Angela Rayner sacked [shock]

[Youarecountingonme]

So Keir Starmer chooses the one shining light in the labour party. A single mother at sixteen, the most inspiring story to come out of the Labour party. Anyone that has listened to Angela about her struggles to obtain a degree and to better herself. Starmer chooses her as the whipping girl for his failures and has sacked her as co-ordinator. He can't remove her as deputy, but how much longer is that position tenable?
I am genuinely shocked and horrified. The failures of the labour party on are on HIM. He should be resigning.

Absolutely livid. What has the Labour party come to.

Labour’s Shadow Cabinet team is as follows:

Angela Rayner - Deputy Leader, Shadow First Secretary of State, Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Shadow Secretary of State for the Future of Work

So that was a nice big promotion as promised.

Worthing Council. Labour gain from Con.

[quote thecatfromjapan]I'm reading this thread and it's fascinating.

I'm sensing that:

• People are quite fed up with a kind of identity politics.

• People are beginning to see 'identity' stuff as actuslly running in opposition to competence - and wanting competence.

• A strong bridling against a feeling that there is something coercive about identity politics.

They can’t blame Jeremy Corbyn anymore so someone else had to go

^ This

I believe there is no evidence that diversity training actually increases inclusivity

Its mixed. Companies love to tick a box quickly and cheaply so will hire in someone to do a couple of hours presentation, then tick the box and nothing changes. Ergo "diversity training doesn't work". Good training and work on processes can be effective if supported and demonstrated from the top.

If there's one thing that gets people's backs up, its being lectured in puritanical terms and not being recognised for what you have done

That is down to the messaging - it should be aiming at showing how to increase the reach and diversity. If staff/volunteers are not interested in broadening their reach then they won't want the message however its delivered.

@C8H10N4O2

I believe there is no evidence that diversity training actually increases inclusivity

Its mixed. Companies love to tick a box quickly and cheaply so will hire in someone to do a couple of hours presentation, then tick the box and nothing changes. Ergo "diversity training doesn't work". Good training and work on processes can be effective if supported and demonstrated from the top.

If there's one thing that gets people's backs up, its being lectured in puritanical terms and not being recognised for what you have done

That is down to the messaging - it should be aiming at showing how to increase the reach and diversity. If staff/volunteers are not interested in broadening their reach then they won't want the message however its delivered.

There is a massive difference between staff and volunteers here. If its going to take hours people don't have to do x, y and z whether it be box ticking or anything else then you risk losing that volunteer completely from the system and losing opportunities for all. Treating volunteers like staff especially when they are actively asking for support on the very basics - which often is the case is not to do with poor delivery. Its to do with not understanding the grassroots and taking a top down attitude which ignores the problems on the ground.

Diversity training takes the immediate attitude that people are bigotted and prejudiced as its starting point. That hekps no one and unless you are completely lacking in your own ability to think, its not going to connect with a massive section of the population and is more likely to led to resentment however its delivered. It treats people as if they are stupid.

I know of a group which was criticised by its parent organisation for not having enough BAME kids.

Which is fair enough until you realise its a village run group and the area is 98% white.

poor old Starmer. Because AR has a mandate from the party members (who generally have no interest in Labour being electable) he can't get rid of her.
Can't wait to see her debating with Gove, her opposite number. Whatever you think of him, He's a lot better at debating than she is.

So, Starmer has u-turned and promoted Rayner? He is never going to be able to rein in the aggressive and incompetent far-left elements in the party. Labour is finished. The only thing it seems able to do is insult voters and tear itself apart.

Diversity training takes the immediate attitude that people are bigotted and prejudiced as its starting point

Really? You have been on some strange diversity training. Most of what I have seen of the meaningful training focuses on recognising and understanding difference and how to ensure equity.

I don't agree that volunteers should get a free pass either. Some of the worst ignorance my DC ever experienced was from volunteer coaches, some of whom frankly should not be in the job.

So this thread will have a happy ending as AR now has managed to get Starmer to row back. Not great for him admittedly, but setting her up as a fall guy shows a total lack of judgement.

It looks like Labour is just about to implode, whether anything will rise from the ashes remains to be seen. In the meantime we will have to continue to rely on the tory backbenchers for any kind of opposition.
Strange times. Can we expect a leadership challenge? Starmer looking very weak this morning.

@itsgettingwierd Johnathan Ashworth?!?!?!
Surely you are joking. Did you catch the recent parliamentary speech which he mumbled and bumbled his way through? It was like he’d never seen any of it before. Utterly embarrassing.

Jonathan Ashworth. Sorry.

setting her up as a fall guy shows a total lack of judgement.

I strongly suspect she's only been reinstated because she is a working class northern woman who became a mother at 16.

In an era where it's clear that Labour have all credibility with very people they should most strongly represesent, some advisor told Keir No, you must keep her - she's a poster girl for 'those sort of people'. If you replace her with yet another middle class London-centric Luvvie you're on a hiding to nothing.

No part of me thinks she's still there because she is more competent or capable than any of the possible alternatives.

lost all credibility

When it really boils down to it, the competence and capability you describe can be achieved by most people of average intelligence, they can get better, given the opportunity to improve and enhance their abilities and competence in time. The AR of politics come to represent others like them, that would otherwise see our political establishments as 'beyond them'. It should not be beyond anyone to be represented sunflowers

The idea that we can only have very well educated, very polished intellectuals is exactly the problem.
In the same way a trial should reflect a diverse range of people, so should our parliaments. And so should every single organisation that speaks for us. It is the very fact that she is not an intellectual heavyweight that makes her so attractive to the Labour Party, AR represents many people, not all northern women, not all southern women but a cross section of people that can not be reached easily.

The LP were right to defend her, they were right to keep her. We live in an open democracy and everyone has their place, including women that were young and had a difficult start.

Surely Starmer should take the blame for being stupid enough to put a remain candidate in for a seat in Hartlepool.

How thick do you have to be?

The Labour Party as it stands is like a caricature. A very middle class idea of who working class people should have representing them. Angela Rayner is an example of this.

This is where inclusion and diversity is bizarre, you want a mediocre person to be deputy of a political party, so if the leader got elected as PM and died in office the deputy would be in charge during a pandemic or world war or environmental disaster.

Personally I want someone with extraordinarily great sills and talent in multiple areas to run the country.

The AR of politics come to represent others like them, that would otherwise see our political establishments as 'beyond them'. It should not be beyond anyone to be represented sunflowers

Spice AR is at least authentic, unlike so many other fakes we have in the party.

Authenticity is not a word I would attach with the labour party anymore. At least the conservatives are honest about who they really are, and what they hope to achieve. We don't see much of that in the LP anymore.
The movement has been hijacked by the luvvies, and they are force feeding their idea of what it means to be working class, the trouble is their fictional view is just that, and no longer means anything to anyone. The heart of the party has been extinguished, ultimately you can't pretend indefinitely to be something you are not, and expect people to believe you.

LP no longer speaks for us. Any of us.

Surely Starmer should take the blame for being stupid enough to put a remain candidate in for a seat in Hartlepool.

How thick do you have to be?

I think it's the same thing behind him telling the anti lockdown landlord he doesn't have to listen to him, as far as he is concerned he has right think and you will think as he does, he still thinks remain was better option and people need to be punished and if that's by having a Tory MP then so be it until you learn your lesson and he will punish those who don't have right think by removing their labour political representative unless they vote for the right candidate.

Well he hates the very people his party used to stand for and should join the Tories

I was always amazed there weren’t more Labour Leave supporters

I don’t find her very authentic tbh.

Really? why not? You think Blair is authentic or Starmer? I guess not. So who is in your eyes?

These things really do matter. Being honest about who you are, your roots and your difficulties. It takes courage. Especially in today's world.