“Dapper Dan” and “quasi New Yorker” Isaac Hindin-Miller established his online presence “at the very beginning of the blogging boom” in 2008. A “shameless self-promoter”, New Zealand born Hindin-Miller offers “relationship advice for anybody who asks” and claims not to be afraid of legal spats. He lists his career highlights as having met Kanye West and watching Tyga record Hotel California.
Whackjob former Tory activist turned Jared Kushner employed ‘journalist’ Andre Walker tells ‘The Steeple Times’: “In the words of Trump: ‘You are fake news’” (and then blocks us)
Andre Walker is of the Donald Trump school when it comes to dealing with situations he doesn’t like: This former Tory bullyboy turned Breitbart braggart and Jared Kushner employed Observer “lobby correspondent” thrashes around, shouts loudly and then throws his toys out of the pram.
On Tuesday, after being asked a series of questions about his role in the Conservative Party’s 2015 battlebus scandal via Twitter over a number of weeks, self-confessed “fat, northern… bit of a bruiser” Walker sent The Steeple Times a final tweet and then blocked us. It read:
“I have never run any bus of any description ever. In the words of Trump, ‘you are fake news’”.
Far-right provocateur Walker – whose career highlights have included being forced to resign as a political aide after being exposed smearing colleagues in 2010 and for his connections with the ‘Tatler Tory’ Mark Clarke and events that culminated in the suicide of another activist named Elliott Johnson in 2015 – then charmingly justified his move to his 78,000 followers:
“I’ve only ever blocked one person on Twitter but it’s got to be two now”.
We’re honoured.
Pictured above: Andre Walker (top circle) with his especially pleasant chum, Mark ‘Tatler Tory’ Clarke, below.
“Grand” Grade II* listed Midlands manor for sale for just £350,000; it comes with a 49-seat cinema and several unexpected catches
Where there’s muck, there’s money and a late 18th century Midlands manor house currently for sale for just £350,000 ($451,000, €402,000 or درهم1.65 million) provides an example of the tale of the progress and decline of industrial wealth in once Great Britain.
Built in 1757 for a family of Black Country industrialists, Wordsley Manor in Wordsley, near Stourbridge has been owned by the Firmstone family and their relatives since around 1850. A red brick built, four floor “small mansion” that extends to 7,464 square foot in total, the building has been Grade II* listed since 1976 and was expanded in the 19th century with the addition of two service wings.
Comprising of 3 reception rooms, 7 cellar rooms, 4 bedrooms and just 1 bathroom, dilapidated Wordsley Manor is – giving explanation for its extremely low asking price – in need of complete renovation. It comes, however, with an unexpected bonus: Where bedrooms previously existed on its second floor, there is currently an art studio and a quirky 49-seat cinema with a Christie organ, box office and projection and switch rooms.
Architect Christopher Firmstone and wife Joan have been occupants of Wordsley since inheriting it in 1991. They have attempted to maintain the house but in 2011, Mr Firmstone told the Birmingham Mail:
“I took it on and sorted it out as best I could. Most people would have run a mile, but I had a real sense of attachment to it [he spent his childhood there also]”.
“I spent a bit more than I could afford on it, but I was unable to do everything that needed doing”.
In 2013, the couple followed in the footsteps of relatives who had sold off much of the surrounding land for housing in the mid 20th century and agreed a deal with a firm of developers named David Alexander Homes. In exchange for yet another parcel of the former estate’s grounds – that was subsequently marketed rather cheesily as a residential complex named “To the Manor Bourne” – a £400,000 ($512,000, €460,000 or درهم1.88 million) payment is to be made towards the restoration of Wordsley Manor.
In their sales brochure, agents The Lee, Shaw Partnership state: “Best and final offers must be made for Wordsley Manor by 5.30pm on Tuesday 27th June”. They add: “Only cash purchasers” need apply.
EXCLUSIVE – “Nationally important” Grade II* listed Berkshire mansion in 130 acres for sale for £26 million; its interior is yet to be renovated
A Grade II* listed building capable of being reinstated as one of Britain’s finest country houses has just been placed on the market for £26 million.
Benham Park – formerly known as Benham Vallence – at Marsh Benham, near Newbury comes with around 130 acres of Grade II listed Capability Brown (1716 – 1783) designed parkland and currently extends to 27,620 square foot. It has planning permission in place to either revert to a truly epic single family mansion or to convert into a 100 bedroom ‘wellness centre’ to rival Champneys in Hertfordshire and Clinique La Prairie in Switzerland. The schemes proposed would provide between 50,000 and 140,000 square foot of accommodation and, already, businessmen Harry Marriott and Michael Fresson, owners since 2011, have restored the exterior of the building along with its gardens and park.
Built at the behest of the nobleman William Craven (1738 – 1791) to designs of the Fulham born architect Henry Holland (1745 – 1806) in 1774 – 1775, this fine neoclassical house was constructed from Bath stone and later altered by the extremely wealthy Sutton baronets during their tenure in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The estate was sold for £1 million to the innovative computer manufacturers Norsk Data in 1983 and remained in the firm’s ownership until it was dissolved in 1992. It then became the offices of other technology companies until again being placed for sale for £6 million in 2010.
Should a buyer use the existing designs for a residential scheme, they would find themselves owning a house that would not only come with 12 reception rooms and 29 bedroom suites, but also one with a sports complex, a sculpture gallery, a 40-seat cinema and garaging for 50 cars. Aside from an existing 5-bedroom mill house on the estate’s 10 acre lake and a gate lodge, the proposals would add a further 8 additional ancillary houses also.
Of Benham Park, Crispin Holborow of selling agent Savills commented:
“[This] is a nationally important stately home so its sale presents a very exciting proposition for a future owner to oversee its transformation. The prospect of restoring a property of such magnificent proportions with excellent access to London has not arisen for many years, and we expect interest from potential buyers for either its reinstatement as a significant country residence or its repurpose into a world leading wellness centre”.
Those looking to extend the compound further have the option to purchase two separately owned properties that were formerly part of the estate. A house known as ‘Greenhouses’, for sale with Savills, is offered for £1.3 million and comes with 1.47 acres of land whilst Mill Bank House, which stands in 2 acres, is on the market through Strutt & Parker.
The Numbers – Benham Park
1771 – 1774
William Craven, 6th Baron Craven paid Capability Brown £7,150 for works to the house and grounds. This sum is the equivalent of £989,000 today ($1.3 million, €1.1 million or درهم4.7 million).
1982
Sold to Norsk Data for £1 million (the equivalent of £3.2 million, $4.1 million, €3.7 million or درهم15.1 million today) by Sir Richard Sutton (born 1937).
2010
Placed on the market for £6 million ($7.7 million, €6.9 million or درهم28.3 million).
2011
Sold to Harry Marriott and Michael Fresson for £5 million ($6.4 million, €5.7 million or درهم23.6 million).
2017
Benham Park placed on the market for £26 million ($33.4 million, €29.9 million or درهم123 million).
Separately owned estate houses
Mill Bank House – On the market for £1.4 million ($1.8 million, €1.6 million or درهم6.6 million).
Greenhouses – On the market for £1.3 million ($1.7 million, €1.5 million or درهم6.1 million).
Refurbished Surrey manor house with connections to Detmar Blow and Gertrude Jekyll for sale for £2.55 million
Reduced in price by £200,000 since when it was previously on the market in June 2015, a Surrey manor house is again for sale – but this time for £2.55 million ($3.32 million, €2.96 million or درهم12.20 million).
First mentioned in association with Robert de Upbroke in 1282, Osbrooks at Capel, near Dorking was built as a hall and smoke bay house in the 15th and 16th centuries. Subsequently redeveloped in the 17th century and then extended by Detmar Blow (1867 – 1939) – an architect, contemporary of Edwin Lutyens and disciple of John Ruskin – in the arts and crafts style in the early 20th century. The building was given Grade II listed status in November 1966 and more recently had a swimming pool, gym and garaging added.
Standing in 14 acres of gardens and grounds designed by amongst others the especially prolific Gertrude Jekyll (1843 – 1932), Osbrooks now provides 4,987 square foot and features 4 reception rooms, a bar, 8 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms. It includes such details as oak joinery, leaded windows and tall, diagonal chimney stacks and could very easily be used as a location in a Midsomer Murders or Miss Marple murder mystery television drama.
Of the property, in April, John Fisher of selling agents Sotheby’s International Realty told The Times: “It could be a house for entertaining as well as comfortable living. It has all the space you could require, as well as proximity to good schools”.
An adjoining 4-acre plot with stabling and planning permission for a 1,959 square foot, single storey dwelling is also available through Sotheby’s. It is offered for £450,000 ($586,000, €523,000 or درهم2.2 million).
New contributor Mark Newton shares his views on the “dubious record” of Lady Borwick, Conservative parliamentary candidate for Kensington
Kensington, Kensington, its name beats the drum of the Conservative heartland of London. Tory grandees have worked long and hard to be fortified in this Bastion with greats like Alan Clark, Michael Portillo and Malcom Rifkind amongst its previous tenants. To be given Kensington is to be awarded one of the safest, and most convenient seats in the land – a prize to be won by only the hardest working, and most industrious of MPs and this, to my mind, makes the continued selection of Lady Borwick (née Victoria Poore) as the Tory candidate even harder to understand.
Known locally by the epithet ‘Lazy Borwick’, this latest MP is cast quite differently from the usual Kensington mould. Lady (‘Call me Victoria’) Borwick’s stance on Brexit, lousy debate participation and letter response history, questionable use of public funds and ongoing links to shady businesses is creating quite the heated storm in the chattering leafy private gardens of Kensington. Over the next three articles, I’ll be taking a look at Lady Borwick to try to get to the bottom of how and why one of the safest Tory seats of the land came to be held by the one of the least worthy occupants.
Lady Borwick succeeded in getting her hands on Kensington after Malcolm Rifkind stepped down at the 2015 General Election. The circumstances of that coup are somewhat strange, not least because of the history of Kensington in selecting high profile and hard working MPs. What seems to have happened is simple nepotism. Lady Borwick, having twice failed to make the selection list for London mayor during Steven Norris’ candidacy, finally slid into the London Assembly in 2008 as one of three London-wide Conservative members. From there it was an easy promotion from Boris Johnson to the Deputy Mayorhood, and it seems no-one less than the great ‘BoJo’ himself shoe-horned her into the Kensington seat ahead of better qualified and more industrious candidates.
So why then is the epithet ‘Lazy Borwick’ doing the rounds in the Royal Borough? Surprisingly, it has very little to do with her controversial Brexit stance in a strongly Remain constituency. What’s got Conservatives up in arms is her uselessness as a constituency MP. According to the MP tracking website TheyWorkForYou, Lady Borwick’s response rate to written enquiries is just 18% – an abysmal score that places her 618th on a list of 641 responding MPs. If there’s one thing the well-to-do residents of Kensington don’t like it’s an MP who is too busy or lazy to respond to their well-meant enquiries, particularly a Member of Parliament who manages to be significantly less efficient than her much busier, high profile forbearers.
So, what, might you ask, is taking up so much of Lazy Borwick’s time that she can’t manage to get to her mail bag? Some suggest that it may be her tireless work for charity, yet, strangely, Lady Borwick’s parliamentary voting record seems to spit in the face of the charitable causes she purports to support. Recently, she has jumped on the laudable activities of @CleanAirLondon, a much needed initiative to clean up London’s diesel rich environment, yet in the Commons ‘Lazy Borwick’ has consistently voted against climate change measures, and against a greater public control of bus services. Hard to reconcile with the self-promotional pictures of her backing smart energy meters.
Lady Borwick also claims to support local hospitals and to regularly visit the elderly residents of Kensington. She even spoke at a recent debate in favour of mental health and mobility support. Yet in the House of Commons she has almost always voted against paying benefits to those unable to work due to illness or disability and has consistently voted against the terminally ill being given assistance to end their lives.
Finally, there are those who suggest ‘Lazy Borwick’ may simply be too busy with parliamentary duties to answer constituents’ letters, yet she spoke in just 15 debates in the last year, well below average amongst MPs, and dramatically lower than previous high profile Kensington MPs.
Whatever it is that keeps Lady Borwick entertained, it can’t then be serving the interests of her constituents, so to get answers we need to dig further, into her bizarre and odd beliefs about Europe, and her odd use of public funds and ties to ‘Big Data’ business.
Coming up next – ‘Brexit Borwick’ and residents’ anger in Kensington; the constituency with the greatest proportion of EU nationals of any London borough.
Pictured above – ‘Woman of the people’ Lady Borwick – a “director and member of Poore and Second Poore Ltd; holding companies limited by guarantee” – aboard a 40-metre yacht in 2014 with Sunseeker Cheshire’s Jonathan Kingsley. At the time Mr Kingsley commented: “It was a wonderful opportunity to promote our iconic brand and reinforce the British success of Sunseeker to this high profile, influential Lady. She, and her son, adored the boat”.
#LazyBorwick
Fat former boxer and Toad of Toad Hall-like figure of fun Fergus Wilson and his equally badly dressed Hyacinth Bucket-like wife, a former maths teacher named Judith, banned “coloured people” from renting the 1,000 properties they own in Kent “because of the curry smell at the end of the tenancy”. They were also revealed to refuse to let housing to “battered wives”, single parents and zero-hours workers in March 2017 and of them, the advocacy group Hope Not Hate remarked: “It’s almost as if [they have] taken a tick box to offend every vulnerable group in Britain”.
When taken to trial for using a mobile phone whilst driving, racehorse owning Mr Wilson – who also has a conviction for assaulting an estate agent – was fined £565 after ridiculously trying to claim he “was singing into a drinks carton that he was holding to the side of his head”.
The name of one of their horses – ‘Gone Too Far’ – sums up the most recent actions of this widely disliked duo perfectly.
A “libertarian-left” Labour MP between 1997 and 2010, distinguished barrister and novelist Bob Marshall-Andrews defected to the Liberal Democrats in 2017. Described as “an irritant” to his former party whilst they were in government, multi-millionaire Marshall-Andrews built and owns “one of the most innovative houses of the 20th century – the famed ‘Teletubby House’ in Druidston, Pembrokeshire – and is chairman of the George Adamson Wildlife Trust. In 2013, of him, Chambers Legal Directory remarked: “Juries love him… I’ve never seen a jury eat out of anyone’s hand as much” whilst he amusingly references himself as “the complete antidote to political humbug”. Of Labour, this “intellectually brilliant” individual added: “They’re a basket case…They effectively abdicated all responsibility [on Brexit]”.
Thieving Chelsea based trollop Carina Reid was labeled “arrogant”, “extremely boorish” and a fraudster by a judge in May 2017. Often spotted in the now defunct La Brasserie restaurant, this tarty so-called beautician was jailed for three years in May 2016 and ordered to pay back £50,000 she’d falsely claimed in benefits a year later. Despite arguing she had no savings, taken no holidays and lived off free food from a mosque, somewhat dubious Miss Reid somehow managed to send £116,000 abroad to acquire property in Dubai in 2013/2014, paid £20,000 as a deposit for a flat in the Kings Road, SW3 and held savings of £180,000 in 19 separate bank accounts. Of this dishonest wench, Judge Douglas Marks-Moore remarked: “This is pie in the sky… You don’t listen to a word I have to say anyway. You have not got a hope in hell of getting an extension. You have been playing the system in my view”.
Son of Kensington MP Lady Borwick’s curious connections to the people who ensured both Brexit and the election of Donald Trump revealed
On Sunday, Carole Cadwalladr of The Observer published a lengthy and well researched article that, amongst other things, examined the connections between The Hon. Thomas Borwick – the son of the Conservative hereditary peer The Rt. Hon. The Lord Borwick and Kensington’s Member of Parliament Lady ‘Call me Victoria’ Borwick – and the controversial US hedge fund titan and backer of Donald Trump, Robert Mercer.
A director of a multitude of companies, in spite of being just 29 years old, “new media expert” Thomas Borwick – whose mother was forced to apologise “after using City Hall resources to promote her husband’s [now defunct] electric vehicle business” in 2009 – it now transpires, was not only Vote Leave’s chief technology officer but previously worked with SCL/Cambridge Analytica and AggregateIQ. Borwick currently touts himself to his 202 followers on Twitter as the founder of a political canvasing consultancy named Kan.to, an organisation that he boldy claims “will out-organise, out-plan, out-leaflet, out-twitter, out-work and out-vote all of its opponents”.
Mercer, one of the owners of the far-right Breitbart News Network as well as being a major shareholder in Cambridge Analytica, is a man whose “sinister” connections to both Trump and Nigel Farage have rightly been widely criticised. On that basis, that the son of fervent Brexiteer Lady Borwick – a woman whose constituents voted 69% to ‘Remain’ and whose domain was home to a greater proportion of EU nationals than any other London borough in 2016 – has links to this billionaire and his activities should only encourage the voters of Kensington to ditch her and her out-of-touch party.
We urge Kensington based readers to support Annabel Mullin of the Liberal Democrats on 8th June. This principled lady is the only person who can realistically unseat Lady Borwick and she is the only candidate who will support the beliefs the majority in this constituency continue to hold dear.
#DumpLadyBorwick #VoteAnnabelMullin