Mark Andrews – Luvvies raise a racket about Wimbledon, MP's salaries, and why Sir Keir should look closer to home when it comes to 'oracy'

The letter adds that the deal is 'inconsistent with Wimbledon’s cultural legacy and environmental policies'.

Eh? And there was me thinking it was just a tennis tournament.

* * * Sajid Javid reckons MPs' salaries should be doubled to £172,000 a year to 'attract more talent'. Yeah, right.

In 1980 an MP's salary was £11,000 a year. Today it's £86,584. Now would you say the current crop are eight times as good as they were then?

* * *

Sir Keir Starmer says he aims to 'smash the class ceiling' by introducing 'oracy' lessons into schools.

Which I think is lame politician-speak for saying he's gonna tayche we ter spake proper.

Don't wish to be rude, but wouldn't it be a good idea to start with Angela Rayner before lecturing the rest of us?

* * *

Yet for all his cringeworthy word-play – 'class ceiling', really? – and pompous terminology, I think Sir Keir is on to something.

There is a whole generation of people emerging from schools and even universities seemingly unable to begin a sentence without a 'to be fair' or a 'basically'. People punctuate sentences with 'literally' when they mean the opposite – "Stan Collymore is literally on fire" is a personal favourite. And don't get me started on 'it is what it is', I don't think my dodgy ticker could take it.

I'm not convinced specially dedicated classes are the right way to go, and besides, they would never fit it in with all the gender studies, drag-queen hours, and global-warming stuff. But Sir Keir is right that no child, of any background, should emerge from 13 years of schooling unable to speak correctly.

* * *

For those of you about to accuse me of class snobbery regarding Angela Rayner, it is nothing of the sort. As someone who has stubbornly retained my own regional accent – probably to my own detriment – I would really like to stand in solidarity with Mrs Rayner as a fellow outsider.

But I can't. I grimace every time she lazily drops her 't's. I detest the way she needlessly raises her voice, as if shouting somehow equates to passion. But most of all, I hate the way she truculently ignores the rules of grammar, in the belief that sounding like a northern Eliza Dolittle somehow makes you the authentic voice of the working class.

Mrs Rayner could use her position to show that a northern or Midland accent does not make you any less eloquent or sophisticated than those who put on affected Received Pronunciation. She could be a role model for other working-class folk, demonstrating that you don't need to born with a silver spoon in your mouth to form a coherent sentence.

But for cynical electoral purposes, she chooses to reinforce all these ignorant stereotypes.