With respect to George Galloway's comments about 'jakies' on BBC Scotland, consider this: often an accent perceived as 'rough', conceals insight and intelligence. Similarly, its as often the case that a 'proper' accent conceals ignorance, prejudice and idiocy.
Some of the smartest people I've ever met talk like 'jakies'. Some of the daftest folk going speak like George Galloway. People develop speaking styles for many reasons, what we must always remember is that what we're talking about here are not words, but sounds.
That's when the whole notion of speech as social or cultural value becomes absurd - these are all just mimicked noises emerging from holes in our faces - it's what's being said that should be judged.
Galloway's remarks exist on two plains - what he said and how he said it. They serve as a prime example of the heavy lifting a performative speaking/writing style does to make us appear more insightful than we are. His comments surpised me given his socialist politics...
...then I remembered he's now hitching his political career firmly to the rural unionist wagon, and his comments began to make a little more sense.

#inthebeginningwasthesound
A lot of the people Galloway is appealing to do not even know their natural speaking style - it was beaten and educated out of them.

One sympathises.
People should feel free to develop a speech style that suits them. The snobbery goes both ways, of course, but when common speech styles which are underrepresented in media are attacked and derided merely for how they sound, and not the message they carry, do not stand for it.
...no matter how smart a person sounds when they open their mouth...
For anyone interested in this topic, may I refer you to some of the work I've undertaken in my journey to better understand the issue

Darren McGarvey’s Class Wars, Series 1: 1. Identity Crisis: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000s7hd via @bbciplayer
In conclusion, Dominic Raab 'speaks properly'. Make of that what you will.
You can follow @lokiscottishrap.
Tip: mention @twtextapp on a Twitter thread with the keyword “unroll” to get a link to it.

Latest Threads Unrolled: