OK, here’s the thing. I like Diane Abbott about as much as I like getting out of bed in the middle of the night, standing on a piece of Lego and smashing my head into the door.
She’s not exactly my cup of tea, y’know? And she has said some wonder-fully stupid things in her time.
But she has been an incredibly loyal servant of the Labour Party for almost 40 years. She speaks her mind. She clearly cares.
And now it seems she has been banned from standing for her party.
By a Labour leadership which wants to do away with every vestige of Jeremy Corbyn.
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That is surely a disgrace. The Labour Party is supposed to be a broad church. With room for lefties such as Abbott.
It is a shocking way to treat a woman who has given her all for the party.
But then again, maybe she HASN’T been banned from standing. At first we heard that she had been. And then when people rightly started complaining, Sir Keir did that thing he always does.
He changed his mind overnight.
No, no, she hasn’t been banned. She might be banned, but she hasn’t been yet.
And this has become the problem with Labour during the first week of this election campaign. You can’t believe a thing the leadership says about anything.
And there is no subject, no policy, on which Starmer will not change his mind, if he thinks there might be a few more votes in it for him.
He has done an about-turn on just about every issue. You can trust him on nothing.
And for Starmer, read the entire Labour front bench. They think they can win this election by refusing to give a straight answer to anything.
When asked what they are going to do, the evasions start.
Last week on Question Time, Labour’s education spokeswoman
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Bridget Phillipson was ripped to pieces by a member of the audi-ence. A member of the audience who was a Labour voter.
He asked her, outright: Why can you never answer a question? Why can’t you be straight?
She had fudged and fiddled on every single question she had been asked.
The man in the audience drew a big round of applause. Phillipson looked cowed and defeated.
And well she might. Because there is every indication that Labour’s lamentable campaign so far is registering with the voters. And not in a good way.
This week we saw the Labour lead reduced in one poll to just 12 percentage points. That’s down by about ten on what it’s been for ages and ages. My guess is that it will continue to decrease.
And that is because the voters have been given a chance to see what Labour is really like. Underneath the smooth PR stuff which Sir Keir is so good at.
And they don’t like what they see.
They see a party led by a bloke who will change his mind every time the wind blows.
And who has nothing in his political locker except a desperate desire to be elected as Prime Minister.
Look, I don’t think the Con- servative campaign has been up to much either.
They’re too busy squab-bling among themselves to take much of a message to the public.
But it makes Labour’s failure all the more conspicuous.
Start telling the truth and sticking to it, Sir Keir. Or you’ll have five more years in opposition. And all the good stuff you did in reforming your party will be for nothing.
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FEWER and fewer people are going to the cinema. Latest figures suggest there’s been a 25 per cent decline year on year.
Experts point to high ticket prices and the easy availability of stuff like Netflix.
But I wonder if it’s not simply the case that the films produced by Hollywood recently have been a load of old crap. Politically correct crap, as well, like Madame Web.
The woker the films get, the more people stay away. I hope Hollywood learns this lesson before the cinemas close for good.
Crunch time in Africa
THE polls are about to open in South Africa.
You think it’s bad here?
Sheesh, our problems are nothing compared with theirs.
The ANC has been in power for 30 years and the country is riven with corruption and violence, investment is at an all-time low and some of the people are starving.
It is a terrible legacy.
Thirty years ago, South Africa was one of the richest countries on the continent.
But under ANC rule, it has been sliding down the table.
There is some hope South Africans will turn to the Democratic Alliance – a pro-business party led by a white bloke.
But my suspicion is that race will still play a more important role than sanity when it comes to the ballot box.
