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An update on Donald Trump’s chances on winning the Nobel Peace Prize – politicalbetting.com

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  • Big_G_NorthWalesBig_G_NorthWales Posts: 70,072
    RAF typhoons shoot down missiles in Qatar
  • OnlyLivingBoyOnlyLivingBoy Posts: 17,867

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    Those wellies Hunter or Barbour, I can't quite see.
    This stuff is amazing. Keep it coming guys.
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 57,843
    edited 11:17AM
    The number of authentic social media clips of Iranians reacting to regime buildings getting hit with apparent delight gives hope that maybe this will work.

    https://x.com/KhosroIsfahani/status/2027688463286345842

    https://x.com/KhosroIsfahani/status/2027641808323301854
  • TazTaz Posts: 25,494

    Taz said:

    isam said:

    isam said:

    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/27/hannah-spencer-victory-speech-green-byelection

    I am no different to every single person here in this constituency. I work hard. That’s what we do.

    Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades. Because working hard used to get you something. It got you a house. A nice life. Holidays. It got you somewhere.

    But now – working hard? What does that get you? Because talk to anyone here and they’ll tell you. The people who work hard but can’t put food on the table. Can’t get their kids school uniforms. Can’t put their heating on. Can’t live off the pension they worked hard to save for. Can’t even begin to dream about ever having a holiday. Ever. Because life has changed.


    Well, she was able to cough up the £205 to go to Glastonbury.
    She seems to be a middle class man’s wet dream of what a working class girl is
    Shes another 'working class' cosplayer
    As working class as Damon Albarn is cockney
    Or Jamie Oliver !!
    Tbf to Oliver, hes an Essex boy rather than Albarns Dick Van Dyke efforts

    He’s a mockney twat. He doesn’t need to effect his tedious barrow boy persona.
  • isamisam Posts: 43,753

    isam said:

    isam said:

    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/27/hannah-spencer-victory-speech-green-byelection

    I am no different to every single person here in this constituency. I work hard. That’s what we do.

    Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades. Because working hard used to get you something. It got you a house. A nice life. Holidays. It got you somewhere.

    But now – working hard? What does that get you? Because talk to anyone here and they’ll tell you. The people who work hard but can’t put food on the table. Can’t get their kids school uniforms. Can’t put their heating on. Can’t live off the pension they worked hard to save for. Can’t even begin to dream about ever having a holiday. Ever. Because life has changed.


    Well, she was able to cough up the £205 to go to Glastonbury.
    She seems to be a middle class man’s wet dream of what a working class girl is
    Where is her flat cap? Where is the whippet and the pint of mild? Can you imagine, a working class person who likes music! How ludicrous.
    Where is her second home? Where is the posh village she was brought up in? Where are her company's end of year tax receipts?!

    Well done to her for winning, and she may turn out to be a fabulous politician, but there is no need to pretend she is something she isn't.
    She says she's a plumber - true. She says she works hard - I have no reason to doubt it. She talks about the cost of living crisis - that seems to be a well established fact. I'm not sure what people have against her other than the fact she's not blaming Muslims for everything and is a young woman who dares to express opinions in public. Like I say, I didn't wat her to win but she seems like the sort of person there should be more of in our politics, not fewer.
    That is all true. I have nothing against her particularly, and haven't said anything negative about her. I just don't think she is the working class gal that people want her to be
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 90,099
    The Prime Minister needs to change his mind on the use of our military bases and back the Americans in this vital fight against Iran!
    https://x.com/Nigel_Farage/status/2027693784310710744?s=20
  • EabhalEabhal Posts: 13,523
    Just topped out into some phone signal to find out WWIII has kicked out off. Preferred the peace and serenity in the glen.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 55,395
    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/27/hannah-spencer-victory-speech-green-byelection

    I am no different to every single person here in this constituency. I work hard. That’s what we do.

    Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades. Because working hard used to get you something. It got you a house. A nice life. Holidays. It got you somewhere.

    But now – working hard? What does that get you? Because talk to anyone here and they’ll tell you. The people who work hard but can’t put food on the table. Can’t get their kids school uniforms. Can’t put their heating on. Can’t live off the pension they worked hard to save for. Can’t even begin to dream about ever having a holiday. Ever. Because life has changed.


    Well, she was able to cough up the £205 to go to Glastonbury.
    I don't know who else on here goes to music festivals, but there are a lot of working class people at them, even posh ones like Glasto and Latitude, and at Download or Leeds probably form a majority.

    £205 for a long weekend with unlimited entertainment is not bad value, comparable to a few away matches to follow a football team, which is unremarkeable working class entertainment for many.

    The idea that the only authentic working class is neanderthal knuckledraggers is a pretty crude bit of political bubble prejudice. Even assuming that Spencer won Gorton comfortably she must have had 20-25% of the vote in Denton. Or are they disqualified from being working class automatically by voting Green, in a sort of "no true Scotsman" sort of paradox?

  • eekeek Posts: 32,687

    The Prime Minister needs to change his mind on the use of our military bases and back the Americans in this vital fight against Iran!
    https://x.com/Nigel_Farage/status/2027693784310710744?s=20
    Slurp slurp slurp from Nigel
  • wooliedyedwooliedyed Posts: 15,985
    Taz said:

    Taz said:

    isam said:

    isam said:

    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/27/hannah-spencer-victory-speech-green-byelection

    I am no different to every single person here in this constituency. I work hard. That’s what we do.

    Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades. Because working hard used to get you something. It got you a house. A nice life. Holidays. It got you somewhere.

    But now – working hard? What does that get you? Because talk to anyone here and they’ll tell you. The people who work hard but can’t put food on the table. Can’t get their kids school uniforms. Can’t put their heating on. Can’t live off the pension they worked hard to save for. Can’t even begin to dream about ever having a holiday. Ever. Because life has changed.


    Well, she was able to cough up the £205 to go to Glastonbury.
    She seems to be a middle class man’s wet dream of what a working class girl is
    Shes another 'working class' cosplayer
    As working class as Damon Albarn is cockney
    Or Jamie Oliver !!
    Tbf to Oliver, hes an Essex boy rather than Albarns Dick Van Dyke efforts

    He’s a mockney twat. He doesn’t need to effect his tedious barrow boy persona.
    Cant really argue with that so i wont
  • isamisam Posts: 43,753
    edited 11:16AM

    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/27/hannah-spencer-victory-speech-green-byelection

    I am no different to every single person here in this constituency. I work hard. That’s what we do.

    Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades. Because working hard used to get you something. It got you a house. A nice life. Holidays. It got you somewhere.

    But now – working hard? What does that get you? Because talk to anyone here and they’ll tell you. The people who work hard but can’t put food on the table. Can’t get their kids school uniforms. Can’t put their heating on. Can’t live off the pension they worked hard to save for. Can’t even begin to dream about ever having a holiday. Ever. Because life has changed.


    Well, she was able to cough up the £205 to go to Glastonbury.
    I'm sorry is this meant to be a serious point or is it some kind of deep satire I am too thick to understand? Is the fact that she can afford to spend £205 on a ticket to a festival (that she may have saved for by putting aside £4/week) meant to demonstrate that she is some vile hypocrite? I'm struggling to see it.
    Know thy place working class women of the north, pints of snakebite, Corrie on catchup and karaoke on Fridays.
    Yea, a middle class upbringing in a posh village, properties worth £1.2m and being an employer rather than an employee are no barrier to those who aspire to be working class. Just put on some dungarees!
  • TazTaz Posts: 25,494
    Saudi green lights Iran bombing its oilfields.

    Perhaps @Gallowgate filling up his numerous cars was wise.

    https://x.com/marionawfal/status/2027696183343517781?s=61
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 90,099
    In unrelated news, a number of high profile social media accounts purporting to definitely be Scottish will be taking a short holiday due to technical issues.
    https://x.com/UKDefJournal/status/2027661271126921661?s=20
  • CookieCookie Posts: 16,984

    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/27/hannah-spencer-victory-speech-green-byelection

    I am no different to every single person here in this constituency. I work hard. That’s what we do.

    Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades. Because working hard used to get you something. It got you a house. A nice life. Holidays. It got you somewhere.

    But now – working hard? What does that get you? Because talk to anyone here and they’ll tell you. The people who work hard but can’t put food on the table. Can’t get their kids school uniforms. Can’t put their heating on. Can’t live off the pension they worked hard to save for. Can’t even begin to dream about ever having a holiday. Ever. Because life has changed.


    Well, she was able to cough up the £205 to go to Glastonbury.
    I'm sorry is this meant to be a serious point or is it some kind of deep satire I am too thick to understand? Is the fact that she can afford to spend £205 on a ticket to a festival (that she may have saved for by putting aside £4/week) meant to demonstrate that she is some vile hypocrite? I'm struggling to see it.
    Know thy place working class women of the north, pints of snakebite, Corrie on catchup and karaoke on Fridays.
    Plumbers don't tend to be poor. It's a skilled job. It's not that suspicious that she has a few quid.
    I've never met a female tradesman though. If I had sons, I'd be urging them into plumbing, electrics, etc. I'm genuinely interested in examples of females in the industry.
  • TheValiantTheValiant Posts: 2,089
    MattW said:

    FPT

    I'm a touch more skeptical on the motives side than some comments.

    Trump has never given a flying f*ck about who lives or dies if it is not him or his supporters, and he will not be starting now. If 500k civilians were killed, he would not give a hoot.

    I'd suggest he has 3 or 4 priorities:

    1 - His reputation, as he sees it.
    2 - His bank account, and enriching his family - whether legally or criminally.
    3 - Protecting himself, which means distracting from his programme to take away votes in the mid-terms from the 10-20 million people he is targeting from groups he think will collectively vote against him, which would stop his regime doing what he wants, and eventually lead to justice coming for him. Ditto the Epstein papers.
    4 - Maybe next getting on next week's front pages. The model of Trump as a man treating life as an attention-seeking competitor in a TV game show seems fair.

    I agree with all of that, except the comment about 'his supporters'. He doesn't give a f*ck about them either. I believe the extent of his empathy extends to him (mostly) and his blood family (a bit). Not Melania. Past that, he really doesn't give a shit.
  • isamisam Posts: 43,753
    Foxy said:

    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/27/hannah-spencer-victory-speech-green-byelection

    I am no different to every single person here in this constituency. I work hard. That’s what we do.

    Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades. Because working hard used to get you something. It got you a house. A nice life. Holidays. It got you somewhere.

    But now – working hard? What does that get you? Because talk to anyone here and they’ll tell you. The people who work hard but can’t put food on the table. Can’t get their kids school uniforms. Can’t put their heating on. Can’t live off the pension they worked hard to save for. Can’t even begin to dream about ever having a holiday. Ever. Because life has changed.


    Well, she was able to cough up the £205 to go to Glastonbury.
    I don't know who else on here goes to music festivals, but there are a lot of working class people at them, even posh ones like Glasto and Latitude, and at Download or Leeds probably form a majority.

    £205 for a long weekend with unlimited entertainment is not bad value, comparable to a few away matches to follow a football team, which is unremarkeable working class entertainment for many.

    The idea that the only authentic working class is neanderthal knuckledraggers is a pretty crude bit of political bubble prejudice. Even assuming that Spencer won Gorton comfortably she must have had 20-25% of the vote in Denton. Or are they disqualified from being working class automatically by voting Green, in a sort of "no true Scotsman" sort of paradox?

    Why are you so desperate for her to be working class?
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 57,843
    https://x.com/BarakRavid/status/2027700091243450663

    Senior Israeli official: The goal is to create all the conditions for the downfall of the Iranian regime. We are targeting the entire Iranian leadership - political and military - past, present, and future. Developments will also depend on the extent to which the Iranian people rise up
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 42,634
    edited 11:20AM

    Those wellies Hunter or Barbour, I can't quite see.

    Hunter

    Natch
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 42,634
    @portlandken.bsky.social‬

    Another way in which Trump closely resembles Putin and other dictators is that when he is scared, he is dangerous.

    With public support in freefall, and with heat from the Epstein Files increasing despite his attempts to obstruct their release, Trump has started a needless war with Iran.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 77,835
    Taz said:

    Saudi green lights Iran bombing its oilfields.

    Perhaps @Gallowgate filling up his numerous cars was wise.

    https://x.com/marionawfal/status/2027696183343517781?s=61

    Actual report:

    This is not what we reported. We reported that Saudi Arabia “offered its support for any measures” UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, and Jordan take in response to Iran targeting US bases in their countries.

    Saudi Foreign Ministry specifically stated that it “affirmed its full solidarity and standing by the side of the sister states, and placing all its capabilities at their disposal to support them in all measures they take.”


    https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2027704057909923914

    That may be a distinction without a difference, of course, but I cannot see Iran launching a full scale war on Saudi. They would be mad to.

    It may depend on what bits of their government are still alive and functioning if earlier reports are correct, of course.
  • eekeek Posts: 32,687
    isam said:

    Foxy said:

    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/27/hannah-spencer-victory-speech-green-byelection

    I am no different to every single person here in this constituency. I work hard. That’s what we do.

    Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades. Because working hard used to get you something. It got you a house. A nice life. Holidays. It got you somewhere.

    But now – working hard? What does that get you? Because talk to anyone here and they’ll tell you. The people who work hard but can’t put food on the table. Can’t get their kids school uniforms. Can’t put their heating on. Can’t live off the pension they worked hard to save for. Can’t even begin to dream about ever having a holiday. Ever. Because life has changed.


    Well, she was able to cough up the £205 to go to Glastonbury.
    I don't know who else on here goes to music festivals, but there are a lot of working class people at them, even posh ones like Glasto and Latitude, and at Download or Leeds probably form a majority.

    £205 for a long weekend with unlimited entertainment is not bad value, comparable to a few away matches to follow a football team, which is unremarkeable working class entertainment for many.

    The idea that the only authentic working class is neanderthal knuckledraggers is a pretty crude bit of political bubble prejudice. Even assuming that Spencer won Gorton comfortably she must have had 20-25% of the vote in Denton. Or are they disqualified from being working class automatically by voting Green, in a sort of "no true Scotsman" sort of paradox?

    Why are you so desperate for her to be working class?
    Got to say - Mrs Eek discovered a band she likes is doing a sm tour of Europe this summer.

    So it’s £130 for the tickets before hotel, flights (thankfully WizzAir and Ryanair) and airport parking
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 70,388

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    Those wellies Hunter or Barbour, I can't quite see.
    This stuff is amazing. Keep it coming guys.
    This discussion is bonkers.

    Just look at Northern Soul.

    Decent threads was all part of the whole scene.
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 42,634
    @aloner.bsky.social‬

    I misread this and got it wrong. Israeli officials are only saying they have targeted Khamenei, not that he has actually been killed. Apologies !

    https://bsky.app/profile/aloner.bsky.social/post/3mfw3swrjas25
  • Sweeney74Sweeney74 Posts: 162
    Foxy said:

    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/27/hannah-spencer-victory-speech-green-byelection

    I am no different to every single person here in this constituency. I work hard. That’s what we do.

    Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades. Because working hard used to get you something. It got you a house. A nice life. Holidays. It got you somewhere.

    But now – working hard? What does that get you? Because talk to anyone here and they’ll tell you. The people who work hard but can’t put food on the table. Can’t get their kids school uniforms. Can’t put their heating on. Can’t live off the pension they worked hard to save for. Can’t even begin to dream about ever having a holiday. Ever. Because life has changed.


    Well, she was able to cough up the £205 to go to Glastonbury.
    I don't know who else on here goes to music festivals, but there are a lot of working class people at them, even posh ones like Glasto and Latitude, and at Download or Leeds probably form a majority.

    £205 for a long weekend with unlimited entertainment is not bad value, comparable to a few away matches to follow a football team, which is unremarkeable working class entertainment for many.

    The idea that the only authentic working class is neanderthal knuckledraggers is a pretty crude bit of political bubble prejudice. Even assuming that Spencer won Gorton comfortably she must have had 20-25% of the vote in Denton. Or are they disqualified from being working class automatically by voting Green, in a sort of "no true Scotsman" sort of paradox?

    All true.

    I’ve attended most UK festivals over many years, and whilst Glasto is certainly full of posh boys and girls glamping it up, it is also still an eclectic mix of all sorts.
    download in particular is stunningly mixed (in class terms anyway)
    Reading and Leeds, and TitP skew slightly more working class.

    Hannah seems like a genuine, hard working and thoughtful person and I’m sure will make a fantastic constituency MP. She seems far too good for the Greens.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 77,835

    The number of authentic social media clips of Iranians reacting to regime buildings getting hit with apparent delight gives hope that maybe this will work.

    https://x.com/KhosroIsfahani/status/2027688463286345842

    https://x.com/KhosroIsfahani/status/2027641808323301854

    The Americans were greeted by cheering crowds in Baghdad.
  • TazTaz Posts: 25,494
    Cookie said:

    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/27/hannah-spencer-victory-speech-green-byelection

    I am no different to every single person here in this constituency. I work hard. That’s what we do.

    Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades. Because working hard used to get you something. It got you a house. A nice life. Holidays. It got you somewhere.

    But now – working hard? What does that get you? Because talk to anyone here and they’ll tell you. The people who work hard but can’t put food on the table. Can’t get their kids school uniforms. Can’t put their heating on. Can’t live off the pension they worked hard to save for. Can’t even begin to dream about ever having a holiday. Ever. Because life has changed.


    Well, she was able to cough up the £205 to go to Glastonbury.
    I'm sorry is this meant to be a serious point or is it some kind of deep satire I am too thick to understand? Is the fact that she can afford to spend £205 on a ticket to a festival (that she may have saved for by putting aside £4/week) meant to demonstrate that she is some vile hypocrite? I'm struggling to see it.
    Know thy place working class women of the north, pints of snakebite, Corrie on catchup and karaoke on Fridays.
    Plumbers don't tend to be poor. It's a skilled job. It's not that suspicious that she has a few quid.
    I've never met a female tradesman though. If I had sons, I'd be urging them into plumbing, electrics, etc. I'm genuinely interested in examples of females in the industry.
    We’ve got a couple of female painter and decorators round here.

    They’re pretty good.

    https://www.magicaltouches.co.uk/
  • MattWMattW Posts: 32,328
    edited 11:26AM

    MattW said:

    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/27/hannah-spencer-victory-speech-green-byelection

    I am no different to every single person here in this constituency. I work hard. That’s what we do.

    Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades. Because working hard used to get you something. It got you a house. A nice life. Holidays. It got you somewhere.

    But now – working hard? What does that get you? Because talk to anyone here and they’ll tell you. The people who work hard but can’t put food on the table. Can’t get their kids school uniforms. Can’t put their heating on. Can’t live off the pension they worked hard to save for. Can’t even begin to dream about ever having a holiday. Ever. Because life has changed.


    Well, she was able to cough up the £205 to go to Glastonbury.
    I think that G&D, like Ashfield, is probably one of the places where that model can still work - functioning housing market, local community still a local community, and so on.

    But plumbers are the new aristocracy.

    I'm not totally sure about plumber + plasterer, other than both are fairly well-protected skills that are not going away - especially plasterer.

    Plumber + joiner or plumber + tiler would seem to have more synergy.

    My kitchen / bathroom / double glazing man started out as a joiner.
    My understanding is she installs heat pumps but is not gas safe registered

    She is a very interesting individual and if labour think they will regain the seat, they may well be very wrong
    I honestly daren't try and call that. It's an unusual enough mix in the seat that she could dig in well.

    I think our media will try and flatter, then chew up, the destroy and spit her out. The reactions - especially eg the panic at the Daily T podcast (Camilla Tominey / Tim Stanley), were most interesting.

    I'd say it needs to be "stick to the knitting, don't get driven off the core values, and get a really good mentor who has been around the political block" - from the Greens that could be Natalie Bennett, Caroline Lucas or perhaps Jonathon Bartley. But I'm sure there are plenty of others around.

    I think it is to her advantage that Ref UK and the some of the Cons will try to paint her as a deranged extremist; instead she can march to her own drummer.

    As to which former MP she could end up resembling in terms of career and areas of emphasis, I'm not sure. But she's certainly distinctive.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 90,099
    edited 11:21AM
    I seem to remember there were some big bets on PolyMarket for attacks in Iran before March....the definitely not Trump family associates were cutting it a bit fine.
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 42,634
    @annmarie

    WSJ: Trump is expected to address the nation on Saturday, according to two U.S. officials, after American and Israeli airstrikes began pounding Iran and Iranian missiles targeted U.S. bases in the Gulf in retaliation.
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 70,388
    Leon said:

    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/27/hannah-spencer-victory-speech-green-byelection

    I am no different to every single person here in this constituency. I work hard. That’s what we do.

    Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades. Because working hard used to get you something. It got you a house. A nice life. Holidays. It got you somewhere.

    But now – working hard? What does that get you? Because talk to anyone here and they’ll tell you. The people who work hard but can’t put food on the table. Can’t get their kids school uniforms. Can’t put their heating on. Can’t live off the pension they worked hard to save for. Can’t even begin to dream about ever having a holiday. Ever. Because life has changed.


    Well, she was able to cough up the £205 to go to Glastonbury.
    May be she saved £5 per week towards it and it was her one treat of the year
    I think we have identified @Heathener

    She saved the $205 by putting spare hot water in her thermos
    Maybe they were a gift from Lord Ali?

    Oh wait...that's the Labour Party.
  • TheValiantTheValiant Posts: 2,089
    Leon said:

    Wow. Wow wow. Wow

    I did say last thread - maybe Trump and the Israelis have something really clever planned. À la Maduro

    Good riddance to these evil fucks if so

    Every man’s death diminishes me but in this case hahahaha

    Well, it's one of these situations isn't it, where you'd like both sides to lose.
    But Iran has no real ability to do anything to strike back at the US (last year exposed how much of a paper tiger they were, just like Russia), so the US will get to win in relatively short order. Though what 'win' means is anyone's guess.
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 57,843
    ydoethur said:

    The number of authentic social media clips of Iranians reacting to regime buildings getting hit with apparent delight gives hope that maybe this will work.

    https://x.com/KhosroIsfahani/status/2027688463286345842

    https://x.com/KhosroIsfahani/status/2027641808323301854

    The Americans were greeted by cheering crowds in Baghdad.
    Do you think Trump is planning to send tanks to Tehran?
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 77,835
    edited 11:23AM
    Taz said:

    Cookie said:

    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/27/hannah-spencer-victory-speech-green-byelection

    I am no different to every single person here in this constituency. I work hard. That’s what we do.

    Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades. Because working hard used to get you something. It got you a house. A nice life. Holidays. It got you somewhere.

    But now – working hard? What does that get you? Because talk to anyone here and they’ll tell you. The people who work hard but can’t put food on the table. Can’t get their kids school uniforms. Can’t put their heating on. Can’t live off the pension they worked hard to save for. Can’t even begin to dream about ever having a holiday. Ever. Because life has changed.


    Well, she was able to cough up the £205 to go to Glastonbury.
    I'm sorry is this meant to be a serious point or is it some kind of deep satire I am too thick to understand? Is the fact that she can afford to spend £205 on a ticket to a festival (that she may have saved for by putting aside £4/week) meant to demonstrate that she is some vile hypocrite? I'm struggling to see it.
    Know thy place working class women of the north, pints of snakebite, Corrie on catchup and karaoke on Fridays.
    Plumbers don't tend to be poor. It's a skilled job. It's not that suspicious that she has a few quid.
    I've never met a female tradesman though. If I had sons, I'd be urging them into plumbing, electrics, etc. I'm genuinely interested in examples of females in the industry.
    We’ve got a couple of female painter and decorators round here.

    They’re pretty good.

    https://www.magicaltouches.co.uk/
    There's a whole firm of female electricians in Cannock called Little Miss Sparky.

    They're not cheap but they are excellent and because women living alone feel a great deal safer around other women they are always very busy,
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 42,634
    @trbrtc.bsky.social‬

    We obtained the first publicly released satellite image of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's compound in Tehran, after it was struck by Israel/US. There are several destroyed buildings. Current whereabouts of Iran's supreme leader are unknown; compound used as his official residence.

    https://bsky.app/profile/trbrtc.bsky.social/post/3mfw3xjaxcc2e
  • tlg86tlg86 Posts: 27,646
    Foxy said:

    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/27/hannah-spencer-victory-speech-green-byelection

    I am no different to every single person here in this constituency. I work hard. That’s what we do.

    Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades. Because working hard used to get you something. It got you a house. A nice life. Holidays. It got you somewhere.

    But now – working hard? What does that get you? Because talk to anyone here and they’ll tell you. The people who work hard but can’t put food on the table. Can’t get their kids school uniforms. Can’t put their heating on. Can’t live off the pension they worked hard to save for. Can’t even begin to dream about ever having a holiday. Ever. Because life has changed.


    Well, she was able to cough up the £205 to go to Glastonbury.
    I don't know who else on here goes to music festivals, but there are a lot of working class people at them, even posh ones like Glasto and Latitude, and at Download or Leeds probably form a majority.

    £205 for a long weekend with unlimited entertainment is not bad value, comparable to a few away matches to follow a football team, which is unremarkeable working class entertainment for many.

    The idea that the only authentic working class is neanderthal knuckledraggers is a pretty crude bit of political bubble prejudice. Even assuming that Spencer won Gorton comfortably she must have had 20-25% of the vote in Denton. Or are they disqualified from being working class automatically by voting Green, in a sort of "no true Scotsman" sort of paradox?

    Hang on a second. Class is about where you've come from not where you are. She is claiming that hard work doesn't get you anywhere. Well, assuming she is the working class girl she is portrayed as (i.e. what the main bread winner was doing when she was 14), then she's done very well for herself (and this is a great thing!).

    I'm a working class kid who worked hard and gets to follow Arsenal around Europe. I'm very much not having a pop at her being at Glastonbury. I'm saying that her speech was a load of rubbish.
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 36,815
    Cookie said:

    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/27/hannah-spencer-victory-speech-green-byelection

    I am no different to every single person here in this constituency. I work hard. That’s what we do.

    Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades. Because working hard used to get you something. It got you a house. A nice life. Holidays. It got you somewhere.

    But now – working hard? What does that get you? Because talk to anyone here and they’ll tell you. The people who work hard but can’t put food on the table. Can’t get their kids school uniforms. Can’t put their heating on. Can’t live off the pension they worked hard to save for. Can’t even begin to dream about ever having a holiday. Ever. Because life has changed.


    Well, she was able to cough up the £205 to go to Glastonbury.
    I'm sorry is this meant to be a serious point or is it some kind of deep satire I am too thick to understand? Is the fact that she can afford to spend £205 on a ticket to a festival (that she may have saved for by putting aside £4/week) meant to demonstrate that she is some vile hypocrite? I'm struggling to see it.
    Know thy place working class women of the north, pints of snakebite, Corrie on catchup and karaoke on Fridays.
    Plumbers don't tend to be poor. It's a skilled job. It's not that suspicious that she has a few quid.
    I've never met a female tradesman though. If I had sons, I'd be urging them into plumbing, electrics, etc. I'm genuinely interested in examples of females in the industry.
    There was a plumber locally, nice, reliable chap, who developed back problems so couldn't easily get down to low-sited pipes etc. So his wife, not sure what she was before, retrained as a plumber and they worked together for quite a few years.
    \Very well thought of locally, the duo.

    Sadly, he's developed something really nasty now, so they've both had to retire.
  • tlg86 said:

    isam said:

    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/27/hannah-spencer-victory-speech-green-byelection

    I am no different to every single person here in this constituency. I work hard. That’s what we do.

    Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades. Because working hard used to get you something. It got you a house. A nice life. Holidays. It got you somewhere.

    But now – working hard? What does that get you? Because talk to anyone here and they’ll tell you. The people who work hard but can’t put food on the table. Can’t get their kids school uniforms. Can’t put their heating on. Can’t live off the pension they worked hard to save for. Can’t even begin to dream about ever having a holiday. Ever. Because life has changed.


    Well, she was able to cough up the £205 to go to Glastonbury.
    She seems to be a middle class man’s wet dream of what a working class girl is
    She certainly seems get the Men of the Right all steamed up.

    I think she's great. She's what Angela Rayner likes to think she is.

    (this assumes Hannah Spencer is a genuine working class girl, which I'm not 100% sure of)
    She's from Edgworth in Bolton, which is hardly the mean streets.

    I know some of the press find it hard to grasp that there are affluent middle class areas outside the South East, and automatically a northern accent means a family of tripe dressers or whippet polishers, but she's from a very leafy village.
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 36,815
    tlg86 said:

    Foxy said:

    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/27/hannah-spencer-victory-speech-green-byelection

    I am no different to every single person here in this constituency. I work hard. That’s what we do.

    Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades. Because working hard used to get you something. It got you a house. A nice life. Holidays. It got you somewhere.

    But now – working hard? What does that get you? Because talk to anyone here and they’ll tell you. The people who work hard but can’t put food on the table. Can’t get their kids school uniforms. Can’t put their heating on. Can’t live off the pension they worked hard to save for. Can’t even begin to dream about ever having a holiday. Ever. Because life has changed.


    Well, she was able to cough up the £205 to go to Glastonbury.
    I don't know who else on here goes to music festivals, but there are a lot of working class people at them, even posh ones like Glasto and Latitude, and at Download or Leeds probably form a majority.

    £205 for a long weekend with unlimited entertainment is not bad value, comparable to a few away matches to follow a football team, which is unremarkeable working class entertainment for many.

    The idea that the only authentic working class is neanderthal knuckledraggers is a pretty crude bit of political bubble prejudice. Even assuming that Spencer won Gorton comfortably she must have had 20-25% of the vote in Denton. Or are they disqualified from being working class automatically by voting Green, in a sort of "no true Scotsman" sort of paradox?

    Hang on a second. Class is about where you've come from not where you are. She is claiming that hard work doesn't get you anywhere. Well, assuming she is the working class girl she is portrayed as (i.e. what the main bread winner was doing when she was 14), then she's done very well for herself (and this is a great thing!).

    I'm a working class kid who worked hard and gets to follow Arsenal around Europe. I'm very much not having a pop at her being at Glastonbury. I'm saying that her speech was a load of rubbish.
    That was then, @tig86, my friend. She's talking about now.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 77,835

    ydoethur said:

    The number of authentic social media clips of Iranians reacting to regime buildings getting hit with apparent delight gives hope that maybe this will work.

    https://x.com/KhosroIsfahani/status/2027688463286345842

    https://x.com/KhosroIsfahani/status/2027641808323301854

    The Americans were greeted by cheering crowds in Baghdad.
    Do you think Trump is planning to send tanks to Tehran?
    I would never accuse Trump of having a plan.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 90,099
    I once rented a house and the landlord was giving the big'un about how he had totally renovated the place from top to bottom. Couple of months in, the central heating went on the blink. Mrs Landlord rocked up in her overhauls, sorted the boiler, and when I said you and the hubby seem good at this DIY lark, she said well I am, he is bloody useless.
  • another_richardanother_richard Posts: 28,945
    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/27/hannah-spencer-victory-speech-green-byelection

    I am no different to every single person here in this constituency. I work hard. That’s what we do.

    Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades. Because working hard used to get you something. It got you a house. A nice life. Holidays. It got you somewhere.

    But now – working hard? What does that get you? Because talk to anyone here and they’ll tell you. The people who work hard but can’t put food on the table. Can’t get their kids school uniforms. Can’t put their heating on. Can’t live off the pension they worked hard to save for. Can’t even begin to dream about ever having a holiday. Ever. Because life has changed.


    Well, she was able to cough up the £205 to go to Glastonbury.
    And how many people have lives like this tale of woe ?

    Now there are the poor and disadvantaged, as there have always been and always will.

    And while some demographics are struggling more than previously others - and working class northerners are among them - have better opportunities now than they have had for generations.

    But having opportunities is not the same as making use of them.
  • wooliedyedwooliedyed Posts: 15,985
    tlg86 said:

    Foxy said:

    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/27/hannah-spencer-victory-speech-green-byelection

    I am no different to every single person here in this constituency. I work hard. That’s what we do.

    Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades. Because working hard used to get you something. It got you a house. A nice life. Holidays. It got you somewhere.

    But now – working hard? What does that get you? Because talk to anyone here and they’ll tell you. The people who work hard but can’t put food on the table. Can’t get their kids school uniforms. Can’t put their heating on. Can’t live off the pension they worked hard to save for. Can’t even begin to dream about ever having a holiday. Ever. Because life has changed.


    Well, she was able to cough up the £205 to go to Glastonbury.
    I don't know who else on here goes to music festivals, but there are a lot of working class people at them, even posh ones like Glasto and Latitude, and at Download or Leeds probably form a majority.

    £205 for a long weekend with unlimited entertainment is not bad value, comparable to a few away matches to follow a football team, which is unremarkeable working class entertainment for many.

    The idea that the only authentic working class is neanderthal knuckledraggers is a pretty crude bit of political bubble prejudice. Even assuming that Spencer won Gorton comfortably she must have had 20-25% of the vote in Denton. Or are they disqualified from being working class automatically by voting Green, in a sort of "no true Scotsman" sort of paradox?

    Hang on a second. Class is about where you've come from not where you are. She is claiming that hard work doesn't get you anywhere. Well, assuming she is the working class girl she is portrayed as (i.e. what the main bread winner was doing when she was 14), then she's done very well for herself (and this is a great thing!).

    I'm a working class kid who worked hard and gets to follow Arsenal around Europe. I'm very much not having a pop at her being at Glastonbury. I'm saying that her speech was a load of rubbish.
    Exactly. Shes a poster girl for Thatcherism. And good luck to her for that!
  • tlg86tlg86 Posts: 27,646

    tlg86 said:

    Foxy said:

    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/27/hannah-spencer-victory-speech-green-byelection

    I am no different to every single person here in this constituency. I work hard. That’s what we do.

    Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades. Because working hard used to get you something. It got you a house. A nice life. Holidays. It got you somewhere.

    But now – working hard? What does that get you? Because talk to anyone here and they’ll tell you. The people who work hard but can’t put food on the table. Can’t get their kids school uniforms. Can’t put their heating on. Can’t live off the pension they worked hard to save for. Can’t even begin to dream about ever having a holiday. Ever. Because life has changed.


    Well, she was able to cough up the £205 to go to Glastonbury.
    I don't know who else on here goes to music festivals, but there are a lot of working class people at them, even posh ones like Glasto and Latitude, and at Download or Leeds probably form a majority.

    £205 for a long weekend with unlimited entertainment is not bad value, comparable to a few away matches to follow a football team, which is unremarkeable working class entertainment for many.

    The idea that the only authentic working class is neanderthal knuckledraggers is a pretty crude bit of political bubble prejudice. Even assuming that Spencer won Gorton comfortably she must have had 20-25% of the vote in Denton. Or are they disqualified from being working class automatically by voting Green, in a sort of "no true Scotsman" sort of paradox?

    Hang on a second. Class is about where you've come from not where you are. She is claiming that hard work doesn't get you anywhere. Well, assuming she is the working class girl she is portrayed as (i.e. what the main bread winner was doing when she was 14), then she's done very well for herself (and this is a great thing!).

    I'm a working class kid who worked hard and gets to follow Arsenal around Europe. I'm very much not having a pop at her being at Glastonbury. I'm saying that her speech was a load of rubbish.
    That was then, @tig86, my friend. She's talking about now.
    "last few decades"
  • Farage backs Trump. No surprise there, however this does not feel like a particularly wise political strategy with how unpopular Trump is here.
  • TazTaz Posts: 25,494
    Sweeney74 said:

    Foxy said:

    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/27/hannah-spencer-victory-speech-green-byelection

    I am no different to every single person here in this constituency. I work hard. That’s what we do.

    Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades. Because working hard used to get you something. It got you a house. A nice life. Holidays. It got you somewhere.

    But now – working hard? What does that get you? Because talk to anyone here and they’ll tell you. The people who work hard but can’t put food on the table. Can’t get their kids school uniforms. Can’t put their heating on. Can’t live off the pension they worked hard to save for. Can’t even begin to dream about ever having a holiday. Ever. Because life has changed.


    Well, she was able to cough up the £205 to go to Glastonbury.
    I don't know who else on here goes to music festivals, but there are a lot of working class people at them, even posh ones like Glasto and Latitude, and at Download or Leeds probably form a majority.

    £205 for a long weekend with unlimited entertainment is not bad value, comparable to a few away matches to follow a football team, which is unremarkeable working class entertainment for many.

    The idea that the only authentic working class is neanderthal knuckledraggers is a pretty crude bit of political bubble prejudice. Even assuming that Spencer won Gorton comfortably she must have had 20-25% of the vote in Denton. Or are they disqualified from being working class automatically by voting Green, in a sort of "no true Scotsman" sort of paradox?

    All true.

    I’ve attended most UK festivals over many years, and whilst Glasto is certainly full of posh boys and girls glamping it up, it is also still an eclectic mix of all sorts.
    download in particular is stunningly mixed (in class terms anyway)
    Reading and Leeds, and TitP skew slightly more working class.

    Hannah seems like a genuine, hard working and thoughtful person and I’m sure will make a fantastic constituency MP. She seems far too good for the Greens.
    She seems to be a bit of a dick to me. A perfect Green.
  • MattWMattW Posts: 32,328

    tlg86 said:

    isam said:

    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/27/hannah-spencer-victory-speech-green-byelection

    I am no different to every single person here in this constituency. I work hard. That’s what we do.

    Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades. Because working hard used to get you something. It got you a house. A nice life. Holidays. It got you somewhere.

    But now – working hard? What does that get you? Because talk to anyone here and they’ll tell you. The people who work hard but can’t put food on the table. Can’t get their kids school uniforms. Can’t put their heating on. Can’t live off the pension they worked hard to save for. Can’t even begin to dream about ever having a holiday. Ever. Because life has changed.


    Well, she was able to cough up the £205 to go to Glastonbury.
    She seems to be a middle class man’s wet dream of what a working class girl is
    She certainly seems get the Men of the Right all steamed up.

    I think she's great. She's what Angela Rayner likes to think she is.

    (this assumes Hannah Spencer is a genuine working class girl, which I'm not 100% sure of)
    She's from Edgworth in Bolton, which is hardly the mean streets.

    I know some of the press find it hard to grasp that there are affluent middle class areas outside the South East, and automatically a northern accent means a family of tripe dressers or whippet polishers, but she's from a very leafy village.
    Shhhhhhh.

    Don't tell them that, or they will all leave the South East and the rest of the county will be ruined !
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 60,196
    edited 11:31AM
    Okay so I realised that Ireland is a neutral country, so I found an Irish pub to have lunch.

    I mean, the Iranians aren’t going to bomb a place called Fibber Magee’s, are they?

    Looks like an afternoon of watching the cricket lies ahead.
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 46,775
    isam said:

    Foxy said:

    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/27/hannah-spencer-victory-speech-green-byelection

    I am no different to every single person here in this constituency. I work hard. That’s what we do.

    Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades. Because working hard used to get you something. It got you a house. A nice life. Holidays. It got you somewhere.

    But now – working hard? What does that get you? Because talk to anyone here and they’ll tell you. The people who work hard but can’t put food on the table. Can’t get their kids school uniforms. Can’t put their heating on. Can’t live off the pension they worked hard to save for. Can’t even begin to dream about ever having a holiday. Ever. Because life has changed.


    Well, she was able to cough up the £205 to go to Glastonbury.
    I don't know who else on here goes to music festivals, but there are a lot of working class people at them, even posh ones like Glasto and Latitude, and at Download or Leeds probably form a majority.

    £205 for a long weekend with unlimited entertainment is not bad value, comparable to a few away matches to follow a football team, which is unremarkeable working class entertainment for many.

    The idea that the only authentic working class is neanderthal knuckledraggers is a pretty crude bit of political bubble prejudice. Even assuming that Spencer won Gorton comfortably she must have had 20-25% of the vote in Denton. Or are they disqualified from being working class automatically by voting Green, in a sort of "no true Scotsman" sort of paradox?

    Why are you so desperate for her to be working class?
    Why are you so desperate for her not to be?

    In fact has Spencer actually claimed to be working class, or has she just described in non RP tones her life as a non-uni educated tradesperson living and working in the area she now represents.

    I’m reminded of Andrew Neil’s desperation to prove that Mhairi Black was not working class Paisley, unlike himself as he ranted in orotund, well fed tones from his South of France villa.
  • StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 21,736
    Sweeney74 said:

    Foxy said:

    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/27/hannah-spencer-victory-speech-green-byelection

    I am no different to every single person here in this constituency. I work hard. That’s what we do.

    Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades. Because working hard used to get you something. It got you a house. A nice life. Holidays. It got you somewhere.

    But now – working hard? What does that get you? Because talk to anyone here and they’ll tell you. The people who work hard but can’t put food on the table. Can’t get their kids school uniforms. Can’t put their heating on. Can’t live off the pension they worked hard to save for. Can’t even begin to dream about ever having a holiday. Ever. Because life has changed.


    Well, she was able to cough up the £205 to go to Glastonbury.
    I don't know who else on here goes to music festivals, but there are a lot of working class people at them, even posh ones like Glasto and Latitude, and at Download or Leeds probably form a majority.

    £205 for a long weekend with unlimited entertainment is not bad value, comparable to a few away matches to follow a football team, which is unremarkeable working class entertainment for many.

    The idea that the only authentic working class is neanderthal knuckledraggers is a pretty crude bit of political bubble prejudice. Even assuming that Spencer won Gorton comfortably she must have had 20-25% of the vote in Denton. Or are they disqualified from being working class automatically by voting Green, in a sort of "no true Scotsman" sort of paradox?

    All true.

    I’ve attended most UK festivals over many years, and whilst Glasto is certainly full of posh boys and girls glamping it up, it is also still an eclectic mix of all sorts.
    download in particular is stunningly mixed (in class terms anyway)
    Reading and Leeds, and TitP skew slightly more working class.

    Hannah seems like a genuine, hard working and thoughtful person and I’m sure will make a fantastic constituency MP. She seems far too good for the Greens.
    One of the alarming things about the mainstream parties is their inability to attract and retain normal, genuine people into.their ecosystems.

    It's been a problem on the blue side for ages, possibly since the 1990s. Is it as bad on the red side?
  • FrankBoothFrankBooth Posts: 10,436
    Going on about Hannah Spencer's background seems indicative of the English class obsession. I'm far more concerned by the fact she blamed the political right for the Manchester bombing. Wouldn't it make more sense to focus on that?
  • TazTaz Posts: 25,494

    Farage backs Trump. No surprise there, however this does not feel like a particularly wise political strategy with how unpopular Trump is here.

    Sometimes you do what it right not what is convenient. SKS should learn this.

    It’s sickening people, because it’s Trump and Bibi, would gladly back the mullahs whereas if it was Biden they wouldn’t.
  • ozymandiasozymandias Posts: 1,787
    Sandpit said:

    Okay so I realised that Ireland is a neutral country, so I found an Irish pub to have lunch.

    I mean, the Iranians aren’t going to bomb a place called Fibber Magee’s, are they?

    Following the French surrender this morning - Cafe Rouge a possibility?
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 36,815
    tlg86 said:

    tlg86 said:

    Foxy said:

    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/27/hannah-spencer-victory-speech-green-byelection

    I am no different to every single person here in this constituency. I work hard. That’s what we do.

    Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades. Because working hard used to get you something. It got you a house. A nice life. Holidays. It got you somewhere.

    But now – working hard? What does that get you? Because talk to anyone here and they’ll tell you. The people who work hard but can’t put food on the table. Can’t get their kids school uniforms. Can’t put their heating on. Can’t live off the pension they worked hard to save for. Can’t even begin to dream about ever having a holiday. Ever. Because life has changed.


    Well, she was able to cough up the £205 to go to Glastonbury.
    I don't know who else on here goes to music festivals, but there are a lot of working class people at them, even posh ones like Glasto and Latitude, and at Download or Leeds probably form a majority.

    £205 for a long weekend with unlimited entertainment is not bad value, comparable to a few away matches to follow a football team, which is unremarkeable working class entertainment for many.

    The idea that the only authentic working class is neanderthal knuckledraggers is a pretty crude bit of political bubble prejudice. Even assuming that Spencer won Gorton comfortably she must have had 20-25% of the vote in Denton. Or are they disqualified from being working class automatically by voting Green, in a sort of "no true Scotsman" sort of paradox?

    Hang on a second. Class is about where you've come from not where you are. She is claiming that hard work doesn't get you anywhere. Well, assuming she is the working class girl she is portrayed as (i.e. what the main bread winner was doing when she was 14), then she's done very well for herself (and this is a great thing!).

    I'm a working class kid who worked hard and gets to follow Arsenal around Europe. I'm very much not having a pop at her being at Glastonbury. I'm saying that her speech was a load of rubbish.
    That was then, @tig86, my friend. She's talking about now.
    "last few decades"
    Point noted.
    How about last twenty years or so?
  • Sweeney74Sweeney74 Posts: 162
    Taz said:

    Sweeney74 said:

    Foxy said:

    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/27/hannah-spencer-victory-speech-green-byelection

    I am no different to every single person here in this constituency. I work hard. That’s what we do.

    Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades. Because working hard used to get you something. It got you a house. A nice life. Holidays. It got you somewhere.

    But now – working hard? What does that get you? Because talk to anyone here and they’ll tell you. The people who work hard but can’t put food on the table. Can’t get their kids school uniforms. Can’t put their heating on. Can’t live off the pension they worked hard to save for. Can’t even begin to dream about ever having a holiday. Ever. Because life has changed.


    Well, she was able to cough up the £205 to go to Glastonbury.
    I don't know who else on here goes to music festivals, but there are a lot of working class people at them, even posh ones like Glasto and Latitude, and at Download or Leeds probably form a majority.

    £205 for a long weekend with unlimited entertainment is not bad value, comparable to a few away matches to follow a football team, which is unremarkeable working class entertainment for many.

    The idea that the only authentic working class is neanderthal knuckledraggers is a pretty crude bit of political bubble prejudice. Even assuming that Spencer won Gorton comfortably she must have had 20-25% of the vote in Denton. Or are they disqualified from being working class automatically by voting Green, in a sort of "no true Scotsman" sort of paradox?

    All true.

    I’ve attended most UK festivals over many years, and whilst Glasto is certainly full of posh boys and girls glamping it up, it is also still an eclectic mix of all sorts.
    download in particular is stunningly mixed (in class terms anyway)
    Reading and Leeds, and TitP skew slightly more working class.

    Hannah seems like a genuine, hard working and thoughtful person and I’m sure will make a fantastic constituency MP. She seems far too good for the Greens.
    She seems to be a bit of a dick to me. A perfect Green.
    Hardly any more of a bit of a dick than most other MPs. Let’s face it, you need a bit of dickery about you to be a politician in the first place.
  • TazTaz Posts: 25,494
    Sweeney74 said:

    Taz said:

    Sweeney74 said:

    Foxy said:

    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/27/hannah-spencer-victory-speech-green-byelection

    I am no different to every single person here in this constituency. I work hard. That’s what we do.

    Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades. Because working hard used to get you something. It got you a house. A nice life. Holidays. It got you somewhere.

    But now – working hard? What does that get you? Because talk to anyone here and they’ll tell you. The people who work hard but can’t put food on the table. Can’t get their kids school uniforms. Can’t put their heating on. Can’t live off the pension they worked hard to save for. Can’t even begin to dream about ever having a holiday. Ever. Because life has changed.


    Well, she was able to cough up the £205 to go to Glastonbury.
    I don't know who else on here goes to music festivals, but there are a lot of working class people at them, even posh ones like Glasto and Latitude, and at Download or Leeds probably form a majority.

    £205 for a long weekend with unlimited entertainment is not bad value, comparable to a few away matches to follow a football team, which is unremarkeable working class entertainment for many.

    The idea that the only authentic working class is neanderthal knuckledraggers is a pretty crude bit of political bubble prejudice. Even assuming that Spencer won Gorton comfortably she must have had 20-25% of the vote in Denton. Or are they disqualified from being working class automatically by voting Green, in a sort of "no true Scotsman" sort of paradox?

    All true.

    I’ve attended most UK festivals over many years, and whilst Glasto is certainly full of posh boys and girls glamping it up, it is also still an eclectic mix of all sorts.
    download in particular is stunningly mixed (in class terms anyway)
    Reading and Leeds, and TitP skew slightly more working class.

    Hannah seems like a genuine, hard working and thoughtful person and I’m sure will make a fantastic constituency MP. She seems far too good for the Greens.
    She seems to be a bit of a dick to me. A perfect Green.
    Hardly any more of a bit of a dick than most other MPs.
    Ah, that makes it okay then, 👍
  • SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 24,581
    Hannah, Hannah
    Put down your spanner.
    You've joined the elite.
  • tlg86tlg86 Posts: 27,646

    tlg86 said:

    tlg86 said:

    Foxy said:

    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/27/hannah-spencer-victory-speech-green-byelection

    I am no different to every single person here in this constituency. I work hard. That’s what we do.

    Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades. Because working hard used to get you something. It got you a house. A nice life. Holidays. It got you somewhere.

    But now – working hard? What does that get you? Because talk to anyone here and they’ll tell you. The people who work hard but can’t put food on the table. Can’t get their kids school uniforms. Can’t put their heating on. Can’t live off the pension they worked hard to save for. Can’t even begin to dream about ever having a holiday. Ever. Because life has changed.


    Well, she was able to cough up the £205 to go to Glastonbury.
    I don't know who else on here goes to music festivals, but there are a lot of working class people at them, even posh ones like Glasto and Latitude, and at Download or Leeds probably form a majority.

    £205 for a long weekend with unlimited entertainment is not bad value, comparable to a few away matches to follow a football team, which is unremarkeable working class entertainment for many.

    The idea that the only authentic working class is neanderthal knuckledraggers is a pretty crude bit of political bubble prejudice. Even assuming that Spencer won Gorton comfortably she must have had 20-25% of the vote in Denton. Or are they disqualified from being working class automatically by voting Green, in a sort of "no true Scotsman" sort of paradox?

    Hang on a second. Class is about where you've come from not where you are. She is claiming that hard work doesn't get you anywhere. Well, assuming she is the working class girl she is portrayed as (i.e. what the main bread winner was doing when she was 14), then she's done very well for herself (and this is a great thing!).

    I'm a working class kid who worked hard and gets to follow Arsenal around Europe. I'm very much not having a pop at her being at Glastonbury. I'm saying that her speech was a load of rubbish.
    That was then, @tig86, my friend. She's talking about now.
    "last few decades"
    Point noted.
    How about last twenty years or so?
    Basically the one thing us poor ickle millenials didn't get was the chance to jump on the housing ladder before it went silly. (I assume she rents or lives at home with her parents as I do).
  • wooliedyedwooliedyed Posts: 15,985
    edited 11:37AM

    Hannah, Hannah
    Put down your spanner.
    You've joined the elite.

    The Working Class
    Can kiss my arse
    I've got my expenses form at last

    *red flag*
  • TazTaz Posts: 25,494

    Going on about Hannah Spencer's background seems indicative of the English class obsession. I'm far more concerned by the fact she blamed the political right for the Manchester bombing. Wouldn't it make more sense to focus on that?

    Indeed and her statements on stuff like Wealth Taxes. Scrutinise hers and the greens policies and take them on.

    Her embarrassing dancing with loons with Palestine flags on election day and her alleged LARPing as a daughter of toil is, in the overall scheme of things, irrelevant. Although for the posh centrists here they can subcontract worthiness by supporting her. I can’t be anti working class. I like Hannah ‘Frank’ Spencer.

    She may well,be working class made good. I’m from a working class background. I don’t live a working class life but still consider myself working class.
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 57,843
    For fans of Hannah Spencer, here's the remix of the "This Is Manchester" speech that she was dancing to on Thursday:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYg4bN8G0II
  • WhisperingOracleWhisperingOracle Posts: 10,991
    edited 11:39AM
    Strange situation in Iran.

    If there's an absence of. leaders still alive, it's not apparent so.far. Either it's too early for people to know, or the Israelis are overplaying it.
  • MattW said:

    tlg86 said:

    isam said:

    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/27/hannah-spencer-victory-speech-green-byelection

    I am no different to every single person here in this constituency. I work hard. That’s what we do.

    Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades. Because working hard used to get you something. It got you a house. A nice life. Holidays. It got you somewhere.

    But now – working hard? What does that get you? Because talk to anyone here and they’ll tell you. The people who work hard but can’t put food on the table. Can’t get their kids school uniforms. Can’t put their heating on. Can’t live off the pension they worked hard to save for. Can’t even begin to dream about ever having a holiday. Ever. Because life has changed.


    Well, she was able to cough up the £205 to go to Glastonbury.
    She seems to be a middle class man’s wet dream of what a working class girl is
    She certainly seems get the Men of the Right all steamed up.

    I think she's great. She's what Angela Rayner likes to think she is.

    (this assumes Hannah Spencer is a genuine working class girl, which I'm not 100% sure of)
    She's from Edgworth in Bolton, which is hardly the mean streets.

    I know some of the press find it hard to grasp that there are affluent middle class areas outside the South East, and automatically a northern accent means a family of tripe dressers or whippet polishers, but she's from a very leafy village.
    Shhhhhhh.

    Don't tell them that, or they will all leave the South East and the rest of the county will be ruined !
    Some friends of mine visited recently from Edinburgh and were astonished to find that I lived in a very nice village, artisan cheese shops and organic butchers were available. Ocado do deliver.

    Everyone isn't cutting about the North like Liam Gallagher or the cast of Shameless.

    Anyway, don't move here, Southerners.
  • Sweeney74Sweeney74 Posts: 162

    Sweeney74 said:

    Foxy said:

    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/27/hannah-spencer-victory-speech-green-byelection

    I am no different to every single person here in this constituency. I work hard. That’s what we do.

    Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades. Because working hard used to get you something. It got you a house. A nice life. Holidays. It got you somewhere.

    But now – working hard? What does that get you? Because talk to anyone here and they’ll tell you. The people who work hard but can’t put food on the table. Can’t get their kids school uniforms. Can’t put their heating on. Can’t live off the pension they worked hard to save for. Can’t even begin to dream about ever having a holiday. Ever. Because life has changed.


    Well, she was able to cough up the £205 to go to Glastonbury.
    I don't know who else on here goes to music festivals, but there are a lot of working class people at them, even posh ones like Glasto and Latitude, and at Download or Leeds probably form a majority.

    £205 for a long weekend with unlimited entertainment is not bad value, comparable to a few away matches to follow a football team, which is unremarkeable working class entertainment for many.

    The idea that the only authentic working class is neanderthal knuckledraggers is a pretty crude bit of political bubble prejudice. Even assuming that Spencer won Gorton comfortably she must have had 20-25% of the vote in Denton. Or are they disqualified from being working class automatically by voting Green, in a sort of "no true Scotsman" sort of paradox?

    All true.

    I’ve attended most UK festivals over many years, and whilst Glasto is certainly full of posh boys and girls glamping it up, it is also still an eclectic mix of all sorts.
    download in particular is stunningly mixed (in class terms anyway)
    Reading and Leeds, and TitP skew slightly more working class.

    Hannah seems like a genuine, hard working and thoughtful person and I’m sure will make a fantastic constituency MP. She seems far too good for the Greens.
    One of the alarming things about the mainstream parties is their inability to attract and retain normal, genuine people into.their ecosystems.

    It's been a problem on the blue side for ages, possibly since the 1990s. Is it as bad on the red side?
    At uni in the 90s, you certainly kept quiet about being right of centre, well if you wanted any form of sex-life anyway. All of the politically active people I knew on the left were hardly what you would call normal and or genuine.

    Normal people don’t get into politics
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 36,815
    tlg86 said:

    tlg86 said:

    tlg86 said:

    Foxy said:

    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/27/hannah-spencer-victory-speech-green-byelection

    I am no different to every single person here in this constituency. I work hard. That’s what we do.

    Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades. Because working hard used to get you something. It got you a house. A nice life. Holidays. It got you somewhere.

    But now – working hard? What does that get you? Because talk to anyone here and they’ll tell you. The people who work hard but can’t put food on the table. Can’t get their kids school uniforms. Can’t put their heating on. Can’t live off the pension they worked hard to save for. Can’t even begin to dream about ever having a holiday. Ever. Because life has changed.


    Well, she was able to cough up the £205 to go to Glastonbury.
    I don't know who else on here goes to music festivals, but there are a lot of working class people at them, even posh ones like Glasto and Latitude, and at Download or Leeds probably form a majority.

    £205 for a long weekend with unlimited entertainment is not bad value, comparable to a few away matches to follow a football team, which is unremarkeable working class entertainment for many.

    The idea that the only authentic working class is neanderthal knuckledraggers is a pretty crude bit of political bubble prejudice. Even assuming that Spencer won Gorton comfortably she must have had 20-25% of the vote in Denton. Or are they disqualified from being working class automatically by voting Green, in a sort of "no true Scotsman" sort of paradox?

    Hang on a second. Class is about where you've come from not where you are. She is claiming that hard work doesn't get you anywhere. Well, assuming she is the working class girl she is portrayed as (i.e. what the main bread winner was doing when she was 14), then she's done very well for herself (and this is a great thing!).

    I'm a working class kid who worked hard and gets to follow Arsenal around Europe. I'm very much not having a pop at her being at Glastonbury. I'm saying that her speech was a load of rubbish.
    That was then, @tig86, my friend. She's talking about now.
    "last few decades"
    Point noted.
    How about last twenty years or so?
    Basically the one thing us poor ickle millenials didn't get was the chance to jump on the housing ladder before it went silly. (I assume she rents or lives at home with her parents as I do).
    I believe she and her boyfriend (who works for Astra Zeneca) were jointly doing up a house, but they've now split and are trying to sell the property.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 55,395
    tlg86 said:

    Foxy said:

    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/27/hannah-spencer-victory-speech-green-byelection

    I am no different to every single person here in this constituency. I work hard. That’s what we do.

    Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades. Because working hard used to get you something. It got you a house. A nice life. Holidays. It got you somewhere.

    But now – working hard? What does that get you? Because talk to anyone here and they’ll tell you. The people who work hard but can’t put food on the table. Can’t get their kids school uniforms. Can’t put their heating on. Can’t live off the pension they worked hard to save for. Can’t even begin to dream about ever having a holiday. Ever. Because life has changed.


    Well, she was able to cough up the £205 to go to Glastonbury.
    I don't know who else on here goes to music festivals, but there are a lot of working class people at them, even posh ones like Glasto and Latitude, and at Download or Leeds probably form a majority.

    £205 for a long weekend with unlimited entertainment is not bad value, comparable to a few away matches to follow a football team, which is unremarkeable working class entertainment for many.

    The idea that the only authentic working class is neanderthal knuckledraggers is a pretty crude bit of political bubble prejudice. Even assuming that Spencer won Gorton comfortably she must have had 20-25% of the vote in Denton. Or are they disqualified from being working class automatically by voting Green, in a sort of "no true Scotsman" sort of paradox?

    Hang on a second. Class is about where you've come from not where you are. She is claiming that hard work doesn't get you anywhere. Well, assuming she is the working class girl she is portrayed as (i.e. what the main bread winner was doing when she was 14), then she's done very well for herself (and this is a great thing!).

    I'm a working class kid who worked hard and gets to follow Arsenal around Europe. I'm very much not having a pop at her being at Glastonbury. I'm saying that her speech was a load of rubbish.
    I do not think class is fixed at birth and immutable. How else can we have Social Mobility?

    A good friend of mine claims to be working class as her grandparents were miners in the Welsh Valleys, but as she is now head of department at a Redbrick University, I think that says more about her self image than reality.
  • StillWatersStillWaters Posts: 12,724
    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    UAE Minstry of Defence:

    The UAE announces successful interception of several Iranian missiles targeting the country

    ‎The Ministry of Defense announced that the United Arab Emirates was subjected today to a brazen attack with Iranian ballistic missiles, which the UAE air defenses handled with the highest efficiency, successfully intercepting several of the missiles.

    ‎The relevant authorities in the country also dealt with the fallout of debris in a residential area in the city of Abu Dhabi, which resulted in some material damage and the death of an individual of Asian nationality.

    ‎The competent authorities confirm that the security situation in the country is under control, and all concerned parties are monitoring developments around the clock.

    https://x.com/modgovae/status/2027685238093279612

    Is that “material damage in the sense of “physical damage” or “lots of damage”?
    It’s translated from Arabic, it means there was some damage.

    AIUI air defences were activated and took out a number of incoming missiles, damage was caused by falling debris rather than from explosions on the ground.
    Thanks for the clarification - assumed it was a translation nuance
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 34,196

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    Those wellies Hunter or Barbour, I can't quite see.
    This stuff is amazing. Keep it coming guys.
    This discussion is bonkers.

    Just look at Northern Soul.

    Decent threads was all part of the whole scene.
    I'm not taking part in a discussion - my question was genuine.
  • another_richardanother_richard Posts: 28,945

    tlg86 said:

    Foxy said:

    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/27/hannah-spencer-victory-speech-green-byelection

    I am no different to every single person here in this constituency. I work hard. That’s what we do.

    Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades. Because working hard used to get you something. It got you a house. A nice life. Holidays. It got you somewhere.

    But now – working hard? What does that get you? Because talk to anyone here and they’ll tell you. The people who work hard but can’t put food on the table. Can’t get their kids school uniforms. Can’t put their heating on. Can’t live off the pension they worked hard to save for. Can’t even begin to dream about ever having a holiday. Ever. Because life has changed.


    Well, she was able to cough up the £205 to go to Glastonbury.
    I don't know who else on here goes to music festivals, but there are a lot of working class people at them, even posh ones like Glasto and Latitude, and at Download or Leeds probably form a majority.

    £205 for a long weekend with unlimited entertainment is not bad value, comparable to a few away matches to follow a football team, which is unremarkeable working class entertainment for many.

    The idea that the only authentic working class is neanderthal knuckledraggers is a pretty crude bit of political bubble prejudice. Even assuming that Spencer won Gorton comfortably she must have had 20-25% of the vote in Denton. Or are they disqualified from being working class automatically by voting Green, in a sort of "no true Scotsman" sort of paradox?

    Hang on a second. Class is about where you've come from not where you are. She is claiming that hard work doesn't get you anywhere. Well, assuming she is the working class girl she is portrayed as (i.e. what the main bread winner was doing when she was 14), then she's done very well for herself (and this is a great thing!).

    I'm a working class kid who worked hard and gets to follow Arsenal around Europe. I'm very much not having a pop at her being at Glastonbury. I'm saying that her speech was a load of rubbish.
    That was then, @tig86, my friend. She's talking about now.
    I doubt there's ever been a better time to be a young, northern, working class plumber.

    Or a worse one to be a young, southern, middle class graduate.
  • wooliedyedwooliedyed Posts: 15,985
    Sweeney74 said:

    Sweeney74 said:

    Foxy said:

    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/27/hannah-spencer-victory-speech-green-byelection

    I am no different to every single person here in this constituency. I work hard. That’s what we do.

    Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades. Because working hard used to get you something. It got you a house. A nice life. Holidays. It got you somewhere.

    But now – working hard? What does that get you? Because talk to anyone here and they’ll tell you. The people who work hard but can’t put food on the table. Can’t get their kids school uniforms. Can’t put their heating on. Can’t live off the pension they worked hard to save for. Can’t even begin to dream about ever having a holiday. Ever. Because life has changed.


    Well, she was able to cough up the £205 to go to Glastonbury.
    I don't know who else on here goes to music festivals, but there are a lot of working class people at them, even posh ones like Glasto and Latitude, and at Download or Leeds probably form a majority.

    £205 for a long weekend with unlimited entertainment is not bad value, comparable to a few away matches to follow a football team, which is unremarkeable working class entertainment for many.

    The idea that the only authentic working class is neanderthal knuckledraggers is a pretty crude bit of political bubble prejudice. Even assuming that Spencer won Gorton comfortably she must have had 20-25% of the vote in Denton. Or are they disqualified from being working class automatically by voting Green, in a sort of "no true Scotsman" sort of paradox?

    All true.

    I’ve attended most UK festivals over many years, and whilst Glasto is certainly full of posh boys and girls glamping it up, it is also still an eclectic mix of all sorts.
    download in particular is stunningly mixed (in class terms anyway)
    Reading and Leeds, and TitP skew slightly more working class.

    Hannah seems like a genuine, hard working and thoughtful person and I’m sure will make a fantastic constituency MP. She seems far too good for the Greens.
    One of the alarming things about the mainstream parties is their inability to attract and retain normal, genuine people into.their ecosystems.

    It's been a problem on the blue side for ages, possibly since the 1990s. Is it as bad on the red side?
    At uni in the 90s, you certainly kept quiet about being right of centre, well if you wanted any form of sex-life anyway. All of the politically active people I knew on the left were hardly what you would call normal and or genuine.

    Normal people don’t get into politics
    I did alright and i was like an emotionally stunted Keith Joseph
  • Sweeney74Sweeney74 Posts: 162

    Sweeney74 said:

    Sweeney74 said:

    Foxy said:

    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/27/hannah-spencer-victory-speech-green-byelection

    I am no different to every single person here in this constituency. I work hard. That’s what we do.

    Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades. Because working hard used to get you something. It got you a house. A nice life. Holidays. It got you somewhere.

    But now – working hard? What does that get you? Because talk to anyone here and they’ll tell you. The people who work hard but can’t put food on the table. Can’t get their kids school uniforms. Can’t put their heating on. Can’t live off the pension they worked hard to save for. Can’t even begin to dream about ever having a holiday. Ever. Because life has changed.


    Well, she was able to cough up the £205 to go to Glastonbury.
    I don't know who else on here goes to music festivals, but there are a lot of working class people at them, even posh ones like Glasto and Latitude, and at Download or Leeds probably form a majority.

    £205 for a long weekend with unlimited entertainment is not bad value, comparable to a few away matches to follow a football team, which is unremarkeable working class entertainment for many.

    The idea that the only authentic working class is neanderthal knuckledraggers is a pretty crude bit of political bubble prejudice. Even assuming that Spencer won Gorton comfortably she must have had 20-25% of the vote in Denton. Or are they disqualified from being working class automatically by voting Green, in a sort of "no true Scotsman" sort of paradox?

    All true.

    I’ve attended most UK festivals over many years, and whilst Glasto is certainly full of posh boys and girls glamping it up, it is also still an eclectic mix of all sorts.
    download in particular is stunningly mixed (in class terms anyway)
    Reading and Leeds, and TitP skew slightly more working class.

    Hannah seems like a genuine, hard working and thoughtful person and I’m sure will make a fantastic constituency MP. She seems far too good for the Greens.
    One of the alarming things about the mainstream parties is their inability to attract and retain normal, genuine people into.their ecosystems.

    It's been a problem on the blue side for ages, possibly since the 1990s. Is it as bad on the red side?
    At uni in the 90s, you certainly kept quiet about being right of centre, well if you wanted any form of sex-life anyway. All of the politically active people I knew on the left were hardly what you would call normal and or genuine.

    Normal people don’t get into politics
    I did alright and i was like an emotionally stunted Keith Joseph
    I was in Bristol
  • Alphabet_SoupAlphabet_Soup Posts: 3,801
    edited 11:43AM

    Hannah, Hannah
    Put down your spanner.
    You've joined the elite.

    She was, conveniently, training to become a plasterer. She'll find plenty of people at Westminster looking to get plastered.
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 46,775

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    Those wellies Hunter or Barbour, I can't quite see.
    This stuff is amazing. Keep it coming guys.
    This discussion is bonkers.

    Just look at Northern Soul.

    Decent threads was all part of the whole scene.
    I'm not taking part in a discussion - my question was genuine.
    You can get a pair of Barbour wellies for c.£50, not exactly TSE levels of self indulgence. They might even come in useful for non Glasto activities.
  • StillWatersStillWaters Posts: 12,724

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    Those wellies Hunter or Barbour, I can't quite see.
    The shape looks more like L’Aigle to me
  • tlg86tlg86 Posts: 27,646
    Foxy said:

    tlg86 said:

    Foxy said:

    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/27/hannah-spencer-victory-speech-green-byelection

    I am no different to every single person here in this constituency. I work hard. That’s what we do.

    Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades. Because working hard used to get you something. It got you a house. A nice life. Holidays. It got you somewhere.

    But now – working hard? What does that get you? Because talk to anyone here and they’ll tell you. The people who work hard but can’t put food on the table. Can’t get their kids school uniforms. Can’t put their heating on. Can’t live off the pension they worked hard to save for. Can’t even begin to dream about ever having a holiday. Ever. Because life has changed.


    Well, she was able to cough up the £205 to go to Glastonbury.
    I don't know who else on here goes to music festivals, but there are a lot of working class people at them, even posh ones like Glasto and Latitude, and at Download or Leeds probably form a majority.

    £205 for a long weekend with unlimited entertainment is not bad value, comparable to a few away matches to follow a football team, which is unremarkeable working class entertainment for many.

    The idea that the only authentic working class is neanderthal knuckledraggers is a pretty crude bit of political bubble prejudice. Even assuming that Spencer won Gorton comfortably she must have had 20-25% of the vote in Denton. Or are they disqualified from being working class automatically by voting Green, in a sort of "no true Scotsman" sort of paradox?

    Hang on a second. Class is about where you've come from not where you are. She is claiming that hard work doesn't get you anywhere. Well, assuming she is the working class girl she is portrayed as (i.e. what the main bread winner was doing when she was 14), then she's done very well for herself (and this is a great thing!).

    I'm a working class kid who worked hard and gets to follow Arsenal around Europe. I'm very much not having a pop at her being at Glastonbury. I'm saying that her speech was a load of rubbish.
    I do not think class is fixed at birth and immutable. How else can we have Social Mobility?

    A good friend of mine claims to be working class as her grandparents were miners in the Welsh Valleys, but as she is now head of department at a Redbrick University, I think that says more about her self image than reality.
    Class is entirely about the situation when you were a child with regards to your parents/guardians. Yes, if she had kids, then they might be middle class. The same applies to your friend at the university. And it applies to me too.

    Starmer is working class and will always be working class. His kids are upper/elite class.
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 126,556
    As one of PB's few bona fide working class Northerners, I am greatly amused by the comments on Hannah Spencer, some of you remind me of the people who accused me of being a race traitor for being a Tory.
  • another_richardanother_richard Posts: 28,945

    tlg86 said:

    Foxy said:

    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/27/hannah-spencer-victory-speech-green-byelection

    I am no different to every single person here in this constituency. I work hard. That’s what we do.

    Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades. Because working hard used to get you something. It got you a house. A nice life. Holidays. It got you somewhere.

    But now – working hard? What does that get you? Because talk to anyone here and they’ll tell you. The people who work hard but can’t put food on the table. Can’t get their kids school uniforms. Can’t put their heating on. Can’t live off the pension they worked hard to save for. Can’t even begin to dream about ever having a holiday. Ever. Because life has changed.


    Well, she was able to cough up the £205 to go to Glastonbury.
    I don't know who else on here goes to music festivals, but there are a lot of working class people at them, even posh ones like Glasto and Latitude, and at Download or Leeds probably form a majority.

    £205 for a long weekend with unlimited entertainment is not bad value, comparable to a few away matches to follow a football team, which is unremarkeable working class entertainment for many.

    The idea that the only authentic working class is neanderthal knuckledraggers is a pretty crude bit of political bubble prejudice. Even assuming that Spencer won Gorton comfortably she must have had 20-25% of the vote in Denton. Or are they disqualified from being working class automatically by voting Green, in a sort of "no true Scotsman" sort of paradox?

    Hang on a second. Class is about where you've come from not where you are. She is claiming that hard work doesn't get you anywhere. Well, assuming she is the working class girl she is portrayed as (i.e. what the main bread winner was doing when she was 14), then she's done very well for herself (and this is a great thing!).

    I'm a working class kid who worked hard and gets to follow Arsenal around Europe. I'm very much not having a pop at her being at Glastonbury. I'm saying that her speech was a load of rubbish.
    That was then, @tig86, my friend. She's talking about now.
    I doubt there's ever been a better time to be a young, northern, working class plumber.

    Or a worse one to be a young, southern, middle class graduate.
    What are the requirements to be successful ?

    Some combination of:

    Skillset
    Hard work
    Opportunities
    Luck

    Hard work alone has never been enough.
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 126,556
    Sweeney74 said:

    Sweeney74 said:

    Sweeney74 said:

    Foxy said:

    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/27/hannah-spencer-victory-speech-green-byelection

    I am no different to every single person here in this constituency. I work hard. That’s what we do.

    Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades. Because working hard used to get you something. It got you a house. A nice life. Holidays. It got you somewhere.

    But now – working hard? What does that get you? Because talk to anyone here and they’ll tell you. The people who work hard but can’t put food on the table. Can’t get their kids school uniforms. Can’t put their heating on. Can’t live off the pension they worked hard to save for. Can’t even begin to dream about ever having a holiday. Ever. Because life has changed.


    Well, she was able to cough up the £205 to go to Glastonbury.
    I don't know who else on here goes to music festivals, but there are a lot of working class people at them, even posh ones like Glasto and Latitude, and at Download or Leeds probably form a majority.

    £205 for a long weekend with unlimited entertainment is not bad value, comparable to a few away matches to follow a football team, which is unremarkeable working class entertainment for many.

    The idea that the only authentic working class is neanderthal knuckledraggers is a pretty crude bit of political bubble prejudice. Even assuming that Spencer won Gorton comfortably she must have had 20-25% of the vote in Denton. Or are they disqualified from being working class automatically by voting Green, in a sort of "no true Scotsman" sort of paradox?

    All true.

    I’ve attended most UK festivals over many years, and whilst Glasto is certainly full of posh boys and girls glamping it up, it is also still an eclectic mix of all sorts.
    download in particular is stunningly mixed (in class terms anyway)
    Reading and Leeds, and TitP skew slightly more working class.

    Hannah seems like a genuine, hard working and thoughtful person and I’m sure will make a fantastic constituency MP. She seems far too good for the Greens.
    One of the alarming things about the mainstream parties is their inability to attract and retain normal, genuine people into.their ecosystems.

    It's been a problem on the blue side for ages, possibly since the 1990s. Is it as bad on the red side?
    At uni in the 90s, you certainly kept quiet about being right of centre, well if you wanted any form of sex-life anyway. All of the politically active people I knew on the left were hardly what you would call normal and or genuine.

    Normal people don’t get into politics
    I did alright and i was like an emotionally stunted Keith Joseph
    I was in Bristol
    You should have used the line 'Life's always better under the Tories', works every time.
  • TazTaz Posts: 25,494

    tlg86 said:

    Foxy said:

    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/27/hannah-spencer-victory-speech-green-byelection

    I am no different to every single person here in this constituency. I work hard. That’s what we do.

    Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades. Because working hard used to get you something. It got you a house. A nice life. Holidays. It got you somewhere.

    But now – working hard? What does that get you? Because talk to anyone here and they’ll tell you. The people who work hard but can’t put food on the table. Can’t get their kids school uniforms. Can’t put their heating on. Can’t live off the pension they worked hard to save for. Can’t even begin to dream about ever having a holiday. Ever. Because life has changed.


    Well, she was able to cough up the £205 to go to Glastonbury.
    I don't know who else on here goes to music festivals, but there are a lot of working class people at them, even posh ones like Glasto and Latitude, and at Download or Leeds probably form a majority.

    £205 for a long weekend with unlimited entertainment is not bad value, comparable to a few away matches to follow a football team, which is unremarkeable working class entertainment for many.

    The idea that the only authentic working class is neanderthal knuckledraggers is a pretty crude bit of political bubble prejudice. Even assuming that Spencer won Gorton comfortably she must have had 20-25% of the vote in Denton. Or are they disqualified from being working class automatically by voting Green, in a sort of "no true Scotsman" sort of paradox?

    Hang on a second. Class is about where you've come from not where you are. She is claiming that hard work doesn't get you anywhere. Well, assuming she is the working class girl she is portrayed as (i.e. what the main bread winner was doing when she was 14), then she's done very well for herself (and this is a great thing!).

    I'm a working class kid who worked hard and gets to follow Arsenal around Europe. I'm very much not having a pop at her being at Glastonbury. I'm saying that her speech was a load of rubbish.
    That was then, @tig86, my friend. She's talking about now.
    I doubt there's ever been a better time to be a young, northern, working class plumber.

    Or a worse one to be a young, southern, middle class graduate.
    On the plus side if the graduates can’t get work they won’t have to pay their student debt off.

    AI is coming for middle class white collar jobs. They need to work out where the future jobs are and fast.
  • wooliedyedwooliedyed Posts: 15,985
    Sweeney74 said:

    Sweeney74 said:

    Sweeney74 said:

    Foxy said:

    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/27/hannah-spencer-victory-speech-green-byelection

    I am no different to every single person here in this constituency. I work hard. That’s what we do.

    Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades. Because working hard used to get you something. It got you a house. A nice life. Holidays. It got you somewhere.

    But now – working hard? What does that get you? Because talk to anyone here and they’ll tell you. The people who work hard but can’t put food on the table. Can’t get their kids school uniforms. Can’t put their heating on. Can’t live off the pension they worked hard to save for. Can’t even begin to dream about ever having a holiday. Ever. Because life has changed.


    Well, she was able to cough up the £205 to go to Glastonbury.
    I don't know who else on here goes to music festivals, but there are a lot of working class people at them, even posh ones like Glasto and Latitude, and at Download or Leeds probably form a majority.

    £205 for a long weekend with unlimited entertainment is not bad value, comparable to a few away matches to follow a football team, which is unremarkeable working class entertainment for many.

    The idea that the only authentic working class is neanderthal knuckledraggers is a pretty crude bit of political bubble prejudice. Even assuming that Spencer won Gorton comfortably she must have had 20-25% of the vote in Denton. Or are they disqualified from being working class automatically by voting Green, in a sort of "no true Scotsman" sort of paradox?

    All true.

    I’ve attended most UK festivals over many years, and whilst Glasto is certainly full of posh boys and girls glamping it up, it is also still an eclectic mix of all sorts.
    download in particular is stunningly mixed (in class terms anyway)
    Reading and Leeds, and TitP skew slightly more working class.

    Hannah seems like a genuine, hard working and thoughtful person and I’m sure will make a fantastic constituency MP. She seems far too good for the Greens.
    One of the alarming things about the mainstream parties is their inability to attract and retain normal, genuine people into.their ecosystems.

    It's been a problem on the blue side for ages, possibly since the 1990s. Is it as bad on the red side?
    At uni in the 90s, you certainly kept quiet about being right of centre, well if you wanted any form of sex-life anyway. All of the politically active people I knew on the left were hardly what you would call normal and or genuine.

    Normal people don’t get into politics
    I did alright and i was like an emotionally stunted Keith Joseph
    I was in Bristol
    I was in Southampton. It did exactly what it said on the tin
  • Sweeney74Sweeney74 Posts: 162

    Sweeney74 said:

    Sweeney74 said:

    Sweeney74 said:

    Foxy said:

    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/27/hannah-spencer-victory-speech-green-byelection

    I am no different to every single person here in this constituency. I work hard. That’s what we do.

    Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades. Because working hard used to get you something. It got you a house. A nice life. Holidays. It got you somewhere.

    But now – working hard? What does that get you? Because talk to anyone here and they’ll tell you. The people who work hard but can’t put food on the table. Can’t get their kids school uniforms. Can’t put their heating on. Can’t live off the pension they worked hard to save for. Can’t even begin to dream about ever having a holiday. Ever. Because life has changed.


    Well, she was able to cough up the £205 to go to Glastonbury.
    I don't know who else on here goes to music festivals, but there are a lot of working class people at them, even posh ones like Glasto and Latitude, and at Download or Leeds probably form a majority.

    £205 for a long weekend with unlimited entertainment is not bad value, comparable to a few away matches to follow a football team, which is unremarkeable working class entertainment for many.

    The idea that the only authentic working class is neanderthal knuckledraggers is a pretty crude bit of political bubble prejudice. Even assuming that Spencer won Gorton comfortably she must have had 20-25% of the vote in Denton. Or are they disqualified from being working class automatically by voting Green, in a sort of "no true Scotsman" sort of paradox?

    All true.

    I’ve attended most UK festivals over many years, and whilst Glasto is certainly full of posh boys and girls glamping it up, it is also still an eclectic mix of all sorts.
    download in particular is stunningly mixed (in class terms anyway)
    Reading and Leeds, and TitP skew slightly more working class.

    Hannah seems like a genuine, hard working and thoughtful person and I’m sure will make a fantastic constituency MP. She seems far too good for the Greens.
    One of the alarming things about the mainstream parties is their inability to attract and retain normal, genuine people into.their ecosystems.

    It's been a problem on the blue side for ages, possibly since the 1990s. Is it as bad on the red side?
    At uni in the 90s, you certainly kept quiet about being right of centre, well if you wanted any form of sex-life anyway. All of the politically active people I knew on the left were hardly what you would call normal and or genuine.

    Normal people don’t get into politics
    I did alright and i was like an emotionally stunted Keith Joseph
    I was in Bristol
    I was in Southampton. It did exactly what it said on the tin
    Went out with a girl from Southampton whist i was at uni.
  • Taz said:

    Farage backs Trump. No surprise there, however this does not feel like a particularly wise political strategy with how unpopular Trump is here.

    Sometimes you do what it right not what is convenient. SKS should learn this.

    It’s sickening people, because it’s Trump and Bibi, would gladly back the mullahs whereas if it was Biden they wouldn’t.
    I don't think backing Trump in this is right though. That's the point.
  • StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 21,736
    Sweeney74 said:

    Sweeney74 said:

    Foxy said:

    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/27/hannah-spencer-victory-speech-green-byelection

    I am no different to every single person here in this constituency. I work hard. That’s what we do.

    Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades. Because working hard used to get you something. It got you a house. A nice life. Holidays. It got you somewhere.

    But now – working hard? What does that get you? Because talk to anyone here and they’ll tell you. The people who work hard but can’t put food on the table. Can’t get their kids school uniforms. Can’t put their heating on. Can’t live off the pension they worked hard to save for. Can’t even begin to dream about ever having a holiday. Ever. Because life has changed.


    Well, she was able to cough up the £205 to go to Glastonbury.
    I don't know who else on here goes to music festivals, but there are a lot of working class people at them, even posh ones like Glasto and Latitude, and at Download or Leeds probably form a majority.

    £205 for a long weekend with unlimited entertainment is not bad value, comparable to a few away matches to follow a football team, which is unremarkeable working class entertainment for many.

    The idea that the only authentic working class is neanderthal knuckledraggers is a pretty crude bit of political bubble prejudice. Even assuming that Spencer won Gorton comfortably she must have had 20-25% of the vote in Denton. Or are they disqualified from being working class automatically by voting Green, in a sort of "no true Scotsman" sort of paradox?

    All true.

    I’ve attended most UK festivals over many years, and whilst Glasto is certainly full of posh boys and girls glamping it up, it is also still an eclectic mix of all sorts.
    download in particular is stunningly mixed (in class terms anyway)
    Reading and Leeds, and TitP skew slightly more working class.

    Hannah seems like a genuine, hard working and thoughtful person and I’m sure will make a fantastic constituency MP. She seems far too good for the Greens.
    One of the alarming things about the mainstream parties is their inability to attract and retain normal, genuine people into.their ecosystems.

    It's been a problem on the blue side for ages, possibly since the 1990s. Is it as bad on the red side?
    At uni in the 90s, you certainly kept quiet about being right of centre, well if you wanted any form of sex-life anyway. All of the politically active people I knew on the left were hardly what you would call normal and or genuine.

    Normal people don’t get into politics
    Did physical sciences myself, so the uni sex-life thing wasn't constrained by politics.

    But it used to the the case that people concerned with the betterment of their neighbourhood or nation could bumble into politics and achieve something useful. Now, it's as if politicians are so well evolved to that niche that they keep everyone else out.

    If that's happening, it's not going to lead to the best people being in charge.
  • eekeek Posts: 32,687
    Sweeney74 said:

    Foxy said:

    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/27/hannah-spencer-victory-speech-green-byelection

    I am no different to every single person here in this constituency. I work hard. That’s what we do.

    Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades. Because working hard used to get you something. It got you a house. A nice life. Holidays. It got you somewhere.

    But now – working hard? What does that get you? Because talk to anyone here and they’ll tell you. The people who work hard but can’t put food on the table. Can’t get their kids school uniforms. Can’t put their heating on. Can’t live off the pension they worked hard to save for. Can’t even begin to dream about ever having a holiday. Ever. Because life has changed.


    Well, she was able to cough up the £205 to go to Glastonbury.
    I don't know who else on here goes to music festivals, but there are a lot of working class people at them, even posh ones like Glasto and Latitude, and at Download or Leeds probably form a majority.

    £205 for a long weekend with unlimited entertainment is not bad value, comparable to a few away matches to follow a football team, which is unremarkeable working class entertainment for many.

    The idea that the only authentic working class is neanderthal knuckledraggers is a pretty crude bit of political bubble prejudice. Even assuming that Spencer won Gorton comfortably she must have had 20-25% of the vote in Denton. Or are they disqualified from being working class automatically by voting Green, in a sort of "no true Scotsman" sort of paradox?

    All true.

    I’ve attended most UK festivals over many years, and whilst Glasto is certainly full of posh boys and girls glamping it up, it is also still an eclectic mix of all sorts.
    download in particular is stunningly mixed (in class terms anyway)
    Reading and Leeds, and TitP skew slightly more working class.

    Hannah seems like a genuine, hard working and thoughtful person and I’m sure will make a fantastic constituency MP. She seems far too good for the Greens.
    Been a long time since it was called T in the Park - it’s been trnsmt for a few years now
  • Sweeney74Sweeney74 Posts: 162

    Sweeney74 said:

    Sweeney74 said:

    Sweeney74 said:

    Foxy said:

    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/27/hannah-spencer-victory-speech-green-byelection

    I am no different to every single person here in this constituency. I work hard. That’s what we do.

    Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades. Because working hard used to get you something. It got you a house. A nice life. Holidays. It got you somewhere.

    But now – working hard? What does that get you? Because talk to anyone here and they’ll tell you. The people who work hard but can’t put food on the table. Can’t get their kids school uniforms. Can’t put their heating on. Can’t live off the pension they worked hard to save for. Can’t even begin to dream about ever having a holiday. Ever. Because life has changed.


    Well, she was able to cough up the £205 to go to Glastonbury.
    I don't know who else on here goes to music festivals, but there are a lot of working class people at them, even posh ones like Glasto and Latitude, and at Download or Leeds probably form a majority.

    £205 for a long weekend with unlimited entertainment is not bad value, comparable to a few away matches to follow a football team, which is unremarkeable working class entertainment for many.

    The idea that the only authentic working class is neanderthal knuckledraggers is a pretty crude bit of political bubble prejudice. Even assuming that Spencer won Gorton comfortably she must have had 20-25% of the vote in Denton. Or are they disqualified from being working class automatically by voting Green, in a sort of "no true Scotsman" sort of paradox?

    All true.

    I’ve attended most UK festivals over many years, and whilst Glasto is certainly full of posh boys and girls glamping it up, it is also still an eclectic mix of all sorts.
    download in particular is stunningly mixed (in class terms anyway)
    Reading and Leeds, and TitP skew slightly more working class.

    Hannah seems like a genuine, hard working and thoughtful person and I’m sure will make a fantastic constituency MP. She seems far too good for the Greens.
    One of the alarming things about the mainstream parties is their inability to attract and retain normal, genuine people into.their ecosystems.

    It's been a problem on the blue side for ages, possibly since the 1990s. Is it as bad on the red side?
    At uni in the 90s, you certainly kept quiet about being right of centre, well if you wanted any form of sex-life anyway. All of the politically active people I knew on the left were hardly what you would call normal and or genuine.

    Normal people don’t get into politics
    I did alright and i was like an emotionally stunted Keith Joseph
    I was in Bristol
    You should have used the line 'Life's always better under the Tories', works every time.
    Ha!

    I have seen a few I used to know wearing the classic never kissed a Tory T-shirt.

    Didn’t have the heart to tell them.
  • TazTaz Posts: 25,494

    Taz said:

    Farage backs Trump. No surprise there, however this does not feel like a particularly wise political strategy with how unpopular Trump is here.

    Sometimes you do what it right not what is convenient. SKS should learn this.

    It’s sickening people, because it’s Trump and Bibi, would gladly back the mullahs whereas if it was Biden they wouldn’t.
    I don't think backing Trump in this is right though. That's the point.
    It’s not backing Trump though. It’s supporting action against a regime that has slaughtered 30,000 innocent people for daring to protest.

    Trump is just being led by Bibi and if this does see the fall of the Mullahs I’m supporting Trump here.
  • LostPasswordLostPassword Posts: 22,632
    edited 11:51AM

    Sandpit said:

    World War III ?

    I think I’m going to the pub!

    I'm heading down to the Winchester* until it all blows over.
    * actually ten minutes from my house. But converted to flats.
    No one has answer the Big Question

    If WWIII results in the nuclear destruction of Slough, turning it into an apocalyptic wasteland of radioactive mutant cannibal zombies - who pays the CGT on the uplift in commercial property prices?
    It doesn't need to be paid. The post-apocalyptic government can use the unpaid CGT liability as security for future borrowing, thus helping to resurrect the financial industry.
  • Sweeney74Sweeney74 Posts: 162
    eek said:

    Sweeney74 said:

    Foxy said:

    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/27/hannah-spencer-victory-speech-green-byelection

    I am no different to every single person here in this constituency. I work hard. That’s what we do.

    Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades. Because working hard used to get you something. It got you a house. A nice life. Holidays. It got you somewhere.

    But now – working hard? What does that get you? Because talk to anyone here and they’ll tell you. The people who work hard but can’t put food on the table. Can’t get their kids school uniforms. Can’t put their heating on. Can’t live off the pension they worked hard to save for. Can’t even begin to dream about ever having a holiday. Ever. Because life has changed.


    Well, she was able to cough up the £205 to go to Glastonbury.
    I don't know who else on here goes to music festivals, but there are a lot of working class people at them, even posh ones like Glasto and Latitude, and at Download or Leeds probably form a majority.

    £205 for a long weekend with unlimited entertainment is not bad value, comparable to a few away matches to follow a football team, which is unremarkeable working class entertainment for many.

    The idea that the only authentic working class is neanderthal knuckledraggers is a pretty crude bit of political bubble prejudice. Even assuming that Spencer won Gorton comfortably she must have had 20-25% of the vote in Denton. Or are they disqualified from being working class automatically by voting Green, in a sort of "no true Scotsman" sort of paradox?

    All true.

    I’ve attended most UK festivals over many years, and whilst Glasto is certainly full of posh boys and girls glamping it up, it is also still an eclectic mix of all sorts.
    download in particular is stunningly mixed (in class terms anyway)
    Reading and Leeds, and TitP skew slightly more working class.

    Hannah seems like a genuine, hard working and thoughtful person and I’m sure will make a fantastic constituency MP. She seems far too good for the Greens.
    Been a long time since it was called T in the Park - it’s been trnsmt for a few years now
    Been a while since I was at that one.
    Download mostly now.
    DD is desperate for me to take her to glasto tho
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 70,388
    eek said:

    Sweeney74 said:

    Foxy said:

    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/27/hannah-spencer-victory-speech-green-byelection

    I am no different to every single person here in this constituency. I work hard. That’s what we do.

    Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades. Because working hard used to get you something. It got you a house. A nice life. Holidays. It got you somewhere.

    But now – working hard? What does that get you? Because talk to anyone here and they’ll tell you. The people who work hard but can’t put food on the table. Can’t get their kids school uniforms. Can’t put their heating on. Can’t live off the pension they worked hard to save for. Can’t even begin to dream about ever having a holiday. Ever. Because life has changed.


    Well, she was able to cough up the £205 to go to Glastonbury.
    I don't know who else on here goes to music festivals, but there are a lot of working class people at them, even posh ones like Glasto and Latitude, and at Download or Leeds probably form a majority.

    £205 for a long weekend with unlimited entertainment is not bad value, comparable to a few away matches to follow a football team, which is unremarkeable working class entertainment for many.

    The idea that the only authentic working class is neanderthal knuckledraggers is a pretty crude bit of political bubble prejudice. Even assuming that Spencer won Gorton comfortably she must have had 20-25% of the vote in Denton. Or are they disqualified from being working class automatically by voting Green, in a sort of "no true Scotsman" sort of paradox?

    All true.

    I’ve attended most UK festivals over many years, and whilst Glasto is certainly full of posh boys and girls glamping it up, it is also still an eclectic mix of all sorts.
    download in particular is stunningly mixed (in class terms anyway)
    Reading and Leeds, and TitP skew slightly more working class.

    Hannah seems like a genuine, hard working and thoughtful person and I’m sure will make a fantastic constituency MP. She seems far too good for the Greens.
    Been a long time since it was called T in the Park - it’s been trnsmt for a few years now
    David Blunket, yesterday: why has this talented young woman not joined the Labour party?

  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 46,775
    eek said:

    Sweeney74 said:

    Foxy said:

    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/27/hannah-spencer-victory-speech-green-byelection

    I am no different to every single person here in this constituency. I work hard. That’s what we do.

    Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades. Because working hard used to get you something. It got you a house. A nice life. Holidays. It got you somewhere.

    But now – working hard? What does that get you? Because talk to anyone here and they’ll tell you. The people who work hard but can’t put food on the table. Can’t get their kids school uniforms. Can’t put their heating on. Can’t live off the pension they worked hard to save for. Can’t even begin to dream about ever having a holiday. Ever. Because life has changed.


    Well, she was able to cough up the £205 to go to Glastonbury.
    I don't know who else on here goes to music festivals, but there are a lot of working class people at them, even posh ones like Glasto and Latitude, and at Download or Leeds probably form a majority.

    £205 for a long weekend with unlimited entertainment is not bad value, comparable to a few away matches to follow a football team, which is unremarkeable working class entertainment for many.

    The idea that the only authentic working class is neanderthal knuckledraggers is a pretty crude bit of political bubble prejudice. Even assuming that Spencer won Gorton comfortably she must have had 20-25% of the vote in Denton. Or are they disqualified from being working class automatically by voting Green, in a sort of "no true Scotsman" sort of paradox?

    All true.

    I’ve attended most UK festivals over many years, and whilst Glasto is certainly full of posh boys and girls glamping it up, it is also still an eclectic mix of all sorts.
    download in particular is stunningly mixed (in class terms anyway)
    Reading and Leeds, and TitP skew slightly more working class.

    Hannah seems like a genuine, hard working and thoughtful person and I’m sure will make a fantastic constituency MP. She seems far too good for the Greens.
    Been a long time since it was called T in the Park - it’s been trnsmt for a few years now
    Shame, was just about to look for dates for TitP.
  • wooliedyedwooliedyed Posts: 15,985
    edited 11:54AM
    Sweeney74 said:

    Sweeney74 said:

    Sweeney74 said:

    Sweeney74 said:

    Foxy said:

    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/27/hannah-spencer-victory-speech-green-byelection

    I am no different to every single person here in this constituency. I work hard. That’s what we do.

    Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades. Because working hard used to get you something. It got you a house. A nice life. Holidays. It got you somewhere.

    But now – working hard? What does that get you? Because talk to anyone here and they’ll tell you. The people who work hard but can’t put food on the table. Can’t get their kids school uniforms. Can’t put their heating on. Can’t live off the pension they worked hard to save for. Can’t even begin to dream about ever having a holiday. Ever. Because life has changed.


    Well, she was able to cough up the £205 to go to Glastonbury.
    I don't know who else on here goes to music festivals, but there are a lot of working class people at them, even posh ones like Glasto and Latitude, and at Download or Leeds probably form a majority.

    £205 for a long weekend with unlimited entertainment is not bad value, comparable to a few away matches to follow a football team, which is unremarkeable working class entertainment for many.

    The idea that the only authentic working class is neanderthal knuckledraggers is a pretty crude bit of political bubble prejudice. Even assuming that Spencer won Gorton comfortably she must have had 20-25% of the vote in Denton. Or are they disqualified from being working class automatically by voting Green, in a sort of "no true Scotsman" sort of paradox?

    All true.

    I’ve attended most UK festivals over many years, and whilst Glasto is certainly full of posh boys and girls glamping it up, it is also still an eclectic mix of all sorts.
    download in particular is stunningly mixed (in class terms anyway)
    Reading and Leeds, and TitP skew slightly more working class.

    Hannah seems like a genuine, hard working and thoughtful person and I’m sure will make a fantastic constituency MP. She seems far too good for the Greens.
    One of the alarming things about the mainstream parties is their inability to attract and retain normal, genuine people into.their ecosystems.

    It's been a problem on the blue side for ages, possibly since the 1990s. Is it as bad on the red side?
    At uni in the 90s, you certainly kept quiet about being right of centre, well if you wanted any form of sex-life anyway. All of the politically active people I knew on the left were hardly what you would call normal and or genuine.

    Normal people don’t get into politics
    I did alright and i was like an emotionally stunted Keith Joseph
    I was in Bristol
    I was in Southampton. It did exactly what it said on the tin
    Went out with a girl from Southampton whist i was at uni.
    The local girls were filthy
    I went for the classy home counties girls doing outreach work in the horny gimp from Norfolk sphere
  • TazTaz Posts: 25,494

    Taz said:

    Farage backs Trump. No surprise there, however this does not feel like a particularly wise political strategy with how unpopular Trump is here.

    Sometimes you do what it right not what is convenient. SKS should learn this.

    It’s sickening people, because it’s Trump and Bibi, would gladly back the mullahs whereas if it was Biden they wouldn’t.
    I don't think backing Trump in this is right though. That's the point.
    Still if people want to be on Richard Keys side so be it !,

    https://x.com/richardajkeys/status/2027697952987246896?s=61
  • MattWMattW Posts: 32,328
    Sweeney74 said:

    Foxy said:

    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/27/hannah-spencer-victory-speech-green-byelection

    I am no different to every single person here in this constituency. I work hard. That’s what we do.

    Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades. Because working hard used to get you something. It got you a house. A nice life. Holidays. It got you somewhere.

    But now – working hard? What does that get you? Because talk to anyone here and they’ll tell you. The people who work hard but can’t put food on the table. Can’t get their kids school uniforms. Can’t put their heating on. Can’t live off the pension they worked hard to save for. Can’t even begin to dream about ever having a holiday. Ever. Because life has changed.


    Well, she was able to cough up the £205 to go to Glastonbury.
    I don't know who else on here goes to music festivals, but there are a lot of working class people at them, even posh ones like Glasto and Latitude, and at Download or Leeds probably form a majority.

    £205 for a long weekend with unlimited entertainment is not bad value, comparable to a few away matches to follow a football team, which is unremarkeable working class entertainment for many.

    The idea that the only authentic working class is neanderthal knuckledraggers is a pretty crude bit of political bubble prejudice. Even assuming that Spencer won Gorton comfortably she must have had 20-25% of the vote in Denton. Or are they disqualified from being working class automatically by voting Green, in a sort of "no true Scotsman" sort of paradox?

    All true.

    I’ve attended most UK festivals over many years, and whilst Glasto is certainly full of posh boys and girls glamping it up, it is also still an eclectic mix of all sorts.
    download in particular is stunningly mixed (in class terms anyway)
    Reading and Leeds, and TitP skew slightly more working class.

    Hannah seems like a genuine, hard working and thoughtful person and I’m sure will make a fantastic constituency MP. She seems far too good for the Greens.
    I'm looking forward to hearing Mallen Baker's view in a day or two.

    He's a former Green principal speaker (in the 1990s), who was then high in the Lib Dem structures for a decade, and is now a well-balanced analyst on Youtube. It missed his Friday news round up this week.
  • tlg86tlg86 Posts: 27,646
    Taz said:

    Taz said:

    Farage backs Trump. No surprise there, however this does not feel like a particularly wise political strategy with how unpopular Trump is here.

    Sometimes you do what it right not what is convenient. SKS should learn this.

    It’s sickening people, because it’s Trump and Bibi, would gladly back the mullahs whereas if it was Biden they wouldn’t.
    I don't think backing Trump in this is right though. That's the point.
    Still if people want to be on Richard Keys side so be it !,

    https://x.com/richardajkeys/status/2027697952987246896?s=61
    Kenny will go potty.
  • Big_G_NorthWalesBig_G_NorthWales Posts: 70,072
    Taz said:

    Taz said:

    Farage backs Trump. No surprise there, however this does not feel like a particularly wise political strategy with how unpopular Trump is here.

    Sometimes you do what it right not what is convenient. SKS should learn this.

    It’s sickening people, because it’s Trump and Bibi, would gladly back the mullahs whereas if it was Biden they wouldn’t.
    I don't think backing Trump in this is right though. That's the point.
    It’s not backing Trump though. It’s supporting action against a regime that has slaughtered 30,000 innocent people for daring to protest.

    Trump is just being led by Bibi and if this does see the fall of the Mullahs I’m supporting Trump here.
    RAF typhoons have already been involved taking down missiles in Qatar

    The planning has been going on for months, so the UK have already been part of this even if it is in a defensive role for our middle eastern allies
  • StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 21,736

    eek said:

    Sweeney74 said:

    Foxy said:

    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/27/hannah-spencer-victory-speech-green-byelection

    I am no different to every single person here in this constituency. I work hard. That’s what we do.

    Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades. Because working hard used to get you something. It got you a house. A nice life. Holidays. It got you somewhere.

    But now – working hard? What does that get you? Because talk to anyone here and they’ll tell you. The people who work hard but can’t put food on the table. Can’t get their kids school uniforms. Can’t put their heating on. Can’t live off the pension they worked hard to save for. Can’t even begin to dream about ever having a holiday. Ever. Because life has changed.


    Well, she was able to cough up the £205 to go to Glastonbury.
    I don't know who else on here goes to music festivals, but there are a lot of working class people at them, even posh ones like Glasto and Latitude, and at Download or Leeds probably form a majority.

    £205 for a long weekend with unlimited entertainment is not bad value, comparable to a few away matches to follow a football team, which is unremarkeable working class entertainment for many.

    The idea that the only authentic working class is neanderthal knuckledraggers is a pretty crude bit of political bubble prejudice. Even assuming that Spencer won Gorton comfortably she must have had 20-25% of the vote in Denton. Or are they disqualified from being working class automatically by voting Green, in a sort of "no true Scotsman" sort of paradox?

    All true.

    I’ve attended most UK festivals over many years, and whilst Glasto is certainly full of posh boys and girls glamping it up, it is also still an eclectic mix of all sorts.
    download in particular is stunningly mixed (in class terms anyway)
    Reading and Leeds, and TitP skew slightly more working class.

    Hannah seems like a genuine, hard working and thoughtful person and I’m sure will make a fantastic constituency MP. She seems far too good for the Greens.
    Been a long time since it was called T in the Park - it’s been trnsmt for a few years now
    David Blunket, yesterday: why has this talented young woman not joined the Labour party?

    You would have to ask Hannah Spencer that. But a shiny sixpence says that the authoritarian social attitudes of many in Labour (as manifest by people like David Blunkett) are a factor.
  • wooliedyedwooliedyed Posts: 15,985
    eek said:

    Sweeney74 said:

    Foxy said:

    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/27/hannah-spencer-victory-speech-green-byelection

    I am no different to every single person here in this constituency. I work hard. That’s what we do.

    Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades. Because working hard used to get you something. It got you a house. A nice life. Holidays. It got you somewhere.

    But now – working hard? What does that get you? Because talk to anyone here and they’ll tell you. The people who work hard but can’t put food on the table. Can’t get their kids school uniforms. Can’t put their heating on. Can’t live off the pension they worked hard to save for. Can’t even begin to dream about ever having a holiday. Ever. Because life has changed.


    Well, she was able to cough up the £205 to go to Glastonbury.
    I don't know who else on here goes to music festivals, but there are a lot of working class people at them, even posh ones like Glasto and Latitude, and at Download or Leeds probably form a majority.

    £205 for a long weekend with unlimited entertainment is not bad value, comparable to a few away matches to follow a football team, which is unremarkeable working class entertainment for many.

    The idea that the only authentic working class is neanderthal knuckledraggers is a pretty crude bit of political bubble prejudice. Even assuming that Spencer won Gorton comfortably she must have had 20-25% of the vote in Denton. Or are they disqualified from being working class automatically by voting Green, in a sort of "no true Scotsman" sort of paradox?

    All true.

    I’ve attended most UK festivals over many years, and whilst Glasto is certainly full of posh boys and girls glamping it up, it is also still an eclectic mix of all sorts.
    download in particular is stunningly mixed (in class terms anyway)
    Reading and Leeds, and TitP skew slightly more working class.

    Hannah seems like a genuine, hard working and thoughtful person and I’m sure will make a fantastic constituency MP. She seems far too good for the Greens.
    Been a long time since it was called T in the Park - it’s been trnsmt for a few years now
    In the days when i was allowed to drive i came back down the M90 from holiday and stopped at Kinross services at the opening of T in the Park. Chaos.
  • TazTaz Posts: 25,494
    eek said:

    Sweeney74 said:

    Foxy said:

    tlg86 said:

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/27/hannah-spencer-victory-speech-green-byelection

    I am no different to every single person here in this constituency. I work hard. That’s what we do.

    Except things have changed a lot over the last few decades. Because working hard used to get you something. It got you a house. A nice life. Holidays. It got you somewhere.

    But now – working hard? What does that get you? Because talk to anyone here and they’ll tell you. The people who work hard but can’t put food on the table. Can’t get their kids school uniforms. Can’t put their heating on. Can’t live off the pension they worked hard to save for. Can’t even begin to dream about ever having a holiday. Ever. Because life has changed.


    Well, she was able to cough up the £205 to go to Glastonbury.
    I don't know who else on here goes to music festivals, but there are a lot of working class people at them, even posh ones like Glasto and Latitude, and at Download or Leeds probably form a majority.

    £205 for a long weekend with unlimited entertainment is not bad value, comparable to a few away matches to follow a football team, which is unremarkeable working class entertainment for many.

    The idea that the only authentic working class is neanderthal knuckledraggers is a pretty crude bit of political bubble prejudice. Even assuming that Spencer won Gorton comfortably she must have had 20-25% of the vote in Denton. Or are they disqualified from being working class automatically by voting Green, in a sort of "no true Scotsman" sort of paradox?

    All true.

    I’ve attended most UK festivals over many years, and whilst Glasto is certainly full of posh boys and girls glamping it up, it is also still an eclectic mix of all sorts.
    download in particular is stunningly mixed (in class terms anyway)
    Reading and Leeds, and TitP skew slightly more working class.

    Hannah seems like a genuine, hard working and thoughtful person and I’m sure will make a fantastic constituency MP. She seems far too good for the Greens.
    Been a long time since it was called T in the Park - it’s been trnsmt for a few years now
    I feel like a whole sector of,popular culture has passed me by although we are going to see Marti Pellow, supported by some chaps called Smoove and Turrell (me neither) at Lumley Castle later in the year.
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 70,388
    Phillips P. OBrien:

    "it is an extremely large and powerful strike force. Some say it is almost as strong as the strike force used in Desert Storm back in 1991. I would say it is larger because it seems that we have the full participation of Israeli airpower, which on its own is extremely formidable.

    So combined Iran could arguably be facing the greatest concentration of airpower since World War II."

    https://phillipspobrien.substack.com/p/the-usa-and-israel-have-started-bombing?r=1tgexa&utm_medium=ios&triedRedirect=true
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 34,196

    MattW said:

    For anyone not up with fashion, Hannah Spencer now MP, at Glasto, in 2011:



    "At home, a lot of girls dress the same way. It's boring. I pretty much dress like this all the time. People always get a shock when I turn up to their door to fix something. I work with lots of fortysomething men and they probably just think I'm a bit weird."

    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/01/glastonbury-2013-best-dressed-in-pictures

    Those wellies Hunter or Barbour, I can't quite see.
    The shape looks more like L’Aigle to me
    I haven't seen them with the white badges though.
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