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.

You may be right, and I agree that lazy diction is a bit of an issue for communication (and that’s as someone who speaks with a very strong regional accent myself) but the reality is lots of people DO speak that way so enforcing anything different you’d be essentially banning a huge section of regular society from ever becoming politicians. And given that the whole point of democracy is to allow ALL of society to be represented, I don’t think that would work.

What you perhaps really want is for good diction to be more prized in wider society - which is a whole different discussion.

I don't mind her glottal stops and like hearing northern working class vowels like my own. She's not being lazy - this is her natural accent. But it bothers me when I hear her use poor grammar because it reminds me that she has no formal education beyond 16. Most working class northerners of Rayner's generation with degree-level education don't confuse was/were as they have read and heard the correct version too often.

I'm a bit torn about this because I think working class representation in parliament is vital. However, I've recently come to the conclusion that we need more training for government ministers and probably a requirement for degree-level education. In any other line of work, acting as the strategic lead for a similar dept without at least a degree would be inconceivable. University doesn't just impart knowledge, it teaches you how to learn, and how to build and critique arguments. Of course you can learn this without university but there is no guarantee.

Rayner must he well read and highly intelligent. But it worries me if working class representation is taken to mean a short-cut around the slog of acquiring a sufficiently broad and deep and rigorous education to govern effectively. Maybe she has acquired this through her own reading, but that would be a tough task. The trade unions have a history of funding promising politicians through fast track higher and further education, or they did for men. They realised the importance of this for providing pathways not just for inclusion of those born in poverty, but effective inclusion. I wonder if this was open to Angela Rayner.

Is it lazy? Is it physically easier to produce a glottal stop than a t, for instance? I'm not sure that it is. Surely it's just her accent and it's not about laziness.

Angela was born in Stockport, she has the local accent. I live in Stockport and have got used to the accent over the years. I was born in another NW town. Her accent is one I am used to. She has done well having been a Union branch secretary and risen quickly within the Labour Party.

Quite amusing how many loud mouthed snobs on here are banging on about intelligence levels and formal education whilst clearly demonstrating they don't know the difference between an accent and a dialect nor do they know there is no such thing as a verbal standard for spoken English, the standard form is only in the written word.

If you heard me read that outloud in my 'coarse' working class voice you'd probably have convulsions.

Perhaps take the stick out of your arse so you can sit more comfortably and Google 'sociolinguistics'.

She's hardly illiterate. I have far more problem with proven liars or convicted felons being in positions of power.

I mean.

You're a terrible snob.

The part of the UK I come from uses the glottal stop as standard. This regional usage is actually in a linguistic textbook which I discovered as a post graduate student. So objecting to it is absolutely snobbery. It totally isn't laziness or lack of illiteracy. It's accent, sociolect and idiolect.

Elocution lessons shouldn't be a requirement for public life. And if they are, it's as a result of the class bound society we live in.

I found Jacob Rees Mogg's aristocratic shtick much more annoying than Angela Rayner's summer dresses and glottal stops. His path to political power was paved with gold while Angela Raynor's required much more effort and strength of character.

Of course you can post snobby criticisms of her accent/voice and choice of outfits but I'm pretty sure that she is used to this and couldn't give a flying fuck about some random's opinion on Mumsnet.

Her poor grammar grates more than her accent. I’ve lived in the NW all my life.

☝This. I think she's a PITA and ignorant. The English language is wonderfully descriptive but she mangles it. Shockingly lazy and arrogant.

Can you give an example of her poor grammar that grates so much ?

Angela vs Jacob?
For me it's Angela, I cannot abide Rees Mogg & his awful condescending manner 😖
I like Angela Rayner, I like her 'roughness', but I also think it will limit her (of course I could be completely wrong).

@TheAmusedQuail Elocution lessons shouldn't be a requirement for public life. And if they are, it's as a result of the class bound society we live in.

You make an interesting point there but I still think there should be a minimum standard for speaking in public life. If I'm being lazy - and it is laziness - I will sometimes speak very differently when on the phone to my mother but I would no more stand at a lectern and say "am gunner" as opposed to "I am going to" than I would deliver a speech with my tits out. There is no point in having an English language if we can't adhere to minimum standards in public speech. Blair's cabinet had a lot of heavy weight Northerners. Prescott was mentioned further up the thread. I never heard him drop a single H in public. He didn't declare himself MP for 'Ull.

Angela Rayner grew up behind my Nanna's and her accent annoys me too. Angela and I had very similar childhoods and probably even played together as children as I spent a fair amount of my childhood living with my Nanna.

It's not part of the local accent - yes a lot of us have our "lazy speech" when we're talking to friends and family but we also improve our speech and speak properly when it's something more formal.
"Lazy speech" is the perfect term for how Angela speaks - it DOES come across as lazy. I think she thinks she's coming across as "real" but those of us who grew up in her area and era think she's incredibly fake. I know I sound like a snob but the way she speaks, does make her sound uneducated.
I went to the local primary and comprehensive just like she did.

Mind you, I have been accused of being "posh" by some people but I'm not - I just speak and enunciate properly and so do most of the people I know, who came from the estate that Angela grew up on (which isn't as bad as it's made out to be - or it wasn't in the 80s when I lived there with Nanna).

Why can't speakers of RP pronounce the letter r, the lazy fucks.

John Prescott came from a traditional working class family who were often auto-didacts and ambitious for their children. Angela Rayner's family would be described as 'underclass' and very deprived. Her mother was illiterate and mentally ill. Their backgrounds are very different.

There is no point in having an English language if we can't adhere to minimum standards in public speech.

What are these minimum standards @hairbearbunches? Who has set them and where can I find the rule book?

There is no such thing as standard spoken English. All the 'rules' you think Angela Rayner is breaking relate to written English. It's nothing more than your preferences based on prejudices and a lack knowledge on the subject.

She's ignorant, lazy and arrogant because you don't know what a dialect is and don't like how she speaks? The irony...

I think it's absolutely amazing how far that woman has come given her background it really should be applauded.

It is her accent. I find the south east estuary accent extremely grating but I always try to ignore it and focus on what people are saying. Not to is judging someone for their background.

It's going to be controversial, I'm sure, but I agree with you.

Where I'm from it's pretty common, but it's something I've never done and I also think it makes people sounds unintelligent.

I did, however, used to drop my t's when I spoke. My ex used to take the piss out of how I said "Waitrose" for example (just one of many reasons that he's an ex).

Over the years my accent has changed and my t's have returned.

I don't have so much of an issue with missing t's in Northern accents though as I do with Essex/London/Kent accents.

Limit her? She is the deputy prime minister of the UK. I would love to know what jobs and achievements many people on this thread have clocked up in their lives.

From wiki. Personally I think it's great that she's worked her way through the working world. So much better than the private school - expensive university - jobs for the boys route. She's been through what thousands of people in the UK have gone/going through.

Rayner was born and raised in Stockport, where she attended the comprehensive Avondale School. She left school aged 16 whilst pregnant and without any qualifications. She later trained in social care at Stockport College and worked for the local council as a care worker.

She eventually became a trade union representative within UNISON, during which time she joined the Labour Party. She was selected to contest Ashton‑under‑Lyne in 2014 and was elected for the seat at the 2015 general election.

From 2016 until 2020, Rayner held several Shadow Cabinet positions under Jeremy Corbyn. She successfully stood for the deputy leadership of the Labour Party in 2020, and held further Shadow Cabinet positions under Keir Starmer.