Forum Topic

Angela Rayner

Fury from the Tories as Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner brands them 'bunch of scum, homophobic, racist, misogynistic, absolute pile' - before insisting she 'held back a little' in ranthttps://mol.im/a/10028865She wants to be leader of Labour. 😂 Backs herself to be next PM. 😂😂 Deluded much? 😂😂😂In a way I hope she does become leader because she's as toxic as Corbyn and her at the helm would guarantee another Labour loss in the next GE.

Sue Hammond ● 1358d22 Comments

I just listened to the James O'Brian podcast interview with Angela Rayner.I appreciate some people on here hate both of the above but if you're not one of those I highly recommend listening to it. Her journey into parliament was fascinating.

Matt Palmer ● 1356d

@Matt"Put it like this Sue, there are people of colour on this forum.Would you refer to their kids in this way? to their face?"No, why would I?

Sue Hammond ● 1357d

She wasn't wrong though, was she.

Clifford Cowell ● 1357d

When I was young, I did not appreciate that N**GG*R was a derogatory term. Now I realise that I was profoundly ignorant.As for Angela Raynor, what she said seems perfectly fair to me. She continues the fine tradition of Aneurin Bevan, father of the NHS who famously said of the Tory party "So far as I am concerned they are lower than vermin. They condemned millions of people to semi-starvation". Some things never change.

Michael Winstanley ● 1358d

Put it like this Sue, there are people of colour on this forum.Would you refer to their kids in this way? to their face?

Matt Palmer ● 1358d

I think the point is that people put the p* - or n* - word in because it is derogatory to a particular group in society. The use of language is complex; for example, the f-word is often used in senior management meetings (or government ones as we now know from Cummings) but it's not (usually) intended to offend, just to emphasise as a form of punctuation. But people like Johnson or Powell know when they use the p* word it will offend a specific target group while it may even amuse another set of people who don't understand the significance of it (I doubt the second part applies to the n* word).

Michael Ixer ● 1358d

The only reference in his speech that I can see (didn't realise it was so looong!) is this "When she goes to the shops, she is followed by children, charming, wide-grinning piccaninnies." Doesn't seem that derogatory to me.

Sue Hammond ● 1358d

I gather it was controversial when Enoch Powell used the term in his rivers of blood speach. So it's not that recent.Off the top of my head I can't think of any current politician making a good PM.

Matt Palmer ● 1358d

@Matt 13.15It was never a derogatory term when I was young Matt but it now seems  that people see or invent racial slurs anywhere they can, and it's getting worse. Obviously I agree with #1 but that doesn't excuse Rayner's language and it certainly won't garner support for the Party.  She is becoming a liability and more of her parliamentary colleagues are condemning her outburst now. Out of interest, do you think she'd make a good PM? Can you imagine her on the world stage debating with Presidents and other Heads of State?  With Dianne Abbott in tow as Home Secretary? Sorry now I'm just being ridiculous.😹

Sue Hammond ● 1358d

Urgh "know" not "no"!

Michael Ixer ● 1358d

Matt got there before me. It's a racial slur in North America. Given his previous dual UK/US nationality and his other links with the US Johnson would no that so deliberately decided to use a word that many knew was a racial slur. To be honest, Sue, you just seem naive on this or else you're playing at being naive for your own reasons. 

Michael Ixer ● 1358d

From wiki"the word has been used in North America as a racial slur referring to a dark-skinned child of African descent. In modern sensibility, the term can refer to an archaic depiction or caricature used in a derogatory and racist sense."ok let me put it another way, which of the two statements below should cause more outrage?1) Politicians making racist/homophobic/mysoginistic comments2) Politicians pointing out that other politicians have made racist/homophobic/mysoginistic commentsPersonally i'm always going to vote 1 but maybe that's me.

Matt Palmer ● 1358d

@Matt 12.07The comments are just not comparable Matt. As far as I am aware the word piccanninies is used to describe small black children so what's the problem with that? A watermelon smile sounds nice and quite complimentary to me and certainly not insulting. However Rayner's comments were certainly said with malicious intent because she knew she could get away with them at conference. Let's see if she has the conviction to repeat them in the Chamber.

Sue Hammond ● 1358d

well that's sort of my point. Nobody seems to care about Boris making mysoginistic, homophobic or racist comments in the past, so I doubt anyone is going to care about Angela Raynor calling Tories scum.

Matt Palmer ● 1358d

Perhaps not identical, Sue, but  Rayner's rant - although an over simplistic view - is a result of the hate caused by a decade of Conservative government with austerity for the weakest in society and disproportionate gains by the wealthy, amplified by comments that people such as Johnson have made in the press and others have made in private meeting to wealthy donors. Rayner's comments might come over as unpleasant but at least she spoke honestly and openly - and I suspect a lot of disadvantaged people on the receiving end of Conservative cuts, like the rescinding of the Universal Credit £20/week supplement - agree with her.

Michael Ixer ● 1358d

That didn't stop Boris from becoming PM Matt :-(

Lucille Grant ● 1358d

No nothing like.

Sue Hammond ● 1358d

bit like when Boris said black people were "piccaninnies with watermelon smiles'?

Matt Palmer ● 1358d

John McDonnell is on LBC now saying her language was wrong and she got carried away.  Oh that's alright then.

Sue Hammond ● 1358d

I believe the word Etonian was in there too.That filters the target just slightly I guess.Less personal attacks and more policies would be a better approach.Improve the system will lead to better outcomes than targeting individuals. But do they want to do that??

Ed Robinson ● 1358d

Quite refreshing to have a politician that speaks the truth, only thing she forgot to mention was xenophobic!

Matt Palmer ● 1358d

Sounds like a lovely person.A great speech to get the general public on side.

Ash Jones ● 1358d