to ask why several prominent members seem to have vanished?!?

Really mostlyharmless? I defended David Lammy when there were calls for him to be deselected for attending the Jewish demo, I had no reason to say he was a black politician

The women in the past who pioneered the way for women of all races to have equality in careers, financial affairs, child custody and voting rights took a lot of stick too. Was that OK because they were not black?

It is you who keeps bringing race into the discussion mostlyharmless.

Annie:
I wish to say as a Labour Party member for 50 years, unbroken membership, I disassociate my self from the far left posters here, they certaintly do not speak for all labour supporters, they speak for the biggest danger to the Labour Party and this country, the hard left

Annie are you seriously calling me a hard left supporter? Just because I defend a black female politician!
LOL.

You twisted her post but I think she was gracious in her response
Very much so imo.

Good for her, and well done.

But you also said "You seem to think vile abuse and death threats to politicians should be the norm." which was not what I said at all, and that was not well done of you. If I were a snowflake I would take offence at that misinterpretation and report it.

However I shall just repeat that racial or misogynistic abuse and death threats are not on toward ANY politician, just as they are not on toward any private individual. Neither is abuse based on the supposed personal character deficiencies which have led them to their political affiliations (The "All Tories hate the poor", or "All Socialists hate businessmen", mantras)

Comment on how well/badly they are doing the job they are employed for (by the taxpayers!) is legitimate, whatever their race, sex, faith or political affiliation. That goes for Diane Abbott, Jeremy Corbyn, Theresa May and all the rest of them.

I am not defending Mandy Richards POGS.

Crossed posts obviously Jalima.

mostlyharmless

And you ended your post to Elegran with-

"You seem to think vile abuse and death threats to politicians should be the norm. Police can sometimes prosecute these abusers if they can track them down."

You twisted her post but I think she was gracious in her response .

Diane Abbott was a pioneer for black women.
She certainly was and there was a lot of praise for that on GN, even from those who would not support her party. However, her dismal performances on tv last year were very worrying indeed.
The same remarks would have been made had she been a white Shadow Minister not on top of her brief (and not even able to add 2 + 2.)

Social media is not just Gransnet!
Did I not just say that in my post?

I said:
I think if you look into it Elegran you will see that Diane Abbott is constantly abused on social media with misogynistic and racist abuse of the very worst kind. Far worse than other prominent politicians.

Social media is not just Gransnet!

No death threats on Gransnet thankfully. But I’m saying that persistent abuse of specific people could be interpreted as bullying tactics or even racism. Diane Abbott was a pioneer for black women.

You seem to think vile abuse and death threats to politicians should be the norm. Police can sometimes prosecute these abusers if they can track them down.
That is just a ridiculous remark mostlyharmless.

I think if you look into it Elegran you will see that Diane Abbott is constantly abused on social media with misogynistic and racist abuse of the very worst kind. Far worse than other prominent politicians.
Perhaps there is out there on social media but I doubt that Gransnetters would be frequenting those kind of vile sites. Certainly there has never been any abuse of that type on Gransnet - and if there had it would have been deleted pdq and rightly so.

There was concern and discussion on GN when Diane seemed to be losing the plot in interviews on tv and appeared to have no grasp of her facts or figures and people wondered if she was ill or just not up to the job any longer.

To claim any critcism of Diane Abbott is racist is using the racist card, shame on you . I am off this thread .

I wish to say as a Labour Party member for 50 years, unbroken membership, I disassociate my self from the far left posters here, they certaintly do not speak for all labour supporters, they speak for the biggest danger to the Labour Party and this country, the hard left .

mostlyharmless

Actually you have engaged on another thread discussing the Worcester Labour candidate Mandy Richards who did have a conspiracy theory about the death of Jo Cox if I am not mistaken.

No, I do not think that death threatrs and racist abuse of politicians should be the norm, for any politician of any race, colour or creed. Neither do I believe that on Gransnet Diane abbott has been subject to either of these. Some people think that she has not been very good at her job, and have said so, just as some others think that other politicians - Theresa May? - Rees Mogg? - many others - are not very good at theirs, and have said so. Is how Diane Abbott does her job not to be criticised because she is black, but others are fair game because they are white? Is that not just as racist as it would be racist to single her out?

Online misogynistic and political abuse (Brexit) preceded the murder of Jo Cox.

No it has not!

Obviously the tragedy of Jo Cox’s murder has been forgotten.

"You seem to think vile abuse and death threats to politicians should be the norm. Police can sometimes prosecute these abusers if they can track them down."

I have seen some twisting of another posters words before but that is beyond ridiculous mostlyharmless.

Your constant criticism of Diane Abbott, the first ever black woman in Parliament, who is
very popular with her constituents, smacks of racism.

Excuse me! Diane Abbott's repeated poor performances during interviews; her inability to get her facts right and prepare for an interview, are nothing to do with her gender or the colour of her skin. It is everything to do with the fact that she simply doesn't prepare herself properly, even though she knows the subject that she will be asked to discuss. She hasn't done that once. Or even twice. She's done it several times now and has gained a reputation in main stream media for that.
And mostlyharmless, don't you think that segregating DA from any criticism is, in itself, racist? Don't you think that all politicians, irrespective of gender, race, colour or creed should be held to account,if and that by treating any one of them differently is racist or misogynistic?

I think if you look into it Elegran you will see that Diane Abbott is constantly abused on social media with misogynistic and racist abuse of the very worst kind. Far worse than other prominent politicians.

Do you really think that because she is a politician she should expect this level of abuse? People have short memories. Jo Cox was the recipient of online abuse and death threats before being murdered.

You seem to think vile abuse and death threats to politicians should be the norm. Police can sometimes prosecute these abusers if they can track them down.

Oh do lemon then I will be spared them.
Day6 I am just listening to a discussion about the homeless man who died www.theguardian.com/society/2018/feb/14/homeless-man-dies-on-doorstep-of-houses-of-parliament
The man from St Mungos said homelessness has increased by 169% under this government. Now while I may be prepared to accept that there are tiers of wealth I am not prepared to accept that anyone should die because they are sleeping on the street. There are basic standards that all citizens in a civilised nation should be entitled to.
It is strange that in order to discredit my points you have to resort to accusations of Marxism, compare this country to Venezuela and be abusive about a black woman MP. It smacks of desperation and a guilty conscience.

...some of us continue to believe that those in need today should have the same support as we did.

Yup. And the fact that some think the best way to achieve that is Way X, some think it is Way Y, and some really aren't sure at all what Way would be best, is called politics. The fact that people's approaches are different is not a sign that any of those people are uncaring or unthinking.

Racism? Don't be daft. If she is in parliament in a position of authority she will be criticised (like all the rest) for many more reasons than racism. Being black has no relevance to how people rate her competence or lack of it. In fact being equally criticised is a sign of her equality with an equivalent non-black politician. If she were sacrosanct because of her race, that would be a sign of INequality.

trisher your insult that grans on here are mindless presumably excludes yourself and any cronies!
Yes, start your own threads, it’s high time you did.
I shall leave this daft thread started to lament the departure of a few, and put any other political titbits on the Corbyn thread.