Twitter has decided to stan Supreme Court president Lady Hale and her spider brooch
The woman and the brooch that have the nation talking… (twitter/@HaleBrooch)
Britain has once again been thrown into a Brexit-induced chaos after Lady Hale delivered the Supreme Court ruling that Boris Johnson’s decision to suspend parliament was unlawful.
The court found there was no “reasonable justification” for the prorogation of parliament, and that it had the effect of “frustrating or preventing the ability of parliament to carry out its constitutional functions”.
The extraordinary verdict will be devastating to Johnson and could spell the end of his time as prime minister, with many already calling for his immediate resignation.
But amidst all the political turmoil, an unlikely style icon emerged.
As Downing Street paused to “process” the Supreme Court ruling and pundits predicted the worst for Johnson’s government, Twitter was focused on one thing and one thing only.
THAT BROOCH.
The incredible glittery spider brooch was worn by the UK’s top judge, Lady Brenda Hale, as she read the historic verdict.
Baroness Hale of Richmond is the UK’s Supreme Court president, a lifelong LGBT+ rights advocate and a known wearer of amazing brooches. And now the internet can’t get enough of her or her statement jewellery.
A strikingly similar black t-shirt immediately began flying off the shelves on eBay and was viewed nearly 10,000 times in a single hour.
Due to the “unprecedented response”, the company behind the shirt announced that they would be donating 10.30 percent of all proceeds to Shelter, a homeless charity.
Predictably, a tribute Twitter account called ‘Lady Hale’s Spider Broach‘ has already been created. We’re sure the Baroness would be very pleased with the result.
Lady Hale: A champion of diversity in the judiciary.
Lady Hale was the first woman to be appointed as Supreme Court president in UK history.
She was also the first woman to be appointed to the Law Commission, the second woman to be appointed to the Court of Appeal, and the first female Law Lord.
When she was appointed to the Supreme Court, the 72-year-old’s tolerant views made her a controversial figure and she was described by the Daily Mail as a “militant feminist”.
Previously a family law expert, she vocally supported same-sex adoption and marriage equality, advocating for same-sex marriage almost a decade before the UK introduced it and five years before Stonewall backed the move.
Over her long career she’s become known for breaking barriers in the judiciary. She is particularly outspoken on issues of sexism and diversity and has gone so far as to ask whether positive discrimination may be needed to fix the imbalance.
Alongside her many other achievements, she’s also a holder of honorary doctorates from six different universities, a non-permanent judge in Hong Kong, and was a celebrity judge on the 2018 series of MasterChef.
