I've just read this post from Irfan Ahmed and I have to disagree with his statement defending his post supporting a Respect candidate:
"I will suspect that many reading this will think that I am promoting a candidate from the Respect party but actually I am not promoting her I am actually just mentioning her as a candidate and making a point that Salma should get elected as the effect it will have on UK politics and the participation of Muslim's in phenomenal!"
Look through our own party's growing list of PPCs and you will see a diverse range of candidates including a number of Muslim candidates in other Birmingham seats. As for Muslim woman I haven't scanned the lot but I do know that there is my friend Shabnum Mustapha over in Glasgow South and I suspect that there must be others.
Yes I agree with you that it is about time we had more diversity in ethnicity and religion across the House of Commons. However, I do see that the Lib Dems list of candidates is a growing mix of just that sort.
1 comment:
Perhaps there's some confusion over the meaning of 'promoting'?
I get the impression Irfan isn't 'supporting' Respect, and probably won't be 'voting' for their candidates, but having positive things to say about individual people without looking at what they stand for does raise questions about where his real sympathies reside - it is giving free advertising to a prospective opponent.
His turn of phrase (that she "should get elected") is imprecise and opens up plenty of room for interpretation - 'should' is always a bad word for commentators to use as it can refer to either probability or desirability. He ought to be warned it is a bad habit which will continue to cause him trouble in future if he intends to remain in politics.
There's no need to disagree with Irfan, just ask for clarification on what exactly he intends to say. Then he's be forced to be clear in his own mind what he is trying to communicate - hopefully he will become less prone to this error.
I stopped reading him regularly because there's only so much benefit of the doubt you can give before you have to start questioning someone's reliability.
I also think his substantive point that positive role models are inspirational is weak because it is provided out of any wider political context about the quality of representation the electorate is given (with expenses, cash for questions and all sorts of issues about democratic legitimacy swirling about currently, he needs to acknowledge issues of representative diversity have been relegated from the top of the agenda, important though they may remain).
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