Saintandy666

Fair points. I guess he'll probably be shafted in a couple of years then if he doesn't improve. Labour have no need to rush though. Keep an eye out for some of the 'young things' like Chuka Umuna and Rachael Reeves as well as the old few such as Yvette Cooper and such. It's kind of remarkable given Brown's image that David Cameron failed to win the election. Imagine what could have happened if David Miliband had some balls and went for the coup pre-election.

I guess that is true, but I still think over time perceptions can change. Look at Brown or Clegg, though I am trying to think of someone who went from bad to good right now and I'm lost! Will have to think about that, there must be someone. I don't think anyone really thinks anything at all about Miliband at the moment. He is the invisible man and has not really asserted himself.

Absolutely.

I wasn't talking about Brown? For what it is worth, there was a time when Brown was popular! But yes, in the end, complete public relations disaster. But I don't really understand where your comment came from.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jan/05/stop-being-outraged-somebody-something-stupid There we go, said much better than I ever could.

Well, I can't criticise that without knowing what the taxi journeys are for and what the £142,000 are for. If the taxi journeys are journeys she has to take because of the nature of her job, then fine, if they aren't then shame on her. in regards to the 142k, if it is to pay staff and for journey costs that is forced upon her by her job, then again fair enough, if not then shame on her. All MPs were up to it though, and encouraged to do so almost as top up to their comparative low wages. They should just pay them all more. But that's a separate issue. Like I said before, very intelligent, little common sense, but not racist.

Now there's a nutter. In fact, the whole lot of the republican field are flip floppers and nutters! Though I do hold a soft spot for Ron Paul even if I don't agree with him on nearly everything.

Perhaps, but perceptions can change and the public have short memories when it comes to politics. We'll see where we are in a year. I don't think he'll get dumped until 2013-2014 because who else is there?! Alan Johnson would have been good.

Oh, it was a very stupid comment and it is made worse by what her career has been defined by, but Diane Abbott isn't a racist. I do not believe that she thinks black people are superior to white people.

Mmmmmm, at the moment he doesn't. I wish image wasn't everything and people looked at the content as well. Reminds me most of IDS, he had a ridiculous 'quiet man' image. Rubbish leader.

I see you added the champagne socialist comment, and she probably is. She does live the life, but she works hard in her constituency for her constituents to improve their lives and shouts their cause and defends them a lot more than other MPs.

People often compromise their principles when their children and family are involved though. For example, I don't believe in private healthcare, but if say my mum needed emergency treatment and I had the funds I'd be more than happy to line up to be a hypocrite.

I agree with this, but no one is listening is the problem.

Not at all, as a member of the liberal elite, I am quite happy for anyone to say whatever they want when they want to the max. Just, if they say something someone else deems to be wrong, they should expect retaliation of words as well. If there is one thing I do not like about this countries attitude, it is the culture of taking offence to everything, though that is off topic.

The comment was wrong I admit that. But having followed Diane Abbott reasonably closely over the past few years, I do not believe she thinks black people are better than white people based on skin colour, I think she believes in equality of races.

But in a reverse sense.

Well, he would say that as the guy behind blue labour! But I do agree with him, Ed Miliband has failed the grasp the public's imaginations, but then so has David Cameron(only Nick Clegg out of the three has captured the publics imaginations, first in a good way, then in a terrible way). He needs to define himself, and he has a while to do so yet. There have been promising periods like the phone hacking affair, but he really should be doing better because compared to past PM's David Cameron is a bit of a lightweight.

No, but you would.

And you'd be saying it's PC gone mad most likely! And they are still called black community leaders because racism is still alive unfortunately. And I wish for the same as you, a world where skin is irrelevant, but some people make that hard.

I don't think Diane Abbott is racist. The comments were stupid, but within the context of the conversation she was having about 19th century colonialism, it's not as bad as people are making out(the same people who as I said if it was the other way round would be saying it's PC gone mad).

Yer, racist towards myself. Give it up, you troll!

What can I say, she says absolutely retarded things sometimes. She doesn't think before she opens her mouth, and it is often said as academic intelligence increases common sense decreases, it's probably a case of that. I like her, and I don't believe she is at all racist, just stupid in some of her comments sometimes.

And if you read my points on the 'coloured people' thread, you'd realise that's my opinion too. Don't misrepresent my views.

She seems comfortable enough with them when you see her in public appearances. Look at her and Portillo!

I don't understand your point. She's an idiot anyways, by tweeting what she has tweeted and divisions between races everyone is dividing themselves up. I don't believe she is a racist person, and nor is she stupid. Makes me laugh how some people on here who defend groups such as the EDL and the BNP, are up arms about this. If this were reversed and a white person had said something comparable, some on here would be saying how everyone is all too PC. Hypocrisy at its highest. And yes, she is an idiot, but if you look at the context of the tweet she is talking about 19th century colonialism.