We all have said or done things we wished we hadn’t but Shadow Health Minister, Diane Abbot’s bad choice of words yesterday took the biscuit.
On BBC London’s drive time show yesterday, Diane Abbot said that she had supported the Lawrences before it became fashionable. Does she really think that supporting a family’s justice when you learn about the gravitas of the tragedy is just about trend? It was a terribly egotistical comment that insulted the Lawrences campaign for justice.
Then she tweeted “White people love playing ‘divide & rule’. We should not play their game” and excused herself by saying that she was referring to the nature of 19th century European colonialism. As a campaigner for racial equality, did she really not know that a loaded comment as that would not cause offence? Furthermore such generalisation is racist.
Well I guess the one good that can come of these bad choice of words is that racism is on the political and social agenda.
Bunty