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Originally Posted by BBKing
Gogogo, did you hear the original interview with Oona King? I heard the whole thing (that BBC article is a summary of it, and misses bits).
Hence why I posted earlier in the thread about her stating that the whole 'black-woman-MP-is-somehow-special' thing that Paxman bought into was insulting to her, which I've been trying to suggest for a while in this thread. She had a lot of harsh words for Gorgeous George, unsurprisingly, but she *backed* him on the Paxman interview question ('was Paxman's question pointless, insulting and inflammatory?') which has to count for a lot.
If someone stands for Parliament, it's irrelevant what their skin colour, gender, sexual orientation or physical ability is - what matters is what they say and, when re-election time comes, what their record is. In the case of Oona King she backed the Government, got 34% of the vote and lost her seat. Diane Abbott, a short distance away in Hackney North & Stoke Newington, opposed the Government on Iraq and got re-elected with a 48.6% of the vote.
Oona King would still be MP for Bethnal Green and Bow if she'd taken the same line as Diane Abbott. Two black women, two similar inner east London ethnically diverse constituencies, two different views, two different results. Given that it's difficult to argue that her skin colour was the deciding factor - it was purely her decision to support her party leadership against the views of her constituents. Those two constituencies eventually elected candidates with highly differing origins, but with identical anti-war sentiments.
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OK. Remember the result between galloway and Oona King was close, less than a thousand votes. People have all sorts of reasons for voting for a particular candidate, I'm not sure how far, given the result was close, you can say with any certainty Iraq a deciding factor. From experience I know that when Labour voters are upset they tend to abstain or can't be bothered to vote for anyone. There may well have been numbers who normally support Labour but were attracted to galloway's party or Lib Dem. I haven't had the time to study the turnouts for Bethnal Green & Bow for 1992,1997 & 2001, but will do later.
On the issue of the Paxman statement to galloway. Having been at election counts
I know what an exhausting and stressful experience counts can be and given the circumstances in Bethnal Green & Bow I'm sure the tension was greater than normal and I'm sure everyone was very tired. Paxman raised a point that galloway had succeeded at the expense of a black, jewish female MP, a good constituency MP by all accounts. I can understand her response, I have no problem with her position, I have a lot of respect for her, but I imagine the London Labour Party will be concerned at the loss of an exceptional MP and it will be seen as a setback for black advancement.
Now, galloway is capable of giving a reasoned answer and when challenged failed to attempt to answer the question, got stroppy threatened to walk off, but clearly decided to hang on realising this would not look good for him, David Lammy MP was sitting next to Paxman and clearly also felt this was a setback.
Dianne Abbot has her own problems, having decided to send her child to private school an unpopular decison within her own constituency party, no doubt her stand on Iraq became useful but then I'm a cynic at heart.
Hopefully, Oona King will be on a list for the House of lords she certainly deserves it in comparison to other recent promotions.