Where is Angela Rayner?

[Pigeonqueen]

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

Or perhaps they like her and admire what she has achieved. Not everyone is an unkind, judgemental snob.

Great. It shouldn’t matter what your background if you are competent and the best for the brief. I believe this is the case for both Miliband and Rayner. No classism here.

It translates because she worked her way up and a very Co patent, hard working and highly educated man recognises her worth, as well as the people of her constituency. HTH.

She became a union rep because like all union types she has an aggressive face and a gob on her. Fair play! But how that translates to being the right hand woman to the PM I dont know.

As a former union rep she’ll know how to defend the rights of people who can’t do that for themselves, which I think is a pretty key skill in any political role. I think particularly important for the PMs right hand woman - she needs to be able to challenge effectively, perhaps if some of her Tory predecessors had experience of fighting for others we may not be in the mess we are now.

Agree - very good appointment. Likewise with appointing a KC as AG.

1. Richard Hermer KC as Attorney General*
2. Sir Patrick Vallance KCB as a Minister of State (Minister for Science) in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology *
3. James Timpson OBE as a Minister of State (Minister for Prisons, Parole and Probation) in the Ministry of Justice *

*The King has been pleased to signify His intention of conferring a Peerage of the United Kingdom for Life.

^^ from Gov.uk website (latest)

She has an aggressive face and a gob on her.

Women, know your place. Look pretty and harmless and be quiet and everything will be fine.

God knows how Angela Rayner and others find the strength to press on when this kind of misogynist bilge is said about them. (not to mention the death and rape threats that mean they have to have panic buttons installed in the homes they share with their families). I'm full of admiration for her resilience.

This is all so full of promise.

Err, no. It illustrates the hollow hypocrisy that sits under the surface of a long-held sacred value when two working class kids make it real and uncover the reality. Which is that they will never be acceptable, or even palatable, to your dyed-in-the-wool true blue voter, because they aren't from the traditional ruling class. They are invaders. Upstarts. It's not the natural order of things.

Hence the sneering about northern gobbiness, glottal accents and clothes that aren't quite right. It's the political equivalent of U vs non-U. It's fascinating and simultaneously utterly pathetic.

If you hate classism as your previous comment stated then at least follow through and not make hypocritical comments about others that you don’t agree with.

Others here are doing no worse than you
Both are unacceptable.

Missed this.

Why do you dislike her so much? Your opening gambit on this thread was that she had no qualifications or work experience. Now it's been established that she has a vocational qualification and a job history which led her to politics, you've pivoted to query how this qualifies her to be Deputy PM.

Why wouldn't her years of Union experience and time as an MP, qualify her for the role?

Whats been established? Whats this vocational qualification of which you speak?

I mentioned it earlier. She went to college (Stockport I think) and then was able to get a job. Specific qualification - you'd have to ask her what it was and whether she finished it or not.

But she spent years doing trade union work and then became a sitting MP in 2015. So again, what concerns you about her suitability for the Deputy PM role?

What paper qualifications does a deputy PM need? As opposed to the paper qualifications they all tend to have because of having money and connections and an "in"?
Because to me, the fact that she has made it all that way, despite being working class, a single mum, without an Eton education, without the right connections, means that she is uniquely qualified for the job.

A qualification in the use of apostrophes perhaps?

Zero qualifications. All I can see is an NVQ Level 2 in health and social care, which can be achieved by anyone who can copy and paste. Did a few myself and its literally comprehension. Meanwhile our kids since at least the 1990s have had to achieve minimum 5 A-C at GCSE inc Maths and English to get into an apprenticeship or a minimum wage job. And so it should be. Blair was a huge advocate of qualifications so you cant say its elitist to have a basic level! You could argue Prescott was a gobby northerner (he was!) but he at least had had an education including a degree at his beloved Hull University. Don't you find it remarkable that a Deputy PM wouldnt even meet the most basic criteria that all our kids needed to get their first job!?

It wasn't worthless because it was relevant to the job she did. That is the point of vocational qualifications.

And union reps who sit meekly and keep their mouths shut wouldn't be much cop.

She’s my local MP and a great one at that. I’ve had several problems and she always replies within a timely manner, either email or the occasional letter. If I’ve ever complained about a problem (like a dangerous derelict greenhouse in a park) she has ended up sorting it. I think she’s great!

You can go to Oxford and still be working class, the two aren’t mutually exclusive.

Agree.

This is not about diminishing qualifications. AR has said herself she's succeeded despite not having them, but part of what's drawn her to politics is to try and change things, so that girls like her don't face the same struggle and being written off at age 16 as a failure.

Like her or not, AR is representative of lots of people in the UK. Both her original circumstances and the desire to do better and want more. Politics needs diversity of experience and thought in it, otherwise it isn't reflective of the electorate it claims to represent.

If you've got a cracking degree and solid post-grad professional experience - brilliant. But you have no idea what it's like to come from grinding poverty and try and claw your way though just to survive - let alone thrive. Those voices are just as important, because they know the reality, and when it comes to trying to improve or fix something, then why wouldn't you want to hear from someone that's lived it?

A vocational qualification is likely the route available to her as a teenage single mum - which enabled her to do an essential, minimum wage job from where she worked her way up. It’s essential that there are alternatives to formal education for our young people, particularly given how hostile an environment school is for many.

She’s lived a life that very many in marginalised communities will recognise, and has succeeded by any measure. She’s well placed to know what that takes and to create paths to success for disenfranchised young people, which can only be a good thing.

Do they do GCSE Cabinet Ministering, these days? It was all O-levels in my day.

Why don't you give her a chance to prove herself in the role @SkippysEar.
No point criticising on day one. Give Angela a chance to prove herself and, if in six months you have evidence that she's failing come back and discuss it then.

I have a CSE grade 4 in Chancellor of The Exchequering.
I was a gardener before I retired and it came in really handy for calculating invoices.

But she got a job. So I'm not sure what the concern is?

Dominic Cummings has a first from Oxford and was Boris Johnson's right-hand man for a period of time. His degree didn't stop him from making some monumental mistakes.

Liz Truss has the classic PPE from Oxford. It didn't stop her from tanking the economy.