YAY!!!! Dianne Abbot in the running...

[kittycat37]

I'm so delighted there's a woman there....about bloody time.

Just heard this too double hoorah

It is definately a Yay! She has no chance, but we needed a good strong woman and it should liven things up a bit.

I like Diane Abbott - she is honest, even about her hypocrisy.

But the only way she scraped over the 33 was by David Miliband, Jack Straw et al nominating her. Presumably David Miliband doesn't think Diane Abbott would make the best leader of the Labour party??

What a farce.

Still, I'm glad she's there. She will drag the debate in Labour hugely to the left, and therefore Labour will concede the centre ground of politics to the coalition.

And she's good fun too. I can just imagine the fun she will have examining her own voting record, where she has voted only for what she believed in, with the other Labour candidates.

How can Ed Miliband justify the 3rd runway at Heathrow? How can David Miliband justify voting for the Iraq war? How can Andy Burnham and Ed Balls justify their stance on ID cards? I hope she really makes them pay for their voting records.

Can I add my YAY!

Are we able to lobby our labour MPs to vote for her? Mine's a loyal "Blair Babe" though.

will entertain us but cannot win, surely. Wished that Harrier H, or Yvette C stood.

She's a token candidate... token colour, token gender, token 'leftie'. They've added her to the mix as a way to prevent accusations that there was only one type of candidate to vote for. If she won it would be the ultimate irony.

A truly excellent story from Iain Dale

"This came to me via a Labour MP who assures me it is 100% true. I've tried to get hold of Labour MP Wayne David to verify it but he's not been available. The thing is, even if it weren't true, the fact that you could imagine it to be true illustrates why Diane Abbott has a problem. The MP who told me the tale said: "It illustrates perfectly why I wouldn't support Diane Abbott even if she were the only candidate standing." Mind you, if it were between her an Ed Balls, he might have a problem...

Wayne David found himself last week in a lift in Portcullis House with Diane Abbott. There was a short silence until...

Wayne: So aren't you going to lobby me, then?

Diane: How long have you been an MP?

Wayne: Nine years.

Diane: And have I ever spoken to you in that time?

Wayne: No.

Diane: So why would I start now?

And she wondered why she had difficulty in getting 33 nominations..."