To think Diane Abbott was off her face on the radio this morning?

[Ginlinessisnexttogodliness]

www.lbc.co.uk/radio/presenters/nick-ferrari/diane-abbotts-agonising-interview-over-policy-cost/

Fragrant Diane, she really is the kiss of death.
My toes are still curling

Diane Abbott is asked by ITN if she knows how Labour are doing in the local elections:

Reporter: Do you know the number of net losses so far for Labour?

Diane Abbott: At the time of doing this interview I think the net losses are about 50.

Reporter: There are actually 125 net losses so far.

Abbott: Well the last time I looked we had net losses of about 100 but obviously this is a moving picture.

Not much left to do but audibly sigh is there ...

She needs to be buddied up with Carol Vordeman and ordered to appear as a duo.

Came here to say this:

www.google.co.uk/amp/www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/diane-abbott-in-another-numbers-meltdown-over-labours-local-election-losses-a3531811.html%3Famp

She's just not up to the job. The thought of her as Home Secretary would be hilarious if it wouldn't have such dire consequences!

If she were in any seat other than the safest labour (never voted anything else) seat, would anyone vote for her?!

justanotherlurker

...but it's the media's fault for reporting it obviously 🙄

This time I am not sure whether she genuinely didn't know, or whether she was lying in some misguided effort to cover up the true scale of losses.

Neither is good. Either incompetent or full of mendacious spin. More likely the former, I suspect, but who knows with politicians these days.

...but it's the media's fault for reporting it obviously

Yeah pretty much having the discussion on another thread

John McDonnell has already blamed unbalanced media reporting of Corbyn as the reason they have done so poorly in the local elections. It gets trotted out by Corbyn supporters to explain away everything. I actually think they use "it's the media's fault" as much as the Tories use "strong and stable".

The media don't TELL us, they SHOW us. We watch Corbyn at PMQs and most of us are disappointed. We HEAR Diane Abbott on the radio and SEE her on TV and are gobsmacked at her inability with even basic stuff. And they want us to think these people could be a credible government when they can't be a credible opposition.

There are some good Labour MPs. But none on their front bench.

id love someone to ask them how they think Blair was able to win 3 elections in this country. I even think some of Corbyn's policies could be vote winners if they were better researched and explained.

NoLottery I agree with you there. Not all the policy is a problem. But Corbyn and the front bench are a problem and it's gone too far to turn that around. Sure, the media are overall hostile to left wing ideas. That's not going to change. Labour needs to stop crying about it and work on a disciplined, ambitious media strategy of their own to deal with that - as Blair did.

The thing is Blair did have left wing ideas, despite his New Labour apparently centrist spin and Iraq debacle. His government brought in the minimum wage for example. That's what drives me mad about what's happened - left-wing policies could be popular, and a lot of people want a genuinely left-wing, major party option. Just not dogmatic, stuck-in-the-80s, obnoxious and inflexible leftism.

The SNP have shown that getting private companies out of assessing PIP for example can be a vote winner. It needs more competent explanation. Same with increasing police numbers - should be a vote winner IF the top team had any real credibility.

@ShatnersWig you are spot on.
Yes the media are anti Corbyn, but his response is irritatingly low key if that. Labour needed to come out of the blocks fighting, explain their (often sensible ) policies in a compelling and clear manner. They can't seem to get any decent body blows in against the Conservatives who are getting away with murder. May et al are metaphorically walking around wearing sandwich boards which read "yep, you're stupid and selfish and we're rinsing you Joe Public."
It's so frustrating, I feel so utterly despondent

rosegold I absolutely couldn't believe that second interview.

We lost 50 seats at the time of this interview
It was 120
It was about 100 last time I looked.

Almost expect Jeremy Beadle to jump out.

The media are anti Corbyn because he has said and done as leader and before which is, of itself, very negative and worthy of reporting. Like Trump.

Nick Ferrari was just about the worst person Abbott could have picked ro commit the world's worst political gaffe. The arrogance and incompetence of the woman is staggering. Kind of " Im Diane Abbott and I dont need to prepare my facts, I can spout any old crap and you have to listen to ne and not question my authority"

Sending her DC to private school was the nail in her coffin as far as I was concerned.

Ferrari quickly sensed that she was in deep deep doo-doos and just sat there and let her do the heavy lifting. He is a bloody good political interviewer

He asked her a simple question and she dug her own grave. It was beyond toe curling.

I don't think ferrari could believe his luck. You can see him looking around as if to say 'can you believe this?'

The seats lost interview - so was she lying when she said 50? Or does she not know that 100 is bigger than 50? The message anyway is clear - do not believe anything I say. I am beyond despondent. And occasionally furious.

The media are not anti Corbyn they just keep reporting the stupid things he has done/said and continues to do/say. DA being a case in point, its not the medias fault that JC et al are numpties.

She must have gone to the Robert Maxwell School of Politics. I remember reading an article about him and his dodgy way with numbers. The hack went to a presentation by Maxwell which was very slick and full of impressive numbers. The room was excited by the talk but the hack knew RM's modus operandi and said flatteringly "that was good" and then "could you just run the numbers past us again". Maxwell then spouted, equally convincingly, a different set of statistics - he just made it all up on the spot!

I disliked her anyway, but in that LBC interview she comes across as unbelievably stupid.

The media are not anti Corbyn they just keep reporting the stupid things he has done/said

What stupid thing has Corbyn said? Can you give some examples?
There are things you probably disagree with - but what stupid things has he said?

Is there no one else to do the Labour Party interviews? Someone who is charismatic and astute. None of them makes me want to vote for them. I mean none. To be honest I don't have any politician I like at the moment. They all irritate me. Maybe not as bad as ukip but they all boil my piss.

For Diane's level, does she not have an assistant?

They are all coming across very disorganised and not knowing what is going on every where. Can't they hire people to help? Jeremy Corbyn sitting on the train floor was bad enough. (It's not because the train was full, but luck of organisation). It just got worse and worse. I don't understand the Labour Party at the moment and what their aim is. They are definitely not helping themselves at all.

I would be happy if there was another party formed. Start a fresh. This Labour Party makes my mind boggles.

The only answer I can think of is that they are all not talking. Which means information is not passing through to whoever it's meant to. They are just not sharing ideas.

She must have gone to the Robert Maxwell School of Politics. I remember reading an article about him and his dodgy way with numbers

I wonder if Theresa May was there as well. Schools are suffering a real funding crisis. Her response is that schools have a record level of funding. Yes, but that's because there are more pupils. Actual money being spent on actual education in schools is decreasing.

Still, the media don't mention that, do they?