You are no Obama, David Lammy tells Cameron
The Guardian has picked up this smackdown by David Lammy against David Cameron:
“I know Obama,” the higher education minister writes, adding of the US president-elect:
His political worldview is grounded in his experience as a community organiser. He has a deep-seated affinity with the people of Chicago’s South Side among whom he has worked. He understands their daily struggles and the dreams they hold for their children. For Cameron to claim common cause with Obama is absurd and demeaning.
Does anyone seriously think Cameron is comparable to Barack Obama? And isn’t it a little arrogant of David Lammy to assume he has the right to determine who is or isn’t not?
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David Lammy warmed up that thought process on Saturday at a Fabian conference, where he said :”David Cameron says this society is broken; even Boris Johnson says this is piffle. Barack Obama has not argued that American society is broken because his is the politics of hope. He has re-engaged America not talked it down”.
That broken society record plays on.
There’s no point Lammy saying anything.
He should let Cameron fall flat on his face himself because frankly no one can look at Cameron and believe he has anything like the charisma, poise or discipline Obama does.
It’s like people trying to smear him as socialist. Obama said little on the subject, simply because he knews it would automatically fall flat on its face.
I heard his speech at the Compass AGM wasn’t that great and he came across as if he thought he was the British Barack Obama…
I think Cameron was arrogant for thinking he’s anything like Obama just because he’s a novice who wants change. Obama has a lot more in common with Brown than Cameron both politically and intellectually.
yes to both leon.
how many of our politicians actually have any real brush/involvement with any of the things that could be counted as ‘community organising’? very few.
i can remember trying to get a meeting with David Lammy as MP for haringey to simply communicate a community regeneration effort to him, in his constituency, and we really got very little interest from him. such is the case with too many MPs. Lynne featherstone met us at the pub and was at least interested!
and yeah as sunny says, david lammy or anyone else for that matter doesn’t need to say anything for that statement to fall flat on its face. heh. everyone wants a piece of obama, but neither cameron nor brown are anywhere near as charismatic as Obama is, i guess they are not very pleased about that!
Cameron and Brown are both foolish for trying to associate himself with Obama. Unfortunately in politics you can only choose between who you are presented with. Its quite possible that Cameron will be the better choice to be the next pm, especially if like me you are interested in the movement of the political centre towards the centre-left rather than simply being worried about party politics.
To Cameron’s credit, he did reshape the Tory party to a centre-right party, and thus providing an alternative to Brown. Both Brown and Cameron are not Obama, but you know what? I prefer to live in a country where the choice is between two (or three) viable candidates, then in the US, where the choices seem to go between retards (Bush, Palin) and a superb candidate (Obama).
And Lammy’s attack is lame.
Lammy still has a speaking role?
Lammy is a new labour tart who supported the Iraq war something which Obama to his credit didnt
That’s quite an interesting story, especially if people remember that Lammy inhabits the seat once held by Bernie Grant…
Bernie Grant’s mum was my junior school teacher in Harringay. Man, she liked the triple-ruler-round-the-back-of-the-thigh method of discipline! She was great and helped me when my dad died. I cried in assembly when she retired. My mates haven’t let me forget. Very embarassing.
Sorry, this is an irrelevant anecdote.
I interviewed Lammy once. He seemed nice enough but he fumbled quite a bit when I saw him introducing some bill on TV (was he a junior minister once?). As a Harringay boy, his Tottenham constituency used to be mine. It just seems to me that if you’re a black MP you are burdened with high expectations when you might just be average, which is unfortunate. He’s better than Abbott, trust me.
As for Bernie, well he left a mixed legacy. Sure, he was popular with some sections of the black community and stood up for black culture, but he was also divisive. You don’t have to be a Daily Mail reader to recognise that his “the police took a helluva beating” comment was out of order and unhelpful.
My lower secondary school was on Lordship Lane and adjacent to “The Farm”, so I was acquainted with some of the characters. About a year before the hacking to death of the unfortunate Blakelock in 1985, it all kicked off near Broad Lane, Tottenham. The NF (or was it the BNP?) were in town for a rally. We went toe to toe with them and, frankly, battered them. You must understand I was 17-18. It was very exciting and there was real camaraderie between the local boys. However, any sense of political idealism or of being on the right side quickly evaporated when I saw a local newsagent robbed by a gang of vicious boy rioters and a lone traffic policeman surrounded and pummelled until, luckily, help arrived. I truly feared for him. It was very cowardly and oh so wrong. Shame Bernie wasn’t there to see it.
He might have thought twice about making his comments a year later.
I don’t think it was out of order given the context (the treatment of black people by the police).
Hmmm. You’re not a bad man Leon. But you need to take a few steps back and reconsider. An angry mob is one of the ugliest things you will see — and I’ve seen a few.
Cynthia Jarrett was also a good lady but that doesn’t excuse sheer inhumanity.
I don’t mean that it was ‘good’ that she killed but I can see where he was coming from. 1000 deaths in police custody, SUS laws, police brutality, not taking black victims of crime seriously, the riots in Brixton, all that history…if you’re black people or got any real connection to black people who’ve been through all that you can see where he’s coming from.
I’ve seen a bad mob plenty of times, I’ve watched the police beat people for no reason other than being in the wrong place at the wrong time, within feet of my.
The power of the state and it’s agents shouldn’t be underestimated.
You wanna fix that typo. She killed…
Anyway, I think Leon means he was killed..
Deaths in custody is a serious issue. Those 1,000 deaths though, remember, include many white people. It’s not just black people.
Regardless, it is a subject close to the heart because a school friend Roger Sylvester was one of those killed, I suspect murdered (or at least a case of manslaughter). I was for a time involved in trying to bring those involved to account. But it does seem the boys in blue are immune from prosecution, which is not acceptable.
However, sometimes it’s not about politics but about personal morals and ethics. I don’t recall Bernie expressing regret. Maybe he did. I hope he did. But I don’t recall it.
Like Abbott, Bernie also opposed comprehensive school education. Rightly or wrongly, the overwhelming mesaage from them and many picklers is if you can’t beat them join them.
Equality of opportunity anyone?
http://ollysonions.blogspot.com/2008/11/obama-faces-stalker-threat.html