Is Diane on the ropes? "Black people will kick themselves"

Diane Abbott told the Voice that it is her middle class constituents who are talking about voting Lib Dem.

The Voice reports her saying: "I think my working class voters will vote for me and my middle class voters have been asking a lot about the Lib dems."

But she also said: “Black people will kick themselves if they wake up on May 7th and discover that we have David Cameron as our Prime Minister.”

Could this be a confirmation of Lib Dem candidate Keith Angus' claim that Diane's Afro-Caribbean support is deserting her? Angus re-iterated this claim on Sunday after the hustings at the North London Muslim Centre (Mayor Pipe says Learning Trust is "disgusting").

He told Blood and Property that Hackney's Afro-Caribbean residents are turning to the Lib Dems in greater numbers than he's ever seen. He said that he had been canvassing in the borough for two an half years.

Ian Sharer, leader of Hackney's Lib Dem group, also said that he hadn't seen anything like either.

Black voters deserting Diane: Lib Dems

Lib Dem Hackney North candidate Keith Angus claims that Clegg-o-mania is stealing black voters - specifically Afro-Caribbeans - away from Diane Abbott.

In a post today he wrote: "There has been a shift in sentiment along these lines for a while. But not like this. The most interesting shift I’ve noticed is among Afro-Caribbean people. It’s fair to say that Diane Abbott’s vote among the Afro-Caribbean community was strong. But that now seems to be falling away."

Hopefully Diane will provide her observations from the front line too.

Hackney hustings desert: report from the Lib Dems

Here's Lib Dem candidate Keith Angus' view of the first Hustings of the election: No longer a Hustings virgin.

Keith says Diane Abbott turned up 15 minutes before the debate ended and then joked that she'd blame the people of Hackney if she looked flustered on This Week (which she did - could this explain the last two posts? Diane to publish her medical records and Observer: Diane Abbott has dangerous attitude)

There's other interesting stuff in Keith's report but the final punch line is that the people of Hackney should be demanding more debates from their prospective MPs:

Keith wrote: "There was one thing all four of us agreed on (me, Diane, the Tory and the Green) after the meeting had finished. It’s pretty poor that this is the only hustings we have in our diaries at the moment."

Anyone know who or how these hustings are organised?

I was also wondering what happened on Saturday with Meg Hillier's visit to Leabank Square and Hackneywick.blogspot