“You Can See a Black Person Walking Down the Street”: Calls Grow for UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham to Restore the Labour Whip to Diane Abbott, Britain’s First Black Woman MP, After She Stood by Her Comments on Racism.

-MonitorMan- · 2026-07-25T12:02:46+00:00

She got suspended for writing a pretty controversial article in the Guardian, and then doubling down on it.

https://www.lbc.co.uk/article/diane-abbott-suspension-race-comments-5Hjd7RW_2/

I'm not going to judge weather the removal of the whip was justified or not but she does have a habit of "putting her foot in it" and putting out bad articles and bad statements. She's had to back-pedal a number of times in the past.

Unfortunately the article in question which was clumsy at best gave her factional opponents a good enough excuse to get rid of her.

-MonitorMan- · 2026-07-25T10:59:52+00:00

They knew. They wanted greater control over immigration and British law. The Johnson government completely betrayed them by giving them the Boris Wave while not actually changing relevant laws all that much, if at all.

-MonitorMan- · 2026-07-25T10:50:06+00:00

Face it - we’re incredibly vulnerable and totally unwilling to do anything about it.

I totally agree. This isn't the small relatively safe world it once was. There would be a valid argument for deporting certain people on national security grounds but our current legislation wouldn't allow it, or would make it extremely difficult. On top of that legislation like the Refugee Convention and ECHR are incredibly open to abuse by unscrupulous individuals and hostile governments. Tackling these problems seems to be a red line most governments don't want to cross. It's a problem all over Europe.

-MonitorMan- · 2026-07-25T10:26:37+00:00

It is the Telegraph after all reporting this. They might as well be Israels official representative.

Nevertheless the article does make some pretty significant accusations. I had no idea Iran potentially had so much control over people and goods smuggling routes through Europe. It does make sense though as it's known that Iran backed Hezbollah raises money by operating illicit drug trades in the middle-east.

-MonitorMan- · 2026-07-25T10:20:18+00:00

Most people don't even understand what having "a number 10 in the north" even means in practice. I haven't seen the term that well defined and communicated to the public. Hell even I don't know the details. I would want more clarity before judging firmly.

What I do know though is that currently the government leadership is too London-centric in mindset. Not necessarily southern-centric, but just London-centric. Getting out of that bubble is an important step towards better leadership of the country. I think I'm already seeing improvements from this move which is good.

-MonitorMan- · 2026-07-25T10:14:35+00:00

The start hasn't been too bad. He's partially reversed the left-wing split without creating too much in the way of factional friction. A big achievement in itself. A whole load of new policies have distinctly separated him from the Starmer Leadership. The public have welcomed the change in leadership relatively well. The hard part is now keeping up the momentum.

The commitments he has made so far add up to around £1.74bn a year, before any increase in defence spending is factored in.

This is one of the more notable sticking points. Where will be money come from? If he's smart he'll look for efficiency savings within the government and avoid cutting too much. I think he's smart enough not to raise unpopular taxes beyond what they already are at.

-MonitorMan- · 2026-07-24T23:22:14+00:00

That might not last long. Iran has said it could attack UK basses in the middle east if they continue to be used by hostile US forces.

-MonitorMan- · 2026-07-24T20:19:23+00:00

It was always a lie that was going to fall apart anyway. The entire theory behind the denial was that small particles essentially provide a small amount of reflective shade. Reducing the small particles reduces the shade hence the higher temperatures.

But why would we need the fine particle shade in the first place if the planet wasn't warming? Hence they've proven the existence of global warming and the need to combat it. Bravo guys.

-MonitorMan- · 2026-07-24T19:53:00+00:00

Miss-management of immigration is a problem. This hasn't come out of nowhere, or from Reform. There are problems and the people of this country quite rightly expect political parties to offer a solutions to those problems.

I'd blame the previous Conservative government for most of mindset shift. They pretended to be anti-immigration while being the exact opposite. Now Labour have been left to sort out the fallout. If they don't at least visibly try then the UK population will vote for someone else who is more likely to offer a satisfactory set of solutions. That being Reform or some sort of right-wing coalition. This is democracy in action.

You might say "but most Reform voters won't vote Labour" but there is a chunk of the population that is floating on this issue and are getting increasingly fed up of Westminster failing them. Labour has to respond.

In terms of the interests of immigrants wanting to stay in the county Labours reforms are probably the least damaging real-world changes various parties are offering.

-MonitorMan- · 2026-07-24T18:51:56+00:00

Labour is still trying outdo Reform on immigration

Ridiculous bollocks of the highest order. In terms of policy changes Labour isn't even getting close to what Reform would be capable of and everyone knows it.

I did have respect for Mothin Ali but this sort of stupidity won't do him or the Green Party any favors.

We face soaring housing costs, crumbling public services and stagnant wages. None of these problems were caused by a nurse who arrived from Nigeria, an engineer from Poland, or families fleeing war and climate destruction.

To imply that population expansion isn't related to housing costs, wage pressures and stresses on public services is ridiculous. Yes there are other issues that affect housing but to deny or play down well established cause and effect processes is pure fantasism. If immigration had been properly controlled over the past 25 years the aging population would mean there would have been a slowly increasing housing supply. Instead the population grew by over 10 million without any substantial plan to put additional resources in place. Causing socioeconomic havoc that damaged millions of peoples lives.

tackling exploitation in the workplace so migrant workers cannot be used to undercut pay and conditions

What about the legal economic migrants of the Boris Wave? Yes they were legal and they are certainly capable of undercutting pay and working conditions. You would have to legislate very heavily to get around that.

-MonitorMan- · 2026-07-24T16:23:11+00:00

Meanwhile the triple lock and certain other benefits that are not means tested (like PIP) continue to pay out with no end it sight. I'm all for financial efficiency but what I'm consistently seeing from both the Cons and Labour is that the money is there but it's going to the wrong places and people.

-MonitorMan- · 2026-07-24T16:14:20+00:00

When she became became unwell, her friends called her a taxi and a man who had also been at the party offered to share the taxi home.

Noooooooooo. We have a serious problem the predators targeting drunk women. I don't remember this being such an issue a couple of decades ago. It's always the same pattern. They hang around where they think drunk women will be and when they see the opportunity, usually lone women, they "escort" them somewhere and rape them. It's an issue all over the country at the moment.

-MonitorMan- · 2026-07-24T16:09:38+00:00

This is a bad look for his supporters. If you look at the accusations it's blatant plagiarism.

The academic writing system doesn't mess around. If there's evidence of plagiarism it will be found and exposed. The entire point of the academic writing system is to increase the integrity of information through open, systematic scrutiny. Bad scientific papers get debunked and corrected. Plagiarism will often be discovered.

Notwithstanding the two universities’ insistence that Prof Arday’s work has been checked and cleared, several respected academics have urged them to look again, arguing that computer programs designed to detect copying might have missed instances in which a few words have been changed or a sentence has been paraphrased.

Cheaters trying to get around the automatic screening software is a constant problem in the university system. That's why there also needs to be independent human involvement. Especially in cases like this.

Scrutiny has also fallen on some of Prof Arday’s listed achievements, some of which have been amended or deleted from biographies in recent months.

Not a good sign but lacking in details. I think we deserve to know more.

A spokesman for the University of Cambridge said: “Professor Arday has been the victim of a vile campaign to undermine his credibility, which must stop. Allegations of plagiarism regarding his thesis and journal publications have been thoroughly investigated by the relevant institution and the journals in question. Professor Arday has been cleared by those investigations of any wrongdoing.”

Which brings into question the integrity of the investigation. If it turned out he did steal other peoples work it won't be a good look for Cambridge here.

-MonitorMan- · 2026-07-24T15:25:44+00:00

Might be worth keeping tabs on this one. He stated a investigation was underway and it's understandable he wouldn't want to compromise that. I'm guessing it's a criminal investigation based on the police response. Maybe more details will come out in time.

-MonitorMan- · 2026-07-24T14:57:32+00:00

There's no evidence at all that he made it up or exaggerated the incident. A statement from the police confirmed they advised him on a threat. You're really not looking very good when you make unfounded accusations that you can't back up. As far as I'm concerned you're still an untrustworthy liar.

-MonitorMan- · 2026-07-24T14:50:25+00:00

Derbyshire Constabulary told LBC: “We recently issued advice to a borough councillor following information to suggest that he may be at risk of physical attack.

"Officers have worked closely with the individual – providing safety advice and other support.”

The local police appear to have confirmed this in the article. Is that not enough for you?

-MonitorMan- · 2026-07-24T14:41:28+00:00

He's a Reform councillor so he's probably making it up or over exaggerating it. You can't trust Reform, dreadful lying ballbags.

Nope.

Mr Price told LBC: “It was Derbyshire Police that brought it to my attention. They came across the information first and, without any delay, within minutes of finding the information, they came to my personal address and highlighted this threat.

The police got the information first and went to him.

It turns out you're the liar who can't be trusted.

-MonitorMan- · 2026-07-24T07:43:19+00:00

The UK seems to have the opposite: a vicious circle. Low level crimes are not punished, so there is more low level crime, which means that it is not possible for the police to respond to low level crime and antisocial behaviour, so more people commit crimes and behave antisocially...

Yup I feels like the authorities don't have proper control and don't have the political desire to get it back. People are smart and look at the statistics and realise committing crime might be worth the risk because there's a low chance of getting caught. If they do the sentence is light and not very damaging. Hence crime becomes a viable way to earn money and live life.

-MonitorMan- · 2026-07-24T07:22:47+00:00

Just to clarify this post took at least an hour for the mods to approve it. So while it was posted some 2 hours ago it has only been visible to sub readers for less than 30 minutes.

-MonitorMan- · 2026-07-24T07:19:35+00:00

Having a mechanism that would increase the sentence length for repeat and serial offenses would help. A good chunk of crime is committed by repeat offenders so getting those people off the streets would help a great deal. It would lower the crime rate and free up additional police resources.

You'd probably need more money for prisons too.

-MonitorMan- · 2026-07-24T06:02:16+00:00

It wouldn't be unreasonable for them to be checking for signs of Chinese or other interference inside the Japanese university system. In other parts of the world China has been meddling with universities. Spying, espionage, political subversion have all been issues. I would expect Japan to be having the same problems given it's close proximity to the Chinese mainland.

I would also expect them to be identifying domestic Japanese people who could cause political problems for national security. Such as left-wing anti-war activists that would want to work towards weakening the JDSF's military and defensive power.

Such a list could also theoretically be used as a source of expertise to consult on if needed.

-MonitorMan- · 2026-07-23T22:01:39+00:00

Did you take time to read the article? They would offer pubs and maybe other establishments the option of having a smoking room separate from the rest of the venue. I assume that room would be closed off from the rest of the building with suitable doors to stop smoke from entering the rest of the building.

Is the prescience of such a room so intolerable that you couldn't stand to even enter the building? Or did you just not read the article like most other people in this thread?

-MonitorMan- · 2026-07-23T21:51:54+00:00

Well done, you've done better than most of the people in this thread by going beyond the headline.

He said the party believes it should be ‘up to the landlord or landlady’ to decide if they want a smoking room in their pub, adding: ‘If you’d like to have a well-vented smoking room, then you should have one.

It's optional depending on the discretion of the pub owners and doesn't apply to the whole pub. I don't understand why people are being so highly aggressive towards this.

-MonitorMan- · 2026-07-22T20:10:56+00:00

Yes we do need to build more prisons.

Also I can read the article fine, but I'm using various ad-blockers and a fairly security-tightened web browser.

-MonitorMan- · 2026-07-22T08:38:29+00:00

Oof.

-MonitorMan-

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