Where is Angela Rayner?

[Pigeonqueen]

So vocal and present during the campaign and haven’t seen her anywhere at all today 🤷‍♀️😳… just being nosey. 🤔

You asked a question about what would qualify Angela in my mind, and I answered. Again. Nothing you say will change my mind.

Not all of us grew up with privilege, so in my view, it is a very good thing that many of the privately educated have been replaced with state educated MPs, yes.

She also apologised unreservedly for her “scum” remark, which is more than many male politicians have done for some incredibly offensive remarks they’ve made over the years - albeit dressed up in “work” language, or not as the case may be.

Again. Time to raise the bar. Two wrongs don’t make a right.

I have no interest in changing your mind, I’m just trying to see where your standards apply or not.

Was Boris qualified when he described gay men as “tank topped bum boys” or black people as “picaninies with water melon smiles”?

Absolutely not! To be clear: I did not vote for Boris. Again…time to raise the bar. Two wrongs don’t make a right. If you’d like to start a thread about why Boris is unfit for office, I’d be happy to contribute.

Both can be true at the same time: Angela is unfit for office. Boris is unfit for office.

I never said you voted for him. And no, two wrongs don’t make a right but there’s a lot to be said for getting it wrong, apologising and doing better. There’s a lot to be said for overcoming an adverse childhood (that is completely out with your control) and bettering yourself.

True, there is a lot to be said for overcoming a difficult childhood, and I commend Angela for that. However, as I said above, she currently lacks the emotional intelligence to seamlessly jump into “work language”. It doesn’t make her a bad person, it just means (in my opinion) that she’s been over-promoted. Yes, she apologised for calling someone scum in a professional environment, but as an MP, she should have had the emotional intelligence not to have done it in the first place. Like it or not, she lacks some of those essential skills.

I absolutely agree with this but it doesn’t mean she’s qualified for the job.
I didn’t vote for Boris either and agree he was totally unfit for office.

Let's just wait and see how she performs, shall we?

John Major had no education beyond O level. Should he not have been PM?

John Major had no education beyond O level. Should he not have been PM?

No. He shouldn’t have been (my opinion).

And yet he led the country through a time of economy prosperity and did all the heavy lifting on the Northern Ireland peace deal. He held all three of the great offices of state and performed well in all of them. Not only that, he was my constituency MP and he was outstanding. He’s much beloved here still and his record speaks for itself. His education level didn’t hold him back.

Why in your opinion?

I find this so repulsive. So many young people today can't afford to go to uni. They could be smart, intellectually curious, knowledgeable, compassionate and yet they can't become a politician?

That's a really stinking, elitist attitude. Shame on you for not being willing to even consider other points of view.

This all makes me love Angela Rayner more.

GCSEs are just a marker, in the absence of other evidence, that someone is reasonably numerate and literate. They become increasingly irrelevant the further away from school age someone gets (and often forgotten anyway). This idea that all young people should have average or above GCSE results or not be worth employing or training in anything else is a relatively recent one.

A Labour voter insulting those with opposing views. How original.

I was asked for my honest opinion upthread and gave it. I said that we should agree to disagree. (Without throwing insults at those who hold differing opinions, mind you.)

Surely there’s a reason WHY you hold this opinion? Or do you just pluck your opinions out of a hat?

Reasons listed above.

I was very careful not to insult you but your repugnant opinion.

No room for debate, or realising that perhaps you might be hideously misjudging a whole load of people.

Perhaps you can explain why an undergrad degree makes someone so much more appropriate as a politician? It looks like some politicians pissed their uni time away shagging dead pigs.

Bit of generalising going on there @U53rName both towards labour voters and AR.
I would say the intelligent and pragmatic response would be to give her a chance. I think she’s probably well qualified to understand the challenges that people face in left behind deprived areas. If she embarrasses herself you can say ‘I told you so’ and feel self righteous. If she delivers you maybe should change your opinion of her. Sadly the right wing press probably has exactly the same opinion as you and they will exploit every tiny harmless faux pas that she makes. The thing is you probably know that don’t you.

Where then?

There are lots of brownfield sites and grey field within the green belt. This data is quite old but, given the failure to build in the following years, is probably still reliable.

^The Office for National Statistics (ONS) published experimental land use data for 2010. The data suggests that 12% of UK land is ‘urban and developed’, which would leave 88% for everywhere else. This is land with homes and other buildings, roads, and urban green space. The rest is agricultural land (65%), forest (13%), marine areas and coastland (2%), and the rest is either freshwater or other types of land.
And the ONS also used the Census 2011 data to show that 10% of land in England and Wales is in ‘built up’ areas. These are areas such as towns and cities that are ‘irreversibly urban in character’. This tells us about the spread of urban areas, but not exactly how much of the UK’s land is actually built on.^

Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckenberg, Richard Branson, Bill Gates, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Alan Sugar, Ellen DeGeneress, Simon Cowell.

None of them have a degree.

I have massive respect for Angela Rayner (even though I haven't voted Labour for c30 years although I'm still left wing ).

Am actually , and at the number of the classist, elitist, educationalist (I know that's not a word but it's the best I can come up with to describe the prejudice), misogynistic, judgemental and/or look-ist posts on here.

Not quite sure how AR is supposed to have gone back in time to get those qualifications that she didn't get when she was pregnant . Or how she is somehow a bad example to young people today simply because today you need basic English and Maths qualifications to get onto any course? From what I've read about her, she's passionate about ensuring that young people don't have to struggle like she did, cut off from educational opportunities. So she is perfect to be in charge of Levelling Up.

Nor do I see WTF her accent has to do with her capability

She didn't have anything handed to her on a plate. She had to work bloody hard to achieve what she has done - kudos to her.

At least when I went off to Uni (from my comfortable middle class background and with my posh Scottish accent ), my friends and I were very aware of our privilege. Not sure that is the case for everyone on this thread

The blinkered, self-congratulatory and/or judgemental posts of some on here reminded me of this cartoon... Fortunately Angela Rayner never "settled and learnt her place"