"I've never seen anything like it!"

Nightowl

Precisely.

soontobe "Would the outrage have been quite so great if Emily Thornberry had been a man" Impossible men weren't allowed to stand in her constituency Just like her namesake Emily Howard, she's a laydee, otherwise she wouldn't have got on to the "all laydee shortlist"

I dont think that this episode is going to help Labour so near to an election.
I have a theory that a lot of stuff that happens more than 6 months before an election is largely forgotten or ignored by a large swathe of voters. This incident is too near.
Some of politics is difficult to understand. But this is quite easy. And it comes with a handy picture if other politicians and ad men etc want to make political points from this.

Ana, knitting as I speak.

Hmm, when it comes to sneering attitudes what about those senior Tories who refer to the unemployed as skivers and shirkers?

What about George Osborne who spoke of 'the closed blinds of those sleeping on benefits'?

What about Lord Freud who said that disabled people weren't woth the minimum wage?

And what about the Editor and staff of the Sun who refer to their readers as 'plebs' and who make jokes about walking on sticky carpets if they have to interview a person in a Council House?

These are the sneering attitudes which are despicable.

Dont you put a flag outside your house because you 'want' to be judged though?

I know of two people who put up a flag.
I think it is a mixture of wanting to be noticed, wanting to be loyal to a particular team or place, and wanting to exhibit a devil may care, I have a hard attitude [sort of dont mess with me].

I am not sure that they wanted to be judged exactly, I am not sure that they realise that they are being judged.

But MiceElf, surely that is what we expect from Conservative and sadly, LibDem politicians now. No less despicable, but predictable. If Labour politicians are to become just the same, then where is the party of the left? Or have we given up on 'white van man' because we don't like his (perceived) values? I think the Labour Party needs to decide just who it wants to represent now there is no clear cut working class any longer.

Exactly. Or are we expected to believe that Emily Thornberry is just one bad apple?

I think people put up a flag for many reasons. There is a house not far from me where they fly a flag on a flagpole which is sometimes a union flag ( because their son is in the army), sometimes a St. George's flag (when England are playing). Occasionally I have seen a Welsh flag or a Saltire. A nicer family you could not wish to meet. They are certainly not racists or members of the BNP. For goodness sake, can we not take people as we find them instead of applying narrow stereotypes?

There are 257 Labour MPs. Are you seriously suggesting they are all the same?

As for describing an MP as 'a bad apple' because of one tweeted photo, that implies a judgemental position far in excess of almost anything I've ever heard.

And Night Owl I don't expect that attitude from Tory politicians. I'm appalled when I hear those remarks. It would never be heard coming from the lips of Ken Clarke for example, or any of the one nation Tories who are now sadly in decline.

I really can't see what all the fuss is about. Well I can, but the problem is not Emily Thornberry. She took a photo of what was a dramatic image - an image designed by the home owner to be striking (weren't there three flags) and to be in the public domain. He was not keeping it private was he.

Emily Thornberry took a photo of this arresting image. She tweeted it. Her caption was factual, minimal and comment-free. For this she has been castigated as posh, when in fact she has worked hard and pulled herself up the ladder of life. She has also been abandoned by her party.

The image was real and one often associated with the BNP. That was the problem. Because of this Ms Thornberry, who had actually said nothing, has been subjected to a witch-hunt.

Who applied the stereotypes? It was others not ET. That's what the original discussion was about.

My comment about 'one bad apple' was meant to suggest the views of left-leaners, and was not expressing my own view of Ms Thornberry's tweet. Talk about judgemental...

No Ana, there are many of us out here who are 'left leaning'. You'll find then on GN, on the Council Estates where I live, in the cities and in the country. Your comment was a massive generalisation and very judgemental.

How is 'Or are we expected to believe that Emily Thornberry is just one bad apple?' a 'massive generalisation'?

Perhaps you would like to define exactly who you mean by 'we'.

You also need to be very clear why you have chosen to describe ET as a 'bad apple'.

And you need to explain who exactly is expecting the 'we' to to believe your description of ET as a bad apple.

No I don't. You just want to nit-pick.

You asked the question. I assumed you wanted an answer.

If you're not prepared to justify yourself, so be it.

I'm not suggesting all Labour MPs are the same MiceElf, and I accept that there are some Tory MPs of principle who would not make such scathing remarks as the ones you mentioned. What I meant to say was, I have come to expect such utterances now, sadly. And that if Labour MPs are to become the same as that, then we have lost the party of the left altogether.

Having money, or even assets but not necessarily much spare cash, can take some people away from their roots.
This is not necessarily a bad thing, but if you are supposed to be representing those people, I think it is your duty to at the very least be aware of how the majority of them run, or choose to run, their lives.

Now, that I agree with.

ET was never working class and disadvantaged. Sometimes middle class professionals live on council estates. Her parents were such.

Soontobe - I think you have made a very good point. petallus - I agree I think ET's "humble origins" is a misnomer, her parents had very impressive credentials, I think it's fairly obvious that the right family connections can smooth the path to a successful life for their offspring.

I am not 'left-leaning' I am left and upright! The thoughtless tweet by Emily Thornton was inappropriate and of course she would be damned whatever she did following her stupid gaffe and she alone is responsible for her actions.
I do despair that there is not a mainstream party that I can strongly identify with. So many of the front-benchers are from the political class and seem to have little understanding of the daily life of the man/woman on the Clapham Omnibus!

I do think it is rather disingenuous of some posters here to pretend they would love their next door neighbour to have three large flags of St George flapping on the front of their property, even if it was to show support for the England football team against Scotland on Tuesday. It may not, in any way, have been linked to a jingoistic 'blanket' anti-foreigner attitude that the right-leaning (& upright ?) are deliberately and covertly promoting via scaremongering racist stories!

The issue for me is that the media and politicians lump people all together under the terms 'immigrants' & 'immigration' very negatively & in a way that supports and gives a sense of power to out and out racists and they think it is OK to behave despicably and mouth off about how 'they' ie all immigrants, are the root of all evil!

Of course anyone with a modicum of a brain will appreciate that among the immigrant communities there will be a total cross section of society from the good and great to the low-life and everything in between and not jump on the immigrants= bad bandwagon.

Open and reasoned discussion about how to manage economic migration is important, especially at a time of high unemployment. Demonising people is never helpful.

I bet there were plenty of saltires flying for the England /Scotland football game.

We could all see plenty of saltires flying for 'the vote'

Why is it the saltire and the flag of Wales doesn't get spoken of with derision as the English flag does.

When I watch either the Welsh Assembly or Scottish Parliament I envy their devolved status to be able to be patriotic. They can talk of the their country, their people. , vote on their laws, fly their flags with pride. Try doing that here and there are plenty who think you are a racist, little Englander.

I honestly don't know why this seems to be the only country so many of it's population think of their national flag in such a way. Can anybody name another country where this happens.

No one seems to have forgiven us for slavery and having an empire. I was thinking about this last night when I was watching a programme about Boudicea [sp] and how badly she and the Iceni [sp] were treated by the Romans. As I drifted off into sleep [it was a very late programme] I was wondering as to why no one still holds The Roman Empire against the Italians . An Irish friend who had lived and worked in London in his youth told me that he thought the English were the most tolerant race on the planet, and I think he's right; but that seems to be me and him against the world .