Paul Sutton has an entertaining FSB piece on the downfall of Raynetta.
THE FALL OF A POLITICAL GIANT
Can I just say how appalled I am by the crowing over Dame Angela Rayner's downfall? It's motivated simply by spite and snobbery, plus disgraceful sexism on the 'Moldovan trans/hooker' chic, which she so stylishly immortalised.
It's easy to sneer, yet millions of working-class girls might have been inspired to leave school with one NVQ and up the duff - to resurface as property millionaires, from juggling trust funds and ‘expenses’.
In fact, Rayner is something of a polymath.
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There’s an excellent article by Matthew Syed in today’s Times on his failed bid for selection as a Labour candidate for Parliament. Having been advised by several Labour high-ups on the necessity of lying over matters of policy and adopting whatever stance the unions required him to, he finally faced the selection panel:
‘I answered questions on education, economic policy and more from an interview panel that included Vaz, Tom Watson and Angela Eagle but I got a call from Watson that evening: “The panel thought you were the outstanding candidate, but the unions wanted someone else,” he said.
It’s a shame they didn’t pick him, since on current showing, had he made it to the upper echelons of the parliamentary party, he would have significantly increased the Cabinet’s average IQ; it would certainly explain a lot if candidates are being selected solely for their ‘intellectual malleability’ as far as the unions are concerned.
It all suggests that Rayner - whose first full-time union post coincided with her marriage to a much older union official - could have run the whole gamut listed in Sutton’s piece and still been unstoppable with the unions behind her.
Macheath - that's very interesting. With Labour, there is always a suspicion that the unions pull the party strings far more tightly than we ever realise via mainstream reporting. For the most part we only have scattered clues and a few anecdotes from the inside such as this one.
It may be useful to see Labour as a privately owned political party, effectively owned by about six large unions, or it was the last time I checked. This suggests we could name the six union leaders who are the Labour "Board of Directors."
It's odd that an intelligent person such as Matthew Syed presumably didn't see this as a reason for having nothing to do with the party at the time, but maybe it was the unfounded optimism of almost all political ambition.
Before we entirely tire of the Angie affair: I've been thinking about the statement that Mr Rayner and Angie each "transferred" half of their halves of the house to the handicapped boy's trust some time ago. Vot meanz "transferred"?
If they sold to the trust then it was again a use of the trust as an ATM whereby they replaced income-generating liquid assets by illiquid, non-income-generating assets. Distinctly dodgy. On the other hand, if they were gifts that was pretty noble of them. Except, of course, you could look upon it as a way of avoiding eventual Inheritance Tax as long as those parents survived another seven years.
And we all know Angie's view of Other People Who Avoid Tax: Tory scum!
One other "last thing", in two parts. (i) When did Angie win her case against Our Brilliant NHS? Was it while she was a nobody and did they relent after she became an MP and therefore a Person of Importance? In other words, did she use the power of "influence" to strip money from the taxpayers?
(ii) Lengthy legal action tends to be expensive. Who paid? The taxpayers? Her union members? I think we should be told. In fact I think the whole thing is bloody suspicious: was a horrible personal tragedy transformed into a nice little earner?
dearieme - the trust aspect still seems obscure to me, although selling a share of her house to the trust for cash seems more than iffy even if legal and approved by the trustees. As you say, they replaced income-generating liquid assets by illiquid, non-income-generating assets. Any house requires maintenance too, and what about council tax and utility costs?
She became an MP in 2015 when her disabled son would be about 7. According to AI she finally won her 11 year NHS compensation case in 2020 when she was an MP and Labour deputy leader. Coincidence of course.
We need a well researched biography of our Angela. I'd buy it.
I just want to agree with both Dearieme and our host - this stinks!
Anon - yes it does. I'm not a fan of his, but George Galloway recently called her a lowlife, only interested in herself.
This could do with a rewrite but I suppose the thrust is clear enough.
https://archive.is/DfvIa
dearieme - oh dear, that's bad. Not easy to portray it as innocent even if it is, because of the way she so quickly extracted money from the trust via that valuation. She's worse than I thought and that's from a very low baseline.
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