Rachel Spencer

Geography teacher and Assistant Head in Torfaen . All views my own.

[Hadley Freeman @HadleyFreeman]

I’m not sure how this answers JK Rowling’s question about why The Rest is Politics refuses to have @ForWomenScot or any GC women on as guests. But it does prove my theory that 97% of podcasts consist of men agreeing with each other

[Hadley Freeman @HadleyFreeman]

An evergreen clip for all men on International Women's Day

[Dr Rachel Clarke @doctor_oxford]

This is Trevor Fisher, an inpatient in @ArthurRankHouse in Cambridgeshire, speaking to @Channel4News this week.

I am a palliative care specialist and Trevor’s interview has devastated me.

His hospice has just found out that in 6 months, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Trust will withdraw its £800k funding.

This means that 9 of the hospice’s 16 beds will close, denying patients like Trevor the precious end-of-life care they need.

In total, 200 people a year in Cambridgeshire will now be forced to die in an overcrowded hospital instead of the hospice environment they so longed for. Some will doubtless end up dying on trolleys in corridors - we witness this far too often, these days & I can tell you, it is barbaric.

@CUH_NHS says it has made this “very difficult decision” following a “value for money assessment” - confirming what I have long known as a doctor, that too often, patients with terminal illnesses are treated as second class citizens whose lives simply don’t matter as much as other people's.

Yet the real responsibility here lies not with the NHS trust but with the current government, who is forcing the NHS nationwide to cut clinical services in order to meet impossible “efficiency savings” (what weasel words those are).

These cuts were necessary, say @CUH_NHS, “in order to maintain core services within a reduced budget” - that is to say, the reduced budget they are now receiving from this government.

So this is on you, @wesstreeting, and on you @UKLabour. You've chosen to do this & now patients like Trevor must live - and die - with your choices.

I believe that the measure of a civilised country is how well it cares for its most vulnerable members. The difference between politicians and me is that I look the palliative care patients they are failing in the eye.

So I will put it to you directly, Mr Streeting.

We are still a rich country capable of affording decent, humane palliative care for all. Do you really care so little for dying people that you are happy to fail them on your watch?

Thank you @channel4news for covering this story.

#palliativecare
#hospicecare
#NHS

[Thehullboy @Thehullboy1]

THE YOUNGEST PERSON AND FIRST UNDER 18 TO RUN THE ENTIRE LENGTH OF THE UK🫡

£111,000 Raised for @mindcharity
1347KM Ran (837 miles)
1 car crash and 2 of the most difficult but greatest months of my life.

I’m an emotional mess tonight but I just want to say, no matter how dark a place you are in. It can and WILL get better. 2 years ago I was in the darkest place in my life, 2 years later we have made history.

Thank you to everyone who believed in me. I love you all very much. I’ll do a post when I’m able to process what’s just happened. MENTAL HEALTH MATTERS ❤️

[Thehullboy @Thehullboy1]

£50,000 POUNDS RAISED FOR @mindcharity 💙

Tearing up typing this. Thank you to everyone who’s believed in me on this challenge. To be able to reach this when the goal was originally £20,000 is genuinely mind blowing. I know for a fact that the money will go to save many people’s lives and that’s all because of your kindness and support!

4 days to go until I hopefully become the youngest to ever have ran the length of the UK. Let’s keep stomping, mental health matters!

[Thehullboy @Thehullboy1]

£3000 raised in the last 24 hours is just unbelievable. Thank you so much for all the support on the challenge, 6 days left to go ❤️

[Gail Myerscough @GailMyerscough]

My designs get lots of publicity in magazines and online and it looks like I’m doing really well.
The reality is that it’s bloody hard work being self employed and it’s not getting any easier.

Have a look at what I do and retweet. Thanks.
https://t.co/efvD9JdtEG

[Gail Myerscough @GailMyerscough]

I know I keep banging on about my designs but it’s not easy being a small business at the moment.
Take a look at my wares and please retweet.
https://t.co/efvD9Je1ue
Thanks!

[Gail Myerscough @GailMyerscough]

Hello!
It doesn’t cost anything to retweet but it helps me spread the word about my small business.
My online shop is full of bold & colourful prints, homewares and cards.
I’m also available for freelance design work and art licensing.
https://t.co/efvD9Je1ue

[Tonia Antoniazzi @ToniaAntoniazzi]

My statement on today's game 👇

Also accessible here: https://t.co/lbxm5DInYo

[Have I Got News For You @haveigotnews]

Sales of Teslas are dropping by as much as 50% across Europe, in a mysterious and totally inexplicable trend

[Marina Hyde @MarinaHyde]

My column on Elon Musk’s unspecified number of children and their unspecified number of pissed off mothers https://t.co/gTdpq7NdST

[Otto English @Otto_English]

"In my country can't say anything or you might get put in prison"

Says Nigel Farage who never shuts the fuck up and yet remains, curiously, at liberty

[Have I Got News For You @haveigotnews]

Donald Trump allowed to be sworn in as President without his hand on the Bible, after officials warned it could be a safety risk if it caught fire

[Marina Hyde @MarinaHyde]

My column on Neil Gaiman, and the growing number of high-profile men who seem to think that what has happened to them is “kink shaming”

https://t.co/Z61kQQETQj

[Lissa Evans @LissaKEvans]

These have arrived! - the finished, hardback copies of a little book I've written about the joyfully unpredictable experience of producing Father Ted.
Publication is Feb 20th but I'd like to give away two copies early - RT by Saturday 6pm and my dog Watson will pick the winners.

[Jean Hatchet @JeanHatchet]

Dear English Cricket Board @ECB_cricket (and specifically your cowardly CEO Richard Gould),

You have received a strong, yet polite and reasonable letter, written by a group of UK politicians calling for you to support the women of Afghanistan. Afghan women are being brutally oppressed by the Taliban regime. I think you know this, because every other fucker does.

The letter is here. https://t.co/8UXxVqjJ79

You don’t seem to have read it properly or I wouldn’t be so fucked off by your response. I can see how carefully worded your “gonna do fuck all and see if anyone notices” statement is.

Well, I fucking noticed and lots of other women will notice. We are well used to being ignored and brushed off like this. Let’s have a look at what you tried to pass off as a response shall we?

You said the ECB is,

"committed to finding a solution" which "upholds the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan".

What fucking solution do you expect to find? Where are you looking? Go on tell us what the actual fuck you think you are going to solve magically - rather than just stopping the England team playing cricket - against men representing a regime who are all but keeping women in a box until they die?

Women in Afghanistan are banned from education, exercise in gyms, speaking outside the home, singing in their home, reading aloud IN THEIR OWN HOME, being seen through windows, working in jobs they love, helping each other give birth with appropriate education and care. I don’t know what more terrible measures the Taliban have planned for women, but I bet they are working on it.

Meanwhile you polish up your cricket balls @englishcricket and hope this irritating request that England just sit it out to support them, blows over. It won’t. Our voices are going to get louder -because we have them and can use them – unlike the women of Afghanistan.

You also said,

“While there has not been a consensus on further international action within the ICC, the ECB will continue to actively advocate for such measures,…a coordinated, ICC-wide approach would be significantly more impactful than unilateral actions by individual members."

This effectively says, “It’s not us its THEM – what can WE do if the ICC won’t act?”

I’ll tell you what you can do you fucking cowards, you can defy the ICC. Just tell them you won’t fucking play and see what happens. Grow a fucking pair. Stand up to them.
Yes, we know that you are contracted to the ICC to do what they say. We know there will be penalties. Your bank balance might be hurt. Let me take you back once more to consider the women who will be stoned in the street if they don’t cover their entire bodies in case men are tempted to rape them. The two things don’t really measure up, now do they?

So stop hiding behind the cover of ICC inaction and act on behalf of those brutally oppressed women and against the barbaric monsters doing it.

Your indifference drips from your weasel words. You can do something – you choose not to. Women are watching.

You say you will,

"explore all possible avenues for meaningful change"

but think there are "diverse perspectives" on the issue.

What are those “diverse perspectives”? On one side you have women with a regime boot on their throats, removing every possible freedom a woman could have, and on the other side a team who want to play cricket for a few hours, so they don’t get told off by the ICC. Fuck off with “diverse”. You’re a bunch of evasive cowards clutching to your purse strings while the women of Afghanistan aren’t allowed basic humanity.

And finally, you commit the ultimate insult of telling us all,

“We understand the concerns raised by those who believe that a boycott of men's cricket could inadvertently support the Taliban's efforts to suppress freedoms and isolate Afghan society…It's crucial to recognise the importance of cricket as a source of hope and positivity for many Afghans, including those displaced from the country."

Are you taking the piss? This is your counter argument? People enjoy cricket and it helps them cope with the fact that the Taliban are smothering women’s rights in the most horrific of ways. Like cricket is a sticking plaster for some of the worst abuses against women the world has ever seen? Can you even fucking hear yourselves?

It isn’t just that you are “inadvertently supporting” the Taliban, it is that you are actively looking the other fucking way at what they are doing to women, so you can play cricket and not face ICC sanctions.

How the fuck have you got the brass neck to suggest that women asking you to stop playing cricket for one fucking match, whilst women are being treated horrifically in the country you are playing against, are SPOILING the “hope and positivity” of other Afghans?

These are some of the most horrifically cowardly contortions in order to avoid DOING THE RIGHT THING I’ve seen.

You know what is happening to women in Afghanistan, everyone does. If you field the English team in Lahore on 26th February 2025 for the Championship Trophy you are saying very clearly that you’re fine with the way the Taliban are treating women.

If you aren’t fine with the barbaric abuse of women, pull your team out immediately. It’s not hard, it’s just costly. What do you choose? Money or humanity?

Women are waiting for your answer. If it isn’t the right one, you should expect us to keep standing up against you and calling you a bunch of fucking cowards.

Jean Hatchet.

[Gail Myerscough @GailMyerscough]

Hello!
It doesn’t cost anything to retweet but it helps me spread the word about my small business.
My online shop is full of unique Christmas gift ideas.
https://t.co/efvD9JdtEG 
#shopsmall #Christmasgifts #shopindie

[Marina Hyde @MarinaHyde]

My column on Saoirse Ronan burning the chat show circuit down

https://t.co/8DkGsnRxEp

[Dr Rachel Clarke @doctor_oxford]

I see Boris Johnson’s new book is full of self-serving justifications of his behaviour during #Partygate.

Please read this Guardian letter from 2022 - & never forgive, never forget that man’s reprehensible contempt for the people he governed 💔