Criticise Diane Abbott for being an utterly useless, unprincipled politician and you will hear no argument from me. Diane Abbott, the hard left politician who was so opposed to private education that she sent her son to a private school. Diane Abbott, who expressed so much concern about the economic disaster that will engulf her constituents who voted overwhelmingly to remain in the EU that she voted in parliament for the hardest possible Tory Brexit. Diane Abbott who stated that Chairman Mao, one of the worst mass murderers in history, had done more good than harm. Yes, that Diane Abbott. Politically, she is and always will be an embarrassment to the Labour Party but even she does not deserve the abuse she attracted from the Secretary of State for taking Britain off an Economic Cliff, otherwise known as the Secretary of State for Exiting the EU.
David Davis MP, for it is he, said that he had not tried to kiss Ms Abbott because he is “not blind”. This was after he had supposedly tried to kiss her after the Brexit vote. The shadow home secretary then, so the story goes, told Davis to “fuck off”. Good for her. Davis then made an apology through his spokesperson, part of which read as follows: “The Secretary of State is very sorry for any offence caused to Miss Abbott, someone he has known and respected for many years.” Really? This is almost as bad as his misogynistic comments, but not quite.
Imagine Davis and Abbott were working together in an office. I would imagine that such a comment would place Davis in more than a little disciplinary trouble. This is the language of a generation and a half ago, ugly, sexist and cheap. Unlike Davis, I certainly do not respect Abbott for anything at all but you can see why a Tory would be because people like her make it all but certain they will remain in office for the foreseeable future. What is unacceptable is for a senior politician, or anyone else for that matter, to speak in such a disgusting way about Ms Abbott, or anyone else for that matter.
As for the Mail on Sunday – who else? – they put a front page slant on the story which makes it crystal clear they have more than a little sympathy with Davis.
If anything is ugly about this sleazy matter it’s not Abbott because beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It’s the disgusting behaviour of David Davis and the Mail on Sunday. Argue with a politician any way you like and in that regard, Abbott is an easy target. Argue with a politician over the way she looks is a different matter altogether. Just imagine someone saying Davis’s words about someone you know and love and seeing them all over Britain’s biggest selling Sunday paper. You might think you look pretty good in the mirror but what if someone with enormous power didn’t? Not a nice thought, is it?
