Tory donor openly states Dianne Abbot should be shot..

[VestibuleVirgin]

Frank Hestor reportedly said: “It’s like trying not to be racist but you see Diane Abbott on the TV, and you’re just like… you just want to hate all black women because she’s there.
“And I don’t hate all black women at all, but I think she should be shot.
“(The executive) and Diane Abbott need to be shot.”
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/frank-hester-tory-donor-diane-abbott-comments-black-women-labour-b1144631.html

Abominable, disgusting. Aibu to be incecsed by this?
Money allows all sorts of behaviours apparently, particularly if you give a lot of it to a political party.

There is no chance of the Conservatives giving Hester £10 million pounds back or donating it to a suitable charity.
We already know they'd take more money from Hester if they could.

No doubt Hester's on Sunak's peerages list.

Andy Street- Conservative mayor for the West Midlands and a decent man who used to run John Lewis has just said he would send the cash back. He is of course right. Morals should count in politics.

The "Maximum Political Damage" isn't the story, its how it has been handled.

A simple admission that he is a racist, his comments were racist and we disown them would have killed this story but instead they sought to defend the indefensible, with a series of ever increasingly stupid comments, made even worse today.

Don't the Tories take any due diligence checks on donors? incitement to murder & racism are illegal, bear in mind, he made these comments just a couple of years after Labours Jo Cox actually was shot.

Now the question needs to be asked, What did Hester gain from this £10m? the £135m NHS contract?

Want to know how the NHS spends (wastes) its money? Hesters TPP firm made £47m profit of the back of this software contract, paying Hester 22m in dividends..... a good return on a £10m donation.......

squirrelnutkin10 · Yesterday 09:12
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Personally l think Dianne Abbot lacks any intelligence, and should never be an MP on that basis, but the behaviour of the MP who said this is appalling, he should be sacked with immediate effect”

Do you know her? Had wide ranging conversations with her?

I do/have. She most certainly does not lack intelligence.

Seems an awful lot of money to hand over for zero benefit.

Well if he was hoping for any benefit then it should asbolutely not be forthcoming. That should be his punishment. He's lost his money and they've turned their backs on him. Giving it back doesn't benefit anyone but him.

Not turned their backs on him at all, said this morning that they'd accept more money from him.....

He has made a fortune of the back of his firms s/w contract with the NHS.... then gives the Tories £10m....

You don't think that is a little odd?

even if the donation is above board, what the fuck is the NHS (or the Government? remember Michele Mone) doing handing out a £135m contract that gives such a large return?

Ideally the story would have broken 5 years ago, but now is as good a time as any.

Part of the Tory’s current strategy is bamboozling voters with how diverse the cabinet is - all minorities are accounted for. This could work as well, at a time when I hear many minority groups saying they can’t cast their vote for the current opposition party.

What is potentially catastrophic for minorities, however is a party full of visible diversity, but utterly tongue-tied in the face of racism, Islamophobia, misogyny, ableism and all the other ills that plague minority groups. And that is when said diverse members are not being tasked with parading in front of us with the’Britain is not racist’ placard.

We are still vulnerable with a brown, Hindu PM in office, unable/not inclined to call out racism and urging forgiveness for a racist who hasn’t even apologised for being racist (not that apologies fix racism).

And to get it from the mouth of the Minister for Women and Equalities too. It’s as if someone reminded her that’s her post, so she had the sixth form intern bungle a line for Twitter.

Absolutely mad that they’re comfortable with folks inciting violence, misogyny and racism and think everyone else should be too. It’s like a conspiracy you can’t believe you’re witnessing.

Anyone who ever watched her and Portillo on the Andrew Neil show that used to be on after Question Time would know that she is clearly intelligent, articulate and funny.

The "Maximum Political Damage" isn't the story, its how it has been handled

A simple admission that he is a racist, his comments were racist and we disown them would have killed this story but instead they sought to defend the indefensible, with a series of ever increasingly stupid comments, made even worse today

Exactly. It shows Sunak's absolute dearth of political skill.

I'm appalled by these comments, but some of the subsequent noise seems to be "the comments were racist, but he's not a racist" etc. This has led me to do a bit of thinking in my head about what level of behaviour crosses the line for someone to go from 'being racist' 'to 'a racist'. Is it one comment? Is it a pattern of behaviour? Is it private thoughts? How severe does a behaviour need to be for that the person becomes an irredeemable racist? And at what point can acknowledgement of errors in judgement and harm done, with apologies to hurt parties wipe the slate clean?

Can anyone better than me give any thoughts on this?

It's killing or seriously injuring someone who is black or is a POC like Stephen Lawrence, then getting away with it due to a institutionally corrupt police force.

Hester isn't an MP!!
....though he may well get a peerage.

Here are some examples of MPs/parties who have been pulled up for racism

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-65365978
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12029702.abbott-denies-attack-on-nurses-was-racist/
https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/sites/default/files/investigation-into-antisemitism-in-the-labour-party.pdf

It's a shame that so few of them have the integrity to refuse to go along with such briefings.

Nobody has to go into media interviews to push the party line. At what point do we not expect reasonable people to stand up and say, no, I'm not going to be an apologist for a racist, I'm going to call it out for what it is.

At PMQs, asked directly if he will return a donation he received personally from Frank Hester, Rishi Sunak replies, "No" and says he is "pleased that the gentleman is supporting a party that represents one of the most diverse governments [in history]."

He is pleased?

When in a hole - stop digging.

I'll stick with the opinions of people who have direct experience rather than randoms on the internet who don't even know her main areas of involvement in government over the years.

There are plenty of genuine serial incompetents who are rentaquotes, but then you would be looking mostly at white men instead of a black woman.

Your arguments are so like Hester's "no problem with black women, its just this black woman" that its embarrassing.

He's not going to give back the money he took for his helicopter journeys either. Is that what he meant by governing with integrity?

@C8H10N4O2 - you make a lot of assumptions. Perhaps you might give me a list of actual achievements by Kemi Badenoch. As opposed to statements.

Like actual economic benefits.

Unlike you, I judge politicians on what they do. Not their PR.

It is impossible to say if someone "is a racist". You'd need access to the inside of their head, also lots of racists think they aren't.

You can only identify if someone says or does racist things.

Hester's comments were on the more extreme end of "says racist things" and should not be tolerated.

The fact he says "we need to be able to raise things in a lighthearted way" is also a red flag as that's a fairly standard way that a person can pass off their prejudice as "banter"

He also makes "bants" about people from India.

What nationality is Rishi's wife and two daughters?

I guess this is how Rishi got through public school.....

To me, the "should be shot" comment was crass and careless given that 2 MPs have been murdered in recent times, but it was more of a clumsy colloquialism than a downright evil remark.

Its the stuff about hating all black women that I have a hard time getting past.

It's important in legal terms to emphasise the banter aspect because had he said this in public and btw that's not too clear actually, you could assess it as inciting racial hatred which is not banter but a crime hence Abbott reporting it to the police. The "useless eater" inferences are concerning. It tells you how he thinks, imo.

Anyway, I wonder what the police will think of it.

Diane Abbott aside. he also plots to get a woman - who doesn't even work for his company - sacked.

god, what a stupid man. He has plenty of money, why does he need to get donations from a racist? He could pay for his own crap campaigns and helicopters or whatever the fuck that racist man paid for.