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The Londoner: Vivienne's designs for a green future

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Getty Images

EXTINCTION Rebellion eat your hearts out — Dame Vivienne Westwood told an audience last night that when it comes to the climate crisis: “I am the only person, I believe, who knows the problem, but I also know the solution.”

The fashion designer explained at a conference at the Landmark hotel in Marylebone that demolishing capitalism would contribute to saving the environment.

In a wide-ranging speech, Westwood (right) touched on pollution — “when people run out of water we won’t have lettuce”, her political credentials — “I’m still a punk” — and the Amazon — “I want to raise £100 million for the rainforest” — and urged the audience to join XR.

As for her own industry’s obligation to the environment, Westwood stressed the importance of “quality not quantity” in fashion. “What that means is that my husband Andreas does the most beautiful T-shirts and they are in cotton and they cost at least 500 quid, because the work that’s gone into them, the process and everything. In the end that kind of gives an excuse for selling a T-shirt of cotton but you shouldn’t be allowed to flood all this cheap high-street stuff everywhere.” Perhaps not everyone can afford a £500 T-shirt.

Westwood hopes the motto of “buy less, choose well, make it last” will also “improve the taste of the public”.

“I mean, people look so sad, look so poor and miserable in the horrible clothes and these black tights and these jeans that Marks & Spencer is selling for £29.”

In an unexpected segue, Westwood also urged the audience to support the “totally innocent, really sweet, lovable” Julian Assange. “Public opinion has been completely damaged... they didn’t do that to Che Guevara, I don’t know whether he was great or not, but look at the image of him.”

The conclusion of her keynote speech to the bankers and businesswomen assembled at the FT’s Women at the Top conference was met with both bafflement and hearty applause. “When the financial crash happens,” Westwood said, “all you people can say goodbye to the future, you really can, OK. Thank you.” Mic drop.

Memoir that'll playa real Trump card

As if the news wasn’t exciting enough just now, The Londoner hears of a big intervention by Sir Kim Darroch, our former Ambassador to the USA.

Sir Kim is said to have been writing his memoirs and enlisted the help of agent Georgina Capel to help sell the tome.

Darroch, a career civil servant, had to resign in July after diplomatic cables in which he called the Trump administration “inept” were leaked to a newspaper, causing an international incident. If anyone’s got a hell of a story to tell...

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Emily Maitlis’s most awkward Newsnight moment came when a drill rapper wearing a balaclava tried to take a sip of water. She told Prospect magazine: “He refused to remove it and halfway through our interview he forgot he was wearing it, took a sip of water and couldn’t find his mouth. It’s quite hard to hold it together when that happens.”

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At the launch of Apothem, which sells legal cannabis oil, at Harvey Nichols this week, The Londoner bumped into Anna Richardson, the Sex Education and Naked Attraction presenter. Her shows have got to her, she tells us. “I’ve got the Sex Sense rather than the Sixth Sense — instead of ‘I see dead people’ I just see c**ks everywhere...” Oo-err.

Sanni blown away by Bhutto backing

Brexit whistleblower Shahmir Sanni says after the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke last year he received unexpected and glamorous support. Fatima Bhutto, the author and niece of the late former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, “reached out”, blowing Sanni away. “I was like, ‘Oh my f***ing God, I’m a huge fan,’” Sanni told The Londoner at the launch of Bhutto’s book in Nolita Social this week. It was “more validation than I could ever ask for. Even if I was living in a ditch I wouldn’t need anything else”.

Elephant fan Edie voices her fears for the planet

(Dave Benett/Getty Images for App)
(Dave Benett/Getty Images for App)

The great and the good of the wildlife-loving world were out in west London last night for the premiere of The Elephant Queen. Model Edie Campbell was keen to the see the film. She told The Londoner she was a “huge fan” of elephants and added that concern for the environment was growing: “We all know what our planet faces and maybe that’s why there’s such an action on it.” But, though she said Extinction Rebellion’s cause was “extremely important”, she conceded that the past few days have “maybe not done them any particular favours PR wise. The train thing was a real f**k up”.

David Attenborough, though, wouldn’t be drawn on the climate-change activists, telling The Londoner he was simply there to watch the film.

Across town, models Leomie Anderson and Neelam Gill enjoyed the launch of Rollacosta Magazine’s latest issue at the Wellington Club. Hold on tight.

SW1A

Dame Helen Ghosh, the new Master of Balliol, the Oxford college Boris Johnson (below) attended, is nothing if not measured. At the end of her long Master’s Letter in the college’s Annual Record, she adds a single sentence: “And, of course, I could never have imagined that by the end of the year, an alumnus would have just become Balliol’s fourth prime minister!” Unimaginable — in a good or bad way? Perhaps that’s how an academic throws shade.

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Bat prize - Helen Hayes's award
Bat prize - Helen Hayes's award

It’s the prize they all wanted: Dulwich and West Norwood MP Helen Hayes was this week named “Best Parliamentary Champion” by the Bat Conservation Trust. Hayes was celebrated for asking a series of questions about biodiversity and taking part in a “bat walk” on Sydenham Hill. Hayes told The Londoner “bats get a lot of bad press at Halloween, but they are lovely creatures.” Her award is a mounted felt model of a chunky bat. One to hang from the mantelpiece.

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Quote of the day: 'The thing about the greased piglet is that he manages to slip through other people's hands where mere mortals fail' David Cameron ponders whether Boris Johnson might just pass his Brexit deal.