Thanks for this. Dianne alludes to the racism in the Tory party which preceded this weeks rightful outrage at Frank Hester's despicable utterances, like their attachment to the Rwanda scheme which they are clinging onto as if their lives depended on it. At the top of the article though, she points out - quite rightly - that racism in politics is not just an issue for the Conservative party but for Labour too. A couple of passages caught my eye:
"In 2022, the Forde Report – commissioned by Keir Starmer – into allegations of racism, sexism and bullying in the Labour party was finally published. Martin Forde himself is a distinguished King’s counsel. His report set out how abusive senior Labour party officials were about me in their WhatsApp groups. Among other things, they said that “[Diane Abbott] literally makes me sick” and that I was “truly repulsive [ . . . ] The report went on to point out that the criticisms of me by these senior Labour staff were “not simply a harsh response to perceived poor performance – they are expressions of visceral disgust, drawing (consciously or otherwise) on racist tropes, and they bear little resemblance to the criticisms of white male MPs elsewhere in the messages”. They did not actually call for me to be shot but the tenor was not dissimilar to what Hester said. However, to this day none of the individuals concerned have apologised to me, and the Labour party has not apologised to me personally."
The hurtful treatment she has received from her own party is clearly very important to her, as important as that which she gets from the other lot. So i would say that if we are really in support of Dianne and if we really wish to stamp out racism, then rather than turn on her for 'attacking Labour' or falling back on the old 'she wasn't very good anyway' trope, let's listen to Dianne Abbott and let her tell us what she finds hurtful because it's only by doing this that we will be seen to be serious.