You’d assume that political programming from our public broadcaster had one key aim – namely to inform the public. Instead, it seems like a battle between Labour Party politicians and BBC journalists over who understands politics (in the context of Diane Abbott) the least:
Says a lot that Laura Kuenssberg, theoretically one of the top political journalists in the country, doesn't know this – but ordinary people on Twitter do. https://t.co/0YcCUmA6qR
— Marl Karx (@BareLeft) March 17, 2024
Of course, it could also be that these people – and this may shock you – will say literally anything to promote their own agenda.
Rapid-fire ignorance
In the clip being discussed above, Laura Kuenssberg asks:
Should Diane Abbott be allowed be allowed back into the Labour Party. I mean it’s nearly a year that she’s been investigated for a letter that she wrote to the papers.
As many pointed out, Abbott is still in the Labour Party; she’s just suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party:
Harriet Harman says it would be a real shame if Diane can't end her political career as a Labour party member.
erm, Diane is a Labour member right now. Starmer personally took the whip off her, theres no independent investigation going on, & he could restore it any time he wants pic.twitter.com/pHG9TxpXys
— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) March 17, 2024
As a Black woman, and someone on the left of the Labour Party, I have unfortunately been forced to reach the conclusion that I will not get a fair hearing from this Labour leadership. pic.twitter.com/jZjVCJxeVW
— Diane Abbott (@HackneyAbbott) September 19, 2023
If you’re not clear on the difference, you could liken her to a football player who’s signed to a club but suspended from playing with the team.
Continuing with the tortured football metaphor, Harriet Harman wasn’t going to standby and let Kuenssberg get away with such a blatant foul. However, in retaliation she fouled herself, claiming:
Well we’ve got an independent complaints procedure, and I don’t like to second guess them.
Labour does claim to have an independent complaint process. How independent it is has been strongly drawn into question – especially when you compare the treatment of Abbott to other MPs (more on that later):
More than one press report that I will not get the whip back because my tweets are critical of the leadership. This is from Starmer himself, who has already pronounced my guilt plus his staff. Making a mockery of the claim that 'process must be followed.'https://t.co/kNuhDbK1Cr
— Diane Abbott (@HackneyAbbott) March 15, 2024
I will not get the whip back because my "attacks on the leadership have if anything intensified." This is the leadership's real agenda.
(Courtesy of the BBC). pic.twitter.com/GhP1yWEiQw
— Diane Abbott (@HackneyAbbott) March 15, 2024
Maybe it’s all in retaliation for this exchange back in 2015:
@Keir_Starmer You are a lawyer. The only way to vote against the bill is to VOTE AGAINST the bill. Abstentions don't count
— Diane Abbott (@HackneyAbbott) July 20, 2015
Fair play to Starmer for starting his career as he meant to go on – by superficially opposing the Tories while practically doing fuck all to challenge their agenda.
Party problems
Harman also had this to say about who the Tories align themselves with:
"There's a real problem with… big money in politics"
Labour MP Harriet Harman says the Conservatives "hesitated" in calling Frank Hester's alleged comments racist because they've accepted a "huge amount" of money from him#BBCLauraK https://t.co/elEsfwrz5F pic.twitter.com/juF53teTBI
— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) March 17, 2024
Kuenssberg puts the matter across like this (emphasis added):
your colleague Diane Abbott, who like you is an absolute trailblazer in Labour politics, she’s been under terrible abuse from people for a long time… she’s been clear this week also – in her view – Labour also has a problem with racism.
Why present this as ‘in her view’, when Kuenssberg could have pointed out that the Forde Report found:
The report highlights serious problems of discrimination in the operations of the Party, with evidence of unacceptable incidents of racism, sexism, antisemitism and islamophobia.
Why not point out that a year after the report, author Martin Forde KC told Al Jazeera (as reported by the Guardian):
“Anti-black racism and Islamophobia is not taken as seriously as antisemitism within the Labour party, that’s the perception that has come through.” He added: “My slight anxiety is that in terms of hierarchy, and genuine underlying concerns about wider racial issues, it’s not in my view a sufficient response to say that was then, this is now.”
Forde expressed shock that no one from Labour had engaged with him after he published the report to discuss his recommendations further. “I had limited communications with David Evans [the party’s] general secretary but that was about general housekeeping. I have spoken to a caucus of black Labour MPs in the Commons,” he said, but otherwise claimed he had not spoken to any party officials. “These are serious debates that need to be had in a respectful context and I just feel there’s work to be done.”
Was Kuenssberg being ignorant here? Or was she purposefully taking a well-documented problem and laundering it into a matter of opinion?
Here’s some more information on the abuse Abbott and other Black members of the Labour Party have suffered; We’ll let you make your own mind up:
We are all obviously aware that the Tories are a racist cesspit.
What their chief donor said, and the Tory response, is repulsive.
Diane Abbott has also been treated abominably by Labour.
Let's just go through that.
— Owen Jones (@owenjonesjourno) March 13, 2024
In response, Keir Starmer was forced to commission a report by Martin Forde QC.
It found "undoubted overt and underlying racism and sexism" in leaked messages, and evidence of a hierarchy of racism in Labour, with anti-Black racism and Islamophobia not taken as seriously as…
— Owen Jones (@owenjonesjourno) March 13, 2024
In 2023, Channel 4 News reported that Black Labour MPs thought there was a problem anti-Black racism in the party.
But they feared being expelled if they spoke about this on camera.
Can you just process for a minute how scandalous that is?https://t.co/LLwLF0KJvG
— Owen Jones (@owenjonesjourno) March 13, 2024
In 2020, pro-Starmer Labour MP Barry Sheerman joked about a "run on silver shekels" after two Jewish businessman missed out on a peerage.
This was just a flagrant antisemitic trope.
He apologised and – there was no further action.https://t.co/AZwuSMGaEV
— Owen Jones (@owenjonesjourno) March 13, 2024
In 2022, pro-Starmer Labour MP Neil Coyle made racist comments towards a journalist.
He also had a sexual harassment complaint upheld against him.
He was suspended – but then he had the Whip restored.
This is a farce.https://t.co/KfcIX0IAH7
— Owen Jones (@owenjonesjourno) March 13, 2024
Labour have also suspended one of their only other Black female Labour MPs, Kate Osamor.
Why? Because she referred to Gaza as a genocide the day the International Court of Justice put Israel on trial for an alleged genocide.
— Owen Jones (@owenjonesjourno) March 13, 2024
Labour trying to cash in on the Tories’ vile racism to Diane Abbott when they won’t restore her place in the Labour Parliamentary Party – or address their own anti-Black racism – is grotesque. https://t.co/kMGV5KVA73
— Owen Jones (@owenjonesjourno) March 13, 2024
Yes, the Tories are racist and sexist – but Labour is guilty too | Diane Abbott
"The Tories' reluctance to condemn attacks on me was shocking, if not surprising. But Labour has also failed to deal with the racism I’ve experienced at the party's hands."https://t.co/JR8BEKh40s
— Diane Abbott (@HackneyAbbott) March 14, 2024
Pick your poison
And so it’s up to you: are our political classes ignorant or dishonest?
In our opinion, you’d have to be pretty ignorant to not know it’s the the latter (or pretty dishonest to claim it was the former).
Featured image via BBC
