Uncouth Angela Rayner doing Labour no favours

MaizieD

I really don't think that most of the objectors to Rayner's description would ever vote labour so their views can be discounted, can't they.

OTOH, the 5+ million people about to lose £20 pw, the people whose businesses have gone under thanks to Brexit, the people in the hospitality, food production and road haulage industries who have been begging for relaxation of visa restrictions; the people in the Arts sector who have been begging for action on the restraints now placed on their ability to work in the EU (and who know all too well that an accommodation was offered by the EU and refused during negotiations); the teachers and parents who are worried sick that government failure to fund or mandate anti covid mitigations in schools is leading to increased infection of young children with the attendant danger of long term harm to them; the 3 million self employed who received no financial help at all when covid restrictions severely affected their business and incomes; the 'ordinary'citizens who are aghast at the level of blatant cronyism and corruption evident in the awarding of covid contracts, the ordinary citizens who are sickened by a Prime Minister who lies, disregards the rule of law, fails to implement the Ministerial Code and is a 'benefit scrounger' par excellence, are likely to be more than comfortable with the word 'scum' being used to describe the tory government...

(The list is by no means exhaustive, I just got bored typing it with one finger on my tablet)

??????

Quite a few people do seem to think that language is more important than values

Lucca

That’s what this Labour Party need to do, but they won’t, because they hate Britain and it’s people, for rejecting its wokery and its beloved EU.

The Labour Party hate Britain? That’s a fact is it ?

Hate Britain? What a thoroughly nasty post. They may not be patriotic in the way of putting out bigger flags than the next guy and fighting demonstrators saying things they don't want to hear.

Do you even know what "woke" means? It is a word certainly used more by the right as an insult than by the left who usually spell out its meaning "alert to injustice in society, especially racism" for the idiots who only see anger and insult as patriotism.

Don't forget that Labour is trying to look after the workers in this country. They are the very people who would give up their life in real and tangible patriotism should the need arise.

Saying "The Labour Party hate Britain? That’s a fact is it?" is not only ignorant of what others truly think but insulting. It is not "a fact" it's a very nasty, insulting belief.

Urmstongran

*The Labour Party hate Britain? That’s a fact is it ?*

I tried to elucidate Lucca but seem to be failing! I meant to illustrate they hate the British faction who don’t swoon over their claptrap.
?

I'm not a Labour member but I am left of centre Urmstongran.

I do not hate the British faction who don’t swoon over their claptrap. However, I certainly abhor deliberate ignorance and that comes from people of all beliefs. You can see it best in those who need to make baseless insults instead of discussing the point in question.

Lincslass

Petera

JaneJudge He is lovely isn't he?

Ah but he speaks so nicely, that's what's important. Isn't it?

Yes he had said some things that are not acceptable, but I don’t think the Conservative party or the PM ever inferred that people who voted Labour are scum. It is not a word of endearment as backtracking Rayner has said, it’s a term of derision and contempt. If Labour want to win lost voters back, the gutter mouth of Rayner will not be the way to do it.

That's probably true, but Johnson treats people like scum and gets away with it.

AR's little rant was made at a post watershed reception, not actually in public.

We cannot get any worse than a bunch of scum, homophobic, racist, mysoginistic, absolute pile …of banana republic…Etonian…piece of scum…and I held back a little…that I have ever seen in my life'.

If you delete the word scum from the above, then the rest is a realistic of the Tory party in the H of C.

Here's part of her defence

"Rayner said she would say sorry only if Boris Johnson apologised for past comments he made “that are homophobic, that are racist, that are misogynistic” – a reference to the prime minister’s previous comments including comparing burka-wearing Muslim women to “letterboxes” and describing gay men as “tank-topped bum boys”.

The deputy Labour leader said her comments, made in a “post-watershed” reception, were an attempt to get across the “anger and frustration” felt about Johnson and the cabinet. “Anyone who leaves children hungry during a pandemic and can give billions of pounds to their mates on WhatsApp, I think that was pretty scummy,” she told Sky News."

As nasty as Rayner insinuating all Conservative voters are “scum”, by association because they voted the party in. This includes previous Labour voters who couldn’t stomach the far left Corbyn.

Unfortunately the bad publicity garnered by Ms.Rayner has not and will not be beneficial for the Labour Party.

Along with the ongoing problems regarding Jews, people with a cervix, the unions do not seem to be enamoured with the Labour leader and Mr.Starmer now saying he is against re- nationalising utilities I am at a loss to understand what part of the electorate they are actively pitching to

I would love to see the Labour Party come out all guns blazing with some positive ideas and pre-campaign speeches, I shan’t hold my breath.

Wrt Etonian, I suspect it was mentioned because so many are privately educated compared to the figures for the general population. This is a fair article with statistics

I think her language has been divisive though, maybe that was its intention.

Lucca

Eg intrepid ..

Yes that's a good example, 'trepid' exists (whatever that means) but is almost never used. 'Trepidation' on the other hand..

I am grateful when anyone speaks truth to power whatever wording or accent they use.

In this male, privately educated world of power, I am even more grateful when the person speaking truth to power is a working class woman.

Are the current Tories MPs the rubbish that has risen to the top?

Actually, it is the scum which rises to the top, as Lord Mountbatten said to the chief Stoker as they surfaced together after the sinking of the Kelly during the war.

Lincslass

As nasty as Rayner insinuating all Conservative voters are “scum”, by association because they voted the party in. This includes previous Labour voters who couldn’t stomach the far left Corbyn.

She wasn't talking about tory voters, she was talking about the tory government.

But if you want to shoulder some guilt by association you are welcome to.

Rayner is following a grand Labour tradition. See this report here from 1948 of the speech in which Nye Bevan called tories 'vermin'

www.theguardian.com/news/1948/jul/05/leadersandreply.mainsection

With an interesting note on it: Bevan's "vermin" remark - one of the most famous jibes in politics - was adroitly turned against the Attlee government by Tory speakers, who pretended it insulted their voters rather than policy makers.

There's nothing new in this world, is there?

Lincslass

As nasty as Rayner insinuating all Conservative voters are “scum”, by association because they voted the party in. This includes previous Labour voters who couldn’t stomach the far left Corbyn.

Far worse. The members of the public that join GN do not join to be insulted by erronious and provocative comments.

Members of the government would not have attention drawn to their behavior if it wasn't true for all to see.

Scum: extraneous matter or impurities risen to or formed on the surface of a liquid often as a foul filmy covering.

I would say these putrid politicians are extraneous, and contain many impurities according to most people moral code. They have certainly formed a foul covering over the truth. Scum seem very apt.

Petera

Lucca

Eg intrepid ..

Yes that's a good example, 'trepid' exists (whatever that means) but is almost never used. 'Trepidation' on the other hand..

'trepid' means 'fearful', from the Latin trepidus - scared

www.etymonline.com/word/trepid

Meanwhile, Conservative MP James Gray has apologised for joking on WhatsApp that "a bomb" should be delivered to the House of Commons office of Labour Party chairman Anneliese Dodds

It was a foolish remark," he told the Mail on Sunday, adding: "I meant no offence and hope none was taken.

I would have thought, were we not in this strange, dystopian world, that some charge could and should be brought against him.

Neither would I ever use the word ‘scum’ to describe anybody. But then again I hate the word ‘soulmate’ just as much in other settings.
?

A conservative mp said ‘a bomb should be delivered to the
office of the Labour Party chairman.

Two weeks after the Brighton bombing Corbyn invited IRA members to tea in Westminster, forget politics, people were grieving , surely respect was due even if the victims were tories.

Urmstongran

Neither would I ever use the word ‘scum’ to describe anybody. But then again I hate the word ‘soulmate’ just as much in other settings.
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Are you talking to yourself Urmstongran?

Anniebach

A conservative mp said ‘a bomb should be delivered to the
office of the Labour Party chairman.

Two weeks after the Brighton bombing Corbyn invited IRA members to tea in Westminster, forget politics, people were grieving , surely respect was due even if the victims were tories.

I agree. Now what do you think about the Conservative MP James Gray?

Or what about Michael Gove calling northeners dirty and toothless, or the reference to f....ng business in a derogatory by the master of inappropriate misogynistic, racist comments...our apology for a P.M

Anniebach

A conservative mp said ‘a bomb should be delivered to the
office of the Labour Party chairman.

Two weeks after the Brighton bombing Corbyn invited IRA members to tea in Westminster, forget politics, people were grieving , surely respect was due even if the victims were tories.

So how do we move on from violence without talking? Ignoring the IRA wasn't going to work, fighting with them didn't work. Talking to them got us the GFA so I say talk away.

He attended the memorial service for Bobby Sands who died in 1981, but chose to invite them to Westminster in 1984 only
2 weeks after the Brighton bombing.

The Good Friday Agreement 1998