I happened to catch This Week last night on the Beeb, and noticed that Diane Abbott had re-appeared next to Michael Portillo on the sofa. She’s been off campaigning for the Labour leadership, apparently.
Speaking personally, I have no major feelings either way on her, or her chances of winning the leadership. Frankly, I don’t care much either, except inasmuch as if either she or the dreadful Ed Balls wins, Labour will be lucky to ever see power again, which is a good thing. I have, however, not a lot of respect for her, believing her to be both a champagne socialist and a hypocrite.
In what later transpired to be the first grilling being given to the aspiring candidates (Andrew Burnham next week apparently), Andrew Neal launched into her without warning. Given the fact that she’s been treated rather benignly on This Week all these years as a panellist, this was somewhat surprising.
Watch her facial expressions in the attached video; she’s firstly surprised, then puzzled, and then, clearly, furious. He started off with her taxi expenses, then hit her with barely-concealed accusations of racism, followed by her views on unilateral nuclear disarmament. She was all over the place, and totally failed to deal with it convincingly. She doesn’t come out of it too well, to say the least… It will be interesting to see how she deals with some more, er, robust questioning…
I can’t see her coming out of this leadership contest too well, frankly. The relevant extract is below. Enjoy; I did…
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3 Comments
I also happened to catch this last night, quite by chance. Absolutely brilliant. I couldn’t quite believe that he laid in to her as he did – as you say, they’re usually very nice to her on This Week, but seeing her struggle hugely with what were eminently sensible questions to ask was just fantastic. She shouldn’t ever (though for the reasons you give, I’d be happy if she did) lead any political party. She clearly expected an easy ride and definitely didn’t get one. Two thumbs up for Andrew Neal!
PS. Portillo sitting quietly and happily next to her without saying a word is class! SirSkunk(Quote)
Portillo was pissing himself! Class! lsb(Quote)
“I’ve got nothing more to say”
No worries, Dianne. I think you’ve said more than you can chew on!
Made my day, thanks! HA(Quote)