The Steeple Times

Tag: BBC

  • Breaking with Boris

    Breaking with Boris

    Breaking News – Rachel Johnson explains why she ditched the party of her Foreign Secretary brother Boris and defected to the Lib Dems

     

    On this morning’s Andrew Marr Show on BBC1, Rachel Johnson was interviewed about her decision to defect to the Liberal Democrat Party.

     

    Explaining her rationale for ditching the Tories and the party of her Brexit supporting Foreign Secretary brother, Boris Johnson, Rachel Johnson commented:

     

    “This is single issue election. We could be going over a cliff on a hard Brexit… Everything on the table from last June is now off the table. Business needs to stay in the Single Market. It’s all lose, lose, lose… A second referendum gives the country another go”.

     

    Answering a question about whether she plans to stand as a candidate herself, Johnson, a columnist for the Mail on Sunday, remarked:

     

    “This is my paper making mischief to embarrass me… [But I am] not ruling anything out”.

     

    Later, in the segment, she tempered this further by adding:

     

    “I am very tempted to campaign in my constituency of Kensington and Chelsea”.

     

    Given her comments, The Steeple Times urges Rachel Johnson to join with us to support Gina Miller’s Best for Britain tactical voting campaign and suggests she also throws her campaigning efforts behind the Liberal Democrats’ Annabel Mullin for Kensington and Louise Rowntree for Chelsea & Fulham.

     

    #BritainDeservesBetter #MakeJuneEndOfMay

     

    Breaking with Boris – Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson’s sister Rachel Johnson defects to the Lib Dems – The Steeple Times urges her to support Gina Miller’s Best for Britain campaign and Liberal Democrat candidates Annabel Mullin for Kensington and Louise Rowntree for Chelsea & Fulham
    Louise Rowntree (left) pictured with Matthew Steeples of The Steeple Times and Annabel Mullin in Chelsea last week
    Breaking with Boris – Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson’s sister Rachel Johnson defects to the Lib Dems – The Steeple Times urges her to support Gina Miller’s Best for Britain campaign and Liberal Democrat candidates Annabel Mullin for Kensington and Louise Rowntree for Chelsea & Fulham
    The Johnson clan – Stanley Johnson (far left) with his children: Rachel, Boris and Jo
  • Witchfinders and Watermills

    Witchfinders and Watermills

    Picturesque watermill used in ‘The Witchfinder General’ and ‘Dad’s Army’ for sale

     

    Witches and water don’t have an affinity – with dunking being a common form of punishment for suspects in the 16th and 17th centuries – and at The Watermill on the River Black Bourn at Ixworth in Suffolk, just such activity occurred in the 1968 film The Witchfinder General.

     

    The Watermill, which is now for sale for £1 million ($1.3 million, €1.2 million or درهم4.6 milllion) through Savills, was also a location in the popular BBC series Dad’s Army and of this property, which until recently was used as a holiday rental, the corporation’s Martha Kearney once remarked: “I can’t think of a more enchanted summer evening than sitting outside the Mill, gazing across the water lilies on the pond to the beautiful island beyond”.

     

    Witchfinder’s and Watermills – The Watermill, Thetford Road, Ixworth, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, IP31 2JN – For sale for £1 million ($1.3 million, €1.2 million or درهم4.6 milllion) through Savills and used in The Witchfinder General and Dad’s Army
    The Watermill prior to renovation

     

    A working mill from 1800 until 1946, the 5,848 square foot, three floor building comes with detailed restrictions about how it could be altered given it is Grade II* listed but currently provides 3 reception rooms, 5 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.

     

    Previously rented from £1,450 to £3,000 per week depending on season, The Watermill is situated on a three acre plot that includes a picturesque lily-covered mill pond with island and mill race. An outbuilding has lapsed planning permission for conversion into ancillary accommodation whilst the former mill itself retains much of its original machinery.

     

    Witchfinder’s and Watermills – The Watermill, Thetford Road, Ixworth, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, IP31 2JN – For sale for £1 million ($1.3 million, €1.2 million or درهم4.6 milllion) through Savills and used in The Witchfinder General and Dad’s ArmyWitchfinder’s and Watermills – The Watermill, Thetford Road, Ixworth, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, IP31 2JN – For sale for £1 million ($1.3 million, €1.2 million or درهم4.6 milllion) through Savills and used in The Witchfinder General and Dad’s ArmyWitchfinder’s and Watermills – The Watermill, Thetford Road, Ixworth, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, IP31 2JN – For sale for £1 million ($1.3 million, €1.2 million or درهم4.6 milllion) through Savills and used in The Witchfinder General and Dad’s ArmyWitchfinder’s and Watermills – The Watermill, Thetford Road, Ixworth, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, IP31 2JN – For sale for £1 million ($1.3 million, €1.2 million or درهم4.6 milllion) through Savills and used in The Witchfinder General and Dad’s ArmyWitchfinder’s and Watermills – The Watermill, Thetford Road, Ixworth, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, IP31 2JN – For sale for £1 million ($1.3 million, €1.2 million or درهم4.6 milllion) through Savills and used in The Witchfinder General and Dad’s Army Witchfinder’s and Watermills – The Watermill, Thetford Road, Ixworth, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, IP31 2JN – For sale for £1 million ($1.3 million, €1.2 million or درهم4.6 milllion) through Savills and used in The Witchfinder General and Dad’s Army Witchfinder’s and Watermills – The Watermill, Thetford Road, Ixworth, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, IP31 2JN – For sale for £1 million ($1.3 million, €1.2 million or درهم4.6 milllion) through Savills and used in The Witchfinder General and Dad’s ArmyWitchfinder’s and Watermills – The Watermill, Thetford Road, Ixworth, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, IP31 2JN – For sale for £1 million ($1.3 million, €1.2 million or درهم4.6 milllion) through Savills and used in The Witchfinder General and Dad’s ArmyWitchfinder’s and Watermills – The Watermill, Thetford Road, Ixworth, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, IP31 2JN – For sale for £1 million ($1.3 million, €1.2 million or درهم4.6 milllion) through Savills and used in The Witchfinder General and Dad’s ArmyWitchfinder’s and Watermills – The Watermill, Thetford Road, Ixworth, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, IP31 2JN – For sale for £1 million ($1.3 million, €1.2 million or درهم4.6 milllion) through Savills and used in The Witchfinder General and Dad’s ArmyWitchfinder’s and Watermills – The Watermill, Thetford Road, Ixworth, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, IP31 2JN – For sale for £1 million ($1.3 million, €1.2 million or درهم4.6 milllion) through Savills and used in The Witchfinder General and Dad’s ArmyWitchfinder’s and Watermills – The Watermill, Thetford Road, Ixworth, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, IP31 2JN – For sale for £1 million ($1.3 million, €1.2 million or درهم4.6 milllion) through Savills and used in The Witchfinder General and Dad’s Army

  • Blabbermouth Burrell

    Blabbermouth Burrell

    Butler-turned-blabbermouth Paul Burrell sinks to a new low; he should retreat to Siberia and live out his days privately

     

    Cat-like Paul Burrell again and again reinvents himself. Somehow, in spite of already having undeservedly exhausted more than nine lives, this ghastly individual is back in the press and this time he’s milking the story of his marriage to a corporate lawyer he met on a train.

     

    “Diana’s rock”, as the traitorous butler-turned-blabbermouth likes to call himself, chose not to keep his wedding to Graham Cooper private but instead bared the story of his union with his “soulmate” to various media outlets.

     

    Mr Burrell, in spite of being born in Derbyshire wore a kilt to the ceremony (in a bizarre pattern of tartan he’d, of course, commissioned himself in 2006) at the Linthwaite House Hotel in the Lake District and in comments to the Mail Online remarked:

     

    “There’s no more hiding my unbridled happiness now. Life is about being true to who you are and, for the first time ever, I’m able to stand proudly beside my husband and say: ‘This is who I am’”.

     

    Burrell also told the newspaper of how he walked into the ceremony to Barbara Streisand’s Some Enchanted Evening and “danced out of [it] to Kylie Minogue’s Better the Devil You Know” and disrespectfully remarked on references to his late employer, Diana, Princess of Wales, being made during the ceremony. He again showed himself to be a master of the kiss-and-tell and even, in case anyone cared, shared the menu for his “three course wedding dinner”. It consisted of: “A starter of ham hock terrine, egg and chipped potatoes followed by pot-roasted breast of Goosnargh chicken served with Pommes Anna and wild mushroom fricassee and finished with a dessert of apple Tarte Tatin with a Calvados caramel and vanilla ice cream”.

     

    An anything but credible individual according to Lord Justice Scott Baker, Burrell – a man prone to crying on a whim – was severely criticised by Princes William and Harry in 2003. In a statement, at the time, they remarked:

     

    “We cannot believe that Paul who was entrusted with so much could abuse his position in such a cold and overt betrayal”.

     

    “It is not only deeply painful for the two of us but also for everyone else affected and it would mortify our mother if she were alive today and, if we might say so, we feel we are more able to speak for our mother than Paul”.

     

    “We ask Paul please to bring these revelations to an end”.

     

    Burrell plainly paid no attention to this request and now, fourteen years later, it is again time to urge this self-serving toad to do the decent thing: May Paul Burrell please stop peddling tat and may he please retreat to Siberia.

     

  • Jan Harvey

    Jan Harvey

    Penzance born actress Jan Harvey is married to her Howards’ Way co-star Stephen Yardley. She played Jan Howard in the popular series that depicted Thatcherite, nouveau riche excess from 1985 to 1990, has also appeared in Inspector Morse and Lovejoy and was pushed off a balcony to her death in Eastenders in 2016. In 2013, she suggested the wealthy yachting drama should be remade as “it could show all the problems of the young rich”.

     

    Jan Harvey – Actress and star of Howards’ Way with her husband Steven Yardley

  • SM:)E

    SM:)E

    Dying ‘The Archers’ star Sara Coward urges people to smile and “try to make the world a better place”

     

    With all the doom and gloom we have in our world currently and with Trump headed to The White House and Brexit in Britain, many feel disheartened. One woman, 68-year old actress Sara Coward – who plays Caroline Sterling in BBC Radio 4’s The Archers – has decided to counter this misery and launched a ‘smile’ campaign from the hospice where she is dying.

     

    Aiming to raise “1,000 miles of smiles”, pointing out that just smiling at someone in your proximity is often all that is needed to raise spirits”, Coward hopes her “SM:)E” campaign will “spread on social media, estimating it would take 2.5 million people to form a smiling line 1,000 miles long” according to the Sunday Express.

     

    Diagnosed with breast cancer in 2013, she commented:

     

    “I’ve recently discovered I don’t have long to live, but in the last few months I’ve found myself smiling more than at any other time in my life”.

     

    “Why? Because I have become much more aware of the random acts of kindness around me, and how important it is to be pleasant to everyone you meet”.

     

    “I believe this is something we can all do, whatever our circumstances. And I think it’s something our world needs right now”.

     

    “It would be wonderful to build 1,000 miles of smiles of people who have helped others in some small way, or cheered up someone just by smiling at them. A smile can go such a long way to making others feel better”.

     

    We salute this brave woman and urge readers to take a minute to follow her lead.

     

    SM:)E – Dying BBC Radio 4 ‘The Archers’ star Sara Coward urges people to smile and “try to make the world a better place”

  • Crazy Corbyn & Awful Abbott

    Crazy Corbyn & Awful Abbott

    Matthew Steeples suggests Jeremy Corbyn’s appointment of Diane Abbott as Home Secretary proves he’s beyond bonkers

     

    I am honoured to be blocked on Twitter by Diane Abbott MP. She’s now Shadow Home Secretary and in appointing her, the worst Labour leader in history, Jeremy Corbyn, achieved one thing: He proved that he’s only capable of working with morons.

     

    Crazy Corbyn – Jeremy Corbyn appoints Diane Abbott MP as Shadow Home Secretary

     

    Abbott, an offensive hypocrite of the first order and the former lover of Mr Corbyn, believes that “white people love playing divide and rule” and regularly attacks Tory education policy on state schools yet pays for her own son to be privately educated.

     

    Previously a wannabe Mayor of London and a contestant on Come Dine With Me and Pointless, this idiot woman makes Theresa May look like an intellectual giant. For this decision, Jeremy Corbyn can only be described as an utter pillock.

     

     

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  • Loving Jones

    Loving Jones

    Elizabeth Jones comes last in UKIP’s leadership contest – despite admitting to have “never made love” to Nigel Farage

     

    In UKIP’s leadership contest, which concluded yesterday, Elizabeth Jones – best known for an angry outburst on a radio show in September 2015 – unsurprisingly came last out of the five candidates who stood.

     

    Miss Jones, who previously blocked The Steeple Times on Twitter, polled just 1,203 votes compared to the winner Diane James’s 8,451 votes. The result hardly came as a surprise given the barrister compared being Prime Minister to being Joan Collins in an interview during the campaign and also bizarrely commented: “[Nigel Farage] and I have never made love”.

     

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=8&v=WwAE6GhmK8w

    Loving Jones – Elizabeth Jones comes last in UKIP leadership contest
    A motley crew – Elizabeth Jones joins George Galloway and Diane Abbott in blocking The Steeple Times on Twitter

     

     

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  • Charlie David – What’s on your mantelpiece?

    Charlie David – What’s on your mantelpiece?

    A 20-question interview with director and producer Charlie David

     

    The Steeple Times shares “wit and wisdom”. What’s your guiding force?

    I have an uncanny knack for honing in on beautiful Brazilian men in a crowd. I’m mysteriously led to them like a dowsing stick to water.

     

    “Don’t get even, get medieval” is, in our humble opinion, a great motto. What’s yours?

    Be brave enough to be honest with everyone in your life.

     

    Kerry Katona was considered unacceptable in 2007. Who or what is unacceptable in 2016?

    Man buns.

     

    Tony Blair misses being Prime Minister. What do you miss most in your life?

    Playing the piano. I know, I know! Easy enough to fix. A little easier to get back in the saddle with than becoming the head of Her Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom.

     

    What might you swap all your wealth for?

    One night of debauchery with Ricky Martin.

     

    Donald Trump was once a case of: “If you owe the bank a thousand, they close you down; but if you owe the bank a billion, you own the bank”. What’s your view on the banking crisis?

    Like travel, music, film, and other industries before it, the big banks now face the squeeze of existing in the age of the Internet. There are better places to invest than through traditional means and people are becoming savvy to that.

     

    What phrase or word do you most loathe?

    In television, network execs are very fond of using the words ‘buckets’ and ‘wheelhouse’ to describe the topics or areas of interest on their shopping list. It makes me gag a little.

     

    Overheard at the markets this year: “Murder is huge. We want BIG characters and murder. Like if you have anything with a village of little people who come together as a community to sleuth out a serial killer who has been stalking them? That would definitely be in our wheelhouse”.

     

    In the UK, some people consider charity to “begin at home”. What’s your view and what causes do you personally support?

    Through trips to Tanzania, Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa I was able to see a lot of wildlife, humanitarian and environmental initiatives. I think these are important but somehow we’re still really missing the mark in terms of foreign aid.

     

    I recently read Paul Theroux’s Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Cape Town and it was a bit shocking to me in its frank and pragmatic assessment of the impact of foreign aid and voluntourism. Definitely a very good read for anyone who has spent time in Africa or other parts of the world as a volunteer. It certainly caused me to pause and reflect a lot on the type of initiatives I lend my time and dollars to.

     

    Now on the international front, I micro-lend through Kiva.org which to me seems a more pragmatic way forward than hand-outs. It supports entrepreneurs around the world who are unable to apply for a traditional bank loan. I think it fosters business skills, accountability and trust which are all great characteristics for a thriving community.

     

    At home I like to contribute to educational, environmental and arts organizations and generally prefer to donate time/money directly to ones I’ve been involved in. That way I know the people; I can gage the impact and witness the ongoing results.

     

    The judge in Law Abiding Citizen states: “I can pretty much do whatever I want” before being blown up whilst answering her mobile phone. What’s your view on the appropriate use of such devices?

    They should be well and truly hidden whenever humans gather to break bread.

     

     Charlie David – What’s on your mantelpiece?

     

    If you could fill a carriage on The Orient Express, who would be your fellow passengers?

    Ricky Martin. Can we have one carriage to ourselves? Please? Honestly, I just think he’s talented and a total D.I.L.F. It’s likely just a passing fancy, not fanaticism.

     

    If you were unfortunate enough to end up on death row, what would be your last meal and where would you eat it?

    I’d ask for something I could share with the other inmates like a pizza party at the gym in the courtyard. I’d want it to be a block party, not a solo steak dinner.

     

    What time is it acceptable to consume the first drink of the day?

    If you’re in control of your use of alcohol and it’s not controlling you, then the hour of the clock is irrelevant.

     

    A Negroni, a martini or a cup of tea?

    A Negroni s’il vous plait.

     

    Whose parties do you enjoy the most and why?

    My nephews’ and nieces’. I love watching them go to work on a piñata.

     

    Who is the most positive person you know?

    My mother. She is pure joy and gratitude. I strive to embody that outlook.

     

    What’s your most guilty pleasure?

    Pizza and Netflix.

     

    If a tattoo were to sum you up, what would it be of?

    Ricky Martin eating a pizza and watching Netflix.

     

    If you were a car, what marque would you be?

    Honda – Reliable, frugal and pragmatic.

     

    Cilla Black presented Surprise, Surprise. Tell us the most surprising thing about you.

    I had a band as a teenager and opened for Destiny’s Child when Ferra was still part of the group.

     

    What’s currently sitting on your mantelpiece?

    Books, books, books. And a bobble-head doll of Ricky Martin.

     

    Charlie David is a storyteller with film, books and web. He lives in Toronto and Montréal, Canada and is the founder of Border2Border Entertainment, Inc.

     

    Follow him on Twitter at @CharlieDavid and view his channel on YouTube at @MrCharlieDavid.

     

     

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  • The Duke of Westminster

    The Duke of Westminster

    A tribute to Gerald Cavendish, the 6th Duke of Westminster (1951 – 2016)

     

    Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor, the 6th Duke of Westminster was a man of duty dedicated to his country, its military and to the countryside he so loved.

     

    Described in a poignant tribute on the Grosvenor Estate’s website as “distinctly down-to-earth” and “rarely seen without a Diet Coke and a cigarette (later electric)”, the Duke – one of the country’s finest shots – was not one to mince his words and not one to shirk from a row. He took Westminster Council to court when they proposed selling off a housing estate in Pimlico intended by his ancestors specifically for the use of the working classes and won and then subsequently quit the Conservative Party in 1993 after a row with John Major over his leasehold reform legislation. At the time, he stated: “I had to leave because of my own conscience. I took a moral stand”.

     

    Not without his flaws – including a little bit of a scandal in 2008 involving a New York escort service – and someone prone to sleepless nights and depression, the Duke may have been a billionaire but he also had the common touch. Though he made the founding gift of £50 million to the Defence and National Rehabilitation Centre in 2011 and supported farmers hit by the 2001 foot and mouth crisis with a £500,000 donation, he was just as likely to be found offering words of encouragement and sharing laughter in the communities he so especially treasured in Cheshire and at Abbeystead in Lancashire.

     

    In 1995, appearing on the BBC’s Desert Island Discs, the Duke remarked:

     

    “In the context of eternity, if I am lucky I might live 70 years, but this estate has been with us for 3, 4, 5, 600 years. I am only a mere flicker in the process of time. It is what I do with it, rather than what I am worth, that I believe is more important”.

     

    Modest to his core and a man with a loathing for such tags as “environmentalist” and “philanthropist”, the Duke left the Grosvenor Estate in a far better state than he found it in 1979. He may have been born with a silver spoon, but he understood that with rights came responsibilities.

     

     

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  • Pricking Bonneville

    Pricking Bonneville

    Hugh Bonneville shares his views on the self-satisfied classes (more…)