Diane Abbott
| Diane Abbott | |
|---|---|
|
| |
| Name | Diane Julie Abbott (born 27 September 1953) |
| Nicknames | ? |
| Politics | |
| Party | Labour |
| Constituency | Their constituency/constituencies (dates) |
| Position | • Shadow Secretary of State for Health (27 June 2016 - present) • Shadow Secretary of State for International Development (September 2015 - 27 June 2016) • Shadow Minister for Public Health (October 2010 – October 2013) |
| Likes | ? |
| Dislikes | ? |
| Friends | Jeremy Corbyn, Michael Portillo |
| Enemies | ? |
| Relationships | |
| Partners | ? |
| Children | ? |
| Personal Attributes | |
| Nationality | British |
| Religion | ? |
| Sexuality | Straight |
| Height | ? |
| Eye Colour | Brown |
| Handedness | ? |
| Accent | ? |
Best known in fandom for her regular appearances on This Week and running for Labour leader in 2010.
Life and Career[edit | edit source]
Early Life[edit | edit source]
She attended Harrow County Grammar School for Girls, and then Newnham College, Cambridge, where she read history.
Early Political Career[edit | edit source]
Diane's career in politics began in 1982 when she was elected to Westminster City Council serving until 1986. In 1987 she was elected to the House of Commons. She was the first-ever woman from an African Caribbean background to become an MP.
Parliamentary Career[edit | edit source]
Diane has spent most of her parliamentary career on the backbenches annoying everyone by voting however she wants on issues. She was also a fashion icon in the drab House of Commons of the 1980s.
She was promoted to a role as a junior health minister under Ed Miliband, but her frontbench career didn't last long. She picked a fight with him over military intervention in Syria and she was sacked in the next reshuffle. In the words of one senior Labour staffer, "View was that it was better to have Abbott pissing out of the tent. Although in her case she was down at my local Blacks pissing all over the tents, the camping gear and the kagoules..."[1]
Diane made an unexpected return to frontline politics after Jeremy Corbyn's equally unexpected victory in the 2015 Labour leadership contest. He appointed her Shadow Secretary of State for International Development in his first Shadow Cabinet. Some commentators felt that as one of his most prominent supporters, Diane was entitled to a better brief and the low-level role was an insult, but both Jeremy and Diane care deeply about international development and there are strong arguments for not putting her in charge of anything important.
After her promotion to the Shadow Cabinet, Diane promptly got into a fight with new intake MP Jess Philips. During Corbyn's first PLP meeting, Jess asked him why he had appointed men to shadow all the Great Offices of State. Diane accused her of asking a sanctimonious question and told her "You're not the only feminist in the PLP." Jess told her to fuck off. She later told the Huffington Post, "People said to me they had always wanted to say that to her, and I don’t know why they don’t as the opportunity presents itself every other minute."[2]
Diane never gives any fucks about what the rest of the party seem to think of her. At one particularly heated PLP meeting following Corbyn's comments about not wanting the police to shoot to kill in the aftermath of terrorist attacks in Paris which left 129 dead, Diane decided that she couldn't deal with all the yelling and arguing and so instead spent the meeting writing Christmas cards[3].
Following the mass resignation of everyone who wasn't a whip or a staunch Corbynite, Diane was promoted to Shadow Secretary of State for Health in a move that was seen as a big relief as she had been tipped to go to defense in the reshuffle.
Personal Life[edit | edit source]
Diane married Richard Thompson, a Ghanaian architect, in 1991. They had one son together and divorced in 1993. Diane's son's godfather is her Conservative MP voting pair, Jonathan Aitken.
In 1987 it is alleged by the Westminster Gossip Network that Diane and Jeremy Corbyn took a motorcycle tour around East Germany together. When questioned on the rumour, Diane offered "no comment".
Sexuality/Appearance/Ideology[edit | edit source]
Portrayal[edit | edit source]
In the Media[edit | edit source]
Appears on This Week with Michael Portillo a lot. When she was a frontbencher she couldn't go on the show and everyone missed her. People were very happy when she was sacked and got to be on TV again.
In Culture[edit | edit source]
In Fanon[edit | edit source]
Meme[edit | edit source]
Not a lot of fic has been written about her.
Shipping[edit | edit source]
Appearances on This Week suggest she is either BFFs or sleeping with Michael Portillo.
There are also many rumours that she used to do the horizontal tango with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn but no fic has yet been written about these theoretical actions.
