The matter of Angela Rayner's house sale isn't going away.....

Angela Raynor and her mother have nothing to be ashamed of.

Precisely Iam64.

Germanshepherdsmum

There was no reason for AR to speak about her mother’s problems, and the effect on her childhood, other than to gain sympathy and further her career. What I find totally unacceptable, unnecessary and cruel is apparently acceptable to others. I am glad that I don’t share your views. I will leave you to it, grateful that I am not one of you.

Did you think the Tory MPs exploiting their children was okay then? Or Boris Johnson not even acknowledging one of his?

It is quite awful that people want to silence carers

JaneJudge

It is quite awful that people want to silence carers

What evidence do you have for this?

Germanshepherdsmum

There was no reason for AR to speak about her mother’s problems, and the effect on her childhood, other than to gain sympathy and further her career. What I find totally unacceptable, unnecessary and cruel is apparently acceptable to others. I am glad that I don’t share your views. I will leave you to it, grateful that I am not one of you.

I am not in favour of washing dirty linen in public, and ordinarily would agree that raking over the past is unfair on people who don’t have the platform from which to tell their own stories.

In this case, however, it seems likely that it’s a case of getting in first and refusing to be ashamed. The sorts of things people on here say about AR tend to focus on her class, her accent, her early motherhood and education. All things that can’t be changed, but all things that give people in similar circumstances hope that someone is representing them. In a democracy it is important that all social groups are represented, surely?

If AR didn’t talk about those things, you can bet that someone else would. I can imagine Les Dawson in a Cissie and Ida sketch, hitching up his bosom with his folded arms and muttering about how ‘she’s no better than she should be’.

Small minded? Without a doubt, but it’s what would happen if she tried to blend in with the Westminster crowd - the tabloids would be ferreting out schoolmates and neighbours with stories to tell, and their readers would love pursing their lips and shaking their heads.

There is a British mentality that loves keeping people ‘in their place’ by reminding them of where they came from, and by seizing the narrative AR is taking that power from those who would use her past against her, whilst at the same time giving the disadvantaged a role model.

There’s nothing wrong with ‘getting on’, and if someone does so without the benefit of a private education and family connections they have come further than someone born into privilege. Why shouldn’t she celebrate that?

RoeisMaw, not wanting carers to talk about their lived experiences. It’s commonly recognised that young carers are isolated and can be disadvantaged. Why do they need to be quiet when they become adults?

carers.org/news-and-media/news/post/174-young-carers-action-day-2022-taking-action-on-isolation

This is just a very brief overview.

Families don;t want their children to keep quiet either. My other children missed out because they were sibling carers, it's just a fact. They said they didn't care or mind but I'd be lying if I said they had a normal childhood. If they want to talk about the struggles they had growing up, it is up to them to do so. It is ok to say things are not okay. It doesn't mean you don't love and respect someone.

Anyway, I best get to work

Thanks JaneJudge for bringing us to the reality of life for carers. The criticism of Angela Raynor for being open about her lived experience is imo misplaced.
Having a child or parent with physical or mental health problems is hard on even families with resources to support them.

Doodledog many thanks for this excellent post, 06:18am. It is measured, thoughtful and balanced. I particularly like your use of the phrase ‘getting on’ as opposed to some previous posters’ comments about ‘bettering oneself’. The latter assuming there is something ‘less than’ that ‘requires improvement’ in those born into unfortunate circumstances - this is clearly not the case. A few posters in this thread displayed small-mindedness and snobbery to an extent which surprised and saddened me, I must admit. But there we are; we live and learn. Fortunately the majority appeared far more open-minded and open-hearted

@Janejudge I don’t dispute what you say but fail to see the relevance to the argument about AR’s registered address or possible CGT tax liability .
If all it is is praising her achievement in rising to her current position, fine I was not aware that was at issue.

Let’s hope she gets caught out and resigns, can’t stand her!

RosiesMaw the original subject of the thread was led in a different direction by an earlier poster. Distraction employed as a weapon by someone with no valid argument, perhaps:

^Germanshepherdsmum
I will change the subject, if I may, as we must have done the allegations to death. Something I despise about Rayner is the way she has, in the course of telling how she has come from nothing, made her mother’s illiteracy very public, even telling us that her mother would sometimes bring dog food home for the family to eat because she couldn’t read the label on the tin. It was a sad situation, but her betrayal of her mother in this way is something I find unforgivable and completely unnecessary.^

Johnson was big on betrayal wasn't he?

If you’re going to use my phrase which you liked so much, Lizzie, get it right - the word was deflection, not distraction. And my post did not deflect, unlike most here who respond to a criticism of Rayner with something along the lines of ‘What do you think of what such and such Conservative did?’. I neither deflected nor distracted.

Perfect timing with your deflection zakouma.

GSM I’ve decided to use my own words thanks.

zakouma66

Johnson was big on betrayal wasn't he?

Nothing to do with the subject,whataboutery,trying to deflect,it doesnt work. Dissing your own mother, to gain sympathy,that is real betrayal.

In what way did she "diss" her mother?

Freya5

zakouma66

Johnson was big on betrayal wasn't he?

Nothing to do with the subject,whataboutery,trying to deflect,it doesnt work. Dissing your own mother, to gain sympathy,that is real betrayal.

It’s not a bigger ‘real’ betrayal than not acknowledging one of your own children (at least), is it - not in my world anyway.
We also don’t know that it was a betrayal on Rayner’s part, everything indicates that her mother was complicit.

A mother with a child with disabilities is never scoffed,

A wife who cares for her husband with ill health is never scoffed.

A woman who when a child was carer for her mother is scoffed

Absolutely.
Double standards.

What a load of nonsense.I am not deflecting. Earlier I said I don't know much about AR but I am impressed by the fact that she actually worked in the real world prior to entering politics.

Why ? a woman who speaks of how when a child and teenager
hit rock bottom yet moved forward and has a career is mocked

Oh but she needs "sympathy" apparently.
From whom, I'm not sure, since she has surpassed what most people achieve, without the privileges some have had

I think that's the crux of the matter.