What do you think of Lammy's comments on taking the knee?

[ForSnappySwan]

David Lammy has said he wouldn't take the knee for Nowak as it's just symbolism.

He was asked why did he take the knee for George Floyd, and he said it was different then because we were in a pandemic.

What do you think? I think he's right about the first point but don't understand what the knee has got to do with the pandemic.

There was another Labour MP on Newsnight this week who's clearly embarrassed that she took the knee and said something like "it was right then but that's in the past now and we shouldn't go back to it"

George Floyd was a man who had been in prison many times. He held a woman hostage and held a gun to her and unborn child. He didn’t deserve to die in my opinion but I don’t know why anyone would take the knee for him I feel very sad about Henry and his family

Taking the knee was fashionable for a time for people who like to be performative.

It’s no longer fashionable so Lammy feels no need to do it … nothing to do with Covid.

If other political leaders were taking the knee on this occasion, he would be doing it too - the hypocrite.

Kind of doesn’t help that they handcuffed a dying man though and refused to believe he’d been stabbed.

I wouldn’t either. It’s performative and silly.

Taking the knee to show solidarity for BLM after the death of George Floyd was very much of its time. It is totally inappropriate and unnecessary now.

In fact asking this undermines the whole fiasco of Henry Novak’s death which was ultimately about poor training, lack of empathy, thick coppers and incompetence.

There is a debate to be had in this country about the influence and unintended consequences of over zealous EDI. I’d rather David Lammy be pilloried for calling women dinosaurs when they say no to men in their single sex spaces. I’d like to see him get on both knees and beg forgiveness to woman who was raped and then gaslighted on an NHS ward because she was told ‘there were no men on the ward’.

Such is the widespread damage and devastation caused by wholesale indoctrination of woke EDI do-goodery instead of proper standards and common sense.

Good on her, she’s been great. That image of Rayner and Starmer on the knee hasn’t aged well.

David Lammy should stick to what he knows, like men taking hormones to grow a cervix 😆🤣

It was bloody embarrasssing at the time. Now, it's gone past 11 on the Dobly stereo dial of cringe.

I'm no fan of Starmer and Ginge, i think they are a pair of grifters but I actually feel embarrassed for them. What were they thinking? Along with all those high ranking polis who did the same. Oh and the premiership footballers of course .
It was utterly cringe worthy 🤨😬

Does he think these cervixes form inside the prostate gland? The base of the penis? I mean, just where does he imagine all this stem cell activity miraculously happens?

@Bromptotoo , I see; so baseless then. How broad minded of you.

This 100%.
I knew very normal people who stood on their doorsteps cheering every week.
Collective madness.

I’m not sure innocence or not makes a difference - nobody should meet their end whilst being detained by/in the care of police officers

The two situations are not the same. I’m agreeing with you.

Of course not. I’m not saying George Floyd’s death was not horrific and unjust.
Both deaths deserve condemnation.
But George Floyd was a criminal and Henry was an 18 year old boy who hadn't been in trouble with the law ( more similar to Stephen Lawrence maybe?) .

Absolutely

I take the knee for God and God alone.

Lammy saying about the pandemic doesn't making his actions make sense. I suspect I know the real reason though.

I thought the whole taking the knee thing in the UK was ludicrous. Performative, virtue-signalling idiocy.

I think it’d be the same if it were done for any other violent death too, but do understand people putting Lammy and others on the spot by asking them to explain why exactly they did it in the past but won’t now.

People of colour have faced plenty of discrimination in the UK. And still do.
It was overt in the and widespread in the 1960s .
Laws against racism habe helped to tackle the problem. But not wipe it out.

Taking the knee was performative silliness, with BLM. It’s still that. No knees needing to be taken.

So, I am not sure, at all, that they, and all if us, should noy be taking the knee.
So, originally it was an individual' gesture. Then became a symbol of fight against racial injustice.
If, at the present moment, in the present location, in UK, it means that the demonstrators wish the police and government to address the misuse of race injustice that the murderer's family used to attempt covering their backs in this case, then why not?
We have to address what the meaning of the gesture may have evolved into. It is clear to me that is not abour BLM. But about addressing the police failure in this case, and other cases where someone shouting, oh he has been racist to me, instead of a ptoper prioritising. Stabbing versus racial verbal abuse and a possible swelling eyebrow/ eyelid. What should we address first? The possible stabbing, right. But that is not what happened.
If this gesture is going to pacify the crowd, show that behaviours and policies (including the right to carry blades based on religion/ ethnicity) WILL be revised and corrected to ensure equality of treatment, fully independant of race, ethnicity and exclusively based on evidence in front of them. Instead of this bullshit of equality of outcomes.

I think they are only asking for the police and Starmer to show as much concern for Harry and the facts around his dead as they showed for George Lloyd, back in the day.

This is, yet again, another massively mishandled injustice on Starmer's watch.

I think it’s good that ( as far as I’m aware?) there hasn't been any racist backlash against the Sikh community as a result of one horrible individual.
All the backlash has been against the police for their treatment of Henry. And I think that backlash is justified.

I think this it’s really important that police etc are challenged on this

as an example, black mothers are more likely to die in labour and there is nothing to explain this other than difference in treatment due to their race. This has not changed despite the NHS spending a shed load of money on DEI.

if society wants to reduce negative outcomes due to prejudice then another way has to be found because the current DEI industry is not achieving that goal and, given this case, is potentially making things worse

Over 3,000 unarmed black Americans have been killed by police in the last 25 years. That's why people took the knee. Failure to understand scale is the problem here.

This is factually incorrect.

Black women are more likely to die during pregnancy and childbirth - yes. But there are many reasons for this.

Factors include systemic and implicit bias, socioeconomic and cultural barriers, stress from racism and perhaps the major one, pre-existing health conditions. Black women have higher rates of pre-existing underlying health issues such as high blood pressure, obesity and diabetes. Black women are at much higher risk of developing pregnancy related conditions like gestational diabetes and pre-eclampsia which places them at much higher risk of maternal morbidity and mortality.

It's largely virtue signalling. I doubt more than 5% of people who have taken the knee for any cause have actually done anything practical to address societal injustice.