[Abernathy]

Fuck a Duck, Andy. Is there anything that you can’t work a reference to some aspect of popular culture into ?

[Tubby Isaacs]

Where's Kemi? She's not usually short of an opinion. And she is the Minister for Equalities.

[Oboogie]

Where's Kemi? She's not usually short of an opinion. And she is the Minister for Equalities.

And a black woman, you know, the kind of person that Frank Hester hates.

Still, ten million quid, eh? You can buy a fuck of a lot of election leaflets for that kind of money.

[Youngian]

The Sunaks could fill the £10m shortfall out of their petty cash but the PM still won’t do the right thing. Probably tells you something about the rest of their donors who have views just as rancid.

[Oboogie]

Kemi Badenoch has broken her silence.

She starts well, she's the first senior Tory to admit the comments are racist:

"Hester’s 2019 comments, as reported, were racist. I welcome his apology.

Abbott and I disagree on a lot. But the idea of linking criticism of her, to being a black woman is appalling.

It’s never acceptable to conflate someone’s views with the colour of their skin…"

She then ruins it by basically saying he's apologised so he should be forgiven and no further action is needed.
Move along.

"MPs have a difficult job balancing multiple interests -often under threats of intimidation as we saw recently in parliament.

Some people make flippant comments without thinking of this context.

This is why there needs to be space for forgiveness where there is contrition"

[Tubby Isaacs]

Here she is. To her credit, calls comments out as racist. To less credit, she goes for "he was being flppant and didn't really know". And apparently where people say they're sorry, that means we have to forgive them.

[Andy McDandy]

What fucking context? Aside from the "but I could really do with that money" context?

[Watchman]

But couldn’t bring herself to offer real empathy or humanise her statement; Abbott, not Diane

[kreuzberger]

"The value of nothing." Same old verminous tories.

The amount of brownie-points they could have harvested by returning Uncle Hester's donation would have been worth a king's random.

Especially if they had then urged the Revenue to tax the fucker on it.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Abbott has called in Knacker and his pals.

Interesting. I wonder if they will think that contrition equals absolution?

[Andy McDandy]

His apology was described as 'fulsome'. Someone tell everyone what that actually means.

[kreuzberger]

Abbott has called in Knacker and his pals.

Interesting. I wonder if they will think that contrition equals absolution?

The Met and South Yorkshire? Hester will be quaking in his boots, I'm sure.

[satnav]

It looks like journalists are now taking a keen interest in other things that Hester has said and done over the last few years. Hopefully there will also be plenty of scrutiny into all the government contracts that his company has picked up in recent years while making big donations to the Tories.

[Abernathy]

"The value of nothing." Same old verminous tories.

The amount of brownie-points they could have harvested by returning Uncle Hester's donation would have been worth a king's random.

Especially if they had then urged the Revenue to tax the fucker on it.

It’s a general election year. The fuckers have probably already spent that ten million quid.

[Oboogie]

"The value of nothing." Same old verminous tories.

The amount of brownie-points they could have harvested by returning Uncle Hester's donation would have been worth a king's random.

Especially if they had then urged the Revenue to tax the fucker on it.

I don't want them to return that money, I think it should be donated to charity. It's pretty clear that money was payment for huge contracts, I don't see why Hester should have them for free - that would be rewarding him for his racism.

[Bones McCoy]

Abbott has called in Knacker and his pals.

Interesting. I wonder if they will think that contrition equals absolution?

History shows you can buy a squad for coppers for far less than 10mill.

I do wonder how this statement will intersect with Gove's latest "extremism" project.

[Abernathy]

Sunak has now issued a statement that does (finally) describe Hester’s remarks as racist, but says Hester has apologised and so should be forgiven. Same mealy-mouthed pish as Badenoch.

[mattomac]

Meanwhile more comments this time referring to Indians.

He seems so suited.

[davidjay]

Why they won't give it back:

[Youngian]

Hopefully, Diane’s chat with the rozzers will keep this story running.