ALEXANDRA SHULMAN’S NOTEBOOK: I’d love to play, Ange, if you can find a country house

How disappointing that Angela Rayner will not be Lady of Dorneywood, the charming and quaint Buckinghamshire estate with its croquet court, swimming pool and sunken lawn.

I imagined the celebrations if she had been given a 21-room, Grade II listed 18th century house to play with, rather than the tenancy granted to the more sober-minded Rachel Reeves. Perhaps I am wrong, as I do not know either woman, but I suspect that Mrs Rayner would have had more fun and made the most of such an addition to her already controversial property history.

Getting the keys to a grand official residence is more complicated than it sounds, because unless you’re hosting a work-related event, you have to pay for personal guests. And the country stacks have to be filled so they don’t shake.

Paying the bills for weekend guests can be a big expense, but Mrs Rayner, who loves to party and is a renowned hostess, would no doubt find a way around the problem.

I imagined he would focus on his favorite Venom cocktails and barbecue rather than his traditional three-course Sunday lunch with expensive red wine.

When John Prescott was staying at Dorneywood he got into trouble when the MoS took a photo of him playing croquet on the lawn because it smacked of privilege.

So perhaps Mrs Rayner had planned kicking a football as an acceptable pre-lunch activity. But it is always possible that she surprised us and adopted a completely new country-house lifestyle, with tweed jackets and after-dinner charades. And of course there would be dancing, perhaps with a disco ball installed in the drawing room and Mrs Rayner herself on the terrace.

The question is whether she would be happy to entertain middle-class guests – because she seems to think it is mainly the working class who like to dance. What nonsense.

Mrs Rayner may still receive another government house of grace and favour, Chevening. If so, she should feel free to invite a wide guest list.

Ange, I’m here to tell you that we all like good music.

Status now depends on wealth, not birth

On the subject of class, I have rarely heard anything as absurd as Kemi Badenoch’s comment that, although she was raised middle class, she became working class when she took a job at McDonald’s at the age of 16. I thought Ms Badenoch was an intelligent woman, but this silly comment shows a desperation not to be seen as privileged in her bid to lead the Conservative Party.

The British obsession with class is well known.

But now most public figures try to show that they are not in any way upper class. They do not even climb into the middle class. This is especially ridiculous because the concept of class has become as dead as the power of the aristocracy.

Look, for example, at all the inherited titles that are about to be thrown out of the Lordships. Status is now much more tied to wealth than birth, and the two are becoming less and less related.

The generation born into families once considered working class but who nevertheless made a lot of money cannot claim that label.

An example is David and Victoria Beckham, who own multiple homes and lead an extravagant lifestyle.

I can’t find a single aspect of my background that would qualify me for anything other than middle-class qualifications. I’m the daughter of a Canadian immigrant – but that probably doesn’t earn me many working-class points. Nor does my brief time working for the now-defunct Army & Navy Stores in the 1980s.

Lady Vic – and the wasted opportunity

It doesn’t matter how many people say Victoria Starmer should be able to buy her own clothes on her NHS wages (and no one even suggests her husband should pay for them), because dressing up for occasions like state dinners or visits to the White House is expensive.

A piece of Zara won’t cut it. While she could afford the odd Me+Em outfit (and it’s not confirmed that she didn’t spend her own money on the ones she appeared in) – it has to be accepted that our First Couple receives a small clothing allowance, as well as entertainment allowances.

What they certainly shouldn’t do, however, is take money from political donors for their clothes.

As for Lady Starmer’s appearance at London Fashion Week, a photo of her in a polka-dot Edeline Lee outfit, lent to her by the brand, would be worth thousands of dollars in PR for London fashion. Our beleaguered fashion industry needs all the help it can get – so I was delighted to see her sitting front row. What a shame that after all the fuss, she’s unlikely to do it again.

Ella joins the group of star-studded, ambitious people

When I heard that Ella Woodward had sold her health food brand Deliciously Ella for millions of dollars to Swiss Hero Group, I wondered – once again – why I wasn’t blessed with the entrepreneurial gene.

The women I know who have made the most money have all started their own very successful businesses: Charlotte Tilbury’s beauty company, Natalie Massenet’s Net-a-Porter, Chrissie Rucker’s White Company. They all had incredible determination and very clear ideas about what they wanted to achieve.

Surely some business education should be included in the national curriculum? Many young people can no longer expect lifelong employment and must find their way in endless start-ups. Early learning to read a balance sheet and assess risk would be a huge help.

Breast Cancer’s Terrifying Toll

On my last vacation, we were a group of four women over 60. Three of us, including me, were being treated for breast cancer.

This is a very worrying statistic and further evidence that although the UK has a mammogram screening programme, much more screening needs to be carried out.