To think allisons pearsons rant about Angela Rayner is full of nasty stereotypes about girls who are 16 and pregnant?

[Helhigh]

Well I’m not a fan of Angela Rayner and have never voted labour but Pearsons rant in the telegraph yesterday was half assumptions that Rayner must have been a bully who thumped classmates for doing their homework and distracted the class by talking about how many boys she shagged.
And of course reading books and having a child at 16 is mutually exclusive.
I don’t think Rayner has ever said she was like this Pearson has just made a load of assumptions because she was 16 and pregnant.

Anyway it’s behind a pay wall so I had to copy and paste the nasty part:

“I have noticed a tendency among politicians and commentators, particularly the posh ones, to praise Rayner’s flame-haired “authenticity”. That’s because they didn’t go to school with an Angela. Those of us who did know the harm that the Angelas do to kids from poorer homes who want to work hard and do well but whose lessons are permanently disrupted by those who don’t. The Angelas sit in the back row of the class putting on make-up, doing their nails and chatting loudly, throughout readings from the set book, about who they’ve sh---ed. They disdain the teachers who are rather scared of them.
Angelas have sex by the age of 13 (they mock those of us who are saving our virginity for later). Pregnant at 16, they leave school without any qualifications and work behind the till in Mac Fisheries before embarking on a romantic life which features at least two injunctions and a restraining order. By the age of 37, they are grandmothers (as Rayner was).
Believe me, all the kids who want to get on in life breathe an almighty sigh of relief that the Angelas have left school because now they can hand in their homework and try to pass their exams without being ridiculed or thumped by an Angela.
So you’ll have to forgive me if I don’t join in the applause for Angela Rayner’s vibrant “back story” and her ascent to the top of government through militant trade unionism. The working-class kids I admire often came from difficult council-house homes, as Rayner did, but they clung on to education like a life raft. Or they saw a job opportunity and grasped it with both hands. They did that old-fashioned thing called bettering themselves”

The Tories gave us Brexit and austerity, great job.

If Sunak was a woman someone would say he slept his way to the top!😂😂

And if Starmer were a man….

Oh wait, he’s not - he’s a little coward who will happily throw anyone under the bus. Next stop, Reeves.

Ding ding.

I can look at the wider picture and see things the last gov did wrong and did right.

I can say the same for Blair/Brown (which inherited a growing economy thanks to Tory fiscal prudence) and I can say the same for this government.

Shame you can't do that with Angela Rayner

I've assessed her and I don't like her at all. I disagree with Starmer and others but I have more respect for them.

But does that make it acceptable to write a pack of lies about her? I don't think it does. But maybe you think it's fine as long as they're about someone you don't like.

Top bankers don't impress me. They gave us austerity with their reckless shortsighted behaviour.

thanks to Tory fiscal prudence)

Black Wednesday wasn’t very prudent.

and I can say the same for this government.

We were in recession for two quarters just before this government took over.

Top bankers - lol.

You mean, central bankers, surely.

Which period are you addressing, specifically?

They made some mistakes. But then they rectified it and got us back on the right path.

By the mid-1990s, the UK economy was one of the strongest in Europe, with falling unemployment and steady growth.

The last gov had reduced inflation and left us the fastest growing economy in the G7. This government has been punishing strivers with tax increases to fund shirkers.

I mean the entirety of the international banking community in the runup to the global financial crisis. Not long before, the Conservative Party were on the record asking for more deregulation of the banks - it's in Hansard.

Sorry, the fastest growing G7 economy in 2024 was the US.

The last government gave us Brexit

We were in recession for two quarters just before this government took over.

Link please?

I can only find this:
UK quarterly GDP growth 2025| Statista

So Q1 2024 was 0.8% growth, Q2 2024 (when election was called and then happened) it was 0.6% growth. Since then only one quarter, Q1 2025, saw growth of 0.7%, otherwise it's consistently 0.3% or less.

Or do you mean the end of 2023? which was the tail of inflation caused by the war in Ukraine? so not "just before the current government took over"

But you don’t even live in the UK. Don’t forget we’re still waiting for your time stamped photo of your view

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/business-68680004?app-referrer=deep-link

Without ‘top bankers’, capitalism would have collapsed in 08/09.

Without ‘top bankers’, you would not have lending, enabling SMEs to startup and expand, for people to buy a home etc., for firms to hire staff.

Harder to think of a more daft post - congrats.

Brexit - the great triumph that knocked 8% off GDP. BeLeave.

Not every single banker directly worked in the sub prime lending!

I looked at Sunak's profile in the private sector, he seems to understand economics!

He has worked at GS, and a hedge fund - that much I do know.

Sunak the Brexiteer.

Top bankers like Fred Goodwin?

I have seen that But then other economists and political commentators say it's not true and have their own reports.

You single out Goodwin - he was not a central banker.

Nice try, though.

Okay and? People are allowed to have these views. I'm mature enough to realise there are both sides to the arguement. Sunak successfully delivered the Windsor Framework.