That’s a very good position for her. Possible future leader if she does well.
I’m struggling to disagree with this. I fear this thread will be at the top of the page every time she opens her mouth.
Genius by Corbyn. She will be the lightning rod for Jezza, so that he can get an easier ride. Nothing like working alongside a complete idiot to make yourself look good.
When I first got to Ireland, the composition of my team was rather different. The company had undergone rapid expansion, and were taking on contractors from all over. We had a guy from Boston working in our office, who helped me to get into my digs. He was amusing. Completely old school, didn’t know what he didn’t know, but got results with what he did. This used to offend the ostensible top dog in the room, a depressed Scotsman that sometimes used to give me a lift home.
“It offends me that he is paid money”, he’d say.
“You’re missing the point. We’re all contractors. They decide day to day whether we’re kept on. If they keep on keeping him on, they’re always going to keep us on”.
As it turned out, the Boston lad got a bit bored, and decided to do the offs and look for something different. I remember the December of that year. We were sitting in an office in Northern Ireland, being battered by the elements. Our American chum sends us a photo from his home in Fort Lauderdale. I reproduce it here.
That, and a combination of a really hard project (“It’s never going to doo what it’s supposed to doo!”) saw the Scottish lad run screaming for the mainland, I reckon. It was perfect.
The moral of this story is “always see the opportunity”
Where is bletch?
Correction from earlier. Nick Brown, the new chief whip, isn’t exactly what you’d call a staunch Corbyn ally. They’re on the same page as Trident.
Jeremy Corbyn has kicked off a shadow cabinet reshuffle, sacking Rosie Winterton, who served as Chief Whip throughout the Ed Miliband years, and replacing her with Nick Brown, who was Tony Blair’s first chief whip and Gordon Brown’s last, serving first from 1997 to 1998 and then again from 2008 to 2010.
It’s all good. But unless you’re in government, and can actually legislate then it’s all pointless really. Which is what i’ve been saying for weeks.
Martin Daubney (@MartinDaubney) tweeted at 7:40 p.m. on Thu, Oct 06, 2016:
Diane Abbott: calls 52% UK populace racist, now Home Sec
Sarah Champion: assaults husband, now Women & Equalities
Labour is beyond parody
(https://twitter.com/MartinDaubney/status/784101087380922368?s=09)
Yeah, I remember you believing that New Labour actually wanted to win a general election. They didn’t and couldn’t. Worry not TedMaul, if Corbyn does get elected you’ll have thousands of headline regurgitators for company.
I really hope he does
Originally posted by @TedMaul
I really hope he does
Do you honestly think he can’t beat what’s in front of him?
Labour can only lose this election by beating itself. If there are still Labour MPs that want to fuck about with internal factional concerns, they really need to make way for people who’ll fight the Tories.
And yeah I know Murdoch won’t be supporting him. That hasn’t mattered so far. I think that might be another bit of conventional wisdom that falls by the wayside.
I do actually agree with Corbyn and McDonnell, just not this “Momentum” bollocks. Corbyn is Corbyn, he’s had the same policies since the early 1980’s. It’s nothing new or modern. And i’m not New Labour, I detest Blair. I’m a realist.
I’m not sure Corbyn would be around without Momentum, or another group like it, to counter the forces that were organised against him. I understand the sentiment. I have exactly the same issues with Progress, but there are big differences betweeen the two orgs beyond the party-in-a-party superficial similarity.
Momentum supports the leader, a view shared by a large majority of the membership. Progress was (and probably still is) supporting itself and its own narrow, factional aims - irrespective of whether the ideas have any take up.
I’ve seen the Militant comparisons. Not only have I heard Derek Hatton reject them, but also Peter Kilfoyle, the fella charged with rooting Militant from Merseyside. Even if the comparisons were accurate, I doubt much if what was reported about Militant at the time was, especially considering the government’s trustworthiness on other aspects of its dealings with Liverpool.
Just out of interest, how do we feel about the fact both Abbott and Chakrabati have or had children in private schools? How does this fit in with the values that the Labour party are now pushing forward?
If only there were more Grammar schools this may not look so hypocritical…
I think all schools should teach better reading and comprehension to prevent the asking of questions that have already been addressed.
Sorry I must have missed that. I just find it very strange that Corbyn would have two members of his cabinet that contradict his persuasion like that. Best of a bad bunch I guess?
And the fact that Corbyn smashed Abbott’s back doors in.
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It’s not strange at all if you’ve been paying attention. He needs people he can rely on after the failure of the collegiate approach. She’s one of his staunchest allies. He’s surrounding himself with his allies.
What was he supposed to do? Ditch someone that had supported him? I think that would have been a bigger breach of Labour values than what Abbott already admitted to, years ago.
He wants a Labour government and calculates he has a better chance of winning with a team of people that actually support him.
What are you finding so strange about that, particularly given the history of the last twelve months?
Dianne Abott!!!
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You’re right, I shouldn’t be surprised at his hypocrisy as he has shown over and over the last year. I would not say ditch her, but I wouldn’t give Abbott such a prominent job.
It’s more Chakrabarti than Abbott though. Unelected peer and private school. Just doesn’t seem to sit right.