Ending the hostile environment?

The new issue of the revamped Tribune which only uses the name not the tradition of the old paper carries an article by Diane Abbott entitled "Ending the Hostile Environment". I haven't read the article nor been able to obtain a copy of the magazine but the thought of a left-wing pro-Corbyn outfit publishing such musings did amuse me somewhat.

Diane Abbott does receive a lot of comments and outright abuse there's no denying that and the racist attacks made on her are totally unacceptable. However her performance as a front bench politician has been abysmal. There is no other way of putting it. Her ridiculous comments over costing police recruitment attracted much derision.

Maybe she was tired but rather than trying to pull figures out of thin air a simple I don't have the figures with me due to (give reason) and I'll have to get back to you would have been better. Then there's that business of Question Time. No she wasn't bullied and yes she needs to toughen up and realise that people have a go at her for legitimate reasons. It's nothing to do with race or gender.

As a politician Diane Abbott is clearly out of her depth as a Labour front bench spokesman. I have no idea what she is like as a constituency MP but a return to the back benches would seem a better option. Abbott isn't inherently stupid. She went to Oxford. But that doesn't make her competent enough to cope with the position she currently holds in the Labour Party.

The latest story circulating is that Abbott is going to "boycott Question Time" which only has resulted in wide spread hilarity across social media. It sounds pathetic. It is pathetic.

Social media is a useful tool but it can also be quite toxic. Ask anyone who has been on the end of abuse and threats from the pro Corbyn left over the last three years.

And then there's the anti-Semitism.

The answer to your wish Ms Abbott is to look behind you and there you will find the festering hate that has made the left of politcs the hostile place it has become and why so many have finally given up on it.

The future is elsewhere.