IlonaM

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/fire-penge-poundland-shop-high-street-b1252008.html https://www.london-fire.gov.uk/incidents/2025/october/shop-fire-penge/

A friend in Strasbourg sent me this link to the Jon Sopal-Emily Matliss podcast the other day - it makes for sobering viewing:

Update on crowdfunding campaign: Any donations will have double the impact from Fri 3rd - Sun 5th October. Any donations made to the crowdfunder in this time will be matched up to £10,000. 'With one week to go of the SDCAS crowdfund campaign we are close to £50,000, once gift aid is claimed on eligible donations. A generous offer from an individual donor to match donations over the final weekend means we are tantilisingly close to our goal of £70,000! If you have networks you are yet to share the crowdfunder with, now is the time as any donations will have double the impact from Fri 3rd - Sun 5th October. Any donations made to the crowdfunder in this time will be matched up to £10,000. Thanks for helping get us this far, and in advance for any help you can give us in this final week. With best wishes and solidarity, all of us at SDCAS.'

https://www.nationalbooktokens.com/win/the-poetry-playground-awaits-enter-our-national-poetry-day-writing-competition?utm_medium=email&utm_source=nbt&utm_campaign=20251002-national-poetry-day&utm_content=flash-poetry 'Thursday the 2nd of October is National Poetry Day – and this year’s theme is play! To celebrate, we’re inviting you to enter the poetry playground and let your creativity run wild… for the chance to win a glorious £50/€60 personalised National Book Token featuring your poem. One runner-up will receive a £25/€30 gift card in our standard design. Entries will be judged by the wonderful CLiPPA and Jhalak Prize-nominated poet (and Jhalak Poetry Prize 2026 judge) Nikita Gill. Your writing prompt? Play! Please feel free to interpret this prompt in whatever way you wish. There are limitless ways to play and be playful, so let your imagination loose, and show us what poetry and play mean to you. Competition rules, hints and tips: Poems must be no longer than 14 lines in length. All poetry is welcome, and there are no rules or restrictions around rhyme scheme, metre, genre or style, so long as your poem is no longer than 14 lines. A minimum of one poem and maximum of 10 poems can be submitted per entrant. Entrants must be aged 16 or over. Entrants can submit poems on behalf of those under the age of 16. We recommend saving poem(s) in a backed-up document before copying and pasting into the entry form, so you don't lose your work. Where possible, please indicate line breaks by using / (e.g. 'I think that I shall never see /A poem lovely as a tree'). Entrants must submit their poems by midnight, Sunday 5th October 2025.'

I've adopted two cats from Celia Hammond. They are a fantastic no-kill shelter with dedicated staff and volunteers and provide veterinary care at reduced cost for cats living in families who cannot afford private veterinary fees, thereby supporting families to keep their pets rather than give them up for adoption or abandon them. They deserve our support - not just for the current urgent fundraising campaign, but with day-to-day donations of money for ongoing expenses, as well as food, towels etc. Neutering cats as a way to reduce unwanted litters is common practice throughout Europe and the US, including for feral colonies (trap, neuter, return programmes). If people adopted animals that are in urgent need of homes, whether cats, dogs or others, rather than buying them from breeders there wouldn't be such a crisis.

Join us on Saturday 11 October in Central London for the next national march for Palestine. Assemble 12noon in Central London. Link: https://palestinecampaign.org/events/national-demonstration-for-palestine-11-october/

For all the lawyers, law students and human rights activists: Conor Gearty https://observer.co.uk/profile/obituary/article/obituary-conor-gearty-the-unwavering-human-rights-lawyer

Menzies Campbell, former Liberal Democrat leader, dies at 84 Campbell was North East Fife MP for nearly three decades and was made a peer, and once held UK 100m record https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/sep/26/menzies-campbell-former-liberal-democrat-leader-dies-at-84

Claudia Cardinale of The Leopard and PInk Panther fame, amongst others. https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/claudia-cardinale-death-pink-panther-italian-cinema-b2832357.html

By the nature of the protests

Given the late Queen's reported opinion of Trump I think she would have been quietly amused https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/aug/20/very-rude-the-late-queens-salty-verdict-on-donald-trump

Led By Donkeys attacks ‘Orwellian’ arrests after Trump Windsor projections https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/17/four-arrested-after-image-of-trump-and-epstein-projected-onto-windsor-castle-ahead-of-presidents-visit

See also Protect The Wild https://protectthewild.org.uk/ a campaign group.