ww.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/labour/8996425/Diane-Abbott-forced-to-apologise-in-racism-row-after-claiming-White-people-love-playing-divide-and-rule.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-16423278
Veteran Labour MP Diane Abbott has caused uproar with a comment on Twitter that 'white people love to play divide and rule'.
Her tweet was in response to one made by a journalist criticising the media's over-use of the term 'black community' in the wake of the Stephen Lawrence murder trial.
Predictably, a number of Conservative MPs immediately called for Ed Miliband to sack her as Shadow Health Minister.
Tory backbencher Nadhim Zahawi quite rightly pointed out that if a white frontbencher or MP had made such sweeping generalisations about black people, they would have been sacked or forced to resign within the hour.
And can you imagine the furore if the same comment had been made about the Jews or Muslims?
Quite rightly, the Labour Leader immediately told Ms Abbott to apologise for her remarks.
The first female black MP, Diane Abbott has a very high profile within Westminster and nearly thirty years experience behind her on the backbenches. She has served all her constituents very well and is reknowned for her support for ethnic minorities.
Her latest remarks only serve to undermine all the good work she has done to promote better relations between the different ethnic groups in this country.
Given that she has not been a minister or shadow minister until now, one has to wonder whether Ms Abbott should have been kept away from the frontbench.
And crucially, this incident does raise a much wider issue.
It highlights the perils of politicians and other public figures using micro-blogging sites such as Twitter to communicate with the public. Ms Abbott should have definitely chosen her words more carefully and did have enough space to qualify her remarks by referring to 'some' white people rather than making a blanket generalisation about a whole ethnic group.
But given the fact that Twitter allows people to make only one short statement at a time, the question needs to be asked whether such new media is the most effective way for politicians to get their point across.
Anyone in public life - and especially politicians - has a responsibility to ensure that what they say or do cannot be misinterpreted or taken out of context in any way.
Making such a sweeping statement about any ethnic group, is bound to be interpreted by some as racist, even if Ms Abbott did not intend it to be viewed in that way.
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