Someone's set up a care package fund for Diane Abbott and it's wonderful

Following a campaign (and decades) of misogynoir abuse, Diane Abbott's triumphant comeback is nothing short of inspirational.

The Labour MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington had to step down from her position as shadow home secretary due to ill health.

She was heavily criticised by the media for fluffing some of her figures in interviews, most notably in an interview with LBC radio about the cost of hiring more police officers.

She was even accused of not being able to count by Prime Minister Theresa May in the Battle for Number 10 televised interviews, to which an audience member responded:

I’d just like to pull you up on the comment about Diane Abbott’s miscalculations, that you made a few minutes ago.

Because Phillip Hammond, who’s the Chancellor of the Exchequer, got a 20 billion miscalculation a few weeks ago – so I think that’s a bit rude of you.

Her treatment seems disproportionate when you consider that Tory MP Andrew Mitchell repeatedly failed to quote the minimum wage in this country – arguably a much more demonstrative lack of awareness than Diane Abbott's nervous stuttering.

Or when Michael Gove couldn’t explain his own party’s immigration policy – also in an interview with LBC.

Or that £350 million to the NHS that never happened. Awkward.

Abbott went on to win a frankly spectacular victory in her constituency of Hackney North (75.1 per cent of the vote overall).

So 27-year-old comedian Sophie Duker, along with 25-year-old film professional Tony, have set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for a sweet care package.

Our girl Abbott has had to bow out briefly from campaigning after nearly THREE DECADES battling combined racism & sexism with one hand, and building up Hackney with the other.

That ain’t right.

We know she gon’ be back though, rising from the ashes like Solange to take her Seat At The Table. And by table we mean Cabinet. And by seat we mean the position of Home Secretary, haters

Right now Di’s in serious need of self-care & we want to say thank you for being the mostest so we going to send her a care package.

Duker told indy100: “I got pretty riled up seeing all the racist, sexist and unsympathetic comments a lot of people were making in response to the news of Abbott's ill health.”

The last straw might actually have been seeing one of my friends post a list of pros and cons for voting Labour on Facebook, and listing unironically as one of the cons: ‘Diane Abbott is abysmal in an interview’.

Duker explained that, in the context of the list, this reasoning seemed “so gratuitous”.

It made me despair to see people I consider peers – young, liberal, open-minded – recycling the same tired narratives that some sadists on the right like to trot out. 

My friend Tony was feeling similarly and instead of sliding into a dozen comment threads, we decided to do something more positive.

The idea is to raise the £50 necessary for “a boom-ting care package,” which according to the page might include the following:

• Some TLC (albums CrazySexyCool and FanMail)
• Audio recording of Serena Williams reading Maya Angelou
• At least two litres of coconut oil
• Some beautiful bars of CHOCOLATE
• A copy of Michaela Coel’s Chewing Gum Dreams
• The White Company candles (fyah bun dem)
• Homemade fried plantain
• Rose Granger-Weasley fanfiction

While the items are certainly tongue-in-cheek, Duker clarifies: “They're things that off the top of my head I thought would serve as balms to Black British womanhood. Black Hermione was BIG for us. Serena reading Maya is transcendental.”

After the estimated £50, any further donations will go to charities that operate or are based in Hackney, including Project Indigo (an LGBT support network) and The Crib youth project. At the time of writing, £5,245 had already been pledged.

Sunday also marked Abbott’s 30-year-anniversary as an MP...

So let's get her that care package.

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