If you haven't seen it yet, the must-watch meltdown of the week was Diane Abbott's performance on This Week. Gosh I would have loved to have been in the green room afterwards. For years Abbott, Michael Portillo and host Andrew Neil have chummed away together in the studio once a week. Now with Abbott running for Labour leader, Andrew Neil has turned the full, brilliant, glare of his scrutiny on his fellow star.
If
you haven't seen it yet, do watch it here. Several times.
The
first question unsettles her. But the second is absolutely devastating. For
years people like Abbott, who have built their careers on the simple chance of
their skin pigmentation, have flung around accusations of "racism" while making
the most outrageously racist comments themselves. Andrew Neil rightly picks Abbott
up for saying that "West Indian mums will go to the wall for their children". A
statement that strongly implies that white mothers, for instance, would
not. As Neil says, turn the comment around and it would be
unthinkable that someone would have got away with saying it.
Rather
courageously, Andrew Neil goes on to ask the follow-up question: why, if her
statement were true, are cases of delinquency among young men of West Indian
origin so very high?
