IRAM RAMZAN: Angela Rayner, I am also a gobby Northern lass. That’s no excuse for bad grammar 

Labour’s Deputy Chief Angela Rayner is typically described as ‘fiery’ or ‘ballsy’, an genuine, working-class ‘gobby Northern lass’ – her personal phrases – who can stick it to the Tories.

As such, she has come below intense scrutiny – some may say unfairly from time to time – over the best way she speaks. 

On BBC Radio 4’s Right this moment programme on Wednesday, because the row raged over the No 10 ‘social gathering’ throughout the first lockdown in Might 2020, Rayner stated Boris Johnson had inquiries to reply concerning the gathering when folks nationwide have been banned from assembly multiple individual they didn’t reside with outside.

‘Was you there or not on the social gathering?’ she demanded of the Prime Minister. She repeated this grammatical fake pas greater than as soon as. I winced every time. Not lengthy after, Rayner took to Twitter to spotlight the criticism she had acquired.

I, too, am a gobby Northern lass, hailing from Oldham, Higher Manchester, with an accent to match – which turns into stronger the extra, er, animated I get. I didn’t go to a complicated college; I went to a state complete – however I used to be taught good grammar and I do know its worth

‘I’ve been on the media this morning so my accent and grammar are being critiqued,’ she posted. 

‘I wasn’t Eton-educated, however rising up in Stockport I used to be taught integrity, honesty and decency. Doesn’t mater [sic] the way you say it. Boris Johnson is unfit to steer.’

That could be the case, Angela, however the way you say it and the grammar you employ do matter.

In my e book, there isn’t any excuse for dangerous grammar in spoken or written language. As a public determine – and the highest-ranking lady on the Opposition entrance bench – she ought to know higher.

I, too, am a gobby Northern lass, hailing from Oldham, Higher Manchester, with an accent to match – which turns into stronger the extra, er, animated I get. I didn’t go to a complicated college; I went to a state complete – however I used to be taught good grammar and I do know its worth.

‘I wasn’t Eton-educated, however rising up in Stockport I used to be taught integrity, honesty and decency. Doesn’t mater [sic] the way you say it. Boris Johnson is unfit to steer.’ That could be the case, Angela, however the way you say it and the grammar you employ do matter

You don’t need to have loved a privileged upbringing or schooling so as to converse nicely and it’s insulting to working-class folks to recommend that their background guidelines out a command of the Queen’s English – by which I imply utilizing language which is grammatically appropriate and freed from slang.

Take a look at Prince Harry. The most effective schooling within the land at Boris’s alma mater – at a value of about £44,000 a 12 months – but he usually struggles to assemble coherent sentences when interviewed. And that was earlier than Californian psychobabble took over.

I’m not the one one to take situation with Rayner’s aggressive stance. GB Information presenter Colin Brazier, who was born in Bradford, responded to her tweet with: ‘There are many working-class people who have been taught the worth of fine grammar. I’m one in every of them.’

Naturally, the Labour Deputy Chief had help from her fan base on the Left, who agreed that, after all, poor Angela was the goal of prejudice and snobbery. Creator Michael Rosen informed her: ‘You converse very well. There’s nothing “mistaken” with regional accents and dialects.’

He’s proper. There’s nothing mistaken with regional accents and dialects – extra of that later. However good grammar is the difficulty right here. For Rayner to conflate the 2 is disingenuous.

Certainly, there are a number of outstanding Labour MPs with attention-grabbing accents: Jon Trickett and Richard Burgon (Yorkshire), Jon Ashworth (Higher Manchester) and Jo Stevens (Welsh). So far as I’m conscious, nobody makes enjoyable of them. Neither is Rayner being vilified for her accent, nonetheless she may spin it.

I’m not the one one to take situation with Rayner’s aggressive stance. GB Information presenter Colin Brazier, who was born in Bradford, responded to her tweet with: ‘There are many working-class people who have been taught the worth of fine grammar. I’m one in every of them’

The MP for Ashton-under-Lyne is, in some ways, a outstanding lady. She was introduced up on a council property in Stockport by a single mum who struggled with bipolar dysfunction.

At 16 she left college, pregnant with the primary of her three kids.

This deprived background, in addition to the years she spent working within the care sector, means she has extra expertise of hardship than most of her fellow MPs. That’s the reason she is seen as an genuine voice for working-class folks.

However I consider she deploys the hard-done-by Northern card far too usually – particularly when criticised for the crass behaviour and abusive language she is susceptible to, which demeans her and the folks she represents. At a fringe assembly on the Labour Occasion convention final September, Rayner famously ranted about how the Conservatives have been ‘a bunch of scum, homophobic, racist, misogynistic, absolute pile… of banana republic… Etonian piece of scum… that I’ve ever seen in my life’.

She refused to apologise, insisting her assault was made utilizing ‘avenue language’. Pressed by Sky’s Trevor Phillips, she insisted that ‘it’s a phrase that you’d hear fairly often in Northern, working-class cities that we’d even say it jovially to different folks’.

What nonsense! I’ve by no means as soon as heard somebody refer to a different individual as scum in a ‘jovial’ method up North. Ever.

And I’m sure if I ever described anybody in my circle again residence as such, I’d get a clip across the ear.

Rayner ultimately apologised. However she does have type on this. A 12 months earlier she needed to apologise for calling Conservative MP Chris Clarkson ‘scum’ throughout a heated debate within the Commons. There’s merely no excusing this form of derogatory language, and guilty it on her background is unforgivable to many people who share related roots.

The place Angela Rayner does have a degree, nonetheless, is on the snobbery and sophistication prejudice that persists round accents. George Bernard Shaw as soon as noticed: ‘It’s unattainable for an Englishman to open his mouth with out making another Englishman hate or despise him.’

Analysis exhibits there’s nonetheless a notion that Acquired Pronunciation makes an individual sound extra educated, {that a} Birmingham accent is deemed the least engaging and people with a Liverpudlian accent are the least reliable, whereas Irish and Scottish accents are ‘attractive’.

Some folks, as they progress in life, actively attempt to lose their accent, whereas others will preserve theirs to remain ‘true’ to their roots.

Actor Kenneth Branagh final week revealed that inside three years of shifting to South-East England, he had misplaced any hint of his Belfast accent. He admitted to feeling responsible when it disappeared.

On the optimistic aspect, there isn’t any query that class prejudice round accents is on the wane – helped by tv and radio, the place broadcasters have recognised the necessity to characteristic extra consultant voices to raised replicate their audiences.

Journalist Chris Mason, 41, who hails from the Yorkshire Dales, is tipped to be the BBC’s new political editor – partly as a result of he has a regional accent. (It additionally helps that he’s a superb reporter and presenter.) Among the Beeb’s most outstanding younger journalists have pronounced regional accents.

Amol Rajan, 38, who not too long ago joined the Company’s flagship Right this moment programme, speaks pure ‘sarf’ London, whereas Emma Barnett, 36, the lead presenter of Lady’s Hour, grew up in Manchester and you’ll hear it in her voice. Few listeners would, nonetheless, take situation with their grammar.

Within the age of social media, when texting shorthand and slang are the best way many individuals talk, some will say that grammar isn’t a difficulty. However it does and will matter. It’s key to good communication, to being understood, to getting your message throughout.

And nobody ought to higher perceive the significance of that than Rayner. However in taking part in the working-class card to excuse her slip-ups, she dangers changing into a caricature of what it means to be a Northerner – and take it from me, the remainder of us don’t very like it.