Angela Rayner’s Attackers Prove Her Point

To the discomfort of Keir Starmer during his interview on The Andy Marr Show™ yesterday, and a shrug of the shoulders from most other Labour members, is the less than shock horror revelation that deputy leader Angela Rayner has described alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson in the most unflattering terms.

At a Conference event on Saturday night, she commented “I’m sick of shouting from the sidelines, and I bet you lot are too. We cannot get any worse than a bunch of scum, homophobic, racist, misogynistic, absolute pile … of banana republic … Etonian … piece of scum … and I held back a little … that I have ever seen in my life”.

As Sir Sean nearly said, I think we got the point. But here a problem entered: not only was Ms Rayner a woman calling out a man, the man involved was big pals with our free and fearless press, many of whom were invested in his success. Also, Bozo was one of their own. He was a journalist, or, at least, he had pretended to do journalism once.

But, as Ms Rayner has since pointed out, “People seem to be far more concerned with my choice of language than the fact that [Boris Johnson] has made comments that are racist, homophobic and sexist. I'm very happy to sit down with Boris. If he withdraws his comments and apologises, I'll be very happy to apologise to him”. Also, Bozo has consistently refused to apologise for his racism, homophobia and misogyny.

That counted for nothing as the pile-on began, from Stephen “Vicky” Pollard, given a platform by the Mail: “Labour has been poisoned for decades by the likes of Mrs Rayner, for whom the point of politics is to generate a pulpit for their outrage and hate, rather than winning elections and governing. She and her ilk do their party - and indeed the country, which like all democracies benefits from a strong opposition - a great disservice”.

Stephen Pollard - even IPSO won't defend his paper

Then came Ian Austin in the Murdoch Sun: “Decent working class people will be appalled by motormouth Angela Rayner branding the Tories ‘scum’ … they want the people they send to speak up for them in Parliament to be taken seriously”. So that’s why he decided not to stand for re-election in 2019. And then came the increasingly alt-right Spectator.

Ian Austin - another political failure

Here, Sam Leith declared “A person chooses, at least arguably, to persist in homophobia, misogyny and these other forms of horridness. Those are defects of character. To be an Etonian, on the other hand, is a condition you acquire ineradicably, in the innocence of childhood … You no more choose to be Etonian than you choose to be black, or gay, or or a cervix-haver. So snarling at Etonians like that … it’s, like, racist, yeah?” Er, no.

The Speccy - bigotry'r'us

So let’s sum up: Stephen Pollard, editor of the Jewish Chronicle, which has had so many IPSO judgments go against it that many have lost count, and which keeps on losing libel actions, Ian Austin, whose Parliamentary career consisted mainly of slagging off others, and who became yet another floor-crosser, and the Spectator, a cesspit of racist bigotry, which regularly publishes a self-confessed anti-Semite, are on the attack.

In other words, Angela Rayner is opposed by the dregs of alleged journalism, those dregs in turn defending yet more dregs of alleged journalism (Bozo) to order. Which rather proves her point. When that’s the standard of your cheerleaders, best keep quiet.

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