ON paper, Angela Rayner looked a shoo-in to be the next Labour leader.
She had a challenging childhood so understands how tough life can be for those living in socially deprived areas, and she’s unafraid of bluntly speaking her mind in a world where all too many politicians say whatever it takes to get votes.
But then she went to a fringe meeting at the Labour Party conference and let rip on the Tories, saying she was “sick of shouting from the sidelines” at “a bunch of scum, homophobic, racist, misogynistic, absolute pile of . . . banana republic . . . Etonian . . . piece of scum”.
Her frontbench colleague Emily Thornberry has suggested “there may have been drink partaken” — a suggestion denied by Ms Rayner’s camp — but either way, that’s irrelevant.
It’s game over. The firebrand, student-style activists on the fringes of the party are probably egging on Labour’s deputy leader with praise about her passion and fortitude in the face of their “struggle”.
But out in the real world, such incendiary hyperbole doesn’t fly and a YouGov poll confirms this with 70 per cent of Brits saying her behaviour was unacceptable.
We are now in a #BeKind world where — even if many agree with the general sentiment of her remarks — such vitriolic outbursts have no place.
With the country in the grip of a post-Covid crisis, people want leadership and sensible, coherent policies (from both sides), not childish name-calling and Westminster infighting.
Nor, it seems, do they want a fence-sitting wet wipe, which is why Sir Keir Starmer is struggling to connect with Labour voters.
They should both take a leaf out of the book of former Shadow Chancellor Alan Johnson, who, to my mind, was the best Labour leader there never was.
He, too, had a challenging childhood, and worked at Tesco before becoming a postman. In politics, he was measured, articulate and reassuringly across the issues faced by voters.
Johnson and Johnson — now that would have been a close-run battle. Instead, life-long Labour voters currently have little to feel excited about.
Large swathes of the “red wall” voted Tory in the last election because they couldn’t bring themselves to vote for Jeremy Corbyn and the thuggish Momentum gang that surrounded him.
One suspects that Ms Rayner’s ill-advised, immature outburst (which will now haunt her on every TV appearance) has once again raised the spectre of the “Loony Left” fringes and, with it, ruined Ms Rayner’s chance of ever becoming PM.
Bond girl fantasy
MY Sun colleague Adrian Chiles wrote today that as a boy he fantasised that Moonraker Bond girl Lois Chiles was his auntie and would come to visit.
Coincidentally, I used to daydream about Roger Moore being my uncle, then shortly before he died, I got to meet him for the first time.
They say “never meet your heroes” but he was charming and very funny.
When asked if he did his own stunts, he replied: “No, but I did all my own love scenes.”
Harry needs a job
THE Time magazine cover shot of Prince Harry standing behind wife Meghan has been likened to one of those cheesy promos for a hairdresser posing with his celebrity client.
The insinuation being that she’s the star and he’s the support act who just happens to have a useful royal connection.
To me, it feels rather different.
What I see is a man desperately trying to find purpose after life in the Army and feeling unsure about where he fits in.
Don’t forget that he served on the frontline in Afghanistan and, as shown in Netflix’s superb documentary Turning Point, about 9/11 and the aftermath, some soldiers say that coming home was tougher than being there.
They missed the camaraderie and felt their life lacked purpose.
Tellingly, a woman who sat opposite Harry and Meghan as they enjoyed a drink with friends on their recent visit to New York, says that while she never stopped talking, he “had very few responses”.
“Harry got bored and started looking at his phone,” she adds.
Yet when you see him socialising with former and current military personnel, there’s no doubt that he comes alive.
He clearly wants to do something worthwhile, so perhaps he should step away from endlessly preaching about climate change and target his efforts towards working with veteran soldiers in the US?
He’d doubtless enjoy it more and wouldn’t get branded a “hypocrite” for flying private.
Anti-vaxx dancers, listen up
PERHAPS the anti-vaxx Strictly stars feel that their robust health and obvious fitness will help protect them from the more excessive symptoms of coronavirus.
After all, in the early days we were constantly told that it was the “vulnerable” and overweight who were most at risk.
But former bodybuilder John Eyers, 42, had been climbing in the Welsh mountains shortly before contracting Covid-19 and his twin sister Jenny described him as the “fittest, healthiest person I know”.
He died in August.
“The only pre-existing health condition he had was the belief in his own immortality,” added Jenny at the time.
It’s a lottery. And if you don’t buy a ticket, you might not win the battle against this unpredictable virus.
Celebs, give me a break
FIRST Gwynnie and Chris “consciously uncoupled”. Then Emma Watson declared she was “self-partnered”.
Ewan McGregor “bifurcated” from estranged wife Eve Mavrakis.
And now Elon Musk has announced he’s “semi-separated” from his partner Claire Elise Boucher, aka Canadian singer Grimes.
Which, to you and me, means:
a) Divorced
b) Happy being single
c) Dissolving a marriage before other issues are resolved and, finally
d) Happily apart a lot
Planet Celebrity is a funny old place, isn’t it?
Tanks be, Andrew
HAVING now been officially served with papers by his accuser Virginia Giuffre’s lawyers, Prince Andrew can leave the confines of Balmoral without fear of a public showdown.
Word has it that he is keen to return to London to visit daughter Princess Beatrice and his new granddaughter.
However, he may have to stay where he is, as the three taxpayer-funded (nope, me neither) gas guzzlers needed to transport him home currently have empty tanks.
It seems there’s an upside to the petrol delivery crisis, after all.
Spot on Tracey
ON Desert Island Discs, comedian Tracey Ullman was asked if she would now play characters whose age, sexuality and ethnicity were so different to hers.
“No, probably not. It wouldn’t be the right sort of atmosphere for it. I think the late 1980s . . . it was what you were doing then. It would be different now,” she says.
She adds that she doesn’t feel the need to apologise for anything because: “It’s pointless, you know – onward.”
Hear, hear. Rather than erasing (a.k.a. “cancelling” in modern speak) behaviour from the past that was acceptable at the time, it’s important to preserve it in history as a reminder of how far we’ve come.
Batter’s better
“BATSMAN” has been amended to “batter” in the laws of cricket by the MCC.
Many have chalked this up to wokeism gone mad, but actually it makes perfect sense.
After all, we already have a bowler, wicket-keeper, mid-on, mid-off etc so why not a non-gender specific batter?
Mind you, the “third man” must now be quaking in his whites.
Mystery of the vanishing boobs
KATHERINE RYAN – star of TV comedy The Duchess – says she is going to have her breast implants removed “because it’s annoying to be tricked”.
It reminds me of the Eighties, when the mega-boosting Wonderbra first came on the scene and someone asked why it was called that.
The general consensus was: “Because when you take it off, we wonder where your breasts have gone.”
Showstopping speeds
THE Citroen Ami electric “city” car is launching in the UK and has a top speed of just 28mph.
As the majority of our log-jammed cities now have an average speed of between 6 to 8mph, that’s more than enough.
Happy for Paul
THREE years ago, singer Paul Young’s beloved wife Stacey died of cancer.
He nursed her throughout and was left devastated by the loss.
So how lovely to hear that he has found happiness again with a woman he will only refer to as “Lorna” to protect her privacy.
It’s nice to see him smiling again and, most importantly of all, it’s what Stacey would have wanted.
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