New Green MP calls for tolerance and inclusivity in first Commons speech
Hannah Spencer, the Green MP who won last month’s Gorton and Denton byelection, has used her first speech in the Commons to call for tolerance and inclusivity, and to argue for more people from manual working backgrounds to be elected to parliament.Saying she wanted to “make hope normal again”, Spencer used a speech in a debate about International Women’s Day to say she had found out that some children had dressed up for events marking the day at their schools as “Hannah the plumber”, wearing overalls and copying her distinctive hairstyle.Spencer overturned a 13,000 Labour majority in the byelection, defeating the Reform candidate, Matthew Goodwin, and pushing Keir Starmer’s party to third.“Four weeks ago today I was in college, a plumber learning how to plaster,” she began on Thursday.“And today I’m in parliament, as an MP.
And being here is the honour of my life.But I don’t want this to be unusual or exceptional.I truly believe that anyone doing a job like mine should get a seat on these benches.”Echoing a theme of her byelection victory speech, in which she promised to try to unite the various communities of her constituency, Spencer listed a series of local people and groups, saying she would stand up for them all.“To the girls who I saw photos of who went to school on International Women’s Day dressed as ‘Hannah the plumber’ in their overalls, spanners, and trademark hair.
To the women in my life who’ve had my back, who’ve fought for equality alongside me,” she said,“And to the men that I work with – especially the lads on my plastering course who dealt with my newfound spotlight in the middle of our training very well – but those men who will suffer the effects of this unequal society through their mental health,“To the veterans I know who were willing to risk everything and come home and find that society was turning its back on them,To the white working classes, who are always lumped into one group and never appreciated,“To everyone who will have nowhere to sleep tonight, or will barely exist in a cold, damp and insecure home.
To my trans siblings who get blamed for everything,To the Muslims everywhere who are constantly and often violently scapegoated,“To the disabled people who can’t access the world because of structural inequality that is completely fixable,To the people of colour, who have to work harder at everything,“I don’t always get it, I won’t say I always understand it.
But what I do know is what it feels like to be looked down on.To be let down and left behind.To be less worthy because of something about me.”Saying her constituency had “suffered decades of neglect and broken promises”, Spencer paid tribute to the work of her predecessor, Labour’s Andrew Gwynne, on tackling health inequalities, pledging to continue this.In a speech that paid tribute to everyone from the suffragette Elsie Plant, after whom Spencer named one of her greyhounds, to the workers of her constituency, as well as some of its cafes and pubs, the new MP said the lesson of International Women’s Day was that “our struggles may be different, but our humanity is the same”.
She ended: “I want to put Gorton and Denton on the map by championing the positives about our community – the spirit, the warmth, the grit, and the way that we help each other out, every single day.“Together, we can make hope normal again.And we will look after each other, whoever we are.Because where I’m from, that is just what we do.”
Naples museum to allow visually impaired visitors to experience art through touch
The Sansevero Chapel Museum in Naples will allow dozens of visually impaired visitors to take part in a rare tactile experience, letting them touch celebrated works of art including the Veiled Christ, which is widely regarded as one of the most striking masterpieces in the history of sculpture.On 17 March, the museum will host an initiative called La meraviglia a portata di mano – Wonder within reach – organised in partnership with the Italian Union of the Blind and Visually Impaired of Naples, offering about 80 blind and partially sighted visitors a chance to encounter the marble masterpieces.Visitors will be guided through the chapel by guides who are also visually impaired in a programme designed to place accessibility at the centre of the museum experience.The protective barrier surrounding the sculptures will be removed, allowing participants, wearing latex gloves, to explore by touch the intricate marble surface of the sculptures including Giuseppe Sanmartino’s Veiled Christ, which depicts Jesus covered by a transparent shroud made from the same block as the statue. The tactile route will also extend to the reliefs at the feet of the sculptures La Pudicizia and Il Disinganno
Jimmy Kimmel on Pentagon splurging on doughnuts: ‘Is this My 600lb Defense Department?’
On late-night shows, hosts poked fun at the Trump administration’s inconsistent messaging on the Iran war, Pete Hegseth splurging on high-end food at the Pentagon and New York’s John F Kennedy Jr lookalike contest.On what Jimmy Kimmel called “day 11 of Jabba the Hutt’s war on Iran”, the host focused on Trump’s mixed messages over the Middle East conflict.“Trump said yesterday that the war could end very soon, which would be encouraging, had be not also told us he’d end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours,” said Kimmel.“He’s going to make a huge mess and walk away like it’s the new toilet in the Lincoln bathroom.”Kimmel then turned to reports that Pete Hegseth, the US defense secretary, spent $93bn of US taxpayer money last year, including millions of dollars in September on luxury food items: “$2m on Alaskan king crab, $6
Rapper Lil’ Kim to headline both Vivid Sydney and Melbourne’s 2026 Rising festival
The pioneering female rapper Lil’ Kim will headline both Vivid Sydney and Melbourne’s Rising this year, as each festival revealed its programs on Wednesday.The performances at Sydney’s Carriageworks and Melbourne’s Festival Hall will be Lil’ Kim’s first Australian shows in 15 years, celebrating her landmark multiplatinum records Hard Core – which turns 30 this year – and The Notorious KIM.Both Vivid and Rising are staged annually in winter.Rising’s artistic director and chief executive, Hannah Fox, said the 51-year-old rapper, who broke out as a member of Junior MAFIA and was mentored by the Notorious BIG, was on “a really exciting return to form”.“Hard Core and Notorious KIM really did carve a path – there are so many women rappers and femcees now who absolutely followed in her tiny footsteps, her funked-up, sex-positive vibe,” Fox said
Stephen Colbert on US war in Iran: ‘We’re still no closer to learning what the goal is’
Late-night hosts looked into the murky goals, economic impact and disrespect for military protocol of Donald Trump’s war in Iran.“We’re on day 10 of the Iran war,” said Stephen Colbert on Monday evening, “and we’re still no closer to learning what the goal is. Is it regime change? Is it ending a nuclear program? Is it changing the name to Donald Trump’s Iran-a-Lago?”“But we are learning more about the cost,” he noted, as the first week of the war alone is estimated to have cost about $6bn. “Do you know what you could buy with $6bn? Twenty-seven Kristi Noem horsey commercials!” he joked before clips of the very expensive, controversial ad campaign that likely ended Noem’s tenure as secretary of homeland security.Despite the exorbitant cost, Trump said over the weekend that this new surprise war would stop only after Iran’s “unconditional surrender”, to which Iran replied: “That’s a dream that they should take to their grave
Leap Year is patently ridiculous and widely panned. It’s also the perfect romcom
In 2010 the Guardian gave the romcom Leap Year a one-star review. The script was “horrendous”, according to the reviewer: “Afterwards, the only ‘leap’ I felt like making was off a motorway gantry into the fast lane of the M25.”He wasn’t alone. Leap Year has an approval rating of 23% on Rotten Tomatoes; the New York Times called it “so witless, charmless and unimaginative that it can be described as a movie only in the strictly technical sense”.It has been 16 years
Womadelaide 2026 review: Grace Jones embraces the compulsion for dancing in the dark times
Botanic Park, AdelaideNo matter the music, no matter the mood, the festival crowd moved and moved – in a celebration embodied by the liberated, messy and sexual stylings of the 77-year-old headlinerGet our weekend culture and lifestyle emailStraight away, the atmosphere at Womadelaide is calmer this year. On opening night, it is only 25C – the warmest it is forecast to be all weekend. After two years of temperatures in the 40s, this will be a festival to ease into. Even the bat colony at the entrance feels decidedly more settled. “I hear we missed a really hot one last year,” says Beoga’s Niamh Dunne later that night
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