Joe Blogs see’s this utter freak of nature and might think that she’s representative of assimilated ethnic minorities on the whole.

Get Ian Wright (“Wright-Wright-Wright!”) on the case… have him standing for something that wants to look after the country- and see how many vote for him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sxtgz5QwOlA

“Now they scurry about trying to show how different they are. Like twins that have always been dressed and treated the same, they cry, ‘I am a person too. Believe in me.’”

well, two of them are brothers if not twins…

I do not see what is so diverse about Diane Abbott, who went to Cambridge and whose only jobs before politics were in the media, public relations, and lobbying.

Not only did Abbott get her mates in the media to pretend to make a fuss about John McDonnell’s unremarkable lack of affection for Margaret Thatcher, but she has also been nominated by Denis MacShane and Chris Bryant. The Henry Jackson Society and, in MacShane’s case, the Euston Manifesto Group obviously wanted her on the ballot so that her defeat could be held up as the defeat of opposition to their agenda.

Her nomination by David Miliband is not a surprise. She may not be blood, but she is still family to a Marxist dynast such as Miliband. Only the means are different, and not even all of them. If anything, she is more conservative than he is. She is certainly more Eurosceptical and pro-Commonwealth. Perhaps, like Bernie Grant, she will come out as a monarchist on Commonwealth grounds? No chance of that from Miliband…

Mary Riddell’s blog page tells us, even on 9th June, that she “keeps a careful eye on the Labour government as well as writing about social policy, childhood and criminal justice” which tells us all we need to know.

She also seems to know a lot about what ordinary voters think. We don’t really care about immigration, apparently.

(Not an) Insightful comment from the dreadful Mary Riddell:

“The field is less white and less male than it was yesterday. That can only be good.”

What talent, intelligence, experience, achievements or charisma has Abbott got that merit this latest move on the part of the bizarre left?

Even more bizarre, do they think that anyone’s going to vote for her, other than other immigrants?

This would be the Diane Abbott who sends her children to private school and complained about “blonde, blue-eyed” nurses, would it? Sounds like a shoo-in for Labour.

David Blackburn – I hope there was nothing wrong with the blog from Eamon Butler, as with an addition to his no 7 I was most appreciative.

I’m going to show some magnanimity towards the Labour party here.

Abbott was struggling to get on the ballot. Fair enough. It was a bit of a stitch up to get here on the ballot. Fair enough.

But, it is braver for the other candidates and better for democracy within the Labour party to have her as a representative of the left-wing. Regardless of whether she is black or female the Labour party needs its left wing represented in a leadership debate.

It wouldn’t have happened under Brown because he was too gutless to face challenges. Now that it has happened I think the Labour party deserves some credit.

This is good news ! Let us hope that she is elected party leader, because Abbot is perhaps even less electable than Balls (if such a thing can possibly be conceived). All this gesture politics by Labour, I hope, will blow up in their ignorant and sanctimonious faces.

“what does it say for the case for diversity and Labour’s internal policy debate if Abbott’s election was a stitch-up?”

It says that this particular ethnic female lefty didn’t have the force of personality or argument to make it onto the ballot using her own talents and ideas.

It says that she had to be given a patronising leg-up by the others.

It says that the Labour party is not interested in a meritocratic world, but one in which special favours have to be dished out to special interest groups.

Diane Abbott should be feeling ashamed and insulted by this. But of course she won’t be feeling anything of the sort.

It’s the only card Labour has left to play. They’ll point to the Eton-dominated front bench and say, look how unrepresentative it is compared to our party. (D) Milliband is positioning himself as the friend/champion of women and ethnic minorities, and it’s pathetic. But then again, is anyone really surprised by this move? We already know he’s a little weasel who’ll do (literally) anything to get the top job. Labour should have tried to persuade Alan Johnstone to stand. He’s the only one who bears any relation to what that party stands for, as well as understanding its working class roots.

Where is the Eamon Butler article that was featured early this morning?