SO the British Labour Party have dumped Angela Rayner as Deputy Prime Minister. Few people enjoy sudden demotion, and I’m sure Angela is still feeling a bit bruised, and not just in terms of public image or ego. Her salary, which was around £160,000 a year, will now be slashed to a measly £94,000 a year as a regular MP.
Keir Starmer will miss her. Not for her wisdom or initiatives. but because she was the opposite of him. Starmer attended Oxford University and was awarded the prestigious Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL) in 1986. Deputy PM Angela left school at 16 years of age, pregnant, and her mother was illiterate.
She lost her Deputy PM post because she didn’t pay the required taxes on a house she owned. So of course she had to go.
END OF THE ROAD: Angela Rayner was finally undone by her byzantine house purchase affairs
And yet, as I say, Starmer will miss her. She had a broad. unapologetic regional accent and her whole appearance shouted “Working class!” What John Prescott was to Tony Blair, Angela Rayer was to Keir Starmer: a valuable downmarket mud-flap.
There have been many voices raised about her failure to pay her taxes and her resignation, but the most sensible comment came, surprisingly, from the Sky News presenter Sophie Ridge. She pointed out that Angela Rayner was being targeted on a personal matter – her taxes – and this was usually the case when politicians were forced to retire. How many MPs, Ms Ridge wondered, were called on to resign because they didn’t do their job? Starmer won the British general election on the promise of no tax increases and growth for Britain. Can you see him resigning because the Labour government has collected £40 billion in taxes since being elected and growth has been minimal? Nah – me neither.
Sometimes the political persona can be so strong that the public don’t seem to mind what they do. Back in the 1960s, Tory Cabinet minister Jack Profumo consorted with high-class prostitutes, but his unforgiveable sin was that he lied about it to Parliament.
Donald Trump boasted years ago that he could shoot someone in broad daylight on Fifth Avenue and people would still vote for him. Since that boast he’s been found guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, and still they vote for him. And of course our soon-to-be-ex-President Michael D Higgins, a much-loved man, did promise in 2011 that he’d be a one-term president,but then changed his mind and got elected again in 2018. Bet you never heard anyone call for Michael D’s resignation over that little matter.
Who will be Michael D’s successor after the votes are counted this year? Recent days have been notable for people saying they weren’t running rather than running for President. Weather woman Joanne Donnelly said she was throwing her hat in the ring, then within days said she’d made a mistake, and withdrew. Bertie Ahern, steeped in politics for decades, last week announced that he wasn’t running either.
Mary Lou McDonald has announced that she won’t be the Sinn Féin presidential candidate, which was a smart move. If she had stood and won, it would have been a monumental achievement. But the stakes were too high – plus she’s busy tormenting Micheál Martin in the Dail.
Sinn Féin still hasn’t said (at the time of writing this) if they’ll put up another candidate from the party. If they do it’ll mean a missed opportunity to present a united front with the Left. If they don’t pick a Sinn Féin candidate, they’ll probably support Catherine Connolly. No bad thing, but somebody should tell Ivana Bacik, preferably bluntly, that co-operation requires prior communication before you thrust a presidential candidate into the race.
