Angela Rayner’s glottal stops are infuriating

[Ilovecleaning]

AIBU to be so irritated by the deputy PM’s lazy speech? I was listening to her being interviewed this morning and I was distracted by her Bri-ish/righ-/wai-ed. I googled her and apparently when asking a question about the lockdown parties she said ‘Was you there or not?’
Why does it anger me so much? It is not her accent. I am northern but I don’t drop my t’s and I know when to use was and were.
Her lazy speech distracts from the content. I have my theories but I would love to hear other people’s opinions.

I think it’s just a very normal part of her accent.

What's your theory?

I don't think she sounds be changing how she speaks, that's just something natural. If she put a 'posh' voice she'd be crucified for being fake.

Judge her on actions not how she speaks

I think as long as the message is understood 🤷🏼‍♀️
I certainly don’t speak posh and proper.

I can't get worked up about it. Boris Johnson had a very different but also distinctive style of speaking. For me it was the constant lying rather than the sound of him that was the real issue.

It’s dialect, not lazy.

I agree with the above poster, if she changed it now then the Daily Mail would headline "My Fair Lady" and she'd be torn apart. It's her accent and part of her identity. If I had to change something I'd get rid of all this "my honoured friend" and quips nonsense in parliament, whenever I see a debate it feels like they're auditioning (badly) for Mock the Week.

It must be ages since the last Rayner bashing thread. She's not the only politician with speech patterns open to criticism.

That’s just how she speaks. Surely it would be worse if she put on a fake posh accent?

I’m with you OP, I can’t stand to listen to her talk.

I think unless you think she’s doing it on purpose as some kind of grifting YABU. You’ve got an unconscious bias that only people who have RP speech patterns can be credible. It’s a you problem.

Criticising speech patterns which people have grown up with them, or people’s accents in particular is a form of micro aggression, basically to make poor people feel that they don’t belong. I have a bit more sympathy where the words are actually wrong or you can’t actually understand what’s being said but that’s not the case with Angela Raynor.

Plus we have historically low voter turnout, don’t you think it’s a good thing that people can listen to her and feel that she represents someone other than a bloke from Dorking in the 1940s?

Well don't then. It's not compulsory.

What the heck is a glottal stop?
Do you think she should speak like a bbc announcer in the 1950’s?
Im more bothered that she votes for cutting pensioners fuel allowance than whether or not she been to elocution lessons!

Why does it anger me so much?

Because you think it’s lazy (you mention it twice) Angela is actually really hard working; she just doesn’t speak like previous generations of politicians - who imo have said much worse/less credible things but in an RP accent so people give them a waiver…

Wow! Is being Northernist a thing now?

I don’t. Just contributing to a post 💅, that’s how this works.

Always has been - and never more so than in politics

Plus much rather her than Thatcher who sounded like a menacing psychopath post-elocution lessons. Stuff of nightmares.

Exactly. It sounds to me as if you’re being a crashing snob, OP. She grew up in poverty with a mother with serious MH issues, and left school pregnant at 16, and worked her way into politics via being a trade union rep. I assume she speaks the way she’s always spoken, with a WC regional accent. It would be far stranger if she codeswitched to RP since becoming an MP.

It doesn't sound like a Lancashire accent to me.

Her interview this morning was a car crash. Talk about not answering the question and just repeating the same drivel whatever Emma asked her.

Bashing on about the upgrade in the minimum age and how it's going to bring the High St back to life and people will be able to get a mortgage (but they're still on the minimum wage and they might not even have a job as employers can't afford it.)

Ignoring all the questions about how she really feels over the new Trump behaviour....

It’s hardly a new thing!

I think its great - she’s got to where she is despite her northern accent, being working class and being a woman. She’s compeltely different to the majority of MPs.

In terms of micro-aggression, it’s Rayner, not Raynor

Ha ha I was about to mention Thatcher. A truly weird voice. People tend to sound best in their normal accent.

I can’t stand people misusing ‘was’ and ‘were’. My MIL does it all the time, for example, ‘you was there wasn’t you?’ Speaking like that does her a disservice - it makes her sound unintelligent.

What do you think about Pritti Patel's lack of g's in her speech patterns, @Ilovecleaning ?