the racist element to her point.

  • Nina

    This is nonsense. It was completely obvious that she was referring to colonial race tactics and their lasting effect on British culture in the midst of a conversation about solidarity in the black community. I got that straight away when I read the conversation and I’m a white person from the Home Counties. The Labour Party could reasonably have said that she should have had a private conversation privately or it could have suggested that she should have clarified her meaning in a public forum but she certainly didn’t deserve a severe dressing down for referencing something that still effects people.

  • Anonymous

    You have to smile labour are laughing over the silly Tory MP who hires a Nazi Uniform demanding he step down, bang the Tories are now screaming for Ms Abbott to step down.

    If you were writing a book about how parties can shoot them selves this would be chapter one.

    It would be funny if both of these were not so sad

    • Anonymous

      Ah but dont you realise that one incident was a evil racist nazi conspiracy engineered by the tories to display their anti semitic views to the world (according to labour supporters). And the other one was a labour MP so enough said….

      Classic hypocrisy.

      • She’s wrong and being racist. However. This is one incident, not a string of them over a long period of time.

        You’ll cry equivalence, of course.

        • Anonymous

          Hmm, correct me if I’m wrong, but it is actually a string of racist comments over a long period of time.

          Stop defending the indefensible.

      • John Reid

        Best comment I’ve read in Ages SMConnell, It’s problably true of some of the people who joined labour last year on the chance of Abbott becoming leader ,Like Laurie penny and Sunny hundal,

  • tankus

     3 strikes and out  …….?

    Third alleged racist remark against whites in public (Jamaican mothers and Scandinavian nurses spring to mind …and a farcical defence to Andrew Neil’s questioning  ) in which she has had to apologise for .

    Can you imagine the howls on here if Nick Griffin said this against “blacks”  ……double standards and weak leadership

    tweets have context ? ..they are what they are !

    Too politically stupid to own a BlackBerry

  • Usual right wing scaremongering, if you look at the comment in context. A good example of why using twitter is not a good idea.

    However, her underlying point is right

    • Anonymous

      If you look at it in context it’s even worse.

    • GuyM

      Personally I think the British Empire was the best thing since sliced bread and think it’s a pity it isn’t still around.

      • Well of course you do. Churchill would have agreed.

  • So I wonder how many of those trade union halfwits who were DEMANDING Clarkson were sacked are now going to ask for Abbott to be sacked?

    I’ve enjoyed today, seeing the the left take one up the arse, perhaps the next time Clarkson or Starkey says something the brain dead leftists might think twice before demanding that person be sacked.

    But I suspect not.

    • derek

      Dianne, didn’t say anything about shooting protesters dead?????

      • John Reid

        I think Clarkson wasn’t expecting people to take that literally, otherwise he’d have been nicked for incitng hatred 

    • It is just more tit-for-tat political correctness. Ed Balls dressed up as a Nazi, so Labour had to find a Tory dressed up as a Nazi. Now the left will have to find a Tory to bait over some throw-away remark that they will exaggerate and misconstrue, just as the Tories have done with Diane Abbott. Alternatively, we just ignore this nonsense and get on with serious political business, like Iran’s threats to blockage the Strait of Hormuz to bring down the global economy – you know, the stuff that happens in the real world and not on Twitter.

    • I’d thank you for not sharing your personal fetishes.

      And no, Clarkson SHOULD be sacked for his REPEATED offences. If Abbot repeated herself, then sure she should be fired. But there’s a difference between one and many, which I know is hard math…

      • John Reid

        But abbott has said many commetns over teh years,1987 (All white people are racist) which was taken out of context) Chariman Mao did more good than harm, finnish nurses, Sending her kids to private schools as,As A black mother she had a right to give her kids A better education than white ones, White boys.. among other
        regarding Martin Findlay saying it’s O.K to be offended, now move on, Cameron has apoloigsed for his comment on Touretts, Now move on.

  • Anonymous

    “It was completely obvious that she was referring to colonial race tactics and their lasting effect on British culture in the midst of a conversation about solidarity in the black community.”

    Laughable.

x

LabourList Daily Email

Everything Labour. Every weekday morning

Share with your friends










Submit