Andy McSmith's Diary: How many of Diane Abbott’s tweets were about her day job?

The shadow International Development Secretary has tweeted more than 380 times in 12 days

Diane Abbott: assiduous Twitter user... and Labour’s shadow International Development Secretary (Getty)

Diane Abbott, who was on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme today defending Jeremy Corbyn and his shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell, is an assiduous Twitter user. She is also Labour’s shadow International Development Secretary. She spoke on that subject on the last day of the party conference, nearly two weeks ago, but since then, other things seem to have held her attention. She has tweeted more than 380 times in 12 days, rebuking Labour MPs who do not support Corbyn on Trident, or on whether to bomb Syria, and urging his supporters to join the Momentum pressure group.

There have also been tweets about migration, her health and her Hackney constituency in east London, but if there was one in that list of 380 about international development, I could not find it. Three years ago this month, Abbott was sacked from Labour’s front bench for serial disloyalty to Ed Miliband, but now she has found a leader she can be loyal to, for the first time in her 28 years as an MP, and she is a scourge of anyone who steps out of line.

China crisis

Helen Goodman, the Labour MP for Bishop Auckland, is very angry with herself for posting on social media about the Chinese wife of the Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, which set off a Twitter storm and earned her a serious talking-to from the Labour whips. The message was posted during a convivial Sunday evening dinner. She was woken a few hours later by her daughter, furiously telling her to delete it at once. She did not know how to, so her daughter had to do it for her. She says she is thinking that perhaps she should stay off Twitter for ever.

Ukip’s council of despair

One of Ukip’s greatest electoral successes was to win majority control of Thanet District Council, at a time when Nigel Farage was aiming to become MP for Thanet South. That majority has been lost in a disused airport. Manston, which closed 18 months ago, is the biggest local issue in that part of Kent. Ukip was elected on a promise that it would take out a compulsory purchase order on the site so as to enable a US consortium, RiverOak, to turn the former RAF base into an airport once more, but RiverOak’s management has complained that the council spent 18 months ignoring its requests for a meeting, and five Ukip councillors have quit the group, one after another, complaining of inaction.

Jeff Elenor, the latest to leave, told the Isle of Thanet Gazette: “It was not an easy decision to make, but the issue of the airport became so important. It was important to behave honourably to the people who elected me.”

It must have been easy being in Ukip when it could lay all our troubles on the EU, but here it has a problem that cannot be blamed on Brussels in any way, and it does not know how to handle it.

Belgian waffle

A lonely tiger confined to a cage in Belgium stole the show during the last Prime Minister’s Questions. Andrew Turner, the Conservative MP for the Isle of Wight, complained that a zoo in his constituency wanted to give an old circus tiger a new home, but was not allowed to because of “bureaucratic” regulations to prevent the spread of rabies. “I will help,” David Cameron promised. We can judge how useful the PM’s help has been so far because Mr Turner has tabled a written question in Parliament, asking whether the reasons for refusing to let the tiger into the UK would be published. The answer from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs can be summed up in one word: “No”. Mr Turner sees this behaviour as bureaucratic obstruction. Perhaps the authorities are being over cautious, but consider what would happen if they were careless enough to allow a rabid tiger into a zoo.

Queue beauty

Most party leaders will not step outside their offices unless accompanied by an aide or colleague, but Jeremy Corbyn was on his own in Parliament’s Portcullis café and joined the back of the queue. The woman in front was so startled that she offered to give up her place, but he firmly insisted that she go first. For all of his failings as a leader, Corbyn is not a bad man.