PLATELL’S PEOPLE: Oh, Angela Rayner… do stop playing the misogyny card – it’s not true
This column made a small observation on January 8 about Angela Rayner after I had watched her performing across the dispatch box at Prime Minister’s Questions.
‘No wonder Boris Johnson got in a fluster at this week’s PMQ’s when confronted by Angela Rayner, standing in for Sir Keir Starmer,’ I wrote. ‘Wearing a chic dress that showed off her thighs, the Labour Deputy Leader was channelling her inner Sharon Stone. Boris has always had a tendresse for women with basic instincts.’
Now, it transpires that about a week later on the booze-fuelled terrace of the Commons, Rayner was seen by at least four MPs joking about her ‘Sharon Stone’ ploy to disarm the PM. Could it be that she had read my article and was enjoying being portrayed as a sexy politician and compared with a Hollywood star?
On the booze-fuelled terrace of the Commons, Rayner was seen by at least four MPs joking about her ‘Sharon Stone’ ploy to disarm the PM
Could it be that she had read my article and was enjoying being portrayed as a sexy politician and compared with a Hollywood star?
Angela Raynor was accused of showing off her thighs and rearranging her legs to put Prime Minister Boris Johnson off his stride in the House of Commons
Whatever the case, during a jovial podcast a week later with the comedian Matt Forde, she went on to joke about deliberately crossing and uncrossing her legs and ‘giving the PM a flash’ — talking in such crude terms they cannot be repeated in a family newspaper.
‘There is a touch of misogyny in it,’ she said. ‘Did you see the meme on Sharon Stone like I was doing that in PMQs?’ (No, none of us did Ange — not until you mentioned it.) Fast forward three months and the woman who revelled in her new sexy Sharon Stone persona is backpedalling furiously while playing the misogyny card for all its worth.
She appeared on ITV’s Lorraine show, wearing a modest trouser suit, saying she doesn’t want to be judged by what she wears but who she really is, a serious politician. Her claims over the way she says she has been demeaned have launched a tsunami of furious complaints from the woke brigade, claiming that Parliament is full of men who treat women badly.
Having worked there for decades, I know that is not true. The vast majority of male MPs are decent. Yes, there still exists a tiny number of sexist dinosaur MPs, but to tar all men with the same brush is just wrong. Thanks to Rayner, charges of woman-hating are now being thrown about like confetti.
Angela Rayner is a clever and talented politician who doesn’t need curly hair extensions and split skirts to pack a punch. Describing her as sexy when she chooses to flash her enviable legs is not misogynistic, it’s the simple truth.
Madonna and Child
As Madonna, 63, dumps her 28-year-old lover, one does wonder why she’s so besotted by much younger men.
Is it some delusion that makes her feel younger? Is it that the Catholic-raised girl is taking the Madonna and child imagery too literally?
Whatever, what’s the fun in dating a lad who thinks the Beatles are a species in danger of extinction which he saw on a David Attenborough documentary?
As Madonna, 63, dumps her 28-year-old lover, one does wonder why she’s so besotted by much younger men
Sharon’s Moving
A sobbing Sharon Osbourne says she’s temporarily standing down from her role as the presenter of her show on the new TalkTV station as her husband Ozzy, living in LA, has Covid.
‘I’ll be back’ she said.
Not likely as only 10,000 people tuned in. And perhaps not wise for the woman who has had more plastic surgery than the Bride of Wildenstein to launch her show debating the evils of cosmetic surgery. Watching it, I think I saw her lips move . . . once.
Westminster Wars
÷ Surprising that the mild-mannered Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle, a humble backbencher who never even held a ministerial job, overstepped his authority demanding the editor of The Mail on Sunday David Dillon present himself to explain Rayner-gate. Give a man a throne and a gavel and it goes to his head — just look at his pipsqueak predecessor John Bercow.
÷ Hero of the week must be whoever filmed Keir Starmer having a beer with at least five people during lockdown, clearly breaking the rules and revealing him as a liar and hypocrite. Never again can Labour attack the Tories over Partygate.
÷ While refusing to cut the hated NI tax or help struggling families, Chancellor Rishi Sunak was walking his dog wearing £600 Prada trainers — costing more than the average full-time worker takes home a week. Little wonder he’s now so low in Conservative ratings — even his few remaining fans realise he’s stepped in the political dog mess.
A Royal Welcome Back, Ma’am
News to gladden a nation’s heart; the Queen is again working at Windsor Castle after spending her 96th birthday at Wood Farm cottage, Sandringham, the home she and Philip adored and where she was surrounded by memories of him. A well-earned rest Ma’am, but we’re so glad to have you back.
Fergie, still risibly titled the Duchess of York despite divorcing Andrew decades ago, appears at a private-members-only bash in Mayfair wearing handmade blue velvet loafers with one foot inscribed with the words ‘Never Complain’ and the other ‘Never Explain’.
Perhaps she might want to explain why she took £20,000 for advising a Northern Ireland caravan tycoon embroiled in allegations of money laundering on top of a £225,000 separate payment.
Caravans? Has she ever set foot in one?
Jodie Comer at the Virgin TV British Academy Television Awards 2017
Jodie’s Killing ‘Em
Liverpudlian actress and Killing Eve star Jodie Comer wins rave reviews for her West End debut in Prima Facie after being turned down in her early career due to her lack of formal training and Scouse accent. A hair pin in the eye from Villanelle to all those who underestimated her.
Let’s hope the Just Stop Oil morons who glued themselves to service station petrol pumps and smashed them with hammers are superglued into jail cells. I’m left wondering how they got around the M25 in the first place. Presumably they walked.
My moggie Ted’s ears pricked up on hearing that a dog’s life expectancy ranges from less than five years for a French bulldog to 12 years for a Jack Russell. A cat’s life on average is 12 to 18 years without twice-daily walks or poop collecting.
Ever since Rod Stewart first writhed on stage in his leopard skin tights singing Da Ya Think I’m Sexy, women have adored him. And we do more than ever now he’s spoken out about what the current shortage of HRT means. ‘This isn’t just a women’s problem, we need to recognise it affects husbands, partners, children.’ Caring about a woman’s wellbeing through menopause? Now that’s damned sexy.Curious that so many women observing the Depp v Heard trial are on ‘Team Johnny’, a man accused of being a wife beater.
Rod Stewart performing on stage in 1980. Ever since Rod Stewart first writhed on stage in his leopard skin tights singing Da Ya Think I’m Sexy, women have adored him
Curious that so many women observing the Depp v Heard trial are on ‘Team Johnny’, a man accused of being a wife beater.
Yet now we’ve discovered that, despite Heard declaring she’d donate her £5.6 million divorce settlement to two charities, she has so far only given £280,000 to one of them due to her ‘financial difficulties’. There may be sunken treasure to be found for the Pirates Of The Caribbean star’s career, after all.
The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby denounced the Government’s Rwanda asylum plan, while Boris mused he was ‘less vociferous in his condemnation of Putin than he was of the policy’. Since the scheme was announced, zero illegals have arrived in the UK, which is about as many people as now attend his churches.
- My last feline friend Jim was still purring happily at 25. Despite the smugness of dog owners, in the end it’s the cats who get the cream.
Mocking Britain’s stiff upper lip, Prince Harry extols California’s ‘I’ll get my therapist to call your therapist’ mindset in a new podcast on mental health. He says ‘99.9 per cent of people on Earth are suffering from some form of loss, trauma or grief’ and that PTSD should be renamed as Post Traumatic Stress ‘Injury’ because people will heal more quickly. Pass the Prozac!
If he and Megs ever do come back here, sales of antidepressants will soar. And not just among the Royal Family.
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