If you make a fool of yourself or your company in any other job, you would be sacked immediately. But that principle does not apply to Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party. During the General Election, shadow home secretary Diane Abbott embarrassed her leader, and former lover, when she stumbled on LBC Radio live over how much it would cost taxpayers to fund the police. The presenter at the time, Nick Ferrari, reminded her that, according to her figures, police officers would be earning a pittance under a Labour government. But she quickly tried to correct herself.
She should have been fired
She used gaffes like this to temporarily retire from her position of shadow home secretary during the election. In an age where sterling television performance is an essential characteristic to survive in politics, Ms Abbott fails to meet this criterion. Frankly, she should have been fired and placed back on the Labour backbenches. Any political leader with any substance to them would have done the same. Jeremy Corbyn is no ordinary leader during these extraordinary circumstances.
Considering he has minimal support from his colleagues in the Parliamentary Labour Party, it is easy for his opponents to claim Ms Abbott should be fired and never return to frontbench politics again.
Who would he replace her with though? And with a history of deep personal affiliation, it would damage his credibility further if he alienated such a loyal ally.
Mr Corbyn is stuck with his current shadow home secretary
In other words, Mr Corbyn is stuck with his current shadow home secretary. Since her disastrous LBC interview, Ms Abbott's errors have stacked up further.
Like many of her colleagues, she cannot adequately explain what her party's position on Brexit is, and has contradicted her leader's position on the issue. She now claims all options are on the table.
But she has participated in a series of notable actions that have hindered her office further. Though many Corbynistas would welcome her intervention on the Dalston riots, others view it as a support for violence.
This is not a position a likely home secretary should place themselves in when they could be making decisions on the nation's security in the future.
Considering social media has the potential to murder anyone else's career, this misfortune does not apply to Ms Abbott. For reasons mentioned earlier, her position is safe. For her, that is an adequate excuse to misbehave on Twitter. She deleted a tweet she wrote that attempted to link the Prime Minister to a comment made about lesbians in the past. Gay Star News and Buzzfeed, much to their credit, disproved Theresa May ever said she supports the curbing of lesbianism in Merton's schools during her time as a Wimbledon councillor.
Diane Abbott does not deserve the position of shadow home secretary. She disparages her profession on a regular basis. But she claims it's journalists presenting a poor image of her. No, she is doing that herself.
