Category: Current affairs

World Current Affairs – The Steele Times

By George – It’s Time To Eat Your Hat

Nikolay Kalinin digests the result of the Batley and Spen by-election and reminds firebrand fruitcake George Galloway to eat his hat

It didn’t seem likely, but Labour has managed to keep the Batley and Spen seat – albeit with a minimal majority of just 323 votes, with Kim Leadbeater narrowly beating Conservative candidate Ryan Stephenson.

This result brings an end to what has been a campaign that has been described as “a battleground” by one constituent, mainly due to the divisions within the Muslim community, most of whom have condemned Labour’s stance on foreign policy issues such as Palestine and have not forgotten Blair’s support for the Iraq war.

The man who helped further inflame these divisions, George Galloway, who in the days leading up to the election complained about the Batley council taking down his posters for not meeting election requirements, has responded to Labour’s win by transforming into Britain’s answer to Donald Trump and telling reporters: “On multiple grounds, we will apply to the court for this election result.”

During the campaign Galloway claimed that if Labour came in any other place but third, he would eat his own hat, and if he truly is a politician of honour, he should now keep his word and do just such.

The campaign has also seen allegations of dirty tactics used by groups in order to ruin Labour’s chances, with the most notable example being the distribution of a fake TUC leaflet highlighting Sir Keir Starmer’s support for BLM and stating that “it is high time that white people acknowledged their privilege and gave something back to people of colour.”

What Labour must remember is that their minimal majority should actually be a wake-up call for them, even if Conservative MPs and members of the public have attributed the narrow defeat of the Tories to Matt Hancock’s affair and the government pushing back “freedom day.”

Ever since MP Jo Cox – who was the sister of the new MP Leadbeater – was murdered in 2016 by a member of the far-right, there have been attempts to divide the community, and the events at local grammar school are the latest which have allowed people like George Galloway to exploit divisions for their own gain.

Even though Galloway did not manage to topple Starmer and Labour, he did manage to cause significant damage to Labour by taking away a sizeable amount of their Muslim base, notably by condemning LGBTQ+ inclusive education and promising to give control of what children can learn to their parents, which appealed to much of the Muslim population.

Labour should work as hard as possible within their English constituencies in order to prevent division, not only regarding the issue of Brexit but also regarding local issues. Starmer should also not restrain himself from condemning Johnson’s government at every opportunity, because only then will ‘Bosie The Clown’ be made to take accountability.

After his antics in Batley & Spen simply caused division, but allowed Labour its narrow victory, it is time to remind George Galloway of his own words and to make him follow up on his promise and consume his own headwear.

Commenting on the result for the ‘Daily Mail,’ Simon Walters observed: “[The] Batley by-election loss proves Boris Johnson needs a shot in the arm all over again… One Conservative from a ‘Red Wall’ constituency who campaigned there told me: ‘I owe my seat to Boris but people in Batley were not happy with his dithering on Hancock. It was tin-eared.’”

Sir Keir Starmer may have been just about saved from obliteration in Batley and Spen, but what must be remembered about the campaign is that George Galloway used the seat to spark what Lady Shami Chakrabarti, the former attorney general for England and Wales, termed “complex northern brew toxic.” Going further, Lady Chakrabarti added: “Galloway has form for misogyny, having made offensive comments about forced marriage in the hateful campaign he ran against Naz Shah in Bradford West in 2015, and having speculated that sex assault allegations made against Julian Assange were merely ‘bad sexual etiquette.’ In his latest campaign, the dexterous shapeshifter has made hay from a nasty dispute about images of the prophet being shown in a classroom, one minute affirming people’s ‘right to defend religious sensibilities’ and the next sidling up to self-styled ‘free speech activist’ Lawrence Fox.”

George Galloway has now vowed to challenge the result in court. In a statement, he remarked: “The result of this by-election cannot stand. We will take whatever legal measures necessary to have that result set-aside. There are multiple reasons… But the tin hat was put on the banana republic exercise that has been called this parliamentary by-election by the returning officer’s decision to refuse to grant a recount when the margin of victory was less than one per cent.”

July 3, 2021
Fergie’s Foot F**k Ups

After the ‘Daily Mail’s’ Richard Kay shared what he knew of Diana, Princess of Wales’ non-reconciliation with Sarah, Duchess of York because of verrucas, we look at other examples of Fergie’s foot related f**k ups

Late last night, on what would have been the eve of the 60^th birthday of Diana, Princess of Wales, the rightly revered journalist and friend of the royal Richard Kay wrote about what he remembers of her 36^th and last birthday in 1997.

In a scorching article for the Daily Mail, Kay brought up not only Donald Trump and David Tang, but also referenced Prince Harry and Prince William’s mother’s animosity to her former sister-in-law, Sarah, Duchess of York that day – and revealed, once again, that it was caused by a row over foot infections.

Speaking of ‘verruca-gate,’ Kay remarked:

“Later that night, [Diana] called me again. Among the birthday cards had been a letter from Fergie. The two women, who had been through so much together, were now estranged.”

“The reason? Fergie’s autobiography in which she had written that she had once caught verrucas from wearing a pair of Diana’s shoes. There were other reasons, too, involving issues of trust.”

“The princess was furious and, ever since the book’s publication the previous autumn, the pair had not spoken. Until this point, nobody knew. But that night a newspaper was set to go public with the details.”

“A friend alerted Diana and she immediately abandoned the letter of thanks she was about to write to the duchess in which she said she was prepared to offer her friendship again. The two women, once so close because of adversity, were never to be reconciled.”

Toe sucking twerp Sarah Ferguson with the then Lady Meyer, a lover of Chanel shoes amongst other things and an advisor on footwear to the “kitten heeled” cretin Theresa May amongst others.

Curiously, feet and foot fetishes seem to be something that go side-by-side with Fergie. Not only did her toe sucking incident with John Bryan in August 1992 soil her somewhat already soiled ‘reputation,’ but it must be remembered that the ‘Duchess of Dork’ also got herself involved with the shameless and not-at-all selfless charity tinbanger Catherine (now unbelievably and quite unjustifiably Baroness) Meyer in the 2000s – a “Chanel clad” woman who cringeworthily once made Michael (now Lord) Howard drink champagne out of her shoe at a party.

Going further and after taking money from the thankfully now croaked paedophile Jeffrey Epstein with the help of her other mate, the now incarcerated mucky madam Ghislaine Maxwell, the ‘Duchess of Downright Dim’ stuck her pork trotters in the proverbial in May 2019 whilst visiting Ontario, Canada. For the occasion, this ludicrous lush wore a not-so-ironic pair of pumps emblazoned with “never complain and “never explain.” Whilst she certainly had “foot-in-mouth” disease on that outing, it remains unknown if she had a verruca to go with them also.

It’s now time for one final thing for childlike ‘Farting Fergie’; it’s finally time to shoe out this ridiculous rotter before she shoves her terrible tootsies in yet another slurry pit.

Pictured top (left to right): A verruca infected toe, the Duchess of York’s inappropriate footwear and the warbling wastrel wearing said shoes.

On Thursday 20th August 1992, the ‘Daily Mirror’ shared what they called “the pictures they didn’t want you to see.” In them, a topless Duchess of York was shown having her toes sucked in the South of France by a Texan millionaire named John Bryan. Of the incident, the ‘Mirror’ later reported: “Royal writer Richard Kay claimed in the ‘Daily Mail’ that he received a message via pager from Princess Diana the night before the photos hit the newspaper stands. Diana’s message was simple: ‘The redhead’s in trouble.’”

One is left wondering if Sarah, Duchess of York (pictured here with her deservedly incarcerated mucky madam mate Ghislaine Maxwell) spent any of the money she got from the paedophile, sex trafficker of children Jeffrey Epstein on shoes.

July 1, 2021
The Nonsense of One Britain, One Nation

Nikolay Kalinin joins those mocking the “godawful silliness” of the One Britain, One Nation campaign and slams it as anything but true patriotism

It seems that because five years have passed since Brexit, the government has decided that the only problem that now needs solving is the public’s supposed lack of patriotism – and so they have decided to make muscular unionism an official government policy.

The first hellish component of this ‘plan’ is the One Britain, One Nation day, named after the campaign group of the same name, which according to its website aims to “create a strong, fair, harmonious and a proud British Nation – celebrating patriotism and respect for all our people.”

The campaign has even produced a song which was performed by schoolchildren, which was so disturbing that even GB News host Kirsty Gallacher stated: “I don’t want my children singing that”, even going as far as calling the tune “propaganda”.

The campaign promoted much-expected backlash on social media, with many comparing the campaign to something from the Hitler Youth, while LBC host James O’Brien said on air: “If I played you (the song) before Brexit and said that the Department of Education is encouraging all children in the country to sing this song at school, I don’t think you would have believed me.”

It seems that the government haven’t learnt their lesson, because American-born Tory MP for Beaconsfield Joy Morrissey announced recently on Twitter that she will be campaigning alongside the British Monarchist Society to “put a portrait of Her Majesty in every home, company, and institution that would like one” adding: “It is time to rediscover our pride in being British!”

As expected, the response on social media was dominated by condemnation, with many calling out the campaign as pointless at a time when the pandemic is the issue that needs focusing on. Journalist Ian Dunt responded: “If these people had the slightest idea what there is to be proud of about Britain, they’d not be coming up with this godawful silliness.”

The indy100 meanwhile wrote in their article about the issue: “The Tory party are almost becoming post-ironic. Perhaps Morrissey is angling for the Queen to bestow some sort of honours upon her, to which we say – nobody likes a teacher’s pet.”

I am not against the idea of putting up pictures of the monarchy in one’s home; we all have the personal freedom to do that, and I respect it. However, when an MP from the ruling party starts a campaign aiming to put up pictures in every person’s home, this begins to look like an act of utter ridiculousness and an attempt at indoctrination.

Morrissey also seems to have forgot to read the room, because a recent YouGov poll revealed that only 4% of the people in the UK have a portrait of the Queen in their house, which means that the public is simply not interested in the idea of having a picture of the monarch put in their sitting rooms. What Morrissey has done here is fail the most important task for an MP – to know, understand and react to what her electorate wants and needs.

Regarding the One Britain, One Nation campaign, I am not against teaching children about their country. Obviously, children should learn about their country and the communities within it, but why should the government force the schools to teach this romantic image of the nation to the children, when they could just give them all of the knowledge and let the children decide how they feel about their country? That would be much better, because not only does it reflect the idea of personal freedom, but it also allows children to strengthen their critical thinking.

I also find it extremely ironic how these ludicrous announcements were made at the same time when Savanta ComRes published a poll revealing that even five years after the EU referendum, the people in this country are still divided over the issue, with the results showing that 51% of the people would vote remain if the referendum was conducted in 2021.

If the government truly cares about uniting the people of this country, why not try harder to fix the divide between the more prosperous parts of the south and the less well off parts of the north? Why not, also, instead, give more money to local councils as opposed to spending it on a ‘royal yacht’ that will be nothing but a showboat for Boris Johnson’s ego? That would be true patriotism.

Strong Britain Great Nation pic.twitter.com/snumT2lfTh
— Rosie Holt (@RosieisaHolt) June 23, 2021

Education secretary and “Tory love rat” Gavin Williamson’s decision to back the “brainwashing” One Nation, One Britain campaign has been described as “hyper-creepy” and “stomach churning.” The campaign is supported by, amongst others, “dandruff disaster” Sir Malcolm Rifkind and “get on yer’ bike” Lord Tebbit.

June 25, 2021
Branding Henley’s Wallaby Killer

Russell Brand should be condemned not congratulated after his rabid dog killed a wallaby in the scene of weird animalistic happenings, Henley-on-Thames

In July 2014, we featured the sale of a “chocolate box” thatched cottage – with the rather predictable name ‘Thatched Cottage’ – next to the River Thames at Mile End Reach, near Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire that had featured in the Inspector Morse sequel Lewis on two occasions.

Visited in that murder mystery series by the since gone-utterly-off-his-merry-rocker actor Laurence Fox in his role as DS James Hathaway, by February 2016, Thatched Cottage had become the real-life home to the near equal wack job Russell Brand. Now, after a particularly gruesome incident, it ought to be the scene of a real-life police and RSPCA visitation.

In May this year, when The Steeple Times reported on a red kite attacking a 2-year-old toddler (with the amusingly ironic name of Frankie Bird) for a custard cream in Henley-on-Thames, we also mentioned incidents of wallabies bounding around the vicinity of the ritzy town previously most famous for its annual regatta.

Supposedly escapees from a nearby private zoo along with a chimpanzee also in 2002, the “delinquent” (according to the Evening Standard) wallabies of Henley – like other wildlife that does as it wishes in these environs – suffered a calamity courtesy of Brand’s deviant dog last Monday.

According to The Sun, vegan rent-a-gob Brand’s German Shepherd dog, Bear, caught a female wallaby “whilst it had its baby in its pouch” and “mauled it to death.”

Unlike with another irresponsible dog owner previously featured by The Steeple Times, Rebecca Sabben-Clare QC – whose snarling terrier tore a defenceless seal apart in March this year – the media has yet to tear into Brand for not having kept his dog on a lead. Unbelievably, instead, they bigged up this brazen bozo as a “brave… funnyman.”

Bizarrely terming this complete and utter wazzock wastrel “quick thinking” and a hero,” but neglecting to condemn him for allowing his out-of-control pet for disgustingly slaying another animal, the paper instead focused on how the crackpot comedian “sprang into action.”

One is now simply left asking: “Why is The Sun so ludicrously lauding Russell Brand for ‘rescuing’ the victim’s offspring joey from its pouch as its parent died the most hideous of deaths, when it was, in fact, his very own self-declared ‘tornado of fear’ dog that caused this utterly avoidable incident?”

If Brand’s dog had attacked sheep or a child – which it quite potentially could do next given it plainly has a clear penchant for blood – would The Sun so easily have leapt to his defence? The hypocrisy of this shocking story is clear and today we call upon the RSPCA and police to intervene before Brand’s dog slaughters something else.

Russell Brand’s home, Thatched Cottage at Mile End Reach, near Henley-on-Thames was used for the filming of two episodes of ‘Lewis’ – starring Kevin Whately and Laurence Fox – before being sold to the crackpot ‘comedian’ circa 2016.

Russell Brand with his killer dog, Bear. Unsurprisingly and quite possibly an invented source ridiculously remarked of the rabid beast to ‘The Sun’ yesterday: “Absolutely no one is blaming Russell or his dog — it’s just a horrible accident. In fact, Russell was the hero because he managed to save the little joey. It could have been far worse if he hadn’t stepped in so quickly. He is a very caring man with animals – he has plenty of pets and they’re all his babies. I understand he’s devastated over what happened. It’s really sad.”

Brand’s dog, Bear, with a lamb that one can only hope was not injured subsequently and looking especially savage whilst with its owner’s kittens.

Prior to Russell Brand’s dog, Bear, going on the rampage, the weird wildlife of Henley-on-Thames was able to roam freely and without incident. His dog, Bear, now, must be classified as a very grave danger and the police and RSPCA must act.

June 21, 2021
The Return of the Yellow Card 2021

Nikolay Kalinin analyses the reasons behind the Liberal Democrats’ success in the 2021 Chesham and Amersham by-election; is Boris Johnson about to suffer further at the hands of the ‘yellow peril’?

A month after the Conservatives obliterated Labour in Hartlepool, the Liberal Democrats have struck back by winning Chesham and Amersham, a Conservative stronghold since its creation in 1974.

The Liberal Democrat candidate Sarah Green won 56.7% of the vote, compared to the Conservatives 35.5% of the vote; this is not surprising, considering the fact that 55% of the constituency’s voters supported remaining in the EU in 2016, which reflects the region’s more liberal, middle-class electorate.

Although Brexit was still a prevalent issue during the campaign, the HS2 was a more major concern in the lead-up to the election, as many individuals within the constituency were concerned that the government’s plans to remove the locals’ rights to decide on developments would lead to the railway system being built in the Chilterns. Home County areas like Chesham and Amersham were the place where Reform UK was able to make gains back in 2019 due to their promise to scrap the HS2, and it’s clear that the Lib Dems capitalised on that ‘NIMBY’ attitude.

The demographics have also been influential in determining the outcome, since many within the area are young, middle-class liberal voters who have moved out of London and who were more likely to vote Remain in 2016.

Not only is this the greatest thing to happen to Lib Dems in a long time, but also the victory has shown that the “blue wall” in Southern England is not unbreakable, a fact that was teased back in May when the party lost several councillors in strongholds such as Tunbridge Wells, Surrey and Chipping Norton, and also when they lost the Oxfordshire council.

The Lib Dems ability to appeal to the locals’ concerns regarding HS2 should show Labour MPs the importance of appealing to the needs of the people in their constituency; at the same time, it also should be of serious concern to Boris Johnson, because even though he can bring down the red wall, the opposition parties can do the same.

Much of this is because according to Ed Davey, the people in traditionally-Conservative constituencies “feel they’re being ignored by the Conservatives, taken for granted.” One southern Conservative MP further elaborated by stating: “There’s an element that our party is trying too hard to be Brexiteers”.

The defeat of the Conservatives in the by-election should be taken seriously by the public and by the politicians, because this could be a foreshadowing to further defeats of Conservatives in the south of England – especially the Home Counties – as the party tries to appeal to more Northern working-class voters, which will definitely alienate the more traditional base of the Conservative party in the South who are more liberal.

Sir Ed Davey celebrated his party’s win in Chesham and Amersham – where his party’s candidate Sarah Green got 21,517 votes (56.7% vote share) as opposed to the Conservative Party’s Peter Fleet’s 13,489 (35.5% vote share) – by hammering at a wall of blue bricks in the style of Timmy Mallett. Overturning a 16,000 Conservative majority with 8,028 more votes than her rival, Green increased her party’s percentage share by 30.4%.

In the by-election, Labour came off even worse than the Tories with just 622 votes and of her win Sarah Green remarked: “Tonight the voice of Chesham and Amersham is unmistakable. Together we have said, ‘enough is enough, we will be heard and this government will listen.’” The by-election was caused by the death in April of former Welsh Secretary Dame Cheryl Gillan. In 2019, she retained the seat with more than half of the vote. But the Conservative majority has been steadily decreasing since the 2015 General Election, when it was 23,920, with UKIP coming second.

June 20, 2021
Anything But GB News

Nikolay Kalinin watched GB News’ launch night and found it to be anything but “doing the news differently”

GB News is finally here and I have to admit it’s not as much of a hub of “fruitcakes and looneys and closet racists” as present on Fox News. It surprisingly has a large diversity in terms of the racial origins of its presenters, but some on the channel, such as Neil Oliver – who will be analysing “what it means to be British” – make me concerned, as a few days ago he made the unfortunate decision to deliver a bunch of tosh about coronavirus lockdowns being utterly unneeded.

In an interview with the newspaper The Herald, Oliver stated: “I think it is the biggest single mistake in world history and I’m just horrified by the damage that has been done. People who have had no support, no help, lost businesses, lost livelihoods and all the rest of it.”

In a tone that sounds hilariously dystopian, Oliver claimed that people come up to him on the streets and “lower their voices, because they want to say that they think things are wrong.”

The channel’s lack of awareness can also evidenced in the fact that chairman Andrew Neil has delivered a ridiculous message that GB News is a channel that it proud to be British, despite the fact that most of its backers are from abroad. Neil has also mentioned that GB News aims to cover the “people’s agenda,” which sounds like something that Nigel Farge would say if he launched his own TV channel.

During the introductory broadcast, Neil also stated that the channel aims to provide debate, and don’t get me wrong, I believe in the principle of debate, because without debate we cannot come to an understanding and work together in order to improve society. The idea of allowing presenters to have their own opinions is also fine by me, because if that principle was not allowed on British television, we wouldn’t have amazing shows such as Top Gear and Mock the Week.

During the introductory broadcast, Neil also mentioned that GB News will aim to not solely look at Westminster, but also analyse how the government’s decisions influence Britain’s communities, which is important if the people want to feel represented and avoid putting their trust the likes of Reform UK’s Richard Tice.

However, the problem is that there are lots of people – especially people like Neil Oliver – who don’t want debate and rather seek to divide. This became evident on GB News’ opening night when Neil asked Oliver about how he feels oppressed in Scotland for identifying with the British identity. He did not offer an alternative view in his line of questioning.

It’s concerning to me that GB News will be a safe haven for the likes of Oliver to give the likes of Laurence Fox and Darren Grimes a platform to spread their harmful messages. This is especially evidenced by the fact that a large amount of people on the channel’s roster are ‘beyond-right-wing’ – such as ex-Guido Fawkes contributor and ‘condom campaigner’ Tom Harwood, ex-Brexit Party MEP Alex Phillips and ex-Brexit Party candidate Michelle Dewberry.

The introductory broadcast has given us hints that this is exactly what is going to happen. During Dan Wootton’s interview with Nigel Farage, for example, the ex-politician described Black Lives Matters as a “Marxist organisation… that wants to bring down Western civilisation,” yet the host didn’t bother to even question this suggestion. How is this providing debate and how is this impartial coverage?

Still, GB News has only been just launched, so we cannot tell fully if this is going to be the British Fox News that no one asked for, or if it’s actually going to offer an alternative and revolutionary coverage of news. Let’s wait and see how the whole operation proceeds, and then let’s make our judgement. After all, cancel culture is not really effective and for the most part, it’s pretty daft.

Mic Wright, the man behind ‘Conquest of the Useless,’ observed: “Live from the Pratcave: GB News is Britain’s least-silenced people saying ‘unsayable’ things they’ve said before.”

Elsewhere in ‘The Guardian,’ Stuart Jefferies reviewed the launch night of the channel and gave it just one out of five stars. He observed: “The ‘anti-woke’ news channel had Andrew Neil and Alan Sugar, but no Piers Morgan – and the opening night felt like the furthest thing from appointment TV imaginable. I give it a year.”

June 14, 2021
The Madness of #FindMaddie
As #FindMaddie trends once again on Twitter for no apparent reason, ‘The Sun’ rehashes a stupendously stupid story about a psychic claiming the ‘missing’ child will become a famous singer in 2022 or 2024

Aside from a crackpot psychic named Michael Schneider ludicrously suggesting he “knows” that the body of Madeleine McCann is somewhere in a forest six miles from where she ‘disappeared’ – information he miraculously gathered with the help, supposedly, of God and Google – there’s nothing new to report in the case of a child ‘disappeared’ after its parents left it alone so they could live-it-up with their tapas munching mates.

This morning, however, yet again, The Sun thought it relevant to share that the continually discussed since 2007 topic was again trending on Twitter. They did not report of the £12.5 million in public funds so outrageously misallocated and wasted on a search for a poor bairn with a wonky eye that would have been found by now if it could have been found at all given the huge rewards offered, but instead returned to the tale of yet another psychic.

This time, the red-topped rag commented:

“Last year US police psychic Fia Johansson said Maddie was alive and living in Koln, Germany.”

“She said: ‘She’s alive, I can see that she is in Germany. She has no clue about her other family. She was very little, she doesn’t remember anything about the family.’”

“Johansson claimed the missing girl may be reunited with her family in 2022 or 2024 when she will become a famous singer.”

One is simply left asking: “Is this a good use of journalistic resources and why, instead, doesn’t The Sun devote their energies to helping other families of missing people in their searches for their lost loved ones?”

The time has come for this pointless search to be ended and it is time for the Metropolitan Police officers assigned to a case they’ve failed to solve to be reassigned to other tasks.

A Freedom of Information request by ‘The Sun’ in October 2016 led to British police revealing that they had followed up on 8,685 alleged sightings of Madeleine McCann in 101 countries. Goodness only knows how many more bogus sightings have attracted their attention since. Now is the time to put a stop to this fruitless search and to instead dedicate precious resources to the search for missing people who there genuinely is a prospect of actually being found.

Elsewhere on Twitter, one user claimed that an image of a child they believed to be a remarkable likeness for Madeleine McCann had been shared on TikTok. @EmoEmms moaned: “This dude on TikTok literally has proof that Madeleine McCann is still alive and in Portugal and people aren’t doing sh*t, I’ve got chills down my spine, that is definitely her same chin nose cheeks everything.”

Missing Madeleine – Questions STILL without Answers

Many questions about what happened on the evening of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann remain. Some that have been highlighted by the press and discussed online include:
- Why did Kate McCann refuse to answer 48 questions put to her by the Portuguese police?
- Why were certain records of phone calls on the evening of the disappearance “whoosh-clunked” from the memories of the phones of Mr and Mrs McCann and the ‘Tapas 7’?
- Why did a British sniffer dog sense the smell of a corpse in a cupboard in the apartment from which Madeleine McCann disappeared?
- Why did a sniffer dog also supposedly sense the smell of a corpse in a vehicle hired by the couple a month after the disappearance of their daughter?
- Why did Mr and Mrs McCann go jogging and play tennis in the days after their daughter’s disappearance?
- Was it acceptable for Mr and Mrs McCann’s mortgage to be paid by the fund established to search for their missing daughter?
June 10, 2021
The Students, The Portrait and The Outrage

Nikolay Kalinin shares his thoughts on Magdalen College removing a portrait of the Queen

At the postgraduate Magdalen College in Oxford, the students voted to remove a print of the Queen that was hung up in their Common Room in 2013, justifying their decision by stating that the figure represents “recent colonial history,” with one student saying that “patriotism and colonialism are not really separable”.

This move comes out after a YouGov poll that concluded that more young people support abolishing the monarchy, as well as an expose by the Guardian revealing that Buckingham Palace banned members of ethnic minorities from working in office roles.

The removal of the picture has prompted instant backlash, with education secretary Gavin Williamson calling the decision “simply absurd,” while Piers Morgan wrote: “Can we vote to have Monarch-ordered Tower of London imprisonment powers restored for these insolent wastrels?”.

The president of Magdalen College, barrister Dinah Rose, stated that although the students “don’t represent the College,” the decision to take down the image was “their own to take, not the college’s,” and reaffirmed that “Magdalen strongly supports free speech and political debate, and the MCR’S right to autonomy.”

It seems ironic how people like Gavin Williamson supported a “university free speech bill” a month ago, but now are condemning the decision of the students to use that power of freedom of speech to take down a print through democratic means to a vote. This truly shows that to them freedom of speech is fine as long as it supports their own ideology.

Regarding the ideology behind the removal, I do not agree with the statement that patriotism is inseparable from colonialism, because you can still love Britain and condemn its colonial past. However, I do understand where the students come from, since the monarch was the head of the British empire, and therefore seen as responsible for some of its worst atrocities such as the Amritsar massacre.

Overall, I don’t necessarily agree with “cancelling” the Queen, but I do think that there should be more debate about Britain’s colonial past, how we should deal with it and what the monarchy means to this country nowadays.

The print of the Queen removed as part of Magdalen College students’ decision to invoke what some condemn as “cancel culture.”

June 10, 2021
Cornish Chaos G7

Nikolay Kalinin slams the disregard of the British government for the poor people of Cornwall as the G7 approaches

As the G7 summit approaches, hotels in Cornwall are cruelly evicting vulnerable homeless people in order to make room for members of the police and government officials attending the summit.

According to a report by the Cornwall council, around 130 homeless people were forced to leave hotels in order to make room for 5,000 policemen in recent days. Some of them were moved to other temporary accommodation, only to be evicted once again.

One of the people evicted, who has schizophrenia, was forced to stay at a surf hostel. Her mother, Claire, who did not want her full name used, described the horrific conditions there: “The hostel is full of drunk surf dudes and holidaymakers. She is terrified – she thinks people are coming to get her. They have not even put in her a safe place. She has been treated abysmally.”

Going further, the distraught mother quite justifiably added: “What gives them the right to force vulnerable adults out of their accommodation?”

Local charity DISC Newquay has also reported that homeless people have been evicted from the luxury Carbis Bay Hotel, which sparked fury back in March for pulling down ancient woodland in order to make wave for redevelopment, despite being supposedly “eco-friendly” accommodation.

What these incidents show is a complete disregard for human wellbeing; what was the reasoning behind throwing homeless people out of hotels where it is safer for them to stay? There are around 1,343 hotels in Cornwall, meaning that there HAS to be enough room for members of police and government.

This is not the only problem currently plaguing the summit, as over the last couple of days, environmental activists have organised a series of protests in Cornwall, with one featuring protesters in Boris Johnson masks pushing a burning boat into the water with “YOUR CHILDREN’S FUTURE” written on it in order to convince the delegates to tackle ocean pollution.

In addition, 80 activists have set off on a 6-day walk from Plymouth Hoe to Carbis Bay in an attempt to convince the delegates to prioritise climate change agenda during the summit, with some of them from the Extinction Rebellion.

I also see very little point in the existence of the Group of Seven, because they seem to meet every year or so and yet achieve very little in terms of global policy. It’s been eons since they pledged to tackle climate change, and yet corporations are still pumping oil and contributing the global warming. The EU has done more to tackle climate change, and its existence in my opinion is more beneficial than the existence of the sockless G7.

Pictured above: The Carbis Bay Hotel – a supposedly ‘eco-friendly’ venue that will host the Group of Seven meeting that has also taken to disgracefully chopping down trees to make way for a parade of pointless politicians.

The Carbis Bay Hotel has quite rightly been targeted by protestors determined to show it as anything but ‘eco friendly’ and anything but supportive of its very own locals. That this business, to suit the short-term visit of a bunch of egomaniac politicians, has shut out locals and destroyed trees for a set of rooms that haven’t even got proper planning permission is utterly disgraceful. The Carbis Bay Hotel deserves nothing but the grief that it is quite deservedly getting.

‘The Convenient Catholic Couple’ Mr and Mrs Boris Johnson will use the G7 summit as the first opportunity of their union to laud it over the world. This shameless puppet mistress and her sidekick will most likely find a way to embarrass Britain only further.

June 8, 2021
Batty Fox

Nikolay Kalinin analyses Laurence Fox’s decision to pull out of the Batley and Spen by-election and suggests this batty man’s days in politics are nearly numbered

As if Labour hasn’t had enough losses this year despite numerous revelations regarding the Conservative government’s utter incompetence, their retention of control over the Batley and Spen constituency is under serious jeopardy.

One of the reasons for this – you may be surprised – is the withdrawal of Reclaim Party candidate and leader Laurence Fox and independent candidate Paul Halloran from the contest, which they justified by saying: “We cannot in good conscience stand and risk splitting the vote and condemning Batley and Spen to any more years of Labour control.”

Fox also mentioned in his statement that a major reason for his decision to withdraw is the events at the Batley Grammar School, where a teacher was suspended and received death threats after showing a cartoon of Muhammed from the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which Fox called “a blight on our free, tolerant, fair and democratic society.”

Nevertheless, Fox also mentioned in his statement that he would be inviting both Conservative and Labour candidates to a meeting with the citizens of the constituency “very soon to discuss tolerance in the UK.”

It’s very hard to understand how Reclaim could have split the vote had it stood in the election, but most likely they would have successfully capitalised on the grammar school incident. They would have probably have painted it as an oppression of freedom of speech, thereby convincing more right-wing people to vote and preventing the Conservatives from winning the seat.

One thing we can conclude from this episode however is that Fox is not intending to go anywhere anytime soon. Even though this loony was humiliated by YouTuber Niko Omilana at the recent London mayoral elections, he is showing great determination to make his party successful.

Still, we have to keep in mind that much of the reason why Reclaim is known by many people is because of Fox’s utter insanity and because the very, very wealthy financier Jeremy Hosking is strangely not yet tired of funding his operation. The people will eventually move on to better politicians, and Hosking will realise that his large investments into Fox’s party of clowns has not proved beneficial. All in all, the days of Laurence Fox’s political career are quite deservedly numbered.

Yesterday, seeking yet more attention, 43-year-old Laurence Fox took to Twitter to condemn the England squad as “millionaire woke babies” for taking the knee. He continued by suggesting he hopes England will lose in the first round of the Euros and added: “I’m embarrassed to be British.”

In spite of wasting a huge amount of Jeremy Hosking’s money – said to be upto £5 million – Laurence Fox’s 2021 London mayoral election campaign was an utter disaster. He won 47,634 votes, achieved just 1.9% of the vote and thus effectively spent £104.97 for every vote the Reclaim Party received. As a result, Fox lost his £10,000 deposit paid to London Elects, the Greater London Authority team responsible for organising the election of the Mayor of London and the London Assembly as he failed to achieve the 5% of votes or higher required to retain the deposit. The public, however, may now find themselves in a worse situation – Laurence Fox might return to making awful music condemned as “more Chelsea Travelodge than Chelsea Hotel.” Of it, in January 2020, the ‘Guardian’s’ Michael Hann observed: “Laurence Fox’s music doesn’t sound as if it had to exist. It sounds as if it exists because he had the wherewithal to make it, and because his name meant there would always be people willing to give it a plug. The very definition of privilege, really.”

Aside from being the co-founder of Marathon Asset Management, University of Cambridge educated Jeremy Hosking is a shareholder in Crystal Palace F. C. as well as the owner of the Gravetye Manor hotel in Sussex. He previously funded the Conservative Party, Vote Leave and the Brexit Party prior to becoming financially involved with Laurence Fox’s Reclaim Party.

In September 2020, ‘The Steeple Times’ suggested Laurence Fox had “morphed from a much loved tellybox treasure into a tedious twerp.” In the time since, he’s got even worse.

June 7, 2021