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UK comparison: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-47996907 ; black woman MP has a train can, everyone treats it as a massive scandal. I think someone had a survey once where they found that one third of all hate mail and death threats directed at UK MPs was aimed at her.





For anyone else confused by the phrasing:

"Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott has apologised after a photo emerged of her sipping a can of M&S mojito on a London Overground train."

Meanwhile in Australia, the opposition leader visited a pub during his campaign and the crowd yelled at him to drink a beer out of his shoe.


*In theory* the problem wasn't the drink, but that it was on the train. Even in the UK, Farage is famous for drink-related photo-ops.

I'm emphasising "in theory" because it took a lot of concerted pressure for Johnson to leave after actual pictures of him celebrating with alcohol during the pandemic, so of course it was more an excuse than an actual cause of the vitriol against Diane Abbott: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partygate


There are no excuse for death threats but she is widely acknowledged as borderline competent at best.



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