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”

I have never understood this being a fan of a politician but maybe people do have posters on their wall and listen to or watch their speeches endlessly

Each to their own

This probably explains the background for Pearson's stroppy take on teenage girls. This is when the Thatcher government closed many grammars and they were merged or took non-selected pupils. It would have been quite a culture shock for some. It doesn't excuse a fictional take about 'Angelas' and the teenage Rayner in particular.

A fit of pique and deeply unpleasant.

Absolutely. But the moment anyone says anything critical of Kemi Badenoch, one is being racist/sexist/misogynist, even if what is said is a matter of commenting on actual things she has said or done. The double standard is alive and kicking.

Yep. Right now there is tumbleweed about her horribly offensive gaffe about Bloody Sunday, which she hasn't bothered to apologise for. If Starmer, or Rayner, had done something similar...

I didn't know about this insensitivity. The local MP says: "It just tells you that the Tory party have no idea or no thought or care for victims here in Northern Ireland."

I looked it up

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/kemi-badenoch-bloody-sunday-video-b2968866.html

Well there is that

Although the Tory party has actually apologised. Badenoch hasn't bothered herself. Her stupidity and arrogance is an unfortunate combination.

It is a good thing that the party has apologised. It is appalling that Badenoch herself has not.

Mind you, what does one expect from someone who thinks Lincolnshire is part of the North-East of England?

She has got bucket loads of confidence. Remember she never makes any gaffes?

I couldn’t agree more

To complain about mistakes of the adults Badenoch and Rayner, as above, is one thing. This thread is specifically highlighting a creepy article in the Telegraph which retrofits an imaginary Angela's fictitious behaviour back into some hang ups of Allison Pearson. Which is another thing.

Are you suggesting that Pearson objects to horrid things being said about her?

Who'd have thought it.

Surely not?

She sounds like a cut price Katie Hopkins.

Exactly
It's made up stuff about her childhood/younger years to try and smear her character, not as whatever she may or may not have done as an adult.
Not sure what's so hard to understand.

Can you imagine saying it in public? Imagine her tone n private.

Ah yes. Women’s “tone”. Got to make sure that’s policed!

Indeed the internalised misogyny is strong with some.

Oh here we go. She is not a man. If she were, I would have exactly the same opinion. I hate foul language from anyone. Do you make snide comments just for the sake of it?

Fair enough, but the word 'scum' is hardly foul language unless you're very sensitive indeed.

And none of that excuses AP making up lies about Rayner and then using them to smear her. Especially now that she is whinging about someone saying mean things about her - talk about hypocrisy!

It’s not exactly “foul language” is it? No, I wish she hadn’t said it. But I can’t think of anyone else who has been held to account for intemperate language for quite so long. Particularly when it was said at a conference reception...

Incidentally-why does it matter what she says in private?

That is where we differ. Maybe a generational thing. Scum in my opinion is vile. If a student said to another student ‘ you are scum’, they would be punished for that sort of language.

I mean away from the cameras

Pretty sure I’m older than you are. And as I said, I’d rather she hadn’t said it. But it is bizarre how it always comes up. It does suggest the Anti-Rayner Faction don’t have much amunition.