Will anyone else miss Diane Abbott on This Week?

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I thought she was ideally suited for that show - you wouldn't expect her and Michael Portillo to get on, but they do! I don't think it is possible for them to sit any closer on that sofa without climbing on top of each other! And she was so gloriously dismissive about anything and everything, with those rolling eyes.

Hazel Blears was a terrible replacement, especially after her expenses. Caroline Flint was better but still not nearly good enough as a replacement for Diane!

And that Lib Dem woman Julia Goldsworthy couldn't even hang onto her seat - why is she invited on? If they are going for ex-Lib Dems they could at least go for someone with some personality, and get Lembit in there...

No, I am not white.

Racism is treating people differently based on the colour of their skin. White people can be racist, black people can be racist, brown people can be racist. The motivations and/or provocations can be wildly different but racism is racism.

I don't see that as a "white-identified attitude".

I have experienced genuine racism, and I have experienced people playing the race card. Sometimes the line between is blurry, sometimes it isn't.

I dozed off and missed most of the interview but saw her refusing to answer. Politicians should be able to talk their way out of a paper bag whatever questions they are asked. People used to praise Jefrrey Archer. I remember watching a documentary about him and was shocked to see that he was unable to answer some awkward questions. His tactics were to clam up and just gaze silently and refuse to say a word. For me, on top of all of his other failings, that was the final straw. How on earth anyone could give him a senior position was beyond me. LFN what did you think about Archer?

I can understand why Diane Abbott feels the way she does - how such views can build up over years and decades - but she is wrong.

Ultimately she seems to see absolutely everything through the lens of Hackney - which is perfectly understandable - but Britain is not Hackney.

claig Unfortunately I don't really remember him that well - I wasn't nearly as interested back then!

you're lucky you never saw that interview. He was like a 6 year old.

LFN as an aside what do you think of Peter Hitchens?

dittany

I'm not offended - I just said it was a perfectly legitimate question to put to her. And I certainly don't think Andrew Neil was being racist by raising it.

As for "white supremacism", there is always a time lag between demographic change and the percolation of that demographic change to the echelons of power.

claig He's a polemicist, and does what all polemicists do. He is good at his job of whipping but absolutely awful at policy.

The BBC loves putting people like Peter Hitchens, Richard Littlejohn and Melanie Philips on Question Time to try to paint rightwingers as loony-tunes. Why can't they use sensible columnists like Danny Finkelstein?

Sorry that should be "whipping up a populist frenzy" don't know what happened there.

yes I like Finkelstein he is always good on Newsnight. I like the other 3. Hitchens is very clever, knows all the arguments, but somehow I don't think he believes in what he says. He recommended people not to vote for Cameron. He used to be an old Trot like his brother, I sometimes wonder whether he still is

claig I suspect you and I are very different types of Conservative.

I think Littlejohn etc. are awful. Still they are useful (as people like Caroline Lucas are for the left, and Richard Dawkins for atheists) because they keep the Overton Window moving:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window

I think I am more populist than you, I am a Daily Mail reader , the paper that tells it how it is.

Yes that Overton window sounds a bit like political correctness. Littlejohn is extrememly clever and populist at the same time. His wit and skill with language is able to prick the pomposity of the progressives. Mark Steel is similarly brilliant for the left, but is less populist.

dittany Offence is in the eye of the beholder.

I don't see how Diane Abbott's racism affects me particularly, seeing as she will never be in a position to act upon it - and she isn't being particularly malicious to non-black mothers, though she is being dismissive and discriminatory. Anyway, I don't care enough to take offence but can see how many might.

And comparing Britain to apartheid South Africa is silly. We are a genuine democracy where everyone over the age of 18 can vote and take part in the political process. The mechanisms of cultural and political change in a country like Britain or America are completely different to those in a country like South Africa.

I should clarify that I meant it was fatuous to compare Britain now to apartheid-era South Africa.

Anyway I always stay up way too late on a Thursday... off to bed, goodnight all

goodnight, I'm off too

Oh dear... Andy Burnham slagging off IDS after that awesome Question Time! And that massive party political broadcast for his moment of the week... He really doesn't seem to "get" the purpose of the programme, does he?