supporter, and her son, co-founder of
Agent Provocateur Joe Corré, is a do-
nor to the group. And in July, a group
of US philanthropists, including Rory
Kennedy, Aileen Getty and Trevor
Neilson, donated £500,000 to XR
and other groups, promising tens of
millions more in the months to come.
Five days with Serena at Les Avants
convinced a hedge funder friend of
hers to donate £50,000.
Another donor is Hylton Murray-
Philipson, 60, an Old Etonian land-
owner and ‘environmentalist banker’.
Which, he says, ‘is a contradiction in
terms in some people’s minds but I say
no. A fiver is entirely neutral. There’s
nothing wrong with making a fiver. It’s
what you do with it that matters.’ And
Hylton has done lots in his time. He’s
planted 30,000 trees in the last three
years on his 1,000-acre estate in Leices-
tershire and advised the Prince of
Wales (‘one of my heroes’) on his Rain-
forest Project. In 2007, he also set up
Canopy Capital, which attempted to
save the rainforest in Guyana by monetising carbon
sequestered in trees. ‘It was my biggest failure but it’s
the thing I’m most proud of.’
What appealed most to Flora about Extinction
Rebellion was its everyone-mucking-in approach.
She and her boyfriend Peter, 26, are both active
members of XR in Cambridge, where she works as a
primary school teacher and he studies for a PhD at
the university. The three of us talk all things XR over
lunch in a swish Bayswater pub where there are no
vegan options on the menu, resulting in a rather sad
meal of chips and iceberg lettuce for them. ‘I’ve never
been involved with any big activism in any way,’ says
Flora. ‘You turn up to an event thinking you’ll just
watch, and they say something like, “we need some-
one to chop these onions”, or “we need a sign that
says this”, and you’re immediately empowered to
think, “I can do that”. And when lots of people
think, “I can do that”, it evolves into a massive thing
of everyone doing something.’ She’s part of a group
in Cambridge called ‘Teachers for Truth’, who are
working with local schools to improve their eco-cre-
dentials. ‘Which is very, very different to sitting in the
road, but also important. And you need both.’
For although the arrests are certainly headline-
grabbing, there’s plenty of non-arrestable action go-
ing on in Extinction Rebellion too. ‘I think it’s quite
funny that they always talk about “the Arrestables”,’
Flora chuckles, looking at Peter. ‘I always think it
sounds like “The Incredibles”.’ Both of them took
part in the April protests (Peter camping out at Mar-
ble Arch with his 65-year-old mother), and Peter be-
came one of ‘the Arrestables’ on Waterloo Bridge. He
hadn’t planned on it, but ‘when the police came it felt
PHOTOGRAPHS: FIONA REID; IMMO KLINKas though us being there was really making a differ-In July, several USphilanthropists donated£500,000 to XR andother groups, promisingtens of millions more inthe months to cometrees from his farm to its deck) and at-
tended the rebellion’s closing ceremo-
ny. At the end, he says, a vote of thanks
to the Metropolitan Police was pro-
posed, which caused the crowd to go
wild with cheers. ‘It made me proud to
be British for the first time in months,
with all this mess we’re in,’ he says.
‘Here was this gathering of people who
were clearly protesting against the sta-
tus quo. And there were the police
who are employed to maintain the sta-
tus quo, and yet we were all being so
civilised about it.’ A bit, some would
say, like the People’s Vote march –
though more effective.
The community and energy of
Extinction Rebellion come up a lot
in conversations with its members.
‘I always worry that XR’s a bit culty,’
jokes Flora. ‘But it’s a really supportive
group of people.’ Hence Amy and
fellow rebels block-printing in the
sun, the music, the skeleton-making
workshops, the yoga, the families
protesting together, the friends sup-
porting arrestees at police stations and the culture of
‘checking in’ with one another after each action.
‘There is such an inclusive vibe,’ says Serena. ‘And
even though we recognise each other if we’re a little
bit more establishment, we would never talk about
it. It’s a lovely place to be, where what school you
went to and what background you have [doesn’t
matter] – no one cares.’
After all, this is not a one-off protest, it’s a sustained
movement. ‘We can’t go on like this’ is a refrain I hear
in every interview. ‘In your lifetime,’ Hylton tells me,
‘there’s going to be a greater weight of plastic in the sea
than fish. What are we doing?’ And, indeed, the
group’s success has been remarkable: two out of three
of their demands have already been met. In May, the
House of Commons declared a climate emergency
and, in June, it also agreed to convene a citizens’ as-
sembly this autumn to discuss the climate crisis. ‘The
planet is sending us messages all the time,’ says Hyl-
ton. ‘If only we had ears to listen.’
It’s why XR in July brought its battle cry to the
media, turning up at Northcliffe House in High
Street Kensington to demand that the corporations
based within ‘tell [their] readers the truth of what we
face’. The rain poured down. A skeleton perched in a
wheelchair clutched a copy of the Daily Mail.
Media support or otherwise, the rebellion
advances – and Chelsea drawing rooms are empty-
ing in favour of non-violent direct-action training in
parks and town halls. Duke’s daughters will be stag-
ing ‘die-ins’ with the rest of them. ‘The social
contract of the citizens and the government of the
United Kingdom is broken,’ says former financier
Andrew. ‘It is the right, if not the duty, of citizens to
rebel.’ We’re going to need a bigger boat. (ence. For the first time I was able to really express my
fear and my grief about what we’re doing to the hu-
man race – let alone the planet. My in-the-moment
decision was like, this does matter.’
What matters most of all to Hylton, meanwhile,
is the Amazon. He speaks compellingly and knowl-
edgeably about the Brazilian rainforest and the
urgent need to stop deforestation, dropping a raft of
hard-hitting facts into our conversation. He first
went in 1977, and returned in 2004 with Stanley
Johnson, a fellow ‘passionate environmentalist’ who
remains a friend. We talk hours before Johnson’s son,
Boris, is announced as the new PM – which, says
Hylton, gives him ‘a glimmer of hope.’ ‘Stanley has
the future of the Amazon hardwired into his DNA.
And I know when he sits down and has a glass with
Boris, at some stage, he will make that point.’
While he wasn’t protesting on the streets, Hylton
did visit the pink boat in April (he also donated someThe XR symbol and banner
were instantly recongisable
at London Fashion Weektatler.com October 2019 13110-19WELL-Extinction.indd 131 16/08/2019 15:42