The Jamaican mother of Stephen Lawrence, who was tragically murdered in a racist incident in 1993, has done huge amounts of community work in her son’s name since. A tireless campaigner for justice, Baroness Lawrence became a Labour peer in July 2013 and was also a guest on the BBC’s Desert Island Discs in June 2012.
Category: OBSERVERS
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Baroness Doreen Lawrence OBE
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Paul Staines (AKA Guido Fawkes)
This “relentlessly mocking” Irish right-wing blogger is the editor of the UK’s most read political blog and operates with a guiding force of: “Fuck with me, and I fuck with you”. Staines has variously worked for political parties, as a professional blackjack player, a futures broker, a bond dealer and a hedge fund manager and even helped a friend with the promotion of acid house raves. The politician whose company he most enjoys is Nigel Farage. -
The Rt. Hon. the Baroness Neville-Jones DCMG PC
This real life ‘M’ is a former Minister of State for Security and Counter Terrorism and has also been a BBC Governor and Chairman of the British Joint Intelligence Committee. Oxford educated Neville-Jones is said to be “sparky” and collects antiques and enjoys cooking and gardening. Dame Judi Dench could quite easily be her body double. -
Katie Hopkins (nicknames include The Wicked Witch of the West, Cruella De Vil, Widow Twanky, Miss Piggy and Patrick Bateman)
Born in Barnstaple, Hopkins is a serial reality contestant who is serially capable of making seriously stupid remarks. This blonde blabbermouth was once a stand-by contestant for Big Brother and appeared on both The Apprentice and I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! in 2007. During and after her stint in competitive television, Hopkins became known for insulting successful businesswoman Michelle Mone by telling her she should be “just happy to be out of the underwear factory for the day”, having sex with another contestant and declaring that she’d slept with another man in the barracks at The Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. This “serial homewrecker” has done a volte-face since and though photographed romping in a field is also regularly to be found moralising about society on chat shows. Amongst her many clangers was to state that she doesn’t like children to be given “geographical location names” in July 2013. Her own daughter is called India. -
Panda Morgan-Thomas
This ridiculously named woman is Knightsbridge’s leading busybody. A resident of Sloane Street, Morgan-Thomas and her daughter hector motorists and believes she lives in a “village”. How many villages do you know with Chanel, Gucci and Armani on their main streets? -
The Rt. Hon. The Lady Garden of Frognal
It’s quite simple. With a name like hers, this Oxford educated Liberal Democrat peer ought to be made the President of the Royal Horticultural Society. -
Chloe Madeley
A model and “television personality”. The daughter of the former daytime duo Richard and Judy, Madeley appeared in a show named Celebrity Quitters in 2010 but has been banned for causing a car crash whilst drunk and photographed allegedly smoking cannabis. Maybe it would indeed be best if she did indeed give up. -
Jean Barker, Baroness Trumpington DCVO, PC
“If you want news, listen to the radio; if you want sex, read the newspapers” is amongst the many classic quotes from this Conservative peer. A land girl, a Bletchley Park codebreaker, Mayor of Cambridge, an agriculture minister, and now a Baroness, Trumpington famously stuck two fingers up at Lord King of Bridgwater after he called her “pretty old” during a debate. Of the reaction to that, she commented: “It was entirely between him and me – I thought. I wasn’t conscious of there being television [cameras there]… His family says he is famous now”. Of getting older, she added: “Other people’s opinions matter less – unless they’re medical”. On Desert Island Discs in 1990 she chose the Crown Jewels as her luxury item as she said it would maximise her chances of being rescued. A most practical lady and a true national treasure. -
Martha Kearney
This “avid bee-keeper” is the main presenter of BBC Radio 4’s World At One. When interviewed by The Guardian in 2011, Oxford educated Kearney stated: “I wouldn’t think of myself as a Loose Woman”. We’re glad to hear it. This voice of reason is indeed far from that. -
Giulio Andreotti (1919 – 2013)
“He condensed good and evil. An extraordinary personality” was Pier Ferdinando Casini, head of the Italian centrist Democratic Center Union party’s description of this seven times Prime Minister of Italy. Andreotti was given many nicknames by his detractors. Amongst them were the monikers of Beelzebub, The Hunchbank, The Black Pope and Divo Giulio (after Julius Caesar). Andreotti, famed for ambushing Margaret Thatcher at a 1990 summit on the single European currency, once stated: “Power wears out those who don’t have it” and he certainly was accused of using his to maximum effect in support of the Mafia.