Rachel Plummer
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smaychel.bsky.social
Rachel Plummer
@smaychel.bsky.social
Poet and children's author. My books include The Big Day, Wain and Once I Carried Three Crows.

Also a creative writing teacher, story teller, knitter, mum of two and a carer for my disabled son.

Proud to be represented by Children's Books North Agency.
Pinned
I have been one acquainted with the noot.
Yeah, Edinburgh is a touristy city and there have been several times in town where tourists have taken photos of my kids without asking. It's creepy as fuck, and I hate that this is so normalised.

Bring back shame.
In terms of what’s understood to be socially acceptable behavior, normalizing the filming/taking pictures of people in public who are minding their own business (and putting it online) is one of the worst developments of the past 15 years.
Woman Hailed as Hero for Smashing Man's Meta Smart Glasses on Subway
A New York subway rider has accused a woman of breaking his Meta smart glasses. She was later hailed as a hero.
futurism.com
December 6, 2025 at 11:06 AM
Tree decorating day!
December 6, 2025 at 11:01 AM
Reposted by Rachel Plummer
Ireland should be doing more for Palestine, boycotting the genocidal state of Israel on every level: trade, sporting, and cultural links.

But RTE's stand on the Eurovision is still cause to be proud.
share.google/O7eDraWZmvyf...
Ireland will not take part in next Eurovision Song Contest due to Israel’s inclusion
Meeting of European Broadcasting Union decided vote on Israel’s participation was not needed
share.google
December 4, 2025 at 8:24 PM
Reposted by Rachel Plummer
Eurovision members have just voted AGAINST excluding Israel from the contest.

Russia was excluded the moment they attacked Ukraine in 2022, but apparently genocide is fine if its Israel inflicting it on Palestinians.

Will the BBC tell us how they voted?
December 4, 2025 at 8:41 PM
Me and Audrey about to watch The Fifth Elephant at the Pleasance 🥰
December 4, 2025 at 7:13 PM
Reposted by Rachel Plummer
nothing hits like looking out the window on the train on the east coast of scotland
December 4, 2025 at 1:22 PM
Reposted by Rachel Plummer
What do you do when the sun forgets to come out
in the longest darkness of winter months?
Bueno I go out into the frosted forest
all things twinkling with ice like tiny eyes with a lust for life…

—Juana Adcock, “What do you do…”
SPLIT (Blue Diode, 2019)
#poetry
www.bluediode.co.uk/product-page...
December 4, 2025 at 4:54 PM
Reposted by Rachel Plummer
“When participants used ChatGPT to draft essays, brain scans revealed a 47% drop in neural connectivity across regions associated with memory, language, & critical reasoning.

Their brains worked less, but they felt just as engaged—a kind of metacognitive mirage.”🧪
December 4, 2025 at 2:13 PM
Reposted by Rachel Plummer
must emphasize again that the government and courts have not only attacked trans rights built in the last 15 years and that were *explicitly envisaged as part of the Equality Act they are using to attack them* but forcing a rollback of *decades-old* policies by individual groups.
Stuck on this gutting sentence on the Women’s Institute decision. For young people it’s watching the world close to them before they’ve had a shot at life, for older women it’s watching half a century of progress vanish. Either way it’s grossly, unbearably cruel.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
December 4, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Reposted by Rachel Plummer
This both blows my mind and becomes less surprising every day
December 4, 2025 at 3:26 PM
Reposted by Rachel Plummer
terrifying to imagine the consequences of this, as someone who has been stalked and survived domestic violence
NEW: Elon Musk's Grok chatbot will, with minimal prompting, provide residential addresses of everyday Americans.

Prompts as simple as "[name] address" immediately returned accurate home addresses of private citizens — alongside other personal info we didn't ask for.

futurism.com/future-socie...
December 4, 2025 at 3:37 PM
Reposted by Rachel Plummer
Cruelty is anhedonic. It rarely delivers the euphoria promised because, in the abstract, what feels righteous and joyful inevitably reveals itself to be sordid and small. Then it's "No not like that". "No not enough". "No the real battle, the forever war to make this feel good starts now". Forever.
Note how these awful people are getting exactly the exclusions of children that they demanded and *that still isn’t enough for them*: they demand everyone be delighted about it and kiss their arses for being brilliant.
December 4, 2025 at 10:59 AM
Reposted by Rachel Plummer
The anti-trans movement are also in lock step with the Christian Nationalists on abortion. I quoted their own words in The National last week

www.thenational.scot/politics/256...
Gemma Clark: Disinformation around Scotland's abortion law is insulting to women
Disinformation around reasonable, recommended changes to Scotland’s abortion laws is as exhausting as it is predictable
www.thenational.scot
December 4, 2025 at 5:52 AM
Reposted by Rachel Plummer
Funny how it's not "women being silenced" when women-led, inclusive organisations like Girl Guiding UK and the WI are strong-armed into excluding trans women.
December 4, 2025 at 9:18 AM
Reposted by Rachel Plummer
Wes Streeting has the visible aura of a scheming vizier. My liege, the autists plot against thee. My liege, the autists muster an army at Calais—
Wes Streeting orders review of mental health diagnoses as benefit claims soar
Wes Streeting orders review of mental health diagnoses as benefit claims soar
Health secretary has asked experts to investigate whether normal feelings have become ‘over-pathologised’ The health secretary, Wes Streeting, has ordered a clinical review of the diagnosis of mental health conditions, according to reports. Streeting is understood to be concerned about a sharp rise in the number of people making sickness benefits claims because of diagnoses for mental illness, autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), the Times reported. He has asked leading experts to investigate whether normal feelings have become “over-pathologised”, the newspaper said, as he seeks to grapple with the 4.4 million working-age people now claiming sickness or incapacity benefit. The figure has risen by 1.2 million since 2019, while the number of 16 to 34-year-olds off work with long-term sickness because of a mental health condition is said to have grown rapidly in the same period. Streeting told the Times he knew from “personal experience how devastating it can be for people who face poor mental health, have ADHD or autism and can’t get a diagnosis or the right support”. He added: “I also know, from speaking to clinicians, how the diagnosis of these conditions is sharply rising. “We must look at this through a strictly clinical lens to get an evidence-based understanding of what we know, what we don’t know, and what these patterns tell us about our mental health system, autism and ADHD services. “That’s the only way we can ensure everyone gets timely access to accurate diagnosis and effective support.” The review, which is expected to be launched on Thursday, is set to be led by Prof Peter Fonagy, a clinical psychologist at University College London specialising in child mental health, with Sir Simon Wessely, a former president of the Royal College of Psychiatry, acting as vice-chair. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
December 4, 2025 at 9:23 AM
Reposted by Rachel Plummer
Ashley James, celebrity star of Good Morning has resigned from Girl Guides in response to their exclusion of trans girls.
December 4, 2025 at 8:02 AM
Reposted by Rachel Plummer
The WI has been trans inclusive since the 70s, before I was born. Do you see who in this scenario was innocently minding their own business, coming to their own arrangements locally? Do you see who is forcefully imposing themselves and their demands upon others, via threats.
December 4, 2025 at 8:30 AM
Properly disgusting that the rich and privileged are using their money and power to legally bully groups into excluding people against their will. Unsurprising, but disgusting.
December 3, 2025 at 5:17 PM
Hot chocolate for our little sewing group ☺️
December 3, 2025 at 4:53 PM
Took the kids ice skating in town!
December 2, 2025 at 9:07 AM
Reposted by Rachel Plummer
Just imagining how much better it would be if ALL news stories about vaccine-preventable illnesses were illustrated with pictures of people with the disease, not pictures of needle injections. If you must show something that people will find scary & unpleasant, make it the disease, not the cure.
I'm so tired of measles.

I'm also tired of people using needle shots on stories like this.

Show what measles looks like.
Gallatin Co. reports 2nd measles case, warns of exposure sites nbcmontana.com/news/local/g...
December 2, 2025 at 4:40 AM
Reposted by Rachel Plummer
for World AIDS Day, a 1988 cartoon from the Advocate's Gerald Donelan
December 1, 2025 at 4:20 PM
Reposted by Rachel Plummer
We can't really say this enough...

> Anastasia Berg [at UCL Irvine] said that new research — and what she's hearing directly from colleagues across various industries — shows that employees who heavily rely on AI are losing core skills at a startling rate.

www.businessinsider.com/ai-tools-are...
AI tools are 'deskilling' workers, philosophy professor says
A philosophy professor warns that AI reliance is weakening workers' judgment, creativity, and problem-solving.
www.businessinsider.com
November 30, 2025 at 6:09 PM
Reposted by Rachel Plummer
Don't forget...we're open for submissions of poetry, prose and art until December 15. Send us your best and maybe help us kick off Year Two of Asterales in January's Issue 5!
November 30, 2025 at 8:24 PM