BY KOFI BOATENG

For the sake of the Identity Politickers on the Left, let’s begin by mentioning that I am black. I am known as Barry White by my mates because I’m as fat as Barry was in his latter years and I have been told I have a deep, sensuous voice. Unfortunately, my voice does not translate into deep, sensuous singing in karaoke bars and my fatness thus tends to negate the sensuousness of my voice.

So, I cannot be accused of being racist when I say that Diane Abbott should resign from her front bench spokesperson role, as Shadow Home Secretary.

Why should she resign?

Let’s face facts. Abbott is not up to the job. It’s not because she’s black. It’s not because she’s a woman. Nor is it because she’s fat. She seems to lack competence as a spokesperson. It’s as simple as that.

Any abuse I get for being black is racism. Any abuse I get for being fat is offensive, especially when thin people get away with being thin Scot-free: to physically attack or verbally abuse someone for being overweight in 2018 is self-evidently outrageous and unacceptable. To abuse anyone for being a woman is just dumb. I do not in any way condone these kinds of personal attacks that Diane Abbott claims she is receiving. However, if I get abuse for being incompetent, then it tends to be justified. I take it on the chin, fair and square.

Let’s get real here.

I think of larger black women who can string a sentence together: Oprah Winfrey, Diamond and Silk. They too get loads of abuse from racists and fattists, but not for the skill of their work. For they are eloquent and competent in roles that require eloquence and competency.

Diane Abbott is Shadow Home Secretary. Let that sink in. She’s following in the footsteps of Williams, Widdecombe and Whitelaw. Party politics aside, she’s in a role which requires holding the Government to account and she’s incapable too often of answering questions competently. She is letting down the country. Too often the public don’t know what she means, and they don’t get it why she has these increasingly frequent brain freezes leading to car crash interviews. The public is wholly justified in wondering if she’s a bit thick (yet she went to Newnham College, Cambridge) and the Labour response that she is suffering from consequences of diabetes might work once, as it seemed to during the last election, but does this excuse explain away so many car crashes?

No.

There’s something seriously wrong here.

Diane Abbott is like a tree surgeon with stage-fright vertigo. The kind of tree surgeon who goes bust overnight in the real world. So why is Abbott keeping her job? In any walk of life in the private sector she’d have been deemed incompetent and sacked or moved sideways into a role where her skillset was deemed useful. She should look at Amber Rudd’s resignation on account of error and then take a good look at herself.

It is time Diane Abbott resigned and found a role where speaking eloquently is not so relevant. I used to feel sorry for her but now she is letting too many people down. Let’s face it, she makes George W seem like a wordsmith. If Labour is so insistent on having a black Shadow Home Secretary (their identity politics sucks by the way and the UK should have its politicians chosen on merit, not by gender, colour or sexual penchant) then find one who can communicate.

If SW1 became a meritocracy overnight then Diane Abbott, on current form, would be a traffic warden. You’re in the wrong career, Diane. Resign.