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It was clear this nightmare of gesture politics would manifest itself during the day from the moment Simon Wolley of Operation Black Vote wrote in the Guardian newspaper testing the waters for veteran MP, Diane Abbott, 57. He weakly argued that she had ‘earned her stripes’ after 23 years of party politics, to enter the labour leadership contest. Tellingly it was the initial response of the readers whom Woolley calculated would be most supportive of a ‘BME/BAMER’ female candidate that were the most honest, if not candid as to the political naivety of the proposal. Yet the betrayal of our sista was not from the liberal realists rejecting the fake ‘we embrace diversity by any means’ mantra or patronising Tory politicians and their supporters who actually want her to win. Instead the greatest betrayal came from the women inside the Labour party, they who would silently submit to their gender being abused by their power hungry male parliamentarians desperate for the oxygen of publicity in what was and still is a dour campaign for change.

There is something distasteful, if not downright offensive about the disingenuous way Abbott has been artificially included in the current labour leadership contest. It is common knowledge she has absolutely no chance of winning and yet newspapers are placing her on their front pages whilst news and TV broadcasts such as the BBC’s Question Time are in some cases leading the topic using her as the events official mouthpiece. Whilst I am sure this extended media exposure offers a great boost to the morale and of course, ego of Abbott, in many ways it simultaneously abuses the intelligence of readers and viewers who being locked outside as observers of life in the insular Westminster village are not privy to the widespread in-joke being played at the expense of the ‘non white, male’ Oxbridge African candidate from Hackney via Jamaica.

It would be like placing President Robert Mugabe in the Big Brother house and expecting the British public to overcome their prejudice and vote him winner. It would be like expecting a vote of no confidence in Cameron in order for Conservative members to elect Shaun Bailey as leader of the Tory party. It would be like expecting the Liberal Democrats to ever again be able to be trusted on a ticket of moral integrity. Unless there is some kind of political catastrophe or revolution causing a national shift of gigantic ideological relevance, its not gonna happen. Ever.

But whilst the familiar stench of PR motivated hypocrisy coming from the manipulative ‘new’ Labour is not unexpected, the willingness of our sista to accept the tragic Iain Duncan Smith-like role of ‘unite or die’ straw man is not only embarrassing but a betrayal of both African and female politicians of merit. When the British media was falling over itself during coverage of Barack Obama’s election to the US presidency, it childishly feigned the search of a UK equivalent. The very predictability of this act left many like me hoping that most Africans involved in British politics would not be stupid enough to fall for the bait.

Admittedly and perhaps tinged with a modicum of sexist indoctrination I expected the so called ‘black’ voice of vanity to be male - I was wrong. It was not the alleged ‘Obama’ lookalike (apparently we all look the same) Chuka Umunna or the ‘Dorian Grayesque’ tory named Adam Afriyie or even his female counterpart Helen Grant. No, not even the Tottenham ‘Mastermind’, David Lammy was foolish enough to expose his vacuous one dimensional personality. No, it was our sista. And she didn’t just take a tiny nibble, no egged on by a cabal of political illiterates she fell for the bait - hook, line, and stinker. I can only imagine how much our teachers in the future will cringe when being forced to teach their pupils of this so-called ‘first’ in so called ‘black’ British history.

I had to pause at least a whole ten seconds before writing this article. Was I being disloyal to an elder who needed my support? And then I realised, the answer was no, for as with all role muddles, you cannot be disloyal to one who has already been disloyal to their own community and worst yet, with minimal coercion willing betrayed themselves. African tradition dictates that as an elder she is only entitled to certain respects, not political support. Yet there are those who will question my motives for even writing this, to that question whilst I am tempted to paraphrase Steve Biko and retort ‘I write what I like’ in this instance I feel compelled to answer with the words – community integrity.

Now don’t get me wrong, whilst I am not aligned to Diane Abbott’s brand of integrity and believe she has poor leadership skills having worked briefly with her several years back, I share some of her views on topical political issues. Also, whilst Abbott is not known to support grass root issues unless they in some way can boost her career as a ‘left wing’ activist, it is to her credit she has commented and in some instance even worked on important issues such as the horrendous plight of some of our children in British education, the horrors of gun crime and the illegal DNA retention of innocent people through the illegal stop and search operations of a racist police force.

But that word – integrity keeps going around in my head. All these crimes were committed by the government she was a member of, and sadly like the majority of her New Labour cohorts, she has never exhibited any commitment or loyalty to higher principles. And so whilst, to many Abbott may seem to be a harmless ‘black’ Claire Short, as a community we cannot and should not forget our initial groundswell of support for our sista came tied to the conditions that she and other Africans in government serve the Pan African community from Hackney to Moss Side, Kingston to Lagos, Brent to Soweto with integrity and in a public manner similar to that of our Ancestor, Bernie Grant.

Sadly, she and her fellow parliamentarian companions have not done that, Lammy, Amos, Scotland are all poor examples of Africans whose quest for influence and status has dwarfed their duty to human rights, social justice for African people and opposition to imperialism (neo-colonialism through the guise of ethical trade and globalisation) as such they cannot even bask in the shadow of moral principle established by the magnificent act of resignation delivered by the late Robin Cook over the Iraq war.

But returning to the issue of the forthcoming leadership contest, the litmus test for someone in her position who did not have enough votes to go forwards is not to accept pity from her rival, nor to criticise her colleague John McDonnell for daring to stand on the basis of his gender and left leaning politics.

No.

When it became apparent that she, like our brotha Trevor Phillips of the impotent Equality and Human Rights Commission did not have the support of their own party/organisation to back them as leader, she should have had the dignity to follow the actions of the former party leader Gordon Brown and step down.

But sadly we live in a world where dignity (and lack of) is viewed as a cheap commodity for media exploitation, where many Africans in position of status cling to their scraps of celebrity as if they are owed it by virtue of their ethnicity. In so doing these people encourage racist resentment whilst diminishing the works of true community workers who do not engage in grass root work for fame or riches, but instead to make a real progressive change in society for the benefit of Africans worldwide.

Labour are wrong if they believe Miliband can lead the party to electoral success by emulating the Blair – Cameron/Clegg trick of style over substance. They are also wrong if they believe that by elevating a woman who – to be frank - the African community is embarrassed about, and catapulting her into the limelight as the best ‘we’ have to offer, this is going to secure them our thanks at the next general election.

The crux of the problem is that the current Labour candidates is an honest reflection of the dire internal structure of a party that having once promised socialist focused change became drunk on power and betrayed its own soul for private gain, corporate reward and self centred vanity.

The strategic decision made by Miliband and friend’s to present Neo-Labour as a progressive modernising party of change is exposed as a sham by this strategic token ‘hand up’ facilitating the degradation of both African and female oppression in British politics.

Nu Labour is still New Labour, within its elitist ranks there is no desire for transformative politics, no effort to pool talent from the army of members who never lost sight of its core socialist vision but instead just a return to the refinement of old politricks to best the reprobate Etonians. As a person who once made the mistake of voting for this party I will never ever do so again. For those of you considering becoming new members all I ask is that you do not become confused, this was not an act of affirmative action or ‘positive’ discrimination, a principle I support when applied in the correct circumstances. It was blatant blaxploitation belonging in the fantasy world of cheesy Quentin Tarantino movies.

If we are serious about being a part of real political change, then our children must be taught that true leaders are grown from experience of battle on the front lines, not the lobbying of grenades from the backbenches. Loyalty is not earned by remaining silent on contentious community issues that rile the ethnic majority or attempting to destroy your own from within by point scoring on populist issues, but instead, from standing firm and sharing risks with those who have always tried to be there for you even when the odds are against an initial win. At least former MP, Dawn Butler is amongst the few Labour councillors and members that attempt to remain connected to community affairs, if not the heavy grass root issues such as deaths in custody.

With regards to Abbott it is clear to me that what little our sista possesses in principle, she sadly is lacking in discipline. Oh, and make no mistake, the art of leadership is a strict discipline. So whilst many of us wish her well in her opportunistic bid for fame amongst the ‘Midsomer Murders’ demographic, myself and other in the Pan African community cannot in good conscious pretend to be excited by what is a ruthlessly cheap and cynical exploitation of ethnicity and gender on both sides for political expediency.

Welcome to the wilderness Nu Labour, you clearly have not yet learnt the lessons of your recent electoral defeat.

Toyin Agbetu is a writer, film director, poet, and founder of Ligali.