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

She's been a long time civil servant. Show some damn bloody respect.

It's entirely possible to be in a job for decades and be crap at it. Length of service does not somehow magically bestow someone with competence and gravitas. How the hell are you meant to respect someone who is hypocritical, sounds as patronising as hell and is generally incompetent?

She was a civil servant for a couple of years, 40 years ago.

No one has the right to make shitty remarks about her race or her appearance though. But jobwise, she is holding herself and by extension her party up for scrutiny and often, as today shows, talks total bollocks.

It was dire on LBC this morning. So unprofessional and embarrassing.

It couldn't have happened on a worse radio station.

Nick Ferrari and his listeners will have been rubbing their hands with glee.

Diane Abbott does get a hard time. I think women do get a harder time than men. They have to be better than men as a result in order to deflect the disproportionate criticism. My mum always told me this as a girl.

I think Theresa May is never good when put on the spot but does at least keep waffling.

What, so doing something (incompetently) for a long time deserves automatic respect?

She's an MP. If the public don't make their views known, how will she get any feedback? It's not a normal job.

(That being said, of course the public should not comment on irrelevant points like her appearance)

There are a lot of good politicians from all backgrounds in the Labour party. Decent politicians - who believe in issues and are articulate and passionate.

Where are they? Why have we got a crap front bench?

phlllis why the actual fuck should she be respected. If I had been as incompetent during a nursing procedure as she was in that interview a patient could die and I could be sacked.

She's absolutly awful and if she had an atom of integrity should have resigned over sending her child to a private school.

Fuck off with 'oh she's black/she's a woman bollocks. She's always been crap and reached a new low today.

She's been a long time civil servant. Show some damn bloody respect.

Who is this directed at exactly? She is a public representative and therefore it is reasonable that the tax payers who pay her wages have an opinion on her ability to do that job.
You can respect someone while criticising their performance in their job, that is not disrespectful.

orlantina

Because they can't work for Corbyn.

She's the gift that keeps on giving

If that had been OFSTED interviewing a member of SLT, that school would have been put in special measures.

I , for one, have never made a single comment about her race or her gender. Don't give a shit. She keeps putting herself forward (or JC is running out if people who will talk about his back of a fag packet policies) and she makes a terrible job of it.

It is a sad fact that I would struggle right now to name enough decent politicians from any part of the political spectrum to build a cabinet.

"Career" politicians are a terrible thing!

The awful thing is she's not a newbie either or inexperienced. She's been an MP for bloody years she's not a kid.

Absolutlry toe curlimgly awful.

This isn't about race or sexism, this is about the sheer incompetence of someone who God forbid, could be our Home Secretary in a few weeks.
Not only had she not mastered her brief sufficiently to answer the bleedin' obvious questions she was asked, she then gave answers that were nonsensical, inconsistent and just plain stupid. she tied herself in knots and made herself and her party look like fools.
Whatever you think of politicians of all parties, those who rise to the top are normally pretty intelligent with the capacity to handle complex issues and debate. Sadly Corbyn and Abbott are not. Corbyn has shown himself up at PMQ's time and again and Ms Abbott is clearly not up to the job either.

Orlantino
Where are they? Why have we got a crap front bench?

I'll tell you why, because some knob thought it would be a good idea to let 'Labour party supporters' SWP entryists vote in the leadership election. Complete fucking shambles!

DA was very poor today across a number of interviews. She does get disproportionate bile heaped on her, but also seems to get a disproportionate number of high profile opportunities, given her relatively modest talents.
My big disappointment is that this weekend was good for Labour. TM was robotic and very dull. Even Tory leaning political pundits said she was in danger of boring the electorate to death.
A chink of light and Labour chuck it away with both hands, this morning.
It was a woeful performance. She should have been withdrawn after the first poor interview.
Come on Labour, at least try.

the other thing is this was supposed to be a big floating vote winner - an appeal to voters who typically like more police, law & order - and possibly a good policy so it's particularly bad that she couldn't be bothered to get her ducks in a row before trying to publicize it. I'm sure a lot of people are now thinking, well, perhaps labour have some good policy ideas, but i doubt they can implement them.

pleased well exactly so.

I worry we are going to have a Tory landslide- Labour will then need to do some serious soul searching. Again.

TBH so many politicians have bad traits in different ways but fail us just as badly (attendance!!)

BUT this country has longstanding problems with meritocracy - it's always been patchy at best. DA lost her credibility over the school issue - it felt like absolute and plain and simple corruption. A working woman like us championed state schools, told us they had quality, she blasted those who went private. And then exactly went back on it completely - she conned us and basically said state wasn't good enough; it was like "good luck losers, and I never did care". Personal life over principles, simple as. When Labour pull up the ladder when will reforms ever come through? Hypocrisy like that leads to real corruption. "We'll help you...actually we're just here for the cheques"

She's had years to make it up to the voters and simply never has.

The reason I think she's getting bashed here is exactly on race and gender - we had hoped for more because she represented more of us. And not in how she looked only but in what she said.

Then she went back on it, and now is massively uninterested in doing the seemingly most basic parts of her job. As a Labour woman I'm gutted

The problem is that Diane Abbot is a big fish in a small and rather crappy pond.
I am ashamed to say I don't even know who the full Shadow Cabinet is. She's acquired a gravitas and presence in the Labour Party that her performance and attitude don't warrant, because there are just not enough contenders to the throne.

It's a total disgrace that she failed to prepare to any degree for the interview this morning, it's just lazy and arrogant. Especially given that it was Nick Ferrari asking the questions. I also think she will just have shrugged this mornings debacle off, as she seems to hold the general public in total contempt, talking to us and about us as if we were generally a bunch of morons.

Please it wasn't just SWP entryists that got Corbyn elected - there aren't enough of them. 'Normal' Labour party people must also have voted for him in large numbers. Not so surprising given how tired and useless the three alternatives looked. It would also have helped if one the two centrists (Cooper and Burnham) had stepped aside, but no, they both had to stay in and split the centre.

And agreed - she's on a LOT more media platforms than others, leading to more criticism