Comments on: Lammy calls for ethnic minority short lists http://www.tmponline.org/2007/05/14/lammy-calls-for-ethnic-minority-short-lists/ The online political magazine and forum Sat, 22 Nov 2008 11:39:59 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: Maria http://www.tmponline.org/2007/05/14/lammy-calls-for-ethnic-minority-short-lists/#comment-36 Maria Sun, 20 May 2007 23:24:59 +0000 http://www.tmponline.org/?p=62#comment-36 Femi, One dearly wishes one could find some redeeming qualities about David Lammy's political career but nothing comes to mind. You have to remember that as a minister, albeit a lowly one, he has to take responsibility for his case load, for whatever he is dumped with. The fact remains that he was a shambles at health and an absolute disaster at Constitutional Affairs. He was promoted beyond his abilities and everyone knew it. Like it or not, informed observers simply don't rate him. It is suspected that he survives at ministerial level because he is an unchallenging government toady, he can't do much harm in an easy department like Culture and he serves as a useful token of multiculturalism for an otherwise lily-white government. There simply is no way to lard these painful truths by 'balancing' them with any list of his achievements because they don't exist. Femi,

One dearly wishes one could find some redeeming qualities about David Lammy’s political career but nothing comes to mind.
You have to remember that as a minister, albeit a lowly one, he has to take responsibility for his case load, for whatever he is dumped with. The fact remains that he was a shambles at health and an absolute disaster at Constitutional Affairs. He was promoted beyond his abilities and everyone knew it.
Like it or not, informed observers simply don’t rate him. It is suspected that he survives at ministerial level because he is an unchallenging government toady, he can’t do much harm in an easy department like Culture and he serves as a useful token of multiculturalism for an otherwise lily-white government.
There simply is no way to lard these painful truths by ‘balancing’ them with any list of his achievements because they don’t exist.

]]> By: Femi http://www.tmponline.org/2007/05/14/lammy-calls-for-ethnic-minority-short-lists/#comment-29 Femi Thu, 17 May 2007 23:53:21 +0000 http://www.tmponline.org/?p=62#comment-29 Maria and Damian, I think you are being grossly unfair to Lammy. His first minsterial post was in health, where foundation hospitals were dumped on him by the hapless Alan Milburn. From health he was moved to constitutional affairs where, again, he was dumped on - that time by Lord Falconer - with the Mental Capacity Bill. Since then he has flourished at culture where, for once, his secreatary of state has witheld dumping on him and let him get on with it. By all means criticise, but lets see some balance, as opposed to simplistic slating. Maria and Damian, I think you are being grossly unfair to Lammy. His first minsterial post was in health, where foundation hospitals were dumped on him by the hapless Alan Milburn. From health he was moved to constitutional affairs where, again, he was dumped on - that time by Lord Falconer - with the Mental Capacity Bill. Since then he has flourished at culture where, for once, his secreatary of state has witheld dumping on him and let him get on with it. By all means criticise, but lets see some balance, as opposed to simplistic slating.

]]> By: Maria http://www.tmponline.org/2007/05/14/lammy-calls-for-ethnic-minority-short-lists/#comment-27 Maria Wed, 16 May 2007 23:09:27 +0000 http://www.tmponline.org/?p=62#comment-27 I don't share your surprise, Damian. David Lammy, incidentally, is the worst possible advert for ethnic minority shortlists there is: a more hopeless minister I cannot think of. He should have been sacked on 14 December 2004 when he made such a fool of himself during the Mental Capacity Bill debate. To describe what happened to him as humiliating would be an understatement. He was shredded by MPs from *his own side*. That is unheard of. His presence in a ministerial position, albeit a lowly one, can only be explained as tokenism. Not a few Labour MPs, political journalists and Black Sections veterans are less than impressed by his abilities. There are plenty of politically talented BME people out there; David Lammy isn't one of them. I don’t share your surprise, Damian.
David Lammy, incidentally, is the worst possible advert for ethnic minority shortlists there is: a more hopeless minister I cannot think of. He should have been sacked on 14 December 2004 when he made such a fool of himself during the Mental Capacity Bill debate. To describe what happened to him as humiliating would be an understatement. He was shredded by MPs from *his own side*. That is unheard of.
His presence in a ministerial position, albeit a lowly one, can only be explained as tokenism. Not a few Labour MPs, political journalists and Black Sections veterans are less than impressed by his abilities.
There are plenty of politically talented BME people out there; David Lammy isn’t one of them.

]]> By: Damian http://www.tmponline.org/2007/05/14/lammy-calls-for-ethnic-minority-short-lists/#comment-25 Damian Mon, 14 May 2007 10:57:26 +0000 http://www.tmponline.org/?p=62#comment-25 Oh please- this is nothing more than Lammy trying to cover his political future and say publicly that he is supporting Gordon- I'm surprised the New Nation did such a puff piece. Oh please- this is nothing more than Lammy trying to cover his political future and say publicly that he is supporting Gordon- I’m surprised the New Nation did such a puff piece.

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