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Let’s hear it for the girly swots!

(57 Posts)
MawB Sat 05-Oct-19 08:10:43

Go, girl, Baroness Hale! I am liking this woman more and more.
As seen in today’s paper

BARONESS HALE was last night criticised by Cabinet ministers for “exercising poor judgment” after she opened a speech with the words “Let’s hear it for the girly swots”, standing in front of a presentation entitled “Spider woman takes down Hulk: Viewers transfixed by judge’s brooch as ruling crushed PM
The Supreme Court president, who last month declared the Prime Minister’s prorogation of Parliament “unlawful” while wearing a spider brooch, was speaking at the Association of State Girls’ Schools (ASGS) conference in Westminster yesterday.
She said her number one piece of advice to young women is: “Don’t let the bastards get you down!” The “girly swots” phrase was an apparent reference to an insult Boris Johnson used about former prime minister David Cameron in a leaked Cabinet paper.

Jane10 Sat 05-Oct-19 19:35:52

gonegirl- exactly my point!

SirChenjin Sat 05-Oct-19 19:00:02

Girly swot wasn’t related to her recent judgment

Gonegirl Sat 05-Oct-19 17:40:56

Eh? confused (that to amagram)

I neither dismiss her, or think she's marvellous. And I certainly didn't say she was a nonentity!

I simply think she shouldn't have referred to anything that could be connected to her recent judgement.

Gonegirl Sat 05-Oct-19 17:37:47

Only joking! gringringrin

Amagran Sat 05-Oct-19 17:37:44

Gonegirl, I note that your criticisms are all directed at Lady Hale, not at the oafish perpetrator of the girly swot phrase who had the supreme arrogance to question publicly the Supreme Court judgment in the most boorish terms.

I think that your implied dismissal of Lady Hale as some nonentity just because you have never heard of her is a little ill-judged.

MawB Sat 05-Oct-19 17:36:07

A bit catty, don’t you think?
Why should there be any question of a clique?
And why shouldn’t Maw have any pals?
???????????

Gonegirl Sat 05-Oct-19 17:31:07

Slighty off the point there Amagran.

Gonegirl Sat 05-Oct-19 17:29:30

Oooh. We're getting cliquey! grin

Group hug now, for all Maw's pals.

Amagran Sat 05-Oct-19 17:29:23

Johnson's use of the phrase 'girly swot' had nothing whatever to do with his proroguing of Parliament or the unanimous judgment of the eleven supreme court justices that the proroguing was unlawful.

Lady Hale and her 10 colleagues did not attain their position in the highest court in the land by allowing themselves to be swayed by puerile name calling; they attained their positions by being scrupulously impartial in their interpretation of the law and are well practiced in setting aside any personal feeling they may or may not have about those who come before them in court. This aspect of our justice system is seen on a daily basis when top barristers, for example, defend people to the utmost of their professional ability even when they might feel that the evidence suggests that they might actually be guilty.

We undermine the integrity of our justice system at our peril.
If the court had not found the prorogation of Parliament a judicial matter, then what would have stopped a PM with complicit Parliamentary party members from proroguing Parliament for 5 months next time, or 5 years?

Gonegirl Sat 05-Oct-19 17:28:16

Elegran! that poem is beautiful. It goes on - "and let who will be clever do noble things not dream them all day long...."

Marvellous.

Sparklefizz Sat 05-Oct-19 17:26:24

Good post MawB 16:12:21
Well said!

Gonegirl Sat 05-Oct-19 17:25:48

Would this Hale woman(who I had never heard of before) not have realised the phrase 'girly swots' would be instantly connected back to Boris? Not very bright is she? (if she didn't confused)

Elegran Sat 05-Oct-19 17:18:16

"Girly swot" is a favourite jibe in single-sex schools against those boys who are not as macho and brain-dead as the bone-headed bullies. It combines two things that the bullies secretly fear - intelligence and women.

Intelligent girls have had centuries of being insulted for being "girly swots" and told, "don't bother your pretty head with that, dear" or, "Be good, sweet child and let who will be clever". Lady Hale is encouraging girls to take the insult and use it as a rallying cry.

janeainsworth Sat 05-Oct-19 17:08:07

I think it’s great that it’s ok to be a girly swot.
I was lucky that I got a place at a school which encouraged academic prowess, but many girls weren’t so fortunate and didn’t have that opportunity.
I was listening to a talk on the radio the other day about Dorothy Hodgkin, the only British woman to have won the Nobel prize for Chemistry.

She went to a co-educational school, but the girls weren’t allowed to study chemistry. They had to do needlework instead.
Dorothy and her friend complained and badgered and eventually were allowed to study science.

The idea that there’s something wrong with a girl who wants to use her brain persisted for decades and still hasn’t really been banished into the long grass, perpetuated not only by men either.

Good for Lady Hale, I say.

varian Sat 05-Oct-19 17:04:45

The only people who regard Lady Hale and the other ten Supreme Court Judges as politically motivated are the brexitextremists.

Remember BJ claimed the prorogation was nothing to do with brexit, yet when it was ruled to have been unlawful and therefore null and void, BJ and his brexit cronies claimed that the decision was all about "thwarting brexit".

You brexiters cannot have it both ways. It is a simple question of logic, but there is precious little logic in the brexiter's arguments.

Jane10 Sat 05-Oct-19 16:59:02

This thread seems to have veered a bit. We all know that it's a good thing to be girly swots. I was one and am proud to be. However, Lady Hale's use of these quotes directly ties her to Boris Johnson and therefore indicates that her judgement on the recent case was politically motivated.
There is plenty that she could have said to those girls without making those specific references.

MawB Sat 05-Oct-19 16:58:19

No idea

Oopsminty Sat 05-Oct-19 16:57:29

You also gave me no time to answer your original question! 1 minute! We're not all sat round stuck to our gadgets!

Oopsminty Sat 05-Oct-19 16:55:52

Why on earth would you think I was taking about you?

Baffling

I'll give you 3 guesses
.
Even though I'm pretty sure you do know who I mean

MawB Sat 05-Oct-19 16:51:20

Really?
Who then?
(My original question)

Oopsminty Sat 05-Oct-19 16:48:40

Was NOT

Oopsminty Sat 05-Oct-19 16:48:12

Wow. That's a bit rude! Of course I want talking about you!

MawB Sat 05-Oct-19 16:44:22

If you meant me, don’t be so bloody rude.

MawB Sat 05-Oct-19 16:43:37

Who is oopsminty ? confused

MawB Sat 05-Oct-19 16:43:05

Sorry the second part of my sentence should read “nothing wrong with being a swot” ( if by swot you mean hard working, diligent, intelligent and academically high achieving)
Otherwise it makes no sense blush