Sign in

Clare Rayner

@clareacrayner.bsky.social
636 followers 455 following 245 posts

Teacher, Mum, Apprentice Farmer, NEU Rep. Very keen on native species plants 🌱 trees 🌳 and insects 🐞 Essex, UK

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Clare Rayner
Prof Duncan Westbury @duncanwestbury.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Scarifying perennial wildflower strips & meadows every 4-5 yrs is a great way to rejuvenate the sward in the absence of large herbivores. Look how this has encouraged new seedlings whilst retaining much of the original plants. Yes it bounces back!
0265
Reposted by Clare Rayner
Prof Duncan Westbury @duncanwestbury.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I too am struggling to grow on Bluesky.
253
Reposted by Clare Rayner
Little Green Space @lgspace.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
A request! We can't grow this account fast enough. So please follow us if you aren't already, and please share this post to spread the word. Help us do our bit to share positive solutions to the nature & climate emergencies, and bring more nature into people's lives. Thank you 😊🐝
A bumblebee on a yellow dandelion
512380
Reposted by Clare Rayner
Spokane Rising @spokanerising.com · 29/09/2026
Send Stephen Miller to The Hague.
21275282472
Reposted by Clare Rayner
Katharine Hayhoe @katharinehayhoe.com · 29/09/2026
Don’t ask an elected official if they “believe” in climate change, it’s not a religion. Don’t ask if they think it’s serious: it is. Ask them what matters most: what are they doing about it? Excellent application here, 10/10 no notes 👏⬇️👏
422368
Clare Rayner @clareacrayner.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Found this bug outside our front door yesterday - apparently it’s a relatively recent American immigrant, the Western Conifer Seed Bug. Flew in with a whirring sound!
A large brownish-red Western Conifer Seed Bug standing on a speckled paving stone.
011
Reposted by Clare Rayner
James Bullock @jmbecologist.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
The big lie peddled by developers about ‘Biodiversity Net Gain’ is that that they can destroy natural places & somehow make it good by habitat creation elsewhere Ecological restoration is about reversing historical damage to nature It is not about justifying further destruction
54921
Reposted by Clare Rayner
Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
“We will be compassionate to a strictly limited number of people, and will save as many lives as the Daily Mail will let us”
I know the British people have not given up on their belief that we should be compassionate, live up to our international obligations, and save the lives of those fleeing war and persecution. But I also know this process must be capped and controlled, and communities must be ready and able to welcome those who come here.
27324
Reposted by Clare Rayner
Saul Staniforth @saulstaniforth.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Miliband: "To the millions in this country.. who have been moved & outraged by the plight of the Palestinian people, we hear you. You were right" So scrap the proscription of Palestine Action. End all arms exports to Israel. Impose sanctions on the Israeli govt & economy.
34569203
Reposted by Clare Rayner
Dan Sohege @danielsohege.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Labour is not opening new safe routes. This latest measure is reopening a route they closed and making it more restrictive. This follows claiming they were opening new community sponsorship and work/study routes which already existed but they made harder to access. It's smoke and mirrors. #r4today
013351
Reposted by Clare Rayner
Defend Our Juries @defendourjuries.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Tomorrow, hundreds will replicate Rob’s brave action near the same location. Today’s arrest gives an indication that police will be making a lot of arrests tomorrow. Join us: wedonotcomply.org
wedonotcomply.org
Saving Lives Is Not Terrorism - Defend Our Juries
🗓️ On September 27th, we are taking the defiance to Andy Burnham’s Labour Conference in Liverpool. For over a year now we’ve been getting arrested under the UK Terrorism Act in our thousands for holdi...
421958
Reposted by Clare Rayner
Phil Sturgeon 🌳🚵⚓️ @philsturgeon.com · 22/09/2026
I’ve got beaver-cam footage to show you but only if you get @protect.earth up to 500 followers. We’ve been blocked from BlueSky for months, but we’re back now. Get us that count and I’ll show you a big fat furry river baby. 🫡
11612
Reposted by Clare Rayner
Miles King @milesking.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
What a farce. As farmers fail to access funds to support sustainable farming, this will undoubtedly mean valuable wildlife habitat (recently created or much older) will be destroyed, as farmers feel they have no option but to intensify their farming systems. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
‘Worse than the scramble for Oasis tickets’: England’s sustainable farming funds run out in just six hours
Entire £233m budget for 2026 allocated in less than a day, leaving thousands of farmers disappointed
37947
Reposted by Clare Rayner
Pete Fraser @petefrasermusic.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
This is just disappearing people. This would’ve been the stuff of conspiracy theory a decade ago and now it’s in the AP.
312063
Reposted by Clare Rayner
Yair Wallach @yairwallach.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
There are so many things wrong in this article, let me focus on two: on the perverse logic argument against sanctions, and on the betrayal of Israel's human rights and anti-occupation activists. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
This Israeli election could be the country’s last – this week I saw that for myself | Jonathan Freedland
Spend time on the ground and you see how high the stakes are for next month’s contest – for Israelis and Palestinians alike, says Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland
914748
Reposted by Clare Rayner
Tes magazine @tesmagazine.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
BREAKING: The teacher pay award for 2026-27 will be funded ‘at a national level’ from savings to employer contributions for support staff pensions, government claims
tes.com
Teacher pay award to be funded through pension savings
Schools were initially told they would have to fund the first 1% of the 2026-27 teacher pay award
024
Reposted by Clare Rayner
Gillian Brockell @gillianbrockell.com · 14/09/2026
One of the incredible ironies of this era is that the journalists with the least resources to fight malicious prosecution by the gov't are the ones telling the most truth about the camps. And the ones with the most resources and teams of lawyers on staff...are not.
41119270
Clare Rayner @clareacrayner.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Out clearing part of a crack willow tree that had fallen down over a footbridge today. V pleased to be able to sneak up on this common blue butterfly in the meadow. #butterflies
A small common blue butterfly with a blue body and brown, white and orange patterned wings, standing on a dry and brown knapweed seed head.
020
Reposted by Clare Rayner
Phil Sturgeon 🌳🚵⚓️ @philsturgeon.com · 12/09/2026
In the U.K. some of the most coherent political points are being made by a bin whilst our PM still seems to have his microphone muted.
03110
Reposted by Clare Rayner
Phil Sturgeon 🌳🚵⚓️ @philsturgeon.com · 10/09/2026
If anyone is going to get their hands on an entire country’s private medical data it should be because they’ve got long astounding track record of being fucking revolutionary at handling medical data, not simply a painfully close proximity to the worlds most powerful pedophiles.
0236
Reposted by Clare Rayner
John Oxley @joxley.jmoxley.co.uk · 10/09/2026
What is this comment from the Labour MP? No, the issue here isn't that the attempted pogrom had the wrong targets!
44851305
Reposted by Clare Rayner
damniel spookradski @self.agency · 08/09/2026
any jewish institution that speaks out to oppose this is endorsing the years-long campaign of pogroms against palestinians by jewish extremists in the west bank
114137
Reposted by Clare Rayner
Nadia Whittome MP @nadiawhittomemp.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
When blackshirts are marching through the streets of Dover and Portsmouth, the focus shouldn’t be on the disruption they cause, but on their fascist ideology and deliberate intimidation of migrants and people of colour. [1/2]
801511345
Reposted by Clare Rayner
Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
2) and 3) are intimately linked, in that the BBC (the organisation that really matters in the modern environment) treats 'claims by rival parties' as the operating frame for how it covers everything. The failure from Labour and the Conservatives to say 'this stuff is bad' is really, really bad.
341090340
Reposted by Clare Rayner
Tarik Abou-Chadi @tabouchadi.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
“Protesters“ - The UK would do well to learn what the Sturmabteilung was and did. Because that‘s what‘s happening. But the idea is still fascists are the people we beat 80 years ago. Of course not an ideology anyone ever supported in the Britain. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
theguardian.com
Black-clad protesters in balaclavas block road at port of Dover in Kent
Port authorities say access roads ‘free flowing’ again after large group forces road closures in both directions
412341
Reposted by Clare Rayner
Natalie Bennett @nataliegreenpeer.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
"Water use was commercially confidential." No, that is not acceptable. If you are using a scarce, essential, valuable _public_ resource, you have to be transparent about it, and prepared to justify it www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Revealed: how companies ‘secretly’ use billions of litres of public water in drought-hit England
Exclusive: As millions of people face hosepipe bans, many companies are not required to report, let alone cut, use of public supply
8377183
Reposted by Clare Rayner
Polly Pallister-Wilkins @pollypw.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Dear BBC News, If you'd like to actually fulfill your mandate to inform the public of the reasons people take small boats please feel free to invite me onto any of your shows. I'm a world expert in this with an award winning book on the topic. Or you can just have a man stood shouting in the sea.
16879249
Reposted by Clare Rayner
Michael Burchert @michaelburchert.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
What would peace-loving, reasonably intelligent people have said 10 years ago (the Paris Agreement dates from 2015) about the fact that we would still be exploiting new fossil fuel deposits in Europe in 2026? (Yes, the fossil tech looks like it bites.) www.bbc.com/news/article...
bbc.com
Jackdaw gas field set to be approved as soon as mid-September, sources say
The government is set to give the go-ahead for the gas field off the coast of Aberdeen, the BBC understands.
13113
Reposted by Clare Rayner
Gillian Brockell @gillianbrockell.com · 04/09/2026
Let me say as loudly as I can to all the Europeans on here who have been rightly appalled watching the Trump regime’s third-country removals: Your government has been watching, too, and they like what they see.
82479864
Reposted by Clare Rayner
Peter Jukes @peterjukes.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Just a reminder, Professor James Orr, Reform UK head of policy, teaches 'ethics' to undergraduates at Cambridge University youtu.be/aXut3s90rUI
20836011429
Reposted by Clare Rayner
M a r c u s 🏳️‍🌈🇧🇧 @marcusjdl.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Your new “left wing” prime minister is on X a site that boosts the far right and is owned by a nazi demonising asylum seekers and calling it “doing politics differently”
15827
Reposted by Clare Rayner
Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg @theradr.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
WHAT IF EVER STUDIED BODIES OF HALF OF POPULATION HOW MIGHT THAT GO (also bodies are WILD)
319145
Reposted by Clare Rayner
James Abbott @jamesabbott2024.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Developers routinely destroy most established trees and hedges on their sites. Then they say they will plant 'replacements' including 'quality street trees'. Large numbers of developer 'street trees' are dying here in mid-Essex due to lack of care and pressures from climate change.
111
Reposted by Clare Rayner
Damian Carrington @dpcarrington.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Global heating will hit at least 1.8C, UN warns, and there are ‘no good outcomes’ - But scientists say world could get back to 1.5C with deep, rapid emissions cuts and removing carbon from atmosphere #climatecrisis @unep.org Story by @adammorton.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Global heating will hit at least 1.8C, UN warns, and there are ‘no good outcomes’
But scientists say the world could get back to 1.5C through deep, rapid emissions cuts and removing carbon from the atmosphere
25134
Reposted by Clare Rayner
Dan Sohege @danielsohege.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Costly PR stunt which "legitimises" vigilantism against migrants. People seeking asylum are less likely to cause trouble than Brits. This is aimed at framing them as a threat. If anything it's liable to increase divisions and violence, just against those seeking safety www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Essex council worried about migrants to hire security guards
The Reform UK-run council says it will pay for security to patrol towns in Essex.
89333
Reposted by Clare Rayner
⳽ⳑⲇⳕⲛⲉ @sloanelysbeth.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
so if you pay andy burnham 165k not only will he sell you 10, 000 unpaid child labourers but he’ll also play dress up and make a commercial for your business. he threw in sadiq khan for free.
1119460
Reposted by Clare Rayner
Heather Stewart @guardianheather.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Wrong decision. The growing role of mega donors is an urgent threat to democracy and there should have been a way around unions’ concerns.
24384109
Reposted by Clare Rayner
Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Stupendous amounts of effort have gone into coddling these people, telling them their addled opinions are not just legitimate but entirely correct, and ensuring they never have to collide with an alternative viewpoint
1174
Reposted by Clare Rayner
Joel @itsjoels.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
This is the letter kids got at the end of Dolly’s Imagination Library. I defy you to read this and not cry.
Sorry, I can’t type that.
7253894411287
Clare Rayner @clareacrayner.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Red underwing moth came into the house but luckily we were able to catch it and release it back outside. Beautiful! #teammoth
A beautiful red underwing moth displaying its characteristic red and black under wings.
0130
Reposted by Clare Rayner
Prof Bill McGuire @profbillmcguire.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
No, No, No, No, NO! Carbon capture and storage does NOT reduce emissions All it does is lock-in fossil fuel usage and infrastructure, and facilitate business as usual As far as tackling the climate emergency is concerned, it is a con trick www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
Can Burnham justify giving the go ahead to oil drilling? Yes, but these must be the conditions | Michael Jacobs
Carbon capture and storage could make the Rosebank site compatible with UK net zero commitments – if its owners are willing to pay the price, says economist Michael Jacobs
27291155
Reposted by Clare Rayner
Dr Matt Pope @mattpope.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Does anyone in Essex have a copy of Volume 31 of the South Eastern naturalist?
057
Reposted by Clare Rayner
Phil Sturgeon 🌳🚵⚓️ @philsturgeon.com · 22/08/2026
Drought stricken soil is baked solid, water cannot sink in. This is how we go from deadly heatwaves to flash floods that wash away whole communities. We’re planning major wetland restorations in Bath and elsewhere to slow that water down. protect.earth/articles/wet...
protect.earth
Wetland Restoration | Protect Earth
Wetlands are one of the UK’s most overlooked ecological superpowers, vital for biodiversity, flood resilience, water quality, carbon storage, and long-term p...
415340
Reposted by Clare Rayner
Northumberland Wildlife Trust @northwildlife.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
The largest appeal in The Wildlife Trusts’ history needs a further £9m to reach its target, and we're asking the public for ‘a momentous final effort’ www.nwt.org.uk/news/two-months-go-r…
01920
Reposted by Clare Rayner
Dan Sohege @danielsohege.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Meanwhile, Labour continues to impose the most hostile anti-asylum measures for more than a generation, preventing Afghan women and children from reaching the UK, even when they have families here. www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
Rights and freedom

The Taliban have built a system for enslaving women in Afghanistan

Amanda Abou Abdallah

Five years on, the regime's chokehold has left Afghan women with almost nothing, but many are still bravely fighting for their freedom

Fri 21 Aug 2026 06.00 BST
412958
Reposted by Clare Rayner
Itsmotherswork @itsmotherswork.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
This whole island should be thinking about rainwater harvesting and storage. Not just the water companies. Businesses and homes too.
123
Reposted by Clare Rayner
Tanita Tikaram @tanitatikaram.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
How is what's happening in US to children not a bigger story in the UK ? Imprisoning families will happen here too on an industrial scale if Restore / Reform are in power , I find it bizarre that UK journalists don't make that connection or question them about it .
817356
Reposted by Clare Rayner
Women for Refugee Women @4refugeewomen.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Yesterday, the Government released guidance on how people seeking asylum in the UK should behave. The Guide: ❌Reinforces anti-migrant rhetoric ❌Distorts the reality of violence against women and girls ❌Distracts from its root causes ❌Impedes access to support and justice for survivors 1/2
refugeewomen.co.uk
Women for Refugee Women - Women for Refugee Women’s statement on the Home Office's "Understanding behaviours and expectations in the UK" guide
Our statement on the harmful "Understanding behaviours and expectations in the UK" guide released by the Home Office on 19 August 2026.
13926
Reposted by Clare Rayner
Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
I'd say "Something for nothing" culture is getting paid £100,000 a year of public money, plus expenses, for a job that you then fail to turn up to for months on end
922804921