Personally I would rather vote for Diane Abbotts older step brother Russ and his madhouse than vote for her lots madhouse

Of course I would. Labour aren't going to win, by all accounts she represents her constituents well. So every Labour vote is an attempt to minimise the irreversible damage conservatives will do to the country over the next 5 years.

Abbott's constituents will continue to vote for her no matter how unpalatable some others find her. It's the same situation in Shipley where people continue to vote for Philip Davies. Personally I think Abbott is a bit hopeless whereas Davies is an absolute "see you next Tuesday".

I don't buy the harmless old leftie nonsense, some of Abbott's views are genuinely worrying, as are some of Corbyn and McDonnell's and now they're all intent on trying to make us all forget the views they've been espousing for the last 30 years. That said Boris Johnson's jingoism and general buffonary is as worrying.

None of them have got the first clue what to do with the single biggest task in front of them, taking us out of Europe - nothing else really matters, because that underpins everything, the economy, immigration, health, defence, everything and until we know what that looks like everything else is pointless debate right now.

This is a defining election for sure, with a choice of becoming a pseudo communist state that aims to go a long way past the scandanavian socialist model or towards a free market free for all - both visions are genuinely depressing.

I'd definitely vote for her if it kept the Ukipservative out. I'd vote for Lucifer, if it kept the Ukipservative out. Truth be told, I know little, if anything about Diane Abbot and you wouldn't trust the tabloids to give a fair chance to anyone who is politically to left of Attila the Hun.

May hasn't even costed ANY of her manifesto but the Mail, et al, apparently see no problem at all with that, Abbott gets flustered, in a radio interview, over a figure for one policy and she's, "unfit to be in government". Says it all really.

On Europe I don't think anyone has much of a clue how it'll go since nobody's ever done it before in any country. Looking at how trade negotiations go between other countries there's no way it'll be sorted in 2 years unless there's a willingness on both sides to make it work. It took 7 years for a Europe/Singapore trade deal to get agreed. 2 years to negotiate leaving the EU seems wildly optimistic. Leaving without a deal will trigger a recession.

The sticking point is going to be the "divorce bill". The right wing of the Tory party and the right wing press won't want to pay a penny. That's just unrealistic. May is going to have a job on to appear tough to placate those idiots but retain a decent negotiating relationship with European partners. I doubt she can do it. We'll end up leaving with no deal and all the blame being put on Europe when in actual fact the whole mess was brought about by the Tory right.

May isn't as tough as she makes out. She's gone for an election to shore up her position internally in the party but she's totally under the influence of the Tory press. Has she got a good negotiating team? Boris Johnson is incapable of being a serious politician. Liam Fox is a spiv. The government have been advertising for negotiators because they lack expertise - even trying to persuade ACAS people to come on board despite ACAS not having any trade negotiating expertise.

If it was Labour doing the job you're in the same situation pretty much although I rate Keir Starmer far higher than David Davis or Boris. The difference is they don't need to play up to the press since they're hated anyway.

It's a sorry state of affairs. My rationale is that I'm always going to need public services so I'm going to back the party with the best record on looking after them. As we get older we're all going to need the NHS and social care.

May’s pretence of being strong & stable is crashing down on her. She has no conviction. She sat on the fence on Brexit until she thought the remainers were going to win then plumbed for them. The most radical thing she has ever done in her life is run through a wheat field which upset the farmer a tad. The bureaucrats of Brussells will be terrified. It’s a good point you raise though. 99% pf the negotiations will not be by the PM, or MPs, but by civil servants.

I suppose the kindest thing you could say about her calling for this election at this time was planning to get enough support to be able to comfortably ignore her rabid Right wing.

Diane Abbott replaced as shadow HS.

Temporarily, for ill-health says Corbyn.

rlRelated?rl

Senior civil servants will be made of SPADs hurriedly brought in at the last minute. Many of our best have left recently since they disagree with the direction things are going.

Whitehall is really struggling to find people up to the job since experienced trade negotiators are well rewarded working already for multinationals and unlikely to move job unless they get mega bucks and they do already.

Boris will play to the gallery (as usual) and do more harm than good undermining the negotiations. May will be a hostage to the right wing press who are trying to paint her as a Thatcher when she's not in the same universe.

If Labour get in I expect they'll try a more conciliatory approach. The end result will be a deal that's worse than what we had if we'd stayed in as the EU won't allow anything else. No deal is significantly worse.

I wouldn't be surprised if Abbott's illness is stress related.

She's gets more than her fair share of stick but doesn't help herself either. Same for Corbyn. Don't turn up on national radio to announce a flagship policy without full briefing and costings. They're old enough that they should know better. The spin doctors should be tattooing it on their palms.

I know people who have worked directly with Abbott and they found her to be warm, capable and credible. Sadly these attributes do not automatically translate to positions of power where regrettably she is all too easy to shoot down.


Not much different to Corbyn himself in that I have no doubt at all that he is a decent and honorable man, who has dedicated his whole life to standing up for the downtrodden. Not, in my opinion, reason enough to be leader of the party but a valuable party resource nonetheless.

So a few days ago I posted my utterly fruitless vote for the LD candidate in my constituency which has been Labour since 1478 and will remain so until the planet is consumed by the sun. MUST...VOTE...LABOUR...COS...MY...NAN...DID...BAAAAH.

I always love that phrase. No "5 a day for you" tomorrow. Do you get more fruit for voting for someone else? Is that not illegal?

The BBC are reporting Diane Abbott as taking an "indefinite break" from her post. Basically I think she's not duplicitous enough to be a politician in this day & age. The ability to evade and/or lie effectively is almost a prerequisite now, which is a real shame.