Would you vote for Angela Rayner?

[WildEnergySupplier]

Sounds like she's throwing her hat in the ring.

She says she's paid off the tax she owes and is no longer under investigation.

This apparently means she's free to run - and is going to.

Coward?

You are not explaining what standard you are expecting and how Rayner does not meet them.

She has already represented the UK on world stage.

The thing is that on the international stage different standards apply. She falls short of some people’s standards in the UK because of her accent, that wouldn’t mean a thing to anyone except a native of the UK. It’s what she says that matters not how she says it. Robin Cook was a perfectly adequate Foreign Secretary and he looked like a garden gnome.

The rest of the world does not have English snobbery to judge people by. They won’t realize that her accent is one to be despised.

I don't dislike Angela Rayner, and I'm sympathetic to the causes I think she holds dear, but I disagree quite fervently with her ham-fisted bludgeoning on employment rights and requirements.

I'm in the camp that believes you catch more flies with honey than vinegar, and IMO her first day employment rights proposals were guaranteed to scare any small business (like my DP's) into not offering a job. It seems that lots of people share his cautious approach, so no one is going to take a skid on an unproven unknown, whatever they say at interview.

Sorry but you can all surely google the educational standards reached by most of the rest of the world leaders. And then report back here.

Hate to break it to you @CurlewKate but most of the rest of the world is more snobbish about educational standards, not less.

Look the whataboutery about Tories, accent, class, women just is not going to work.

Do better!

I don't disagree @CurlewKate . But can she bother to learn a few courtesy phrases in another language? One of the late Queen's talents, thanks to education, was that she could address French and German assemblies in their native tongue, in French quite passably.

The UK's education system is failing to teach languages well, we don't start young enough in my view. I'm 70 and I can ask for anything basic I need, grammatically correctly enough, in French, Spanish, German and probably Portuguese and Italian too.

That is what you seem to be suggesting. Rayner disqualifies because she didn't go to university and speaks with an accent.

How many English people can have an ordinary conversation in another language? Nothing difficult. I'd like a kilo of those potatoes please? Can I buy that fish and will you prepare it please? I know there's Google translate now but even so, English is the lingua franca de nos jours. Everyone from Shanghai to Montevideo speaks a bit.

is there any suggestion that she hasn't bothered to do that?

I am waiting for her to prove that she can.

I'd rather like her to prove herself, instead of being given the benefit of the doubt because she arrived via a secondary route. If you get to prominence via an unconventional path, then your path upwards may involve negotiating your way though without pissing off the people you meet on the route.

You can book her as a speaker.

For whom would you book Angela Rayner as a speaker? please tell me what paying audience would turn up.

She brings authenticity and urgency to every stage, speaking candidly about leadership under pressure, the realities of inequality, and what it takes to drive change in complex systems. Her story resonates strongly with audiences looking for inspiration grounded in real-world credibility, and for insight into the forces shaping the UK’s political, economic and social future.

https://www.chartwellspeakers.com/speaker/angela-rayner/

I would love to have a one to one conversation with her. I think she is clever, hard and ambitious. She'll be around for many years IMO. Probably a Barbara Castle, for the old folk here.

“That is what you seem to be suggesting. Rayner disqualifies because she didn't go to university and speaks with an accent.”

No @TopPocketFind - that is a mispresentation. I never said anything about regional accent.

She reminds me a lot of Barbara Castle. I can see her as the Grande Dame of the left eventually, shame I won’t be around to see it.

What on earth makes you think she couldn't “be bothered”?

Instead of this tribal pile-on, why do some of you not actually ask the relevant question directly.
What can Angela Rayner do to stand a chance of some day becoming PM.

Then @Papyrophile can give her two pennies worth of learning phrases in foreign languages, I can talk about her doing a couple of A levels and an open uni degree potentially. Someone else can say she needs to come across as less highly strung in some interviews and breathe better etc etc

This isn’t a tribal pile on. If Rayner is to stand a fighting chance of leading the Labour Party she needs a talented supportive team, a coherent narrative about the issues affecting the country and a portfolio of policies to address those issues. She doesn’t need to change herself, she’d be no more qualified to be PM with a smattering of languages or a few academic qualifications than she is now. If I could give her a single piece of advice it would be to ignore her detractors and be authentic, after all it’s got her a long way so far, it clearly works.

LOL.

Araminta1003 · Yesterday 19:51
TopPocketFind @ - I really don’t think that is what NorthXNorthWest is saying.
”but the Tories” just doesn’t wash anymore. Why shouldn’t we have proper standards both for our husbands and our politicians? Competent professional women with confidence are more likely to feel this way.
Good standards and workable economic policies is really not too much to ask for. High expectations is empowering not the opposite.
* I have quoted the wrong post. This is the correct one.

Thank you @Araminta1003

@TopPocketFind was engaging in bad faith.

@BIossomtoes @CurlewKate @TopPocketFind

This is why many people mistrust the behaviour of some political supporters. To some, it seems more important to “win”, appear morally superior or defend their side at all costs than to have an honest discussion about whether their ideas, or the politicians representing them, will genuinely produce the best outcomes or fairest compromises for everyone.

Given that this thread is specifically about whether people would vote for Angela Rayner, people are perfectly entitled to scrutinise somebody who could potentially become Prime Minister or hold significant political power. That scrutiny isn't automatically hatred, snobbery or prejudice. For many people, it is about substance, judgement and competence.

It is perfectly possible to defend your beliefs without resorting to semantic games or starting and joining online pile ons filled with mockery, condescension, pedantry and bad faith interpretations simply to belittle or silence others who don't hold your views.

Rather ironically, this is exactly the sort of behaviour Riry Stewart was talking about in the interview clip that was posted. Instead of engaging with the substance of criticism or scrutiny, some people immediately resorted to moral framing, semantic games, mockery and pile ons against anybody questioning Angela Rayner’s judgement, competence or suitability to lead. Just because she has risen through the ranks to a senior political position does not automatically mean she is the right person to lead the country.

@NorthXNorthWest
“Given that this thread is specifically about whether people would vote for Angela Rayner, people are perfectly entitled to scrutinise somebody who could potentially become Prime Minister or hold significant political power. That scrutiny isn't automatically hatred, snobbery or prejudice. For many people, it is about substance, judgement and competence“

The problem I find is that, when Angela Rayner is discussed, it is almost always in terms of snobbery or prejudice. This whole thread has mostly been focussed on her accent, her education, her background-no examples of failings of substance, judgement or competence apart from bad judgement about her tax affairs, which have been resolved. I would be happy to discuss more substantial things- but the very fact that she is being criticised for moving away from her young adult children (when their very present father is near at hand in case of need) shows that very different standards are being applied to her.