ALEXANDRA SHULMAN’S NOTEBOOK: Even people who despise Angela Rayner want to join her gang

There she goes again, Angela Rayner stepping out in big platform shoes and dolly bird eye make-up as the newly appointed Shadow Minister for Leveling Up in Sir Keir Starmer’s recent reshuffle.

Some people might have thought that if she pecked on his shoulder and put her on the ground, he would get tired of it.

But the thing about Angela Rayner is that everyone loves her a little, even those who hate her a little.

With her articulate, strutting personality, she’s not exactly the type you’d want to have your finger on the nuclear button, but she has an effervescence and conviction that so many politicians lack.

She’s like the leader of the gang at school, sneering from the sidelines – and despite yourself, you actually want to be part of her gang.

With her articulate, strutting personality, she’s not exactly the type you’d want with her finger on the nuclear button, but she has an effervescence and conviction that so many politicians lack.

Angie shares the same devious appeal as many other renegade redheads. Prince Harry, who was many people’s royal favorite until he went crazy; Chris Evans, the broadcaster’s bad boy; the maverick Sarah Ferguson; and, it is said, the fearsome Boadicea. Kylie Minogue has tried to capture some of that ginger naughtiness with a new hair color.

Rayner became a mother at the age of 16 and a grandmother at the age of 37. She rose to the top of the political game by connecting with a large part of the electorate that doesn’t see many people like her in the House of Commons. With her long auburn hair and penchant for a touch of leopard print, attention is drawn to her in the front seat, where she looks like she’s just waiting for a little banter or a big smile.

She also likes to have fun, confessing to drinking lethal cocktails from mid-afternoon until sunrise the next morning on a recent Spanish holiday and sharing selfies at the Parklife music festival. She adds a welcome dash of youthful vigor to the House of Commons.

And fortunately, it is a fact that redheads do not go gray.

Our Turkish unrest when the queen died

We all remember where we were when we heard of the Queen’s death a year ago. I expect we will always continue to do that.

I was on a boat that was sailing quietly along the coast of Turkey. One of our party was a member of the Privy Council and was immediately called upon to join the Accession Council (which starts the process of declaring the next monarch).

Pictured: Queen Elizabeth II during a visit to the Royal Papworth Hospital, Cambridge in July 2019

Most of the cruise had been spent idly on deck with a book and a glass of white wine, interrupted only by another meal or a swim in an empty bay.

Then the news broke and suddenly it was all over.

Our State Counselor had to get from this spot in the middle of nowhere to St James’s Palace, where the meeting was to take place, at ten o’clock the next morning.

Since the role has little purpose other than meeting on such rare occasions, a solution had to be found. Not being present was not an option. I will never forget seeing him off in a small dinghy on the way to the distant mainland for a late night Turkish Airlines flight.

Later, as we watched on our iPads as the Council convened the next day, we were all happy to see that he had made it – and that he still had plenty of time to change.

Beware of mosquitoes, I bite back

How wonderful it was to have had this Indian Summer, with a cloudless blue sky and the evenings warm enough to eat outside. Except, except… the mosquitoes. Perhaps it is only in our part of North West London that dusk has made their presence known, but we are subject to that maddening zzzzzzz as the pesky little things fly back and forth in front of you, preventing sleep, before silently disappearing countries to take a bite.

As someone who is mildly allergic to their bites, I take an arsenal of anti-mozzie kit with me when I travel, but at home we are not prepared for this invasion. The best solution I’ve found is a portable fan that whizzes around my nose. Noisy but much less itchy.

Short dresses are not appropriate in the Devil’s world

Education Minister Gillian Keegan has presumptuously described herself as The Devil Wears Prada Does Politics. Hmm. I’m not so sure. In terms of style, she is not unlike Anna Wintour, who was supposedly the template for the devil.

In the Devil’s world, the more powerful you are, the less you carry. You have an entourage of little people who have to deal with that

They may both be wearing big sunglasses, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen Anna in a short dress like Keegan likes to wear, nor with a big handbag in hand.

In the Devil’s world, the more powerful you are, the less you carry. You have an entourage of little people who have to deal with that.

There is no escape from the prison’s shortcomings

When an inmate escaped from Wandsworth prison four years ago by clinging to the undercarriage of a vehicle, it was claimed (as is so often the case) that ‘lessons would be learned’. That is clearly not the case and, as far as I know, several protocols are regularly violated.

It also takes so long for an official investigation to discover why a disaster occurred that everyone has forgotten what lesson was supposed to be learned in the first place.

It Girl Sienna still gets top marks at age 41

It’s not easy to remain an It Girl at 41, let alone someone who models for M&S. But Sienna Miller has achieved this rare feat.

As the face of the M&S autumn campaign, she looks stunning, swathed in cream-coloured wool with a funnel neck and strutting around in an acid yellow midi skirt, her blonde hair in a loose mess and sporting her signature red lipstick.

As the face of the M&S autumn campaign, she looks stunning, dressed in cream-coloured wool with a funnel neck and strutting around in an acid yellow midi skirt, her blonde hair in a loose mess and wearing her signature red lipstick

Fronting an M&S campaign doesn’t always earn you a fashion brand reputation, but Miller is in no danger of losing her status. She’s gone from the beautiful boho party girl famous for her love life and nighttime staying power to a seriously good actress.

Yet she can still rock jeans and white cowboy boots at Glastonbury this year and is pregnant by her 28-year-old actor boyfriend Oli Green, scion of one of the country’s wealthiest art gallery dynasties.

Sienna will undoubtedly still be an enviable It Girl at 50.