Andrea Jenkins who gave middle finger gesture to electorate is our new Education minister.

Yet they still get votes!

If only we had a well educated electorate who questioned the propaganda of the right wing gutter press.

varian

Yet they still get votes!

If only we had a well educated electorate who questioned the propaganda of the right wing gutter press.

... a well educated electorate is anathema to a right wing government - and to the press barons and the extremely wealthy elite. Critical thinking is something they literally cannot afford to allow us to indulge in

Also, as the industrialist Henry Ford said, "It is perhaps well enough that the people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning." Or very similar words - the quote is not exact, I understand. Although the US and UK banking systems are similar (we influenced their banking system), there are some differences in practice. But the principle remains the same.

Classy.

Where do people learn these rude gestures? I don’t even know they’re rude gestures till somebody tells me!

What on earth possessed her!

Arrogance, I'd imagine.

No, arrogance is an upper class thing.
What she did denotes no class at all.

The more time that passes, the more we just accept this behaviour from those who are supposed to be working in our interests.
It defies belief, to me.

Whitewavemark2

Baggytrazzas

Absolutely unacceptable behaviour from someone in that public position. What is wrong with these people? Do they really believe that this is acceptable behaviour, or know that it really isn't but think yet again that the rules applying to the rest of us do not apply to them? No way should we be forced to accept this, and if it was up to me I wouldn't even accept an apology at this point.

She didn’t apologise - she blamed the bystanders!

That is a clear case of victim blaming. We have been victims of this corrupt government for far too long.

annsixty

No, arrogance is an upper class thing.
What she did denotes no class at all.

Well at least private schooling can't be blamed for inappropriate behaviour this time! (Joke)

She's given an explanation and I really don't blame her. So she's to merely stand back and smile when abusive, inflammatory and perhaps threatening comments are flung at her?

I think she kept her cool really well, certainly better than I'd have managed.

She gave an explanation? Really? I thought she simply blamed "the baying mob" who, by all accounts, had more than enough reasons to bay at her. The British public have had to put up with lies, deceit, obfuscation, maladministration of public funds and broken promises from this shower of shite government and so, imho, that public has every right to shout and heckle one of the many people responsible. Flicking the finger at them has simply proved what we've known all along: they hold us in contempt and have now, quite literally said"F**k you".

CatsCatsCats

She's given an explanation and I really don't blame her. So she's to merely stand back and smile when abusive, inflammatory and perhaps threatening comments are flung at her?

I think she kept her cool really well, certainly better than I'd have managed.

Many other MPs have been more abused than that and kept their cool with class.

She is definitely not government material.

If that is how she conducts herself under pressure, heaven help us!

She is simply showing us the legacy of the soon to be ex PM. There is no longer any need to hide the distain. Any evidence that the comments were perhaps threatening?

CatsCatsCats

She's given an explanation and I really don't blame her. So she's to merely stand back and smile when abusive, inflammatory and perhaps threatening comments are flung at her?

I think she kept her cool really well, certainly better than I'd have managed.

Maybe she should spend a couple of days in a secondary comprehensive and see for herself what teachers in some schools face every day. Somehow I don't think threatening language and making a rude gesture would be accepted. I have a feeling that "I'm only human" wouldn't go down well in a disciplinary hearing.

This is how far standards have dropped under the current government. Can you imagine Thatcher or Heseltine behaving in such a way.

I doubt if anyone in that crowd had any idea who she was, so any abuse was not directed at her personally - she's was a complete unknown.

She stuck her finger up on the way in, and shouted at them on the way out! So not on the spur of the moment action - could have gone out the rear exit if she felt intimidated.

Imagine the Daily Mail headline if a teacher did that.

That was the point I was making in my last post Riverwalk. She's an education minister, for goodness' sake.

She was a teacher at one time??

Pupils had a lucky escape

Whitewavemark2

She was a teacher at one time??

Pupils had a lucky escape

I don't think she was ever a classroom teacher, but a peripatetic music tutor, teaching pupils one-to-one. They don't have to be qualified, either in music or education. It's nothing like facing five or six classes of 30+ every day.

Oh thanks, I just read that she was a teacher.

This is Brendan Clarke Smith, the other newly appointed junior education minister. He was mocking NHS staff who were asking people to wear a mask. He really was once a teacher. Both of them will be in a department headed by James Cleverly. What could possibly go wrong?

Apologies! Apparently he was participating in a fund-raiser.

MayBee70

This is how far standards have dropped under the current government. Can you imagine Thatcher or Heseltine behaving in such a way.

I wouldn’t hold Heseltine up as a paragon of good behaviour following his mace swinging antics….