The Steeple Times

Tag: Brexit

  • Booze Bashed By Brexit

    Booze Bashed By Brexit

    Spirits brands hike prices by upto 16% and blame Brexit for increasing their supply-side costs

     

    Drink loving Brexiteers may have cause to reconsider their enthusiasm for Britain leaving the EU.

     

    Since last year’s referendum, the price of vodka has risen 5% on average whilst gin is up 3%. Bombay Sapphire has hiked its price by 16% to £24.20 for a litre bottle according to The Grocer and many other brands have followed suit.

     

    Worldwide co-leader in the wine and spirits sector Pernod Ricard blamed the increases on supply-side costs rising due to Brexit whilst The Wine and Spirit Trading Association added that the Chancellor, Philip Hammond, has added to the industry’s woes and created “a tough trading environment”.

     

  • The Baloney of Brexit

    The Baloney of Brexit

    Summing up Britain beginning its road to Brexit and an amusing take on the Prime Minister’s letter to Donald Tusk

     

    Yesterday, Theresa May found her date with destiny and triggered Article 50. With no more restrictions on bendy bananas (a total myth) and the start of a long goodbye, Britain reached a “historic moment” from which there can be – as the shoe loving Prime Minister herself put it – “no turning back”.

     

    As Sky News suggested 56% of those they polled were happy with what is about to occur, Mrs May met with her cabinet in Downing Street. Bumbling Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson was the last to arrive at the gathering and the first to leave and later the well-known CV exaggerator turned Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Andrea Leadsom announced she was “very happy” with what had been discussed.

     

    May was unsurprisingly subsequently heckled in Parliament when she announced: “We know we will lose influence… The world needs the liberal, democratic values of Europe” and was met with disdain from Lord Heseltine also. He commented:

     

    “The letter represents the biggest sacrifice of British sovereignty that I can remember… All the stuff about gaining sovereignty will be exposed for the hypocrisy that it was… It is the biggest sacrifice of self-interest I know of”.

     

    Whilst the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker remarked of the biggest victory for nationalism since the Second World War: “I’m deeply sad”, we’ll leave the final word with the President of the European Council Donald Tusk. He added: “Thank you and goodbye”.

     

    An amusing take on Theresa May’s letter, shared widely on social media, to Donald Tusk follows:

    The Baloney of Brexit – Summing up Britain beginning its road to Brexit

     

  • Taxi!

    Rare 1938 Austin taxi to be auctioned; it is one of just four known to survive

     

    On 29th March, the very day Theresa May taxis towards Brexit and triggers Article 50, H&H Classics will auction a 1938 Austin 12/4 Heavy Low Loader Taxicab with coachwork by J. & H. Ricketts at their Imperial War Museum Duxford sale in Cambridgeshire.

     

    Offered with an estimate of £24,000 to £28,000 ($30,100 to $35,200, €27,700 to €32,400 or درهم110,700 to درهم129,100)., the quirky landaulette hooded vehicle features a retractable roof, roof rack and taxi meter. It has a red interior and an 1842 cc engine.

     

    The maroon and black vehicle was used in London before the Second World War and up until 1955, participated in the London to Brighton Historic Commercial Run in 1964 and then was left in a lock-up in Gravesend, Kent until the 1980s. Restored and returned to the road in 2003, the car is described as being in “presentable” condition.

     

  • Taxi!

    Taxi!

    Rare 1938 Austin taxi to be auctioned; it is one of just four known to survive

     

    On 29th March, the very day Theresa May taxis towards Brexit and triggers Article 50, H&H Classics will auction a 1938 Austin 12/4 Heavy Low Loader Taxicab with coachwork by J. & H. Ricketts at their Imperial War Museum Duxford sale in Cambridgeshire.

     

    Offered with an estimate of £24,000 to £28,000 ($30,100 to $35,200, €27,700 to €32,400 or درهم110,700 to درهم129,100)., the quirky landaulette hooded vehicle features a retractable roof, roof rack and taxi meter. It has a red interior and an 1842 cc engine.

     

    The maroon and black vehicle was used in London before the Second World War and up until 1955, participated in the London to Brighton Historic Commercial Run in 1964 and then was left in a lock-up in Gravesend, Kent until the 1980s. Restored and returned to the road in 2003, the car is described as being in “presentable” condition.

     

    Taxi! – 1938 Austin 12/4 Heavy Low Loader Taxicab with coachwork by J. & H. Ricketts to be sold by H&H Classics at their Imperial War Museum Duxford sale in Cambridgeshire on 29th March 2017 – Estimate: £24,000 to £28,000 ($30,100 to $35,200, €27,700 to €32,400 or درهم110,700 to درهم129,100) Taxi! – 1938 Austin 12/4 Heavy Low Loader Taxicab with coachwork by J. & H. Ricketts to be sold by H&H Classics at their Imperial War Museum Duxford sale in Cambridgeshire on 29th March 2017 – Estimate: £24,000 to £28,000 ($30,100 to $35,200, €27,700 to €32,400 or درهم110,700 to درهم129,100)Taxi! – 1938 Austin 12/4 Heavy Low Loader Taxicab with coachwork by J. & H. Ricketts to be sold by H&H Classics at their Imperial War Museum Duxford sale in Cambridgeshire on 29th March 2017 – Estimate: £24,000 to £28,000 ($30,100 to $35,200, €27,700 to €32,400 or درهم110,700 to درهم129,100)Taxi! – 1938 Austin 12/4 Heavy Low Loader Taxicab with coachwork by J. & H. Ricketts to be sold by H&H Classics at their Imperial War Museum Duxford sale in Cambridgeshire on 29th March 2017 – Estimate: £24,000 to £28,000 ($30,100 to $35,200, €27,700 to €32,400 or درهم110,700 to درهم129,100)Taxi! – 1938 Austin 12/4 Heavy Low Loader Taxicab with coachwork by J. & H. Ricketts to be sold by H&H Classics at their Imperial War Museum Duxford sale in Cambridgeshire on 29th March 2017 – Estimate: £24,000 to £28,000 ($30,100 to $35,200, €27,700 to €32,400 or درهم110,700 to درهم129,100)Taxi! – 1938 Austin 12/4 Heavy Low Loader Taxicab with coachwork by J. & H. Ricketts to be sold by H&H Classics at their Imperial War Museum Duxford sale in Cambridgeshire on 29th March 2017 – Estimate: £24,000 to £28,000 ($30,100 to $35,200, €27,700 to €32,400 or درهم110,700 to درهم129,100)

  • Cooking-Up a Cock-Up

    Cooking-Up a Cock-Up

    As Donald Trump is criticised for dousing over-cooked steak in ketchup, we take a look at Theresa May’s preference for dining at the favourite restaurant of a paedophile and her lack of interest in the “absolutely meticulously” recipes of Delia Smith

     

    In 2008, Theresa May told The Guardian: “I’ve knocked on Rolf Harris’s door and asked for his vote” and in the very same article the now Prime Minister also cited the since jailed paedophile’s favourite restaurant, Maliks Tandoori House in Cookham, Berkshire, as her own hangout of choice too.

     

    The dining habits of top-drawer politicians came under scrutiny again earlier this week when Town & Country’s Sam Dangremond analysed Donald Trump’s preference for eating well-done steaks topped with ketchup. The 45th POTUS supposedly likes his meat to “rock on the plate” (according to his former butler) but in Britain, our somewhat clueless leader’s food choices are a little more specific.

     

    Aside from loving Indian cuisine and her eponymous “red, white and blue Brexit”, Mrs May is a woman with a preference for a no doubt red, white (but not so blue) Kit Kat and recipes from the cookbooks of the throttled ex-wife of Charles Saatchi, ‘Highgella’ Lawson. In 2008, she remarked: “The other day I did a Nigella recipe for a mustard-and-caper sauce on purple-sprouting broccoli”.

     

    The vicar’s daughter, it transpires, does not have Delia Smith’s books in her kitchen, however. Why? Not because the cook-turned-football-club-chairwoman is generally utterly smashed most of the time, but due to the fact she’s “absolutely meticulous”. The character of the government of Mrs May, thus, could be revealed in a cookbook; its title would no doubt be A Total & Utterly Unmeticulous Cock-Up.

     

    Cooking-Up a Cock-Up – Eating habits of Theresa May – Dining habits of Donald Trump and Theresa May. He likes overcooked steaks doused in ketchup; she likes to dine at the favourite restaurant of the paedo Rolf Harris
    Malik Ahmed with Theresa May
    Cooking-Up a Cock-Up – Eating habits of Theresa May – Dining habits of Donald Trump and Theresa May. He likes overcooked steaks doused in ketchup; she likes to dine at the favourite restaurant of the paedo Rolf Harris
    Rolf Harris with Alwyn Hughes and Malik Ahmed
    Cooking-Up a Cock-Up – Eating habits of Theresa May – Dining habits of Donald Trump and Theresa May. He likes overcooked steaks doused in ketchup; she likes to dine at the favourite restaurant of the paedo Rolf Harris
    A cartoon by Rolf Harris for Maliks restaurant
    Cooking-Up a Cock-Up – Eating habits of Theresa May – Dining habits of Donald Trump and Theresa May. He likes overcooked steaks doused in ketchup; she likes to dine at the favourite restaurant of the paedo Rolf Harris
    Donald Trump eating
  • Singleminded Sturgeon

    Singleminded Sturgeon

    As Nicola Sturgeon lobs a grenade at Theresa May’s “red, white and blue Brexit”, Jeremy Corbyn is met with equal derision

     

    Yesterday, Nicola Sturgeon pulled a blinder and threw a spanner in Theresa May’s plan to announce a “red, white and blue Brexit” with immediate effect.

     

    Undoubtedly the reason hapless Mrs May didn’t proceed to trigger Article 50 on Monday, Sturgeon’s actions left even Conservative hardliners questioning the merits of the unknown road Britain is currently on. They, of course, care for the Union more than anything else and that it is again at risk is most worrying indeed.

     

    On Tuesday morning, Tory MP Anna Soubry told SKY News:

     

    “I would say to Theresa May: Don’t turn your back on the Single Market. It would solve the problem in Scotland and Northern Ireland if we stayed in the Single Market”.

     

    Elsewhere, Labour lightweight Jeremy Corbyn took to Twitter to ask the public to “join [him] in Parliament Square and help defend the rights of EU citizens who have made a life here”. He was understandably met with utter derision and amongst the 618 comments in response were such remarks as:

     

    “Piss off Jeremy, you whipped your MPs into letting the UK get into this state. Stick your pointless rally up your arse”.

     

    “You do know you’re allowed inside Parliament, right? You actually have a nice platform in there where you can push for change”.

     

    “You’re the leader of a political party, not a protest movement. There’s a crucial vote in the Lords today, and soon in the Commons. Focus on that, not pick-nicking in the square”.

     

    “An oven glove on a stick would be a more effective opposition leader than you”.

     

  • Big Beast Banished After Brexit Balls-up

    Big Beast Banished After Brexit Balls-up

    Theresa May has made an error in sacking ‘big beast’ Lord Heseltine as a government advisor; that she never bothered to meet him speaks volumes as to her management of her government

     

    Yesterday, in spite of having never bothered to meet one of the Conservative Party’s most knowledgeable grandees, Theresa May stupidly sacked Lord Heseltine.

     

    In 2013, Heseltine wisely warned David Cameron that an “in-or-out” referendum would be the wrong thing for the UK. He was ignored and in spite of what happened next, the former Prime Minister’s unelected replacement, Mrs May, subsequently ditched her support for “Remain” and threw her weight behind a still to this day meaningless concept: “Red, White and Blue Brexit”.

     

    Yesterday, Heseltine, who had been advising the government on restoring deprived estates, plans for east London and was also a national infrastructure commissioner, commented:

     

    “I heard nothing from Number 10, I’ve had no relationship with Number 10 since the new Prime Minister (Mrs May)”.

     

    “But I’m not complaining, I was getting on with the job that I was doing. I’ve never met Theresa May and so I can’t make a judgment”.

     

    “My preoccupation has been from the very beginning that I believe that the referendum result is the most disastrous peacetime result that we’ve seen in this country”.

     

    Repeatedly lauded as: “The last of a generation that was not always admired but was, with very good reason, always heard”, Heseltine could have – in spite of their differences on matters European – have provided the vicar’s daughter with good advice on business, housing and the environment.

     

    Theresa May has chosen a different course but today she should be reminded of the old adage that “all political careers end in failure”. With the big beast ‘Tarzan’ again left free to roam the Serengeti, this misguided woman would do well to keep her other enemies closest.

     

  • Moron of the Moment – Reverend Philip Fowles

    Moron of the Moment – Reverend Philip Fowles

    Foul-mouthed Anglican cleric Philip Fowles should be truly ashamed of himself

     

    Men of the church are generally thought of as polite, kind and sympathetic but in the Reverend Philip Fowles we’ve found an exception.

     

    Conservative supporting Fowles, using an official email account, recently wrote to Anna Soubry MP and told her she was a “traitor” and a “disgrace to our great party”. He added: “Burn in hell you evil bitch!” and described her as a “desperate and treacherous politician”.

     

    After Ms Soubry’s office called police, Fowles attempted an apology but he should remember this. We all must be held accountable for whatever we post online and send via email as much as for what as we say in person.

     

    Fowles has now been “suspended pending further investigation”, according to his employers, the St Monica’s Trust.

     

  • Rooting Out Rupert

    Rooting Out Rupert

    Matthew Steeples highlights an especially unpleasant individual – Meet Rupert James, a ‘man’ with a hatred for Gina Miller and what he calls ‘Kaffir Boys’

     

    Aside from being a typical example of an angry old man, Rupert James is someone who takes to social media to abuse others. To him, Gina Miller is a “witch” and “an interfering bint”; an image of a black parking warden generates a comment of “just look… enough said” and a video of bull terriers attacking a black man in South Africa is shared along with the comment: “Take away has arrived. Feeding time… Serves the thieving Kaffir right… Hahaha!!!”

     

    Rooting Out Rupert – Rupert James Facebook posts – Kaffir – Bigotry and racism – Gina Miller – Matthew Steeples
    Rupert James shares his views on a video shared by something called ‘South Africa Crime Watch’
    Rooting Out Rupert – Rupert James Facebook posts – Kaffir – Bigotry and racism – Gina Miller – Matthew Steeples
    The original post by the ‘organisation’

     

    Shared on Facebook with his equally nasty chums, James previously has referred to other black men as “Kaffir Boys” and myself as a “complete c**t”. He added: “He’s going to regret the way he’s spoken and written about me. This I promise” and added: “Being blocked by this little s**t is as good as being sent to the Upper House”. James has no regard for civility and along with his cronies seems unable to accept how inappropriate using the word ‘kaffir’ truly is.

     

    Regarded as “highly racially offensive, in the same way as nigger in the United Sates” according to Wikipedia and “seldom used as an isolated insult, but rather is used systematically by openly racist people when talking about black people”, ‘kaffir’ is a word that should be banished to history. It and individuals like Rupert James have no place in civilised society.

     

    Further examples of posts from Rupert James follow:

     

    Rooting Out Rupert – Rupert James Facebook posts – Kaffir – Bigotry and racism – Gina Miller – Matthew Steeples Rooting Out Rupert – Rupert James Facebook posts – Kaffir – Bigotry and racism – Gina Miller – Matthew SteeplesRooting Out Rupert – Rupert James Facebook posts – Kaffir – Bigotry and racism – Gina Miller – Matthew SteeplesRooting Out Rupert – Rupert James Facebook posts – Kaffir – Bigotry and racism – Gina Miller – Matthew SteeplesRooting Out Rupert – Rupert James Facebook posts – Kaffir – Bigotry and racism – Gina Miller – Matthew Steeples

     

  • Hero of the Hour – Robert Harris

    Hero of the Hour – Robert Harris

    Matthew Steeples suggests Robert Harris is right to point out how Britain has changed and changed for the worse

     

    The novelist Robert Harris was attacked this morning by the Daily Mail’s Stephen Glover as an “immoderate Remoaner” for tweeting about how he felt Britain had changed since the Brexit referendum.

     

    On Tuesday, Harris had remarked:

     

    “Everything I liked about my country — tolerance, moderation, courtesy, sensibleness, pragmatism, irony — seems to have disappeared”.

     

    In a second tweet, Harris had added:

     

    “Brexit everywhere. Nothing but bloody Brexit. It’s a nightmare. It’s like living inside Bill Cash’s brain”.

     

    Mr Harris is right and Mr Glover is wrong. Whilst Theresa May’s “red, white and blue Brexit” might be something that him and the 52% that voted to leave may continue to celebrate, those of us who supported the opposite still have the right to a voice. We also have the right not to be attacked in bars, restaurants and in the street by the angry men and women (as I myself have personally experienced) and we also should not be called “intemperate”, “crazy” and “home-grown extremists”.

     

    Robert Harris