Dianne Abbott as Labour leader?

[woofmarkthedog]

Really...

Dianne Abbott as Labour Party Leader, jezzus H is this some kind of joke

If there's one person whose whiney grindey voice has me dragging my nails down a chalkboard for light releif, it's her

Or is she the first of many potential bodies to be held up whilst the party treks through the frozen tundra of opposition

Vote "Dianne"

*waves dead seal on stick"

W**F

[HonaloochieB]

It's the voice as well as far as I'm concerned, never knowingly under-condescending.

Her habit of starting an argument with 'Oh come off it' also never fails to irritate me.

Mind New Labour might get lucky and one night she'll stick her head farther than usual up Andrew Neil's arse and she'll lose all direction and give up her ambitions.

The rest of them, ain't a large amount of cop either.

[katie1997]

..and those earrings she was wearing the other day. No way.

[womanofdulwich]

I would love to see how her son turns out. Labour/Tory ?

[RosieH]

I took her standing as a bid to encourage a wider debate and open the leadership competition to a broader spectrum than the bunch of male special advisers also on the list.

That's no bad thing. And it's good to see a woman on the list. And I like Diane Abbott. So there.

And I doubt that she seriously thinks for a moment that she's going to get the gig - in spite of what some grumbling centrists might opine.

[????]

I think she once in an interview in the Standard years ago was asked what was her finest moment was and she replied "an afternoon making love in a field in the Cotswolds"...that's got to be worth a few votes.

[Loz]

Not from the poor bloke who happened to be in the Cotswolds on that fateful day. And they said golf is a good walk spoilt.

[HonaloochieB]

???? Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I think she once in an interview in the Standard

> years ago was asked what was her finest moment was

> and she replied "an afternoon making love in a

> field in the Cotswolds"...that's got to be worth a

> few votes.

Quids, I'm sure the team involved will be more than happy to endorse her.

[RosieH]

Ugliness.

[Easties EL]

She needs to hit the tredmill and put down those cakes, before she becomes my leader.

[woofmarkthedog]

Vanity

Really I'm not knocking her achivement, two decades of her work can't be dismissed but it's her last hurrah before sliding into backbench obscurity. Yes she knows the system well but does the party need a political trainspotter at the wheel & given she was sat there as a counterweight to the living caracature that is Mikey Portillo speaks volumes of her standing .

Still good luck to her, it's a poison chalice she's chasing afterall

Indeed....

W**F

[SteveT]

Your original post woofy made me laugh out loud, a wonderful graphic picture, I'm still sniggering.

In my opinion we do not need political leaders either here or in Europe, as much as we need economic efficiency equivalent to that found in China and India.

Until we can compete with them we are getting poorer day by day unto bankruptcy.

Dianne Abbott and all the others like her are an irrelevance until they start addressing that elephant in the house.

[Jeremy]

China does not have "economic efficiency". It has an undervalued currency and a vast population to man their factories. It also has massive social inequality. It is not a model we can - or should - aspire to.

[david_carnell]

Steve - as a self-employed business man I'm sure you'd be thrilled to pay your workers thruppence h'penny a day to work in dangerous conditions and with little or no employment rights. I suspect that the Chinese "model" is greatly appealing.

Thankfully, you are not in charge of our economic, political or employment programme.

There are other ways to remain at the forefront international competitiveness - and it's not by taking notes from a Beijing powerpoint presentation!

[matthew123]

Saw her on Newsnight last night. If she is the kind of talent they have in the Labour party then they're going to be out of power for many, many years to come.

[woofmarkthedog]

Yeah but....

Imagine "Chinese" for lunch every day..

http://ideasinfood.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/mozzarellaudonearlgreyshiitakeciderchive.jpg

Wicked....or what

I bet Dianne would love that..

"It just goes to show how we are soooooo ethnically diverse; now chop, chop little man...I'm in a hurry..."

W**F

* tummy rumbles *

[woofmarkthedog]

Ooooo..

She's ( our Dianne ) getting a mild hammering as we speak on Vanessa Feltz 94.9 FM

Raaaaaa...

W**F

[david_carnell]

matthew123 Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Saw her on Newsnight last night. If she is the

> kind of talent they have in the Labour party then

> they're going to be out of power for many, many

> years to come.

Having just watched her performance, Matthew, what in particular did you find so unedifying as to dismiss the Labour movement for "many, many, years to come"?

[Loz]

I reckon Diane Abbott is great - she speaks he mind and her and Portillo on This Week are so good they make the programme watchable in spite of Andrew Neill.

But she's no leader.

[PeckhamRose]

Exactly, she's no LEADER, she's a follower, and Yes they bring it up all the time but she did put her kids through private school. And that means her heart is not left wing. She is also an ingratiating media tart and is too on the defensive.

[david_carnell]

Whilst I'm not a supporter of hers per se I'm willing to defend her in this instance. The accusation that she is not a leader is based on what?

You have to be a leader to a degree to be an MP - what further role should she have done to prove her credentials? Either you want someone tainted by their years as a New Labour apparatchik of someone new and refreshing.

Meanwhile, from last night's hustings:

Diane Abbott?s vocal and passionate cheering squad was joined by the rest of the audience when she demanded that Labour?s leaders ignore opinion polls and ?hold the line?. She argued that leadership is about knowing when to follow public opinion and knowing when to lead it.

She said she doesn?t care how many voters raise the issue, Labour simply has to ?hold the line?. It was the biggest cheer and the longest applause of the night.

I think the woman has faults, but not being able to lead discussion it not one of them.

[Loz]

The accusation that she is not a leader is based on what? [...] You have to be a leader to a degree to be an MP

To be a good leader of a party/the country you need to be tactical and diplomatic (which is why Berlusconi is such an appalling head of state). I just can't see that Abbott has these qualities. She is a capable and enthusiastic MP - I'd vote for her - but she just doesn't have the whole cv to lead the party.

[matthew123]

On Newsnight the two things that rang the alarm bells was Abbott wanted to drop our nuclear deterrant and increase taxes rather than making spending cuts. Abbott claimed she was a good communicator before bumbling her next few lines. Overall I thought she lacked depth and there was a touch of arrogance with some of her simpleton answers in regard who'd be in her shadow cabinet and team. When the interview finished she held a stupid smirk on the widescreen shot whilst Paxman moved onto the next story which struck me as her being totally out of her depth after Paxman's gentle questioning had in effect made her look a token candidate.

[david_carnell]

I'm afraid I disagree entirely Matthew.

I would like to see a commitment to nuclear disarmament and other candidates have also made murmurings along multi-lateral lines. I'd also like to see a debate about the balance of tax rises to public spending cuts required to address any budget deficeit.

And as for her answers as to who would be in her shadow-cabinet, I though it was a purile line of questioning from Paxman. Does that really matter at this stage? I don't care who'd she'd appoint - I want to know what she stands for first.

And "a stupid smirk"? Really - wow - such in depth reasoning for dismissing a politician....because they smile a bit funny. You'll be moaning about the skirt she wore next.

[SimonM]

Reading some of the puerile, misogynistic comments in this thread almost makes me wish Abbott wins it. But as I'd like a proper Labour government back next time I get reined back in by common sense. It's still kind of weird though to see the continued survival of a particularly loathsome brand of vitriol reserved for female MPs, be it Widdecombe or Harman, all the same.