To think this young man represents so much of what is wrong with champagne socialism?

[Pissfarterleech]

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2042623/Rory-Weal-Child-star-Labour-conference-truth-life-poverty.html

Which reminds me of Harriet Harman and the abandonment of the all-women shortlist policy in Birmingham Erdington. Her husband, Jack Dromey, won the seat, of course.

Will the manipulation never end.

Kelly, his parents didn't sell their property. It was repossessed and the bank sold it.

The Guido Fawkes political blog forum has the full story including some interesting comments from his schoolmates.

Sixteen year old conference darling Rory Weal had barely sat down before Guido?s inbox started to fill up. His schoolmates were particularly unimpressed with their rebranded chum:

?I attend Rory?s school and know full well that he does not speak in the way he did? the dropped letters all added to his persona..?

There was also some surprise from his classmates that while tear jerking in his speech that since the withdrawal of EMA-dole for students he can?t afford pencils for school, it seems he can in fact afford a £499 iPad to Tweet his tales of poverty from:

at the special language acquisition.

Can't think who else has acquired Estuary English for purposes of political manipulation...hang on, it'll come to me...

'He's an ex public school boy who now goes to a grammar school. Thought that was obvious '

Possibly not from your post of Wed 28-Sep-11 08:07:37 .

Sorry Morebeta but why should going to a decent school (private or state) or having wealthy parents preclude someone from having left-wing sympathies? In that case no one not part of the landed gentry should vote Tory... think it through...

scampa - its not people who vote Labour that bother me. Its not even Labour MPs. I have a lot of time for people like Frank Field, Kate Hoey, Ann Cryer, even Alastair Darling. What bothers me is the rank hypocracy of the North London elite with their 'do as I say' preachy attitude, while quietly doing exactly what they criticise so heavily.

Tuscan villas for all!

scamp,
because this boy goes to a school that he is preaching against. He does not want anyone else to get the choice of going to the type of school he goes to, but he is not leaving the school to go to one he supports. One rule for me one rule for everyone else seems to be the moto. he also claims his parents are poor and the welfare state propped them up after they lost their money. Unless by state school he means welfare state this is not true. I also think telling people you cannot afford pencils because of the tories is a bit of stretch when he spends nearly £500 pounds (or amost 100 work hours for someone his age on minimum wage) on an ipad. I'll swap him a pencil for his ipad.
When you are speaking at a political conference the truth should matter.

"When you are speaking at a political conference the truth should matter."

I do agree, Kelly, but the idea of that being achievable...

When you are speaking at a political conference the truth should matter

And then I woke up :)

Actually, I think Milliband's analysis of valuable vs value-less work was pretty spot on (and I am not a natural Labour supporter) and he is really getting it in the neck today!

You can all vote for my new political party - MAGPIE. It stands for Mighty Army of Genuine People in England. Scots can of course join but MAGPIS does not sound so good.

When i first saw him I thought "Did Tony Blair have a bike 17 years ago?"

To be fair, he spoke like a teenage when young william Haig spoke like a little old man. (It was the beer that did it)

All major political parties pay for private research.

Forming a Mumsnet Party? Difficult to agree on policies. Better that we remain the mixed bag that we are. (That is not a gender reference)

Mumsnet already has a bit of national influence. They get quoted in the press; and owners get on national tv discussion programmes

On conferences, I think they tend to be junkets for all the parties. Abit
like Shameless on TV.....Lets have a +++++++ party.

wordfactory

The party has become more and more based aroubd a small group of elite intelligensia, all from similar backgrounds, all went to the same colleges to study PPE, all career politicians, all absurdly bound up with Gordon Brown.

There is no fresh air. No discussion. No debate.

This lad is just more of the same...

Just a little change...

The party all parties have become more and more based aroubd a small group of elite intelligensia leeches, all from similar backgrounds, all went to the same colleges to study PPE, all career politicians, all absurdly bound up with Gordon Brown Milliband / Cameron / Clegg / insert name of clone here.

There is no fresh air. No discussion. No debate.

This lad is just more of the same...

Is he in year 11? In that case he should be applying for 6th form soon. It will be interesting to see if he stays in selective education or moves to a non selective Maidstone school now he's old enough to have some input in the decision.

One of my best friends is on the Senior Management Team at this boy's school and knows him very well. Nothing he said was untrue, and the way he spoke is the way he speaks in real life - nothing disingenuous about him. Also the other boys at the school are very angry this morning, not at Rory but at the way the Daily scum Mail have treated him, and obviously at the Labour party for the way they have exploited him. Some of the comments on here are pretty disgusting, considering we're talking about a 16 year old boy.

I dont see the need for the tabloids to be targetting mere schoolboys.

I did think they would go big on the alleged Catnicking story which has
political and love interest.

I am not sure the Rihana story was not a stunt. Things are not always what they seem Thats why it is nice to have reliable BBC news.

So it is Ok for a 16 year old to give a talk at a party conference, but no-one is allowed to disagree or think he is a hypocrite who misled people (too poor for penicls so had to rely on a £500 ipad instead) as he is only sixteen. Either he is old enough to speak at a party conference or he is not. He cannot have it both ways. If he did not want criticism he should avoid politics. And the dailymail and guy fawkes have not said anything untrue. he based his speech on his own experience, and the paper and blog have written some other things about his expereince that he did not mention. When you give a televised talk on your experience of life, you have to accept the papers are going to look into your life. Unless the papers committed libel and printed lies then they have not done a thing wrong.

Also are the staff at the school not breaking rules giving out details about one of their students.

I think labour using a 16 year old (who is old enough to be a parent) to give out a televised sob story aimed at discrediting the opposition should expect the papers to pick the story to pieces. Why are they immune because they used a 16 year old as their vehicle.

Er, they didn't give out any details, merely commented that he is exactly as he came across during the speech. And of course, if it's in the DM, it must be true . But I agree, he should avoid politics!

I don't care that he overexaggerated his situation, I don't care that he put a miserable spin on things, because there are people who are in that (for him, fictional) position. So if you look at it that way, without trying to attack the kid personally- you can see that the speech wasn't special. It's what probably every kid in sixth form who takes Politics A level will come out with. My bugbear is that he's not v. original. No one deserves anything just because they've run into bad luck. It's proof of the sense of entitlement which seems to be massive amongst young people today, and Labour is right where they get it from. He'd be better if he was more humble and appealing to people's goodwill rather than ranting about who owes who.

They are reinstituting EMA in a slightly different format and this time it looks as if it really will be means tested and for the poorest kids. Perfect. Everyone will get to school, no more demanding extra money from people who don't owe you anything. Obviously he wasn't very up to date on the whole thing.

He may be a child, but if you speak at a conference and take your opinion as seriously as any politician's, you can expect some arguing and not hide under an umbrella of excuses like that (not that he is, I don't know). Calling him an embarrassment might be a bit harsh, but I don't know why Labour want him to be their poster boy, because I'd be pretty embarrassed.

I think it does matter that he misled people. Imagine he claimed to have an illness to say how the NHS was better under labour and it turned out he was lying. Would that be Ok because some people do have cancer? Getting a middle class kid who thinks having to pay for his own ipad is tough to pretend to be on the poverty line to make the opposition look bad is disgraceful. Why did labour not get a child on the poverty line to speak for them instead?

frankly I think the OP and supporters should be as embarrassed by their English comprehension skills as they are by their choice of young target.

But when he asked the Tories to answer for themselves about the pencils- I took that as his representing more any kid having money troubles. Of course there are not many people who can't afford pencils (you can get a year's school supplies for what, about £10 these days) and even fewer who would put any spare money they did have straight into the school fund, but this is the line people take these days, so taking this as a general message on behalf of all young people everywhere, perhaps it wasn't so misleading.

I'd rather look at the speech itself than carry on and on about people being hypocrites. I don't think he's being a hypocrite- he's not saying that people shouldn't be rich, shouldn't take advantage of the welfare state- he's just lying if you take the speech literally. The whole internet is focusing on his background. I'd really rather not defend any of Labour's yes-men, but what about focusing on his points? And the answer is, no one will really do that, because he's not coming up with anything new. Their gimmick is that they're using a young boy now. That should say something more important.