AIBU to question criticism of a female MP’s outfit in maiden speech?

[Browningpers]

Spectator article asking whether Hannah Spencer’s outfit detracted from her maiden speech. Seen similar elsewhere too.

I can’t ever recall the same being asked of a male politician.

Article by a woman too.

AIBU?

At any point in his adult life, Sam Allardyce will have resided in a much nicer area than your average working class plumber could ever aspire to.

Maybe the Green party will fix this and you'll have investment bankers living next door to people who stack shelves in supermarkets.

Or maybe . . (whispers) . . . the ultra socialist Greens are no better than the rest of us evil, free market capitalists.

I doubt very much it will be news to her - she knows working class women rarely go to Glyndebourne.

You’ve thrown in a random piece of info with no context, so it’s hard to fathom if it’s true or not. I expect when he was earning a hundred quid a week playing at Bolton he lived as most people did in the area. Managing, may well have lived in a nicer area but hard to say without more info. That was what, twenty odd years ago? Twenty years ago I lived in a 500k house opposite a block of social housing flats. It happens. And Hannah Spencer is 35, so at 14, 15 she was presumably living in her mum’s house and wasn’t yet a plumber.

What on earth is wrong with her outfit?

It's on someone from the wrong political party, is all. This is a continuation of the sour grapes over the by-election. If Reform or the Tories had won, there would be no complaints at all.

The Amazing Adventures of Hannah the Plumber, Julie Burchill

https://www.spiked-online.com/2026/03/17/the-amazing-adventures-of-hannah-the-plumber/

« the lethal teaming of the silly and the sinister »

I don't think the views on her outfit are about her social class. That outfit isn't any form of WC signifier. It's not like she's wearing it because it's all she could afford, or accidently wearing sonething that stands out because WC people dont understand etiquette. She chose a statement outfit. And if you choose to let your clothes speak then you have to expect people will reply.

That’s a deeply nasty piece by Burchill. I felt dirty after I read it.

I would feel dirty if I realised I am playing right in the hands of Islamist fundamentalists, antisemites, misogynists, hypnotists and sheer incompetence.

Another article I read pointed out that she didn’t make a single reference to the environment in her speech, for a Green MP, it’s a fascinating oversight.

She was always a deeply unpleasant person. A beacon of internalised misogyny, like many on this thread.

Indeed.

Though in fairness to Burchill she at least didn’t bleat on about the outfit. I don’t agree with her but she’s at least engaging with the speech and the substance. Which will definitely become less inspirational and more flinty over time. As it should.

So would I - I don’t share your view.

It’s obviously not an oversight at all, the party believe that environmental and sustainability issues are intertwined with social and economic ones - which is objectively true.

What would you need to stop believing?

And I say believe rather than think deliberately. Thinking implies that your opinion may evolve based on facts and further reflection. It is obviously not the case. Some hard truths are looking at you in the face, but you don t want to accept them.

And it has nothing to do with her being a woman, but her being a useful idiot, who seems extremely childish and immature in both attire and speech, and who is the Teletubbies Trojan Horse for two awful, utterly misogynistic ideologies: Muslim fundamentalism and the gender woo.

But I am the misogynistic one, because I see where it will lead us beyond the quirky scalloped waistcoat that you find so endearing.

You think that condescending diatribe is likely to change my mind @inkognitha?

Why is the shape of the waist I relevant- I don't understand how this represents a parlous slide into something sinister. Don't deep it!

Waistcoat not "waist I". Although Julie may find the waist size sinister.

Probably not, and I was having fun on this one, I have tried enough earlier.

I would have judged her outfit and speech the same whatever her political affiliation. But the greens aren’t the friends of women.

And I am sure everyone is convinced by this glorious pretzel of a reasoning in another post that she didn’t mention the environment because it’s so self-evident. Of course.

With powerful arguments like that, nothing for me to add, really.

The thing is, your argument only stands up if you are operating on the premise that Islam and trans people are the biggest problems the UK has. Which is manifestly ludicrous.

So because there are bigger problems in the UK, women should take a back step with their own issues?

And I am the misogynist.
Can’t you see your own handmaiding in there?

Yes, these are issues for women, I say.
That they have to be the most important in the UK for them to exist or matter, that is you erasing yourself, sacrificing other women for the common good (which is always the good of the dudes in case you haven’t found out yet, even on the left).

You matter, you know. Don’t put yourself last, even for the « greater good » (of the men). It’s how patriarchy happens.

It's funny how the people opposed to anything of the Left, whether Green or Labour, always focus exclusively on the trans and the Muslim, and don't ever mention the crowds at the Southport protests, 40% of whom had had police interventions for domestic violence. Numbers matter.

And it's also funny how people opposed to anything on the Left immediately devolve to zero sum thinking.

I know too many trans people to think like that.
I know too many Muslims to think like that.

I am not a handmaiden of the right, thank goodness.

It's the current government who are decriminalising abortion - which benefits women.
It's the current government who are putting in place legislation to remove parental rights from abusive parents - the vast majority of whom are men. Which benefits women.
It's the current government who are putting curbs on zero hours contracts - which benefits women.
It's the current government who are working to protect renters' rights and workers' rights. Which benefits women.

The Green Party backs the above.

The Tories did none of that. Reform wants to undo it. Who's the handmaiden now?

I grew up just around the corner from Julie Burchill and went to the same school as her at around the same time. I'm even bloody well called Julie as so many of us were.

I could have wept when I read "I’m of the opinion that a great part of being working-class is having very low or no expectations."

Based on the experiences I know she had in Brislington and at our school she's a fucking liar.

We were working class kids who truly believed we could change the world with work, study, protest, punk and passion. We expected things to get better and to be able to better ourselves. Our teachers and parents wanted that for us. One thing we were certain would happen in our lifetime is that women would be equal and would be judged on what we did not how we looked.

Does she really believe that anyone (any woman) with the wherewithal to aim high and fulfill a dream cannot truly be working class? If so shame on her.

Or is she just saying that to belittle Hannah Spencer?

Her misogyny would have appalled the girls in our school before we even really knew the term.

What a loathsome post, attempting to belittle the person you’re replying to and the subject of the thread, as well as whole groups of people who have different views to you. The epitome of condescension and the perfect example of why we need a block button.

@Allisnotlost1
Shure, calling me or Julie Burchill misogynists all thread long is fine, not a personal attack at all.

Me explaining with examples why your positions are not quite intellectually grounded or reminding that the Greens have been captured or that she looks silly, total hate crime.

Solution? Restrict freedom of speech. Of course. Threatening to punish people for their thoughts is a sure sign you’re on the right side of history and progress. Or maybe not.

@pointythings
As for the other word salad telling me that the guys (the gay man and the religious fundamentalist) in charge of the Greens have told her they have her best interests at heart so she shouldn’t worry her pretty little head about it because [insert another random fact about Southport] and that it is top feminism, it’s very funny and terribly sad at the same time to see you so naive.

Your goodwill and selflessness is being used and manipulated. You are stooges for the patriarchy.

What happened to you that you're so afraid of Muslims and trans people?

Meanwhile we have the Christian Taliban in charge across the pond, and not a word a out that. Your feminism is narrow and blinkered, and serves women badly. Those of us who are capable of nuanced thinking and who see that the world is complex know better. Of course that is less comfortable than the easy single issue approach.