Rebecca Elliot

Govt's climate strategy: Let it burn Comment: The Government has relentlessly pursued policies that boost climate pollution – even if they cost more or jeopardise NZ's reputation, Marc Daalder writes

Paywall lifted: At every turn, the Govt has opted for whatever would actually lead to more pollution and a warmer world – even if it costs more, jeopardises NZ’s reputation, overturns a campaign promise or clashes with the Govt’s other priorities.

The long retreat:
newsroom.co.nz/2025/11/07/g...

My individually handmade recycled silver jewellery including intricate casts of real flowers (snowdrop, bluebell etc), casts of dragonfly Wongs & jay feathers & my tiny wearable sculptures of much-loved British bird species

One of my best-selling mounted art prints of flowers I grew & bought from an honesty florist

Victorian ink bottles that form part of my tiny posy-making mental health kits-they make great gifts

The 12 photos that make up my 2026 botanical calendar-each image is designed to improve mental health

Just added to my Etsy shop:
🌿final small print run of my '26 calendars
🪶my handmade recycled silver jewellery designs (incl intricate casts of real flowers)
🌸limited ed'n mounted art prints of my photos
💐tiny posy mental health kits
Last orders for📮 in time for🌲: 19 Nov
www.etsy.com/uk/shop/silv...

check-for-flooding.service.gov.uk/target-area/...

Blimey. House phone rang and mobile just beeped

NION Women Rejects Anti-Trans Narrative at Kenwood Ladies Pond Image of women swimming in the wild

🏊‍♀️The women who swim at Kenwood Ladies Pond have already made their decision.

In 2024, almost 900 members voted to keep their trans-inclusive policy - a policy that has worked peacefully since 2019.

Now, a small campaign group is seeking to overturn that democratic decision through the courts.

1/5

Five storey tenement block with shops on ground floor

Rear of four storey tenement block showing balcony access

🚨 New on Substack: my post on the Honor Oak Estate, Lewisham - to some 'a successful endeavour to provide suitable hygienic accommodation for the poorer classes' and to others 'a warning for planners’
municipaldreams.substack.com/p/the-honor-...

And here’s the crowdfunding link if you want to contribute or share www.pledgeme.co.nz/projects/852...

For many years I have been posting little observations online. What you may not know is that for many years, artists have been illustrating them - for no reason other than they wanted to respond. Below is a thread of some of these beautiful, (by-real-people) drawings because they should be seen 🧵...

To think of this man

In his hospital bed,

Watching the hate-filled racism oozing across the media,

Talk of 'Britishness', and panning 'immigrants', demanding the race of the attacker be revealed,

Never once demanding the ethnicity of the brave man who saved dozens of lives

#SamirZitouni

Wow this is really terrible news.

Japan's "Mundane Halloween" costume contest is back!

Each year website DailyPortalZ holds a contest where people dress up as something super duper ordinary.

Here's a thread of some of my favorites from the 2025 contest!

#MundaneHalloween

Yale lab reports mass killings in Sudan, calls for student activism The Humanitarian Research Lab was told this week that over 10,000 people in Sudan were killed within three days.

“Individuals on the ground sent a message that reached us Monday morning that 1,200 were dead,” Nathaniel Raymond, the lab’s executive director, said. “By that evening, they said 10,000. By Tuesday, we couldn’t reach them anymore. We assume our ground contacts are dead.”

Dozens of Labour MPs warn of chaos for firms over gender recognition advice Nearly 50 backbenchers write to business secretary over potential costs and legal ‘minefield’ of upcoming guidance

MPs are rightly concerned about the economic impact of the EHRC's Code of Practice. Businesses up and down the country have made clear that it's unworkable.

It's time for the Minister to send it back 🚮

www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Oh no!

I've had to take a break partway through just to digest the first half of the story. So, so pleased to be a subscriber!

I'm publishing the weirdest story I've ever written tomorrow, for London Centric members only.

So here's an one-off offer. Sign up for a year before midnight today and I'll give you 33% off. If the story doesn't live up to expectations, I'll refund you tomorrow. www.londoncentric.media/a21e85e7

It's #buyastrangerabook day.

To celebrate Bluesky being back online I'll give out a book.

FOR FREE.

If there's one you'd like, let me know what it is.

Also, if you'd like to #BuyAStrangerABook too, let me know.

Here's what it's all about.

www.biggreenbookshop.com/stuff-you-mi...

UK only

What policy themed visitor trail would you do upon retirement? I would pilgrimage to visit the 100 Rishi Sunak outdoor chess sets around the country. I genuinely think it would be one of those fun random things that would take me to places I’d never otherwise go to

PussPuss photos were always such a treat! ❤️

It's hard to know how best to mark the death of Jilly Cooper - there is no Concorde to bonk on and I don't have a horse to go and pour out my feelings to in the stables while being groped by an aristo. Perhaps just a glass of fizz and a bracing walk with an unusually sensitive dog.

If you need to still your racing mind this Sunday and restore your faith in humanity, try this soothing thread.

A yellow lapel badge with an illustration of a conker on it, plus the words Peckham Conker Club round the edge

A friend of mine (“London type; queer sort”) has just sent me a photo of herself wearing this. Apparently, it’s the Peckham Conker Championships today, and if you live in the south of our great capital and are not there, you’re missing out

Journalist Plestia Alaqad Is Publishing Her Diaries From Gaza: "A Dystopian World" "Every time I read it, I just feel disbelief — is this real? Did I really live that? Are there still thousands of people in Gaza living that?”

Plestia Alaqad’s new book features her diary entries reporting on the ground in Gaza for 45 days after October 7. after a hospital is bombed on day 10, she uses the word genocide.

2 years later—as the UN has finally called it one—she says, “turns out, that's only the beginning.” @teenvogue.com

For many years I have been posting little observations online. What you may not know is that for many years, artists have been illustrating them - for no reason other than they wanted to respond. Below is a thread of some of these beautiful drawings because they should be seen 🧵

To everyone in Britain's Jewish Community: you are not alone. We will not let hate or those who spread it win. We stand with you.

On Yom Kippur many Jewish people in Britain have their phones off to mark the holy day.

As it ends at 723pm, some will hear the tragic Manchester news for the first time.

At that time, please join many of us to send a message of solidarity to British Jews.Thanks Together coalition for proposing.

Not only stupid and vicious but witless.

The Hampstead ponds have REPEATEDLY voted to include trans women. But the officious pricks at Sex Matters don’t care what other women think and are forcing a public consultation anyway. Throw the ponds some support.

I'm watching that documentary "Before Stonewall" about gay history pre-1969, and uncovered something which I think is interesting. The documentary includes a brief clip of a 1954 televised newscast about the rise of homosexuality. The host of the program interviewed psychologists, a police officer, and one "known homosexual". The "known homosexual" is 22 years old. He identifies himself as Curtis White, which is a pseudonym; his name is actually Dale Olson. So I tracked down the newscast. According to what I can find, Dale Olson may have been the first gay man to appear openly on television and defend his sexual orientation. He explains that there's nothing wrong with him mentally and he's never been arrested. When asked whether he'd take a cure if it existed, he says no. When asked whether his family knows he's gay, he says that they didn't up until tonight, but he guesses they're going to find out, and he'll probably be fired from his job as well. So of course the host is like ... why are you doing this interview then? and Dale Olson, cool as cucumber pie, says "I think that this way I can be a little useful to someone besides myself." 1954. 22 years old. Balls of pure titanium. Despite the pseudonym, Dale's boss did indeed recognize him from the TV program, and he was promptly fired the next day. He wrote into ONE magazine six months later to reassure readers that he had gotten a new job at a higher salary. Curious about what became of him, I looked into his life a little further. It turns out that he ultimately became a very successful publicity agent. He promoted the Rocky movies and Superman. Not only that, but get this: Dale represented Rock Hudson, and he was the person who convinced him to disclose that he had AIDS! He wrote the statement Rock read. And as we know, Rock Hudson's disclosure had a very significant effect on the national conversation about AIDS in the U.S.

Some amazing gay history. Listen up kids.

Starmer and Badenoch are handling the far-right march all wrong A look back to the days of Enoch Powell suggests a better model

My column in tomorrow's paper:

There is v solid evidence that while Tommy Robinson has activated within the 4% who strongly support him (& 1/10 who approve) but has no significant broadening of his general public appeal (1/10) over the 10-15 years he has been around

His 2025, 2019 and 2011 reputation

bsky.app/profile/sund...