The Steeple Times

Category: PRESENTERS AND POLITICOS

  • Anna Soubry MP

    Anna Soubry MP

    Anna SoubryIn discussion with UKIP’s Nigel Farage MEP in June 2014, “lighthearted” Soubry suggested that some people who raise concerns about immigration are “frankly racist”. Immediately disowned by Downing Street, this former television presenter turned Conservative politician is a single mother of two children and a supporter of the legalisation of cannabis. In December 2013, she described Farage as looking “like somebody [who] has put their finger up [their] bottom and [who] really rather likes it” whilst earlier that year, the Speaker told her “to sit there and be quiet or to leave the chamber” after she heckled a fellow MP. She’s not easily silenced.

     

  • Dame Elaine Kellett-Bowman DBE (1923 – 2014)

    Dame Elaine Kellett-Bowman DBE (1923 – 2014)

    Dame Elaine Kellett-BowmanAt one point both an MP and an MEP at the same time, this former Conservative member for Lancaster (1970 – 1997) was known for her “trill” voice and once described as sounding like a “squawking parrot”. A strict Methodist, Kellett-Bowman was a campaigner for the return of the death penalty and against moral laxity and Sunday trading. She was voted the “number one country housewife of 1960” by the Women’s Institute and of the sex educator Dr Martin Cole, commented: “I would shoot that man”. She was no feminist but her determination certainly set the way for other women to enter politics.

  • The Rt. Hon. Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller DCB

    The Rt. Hon. Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller DCB

    Dame Eliza Manningham-BullerThe head of MI5 between 2002 and 2007 was once nearly thrown out of a pub after being mistaken for a prostitute whilst training to be a spy. In December 2013, Manningham-Buller guest presented Radio 4’s Today programme and interviewed an the actress who has played her fictional counterpart, Dame Judi Dench. Northampton born and the daughter of Viscount Dilhorne, the surname of this expert intelligence analyst’s husband has only ever been revealed as “David”. Spooky.

  • Gavin Newsom

    Gavin Newsom

    Gavin NewsomThe 49th Lieutenant Governor of California was previously the 42nd Mayor of San Francisco. Dyslexic and twice married, Newsom created PlumpJack Associates L.P. in 1991 with the backing of Gordon Getty and has over 1.2 million followers on Twitter. Well known for having directed San Francisco’s city-county clerk to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, “The Gavinator” has been compared to J. F. Kennedy and is definitely one to watch.

  • Sir Bernard Ingham

    Sir Bernard Ingham

    Bernard InghamMargaret Thatcher’s former spin doctor is as well known for his eyebrows as his outspoken remarks. In November 2013, this Yorkshireman commented that Northerners who refused to vote Conservative conveyed an “image of bovine stupidity” and has previously derided Scottish nationalists as being “as greedy as sin”. He believes that the Hillsborough disaster was caused by a “bunch of tanked up yobs” but was himself bound over to keep the peace in 1999 after a dispute with a neighbour. Ingham is not one for apologising.

  • Stella Creasy MP

    Stella Creasy MP

    Sty Rosamund Urwin: Labour MP for Walthamstow Stella Creasy. PHOThis rising star of the Labour Party entered the House of Commons in May 2010. Nicknamed “St. Ella” and referred to as “Labour’s most interesting Member of Parliament” by ConservativeHome, Creasy is widely tipped as a future leader and lauded for valiantly standing up to the “morons” who attacked her on Twitter. A Cambridge and LSE graduate who was formerly head of public affairs for the Scout Association, here is a bold lady who has also taken on the scourge of society that are payday lenders.

  • Paul Staines (AKA Guido Fawkes)

    Paul Staines (AKA Guido Fawkes)

    Paul StainesThis “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

    The Rt. Hon. the Baroness Neville-Jones DCMG PC

    Pauline Neville-JonesThis 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.

  • The Rt. Hon. The Lady Garden of Frognal

    The Rt. Hon. The Lady Garden of Frognal

    Lady GardenIt’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.

  • Jean Barker, Baroness Trumpington DCVO, PC

    Jean Barker, Baroness Trumpington DCVO, PC

    Baroness Trumpington 550“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.