The Steeple Times

Tag: Brexit

  • The Boat Britain Didn’t Ask For (Or Need)

    The Boat Britain Didn’t Ask For (Or Need)

    Nikolay Kalinin joins those condemning Boris Johnson’s decision to waste £200 million on a boat Britain didn’t ask for (or need)

    Remember when Eurosceptics pledged Brexit would enable the government to give £350 million per week ($496 million, €406 million or درهم1.8 billion per week) to the NHS? Well, now we finally know where that money is actually going as the government has officially decided to waste some of it commissioning a vanity ship they claim will showcase the “best of British.”

     

    The £200 million ($284 million, €232 million or درهم1 billion) gin palace – which was to be named after the late Duke of Edinburgh though even the royal family have supposedly raised objections to such as they don’t think an association with it will do them any favours – is set to be the successor to the Royal Yacht Britannia, which was retired in 1997. Boris Johnson has stated that the vessel will “represent and promote the best of British – a clear and powerful symbol of our commitment to be an active player on the world stage.”

     

    Yet, one cannot ignore that this project seems so pointless and unnecessarily expensive, a fact that has been called out by figures in Parliament. When asked about the diplomatic benefits of “recommissioning HM Yacht Britannia” by Conservative MP for Romford, Andrew Rosindell, President for COP26, Alok Sharma, admitted: “The royal yacht was used on just 37 occasions for… signing trade deals during 1989 – 1997. There’s no evidence that the yacht made a difference to the trade deals secured in these years and this level of use would not represent a good return on investment.”

     

    The Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Bridget Phillipson, also seemed to agree, stating: “We want to see public money used for targeted investment in a green economic recovery, resources for our NHS, and supporting families to succeed.”

     

    She added that if the government does go ahead with the plan to build the yacht: “We’d want to see it built in Britain, supporting jobs and skills in shipyards here, and with a real focus on value for money at every stage.”

     

    What we are seeing here once again is the government misappropriating taxpayers’ money in order to reinforce the fake vision of muscular unionism. The government is trying to reinforce a vision of a united Britain and ‘Britishness’ not through progressive deeds that reflect ‘British values,’ but through objects such as yachts named after recognisable things.

     

    It’s not only the costly yacht however that reflects the idea that ‘muscular unionism’ is so empty, as some time ago an autonomous company launched trials of a self-driving bus in Cambridge, which was draped in the Union Jack.

     

    Comedian Jonathan Pie reacted to the news by calling the bus “the perfect visual metaphor for a country in the grips of such inept and directionless leadership,” while Lord Andrew Adonis mockingly wrote that it “looks like a Brexit bus.”

     

    While I like flags as much as the next man, the fact that ‘BoJo’ seems hellbent on putting them up everywhere demonstrates that his government has nothing much to offer. If Johnson really wants to unite the people of his country, he should work on fixing the rift between his government and Scotland and solve the problems Northern Ireland is facing as a result of Brexit.

     

    Boat Boris Queen Britannia
    The Queen’s love of the Royal Yacht Britannia was never a secret, but even she’s said to believe the decision to order a replacement to be quite beyond unrequired. Meanwhile, the most enthusiastic tin banger for the expensive tub has been Christopher Hope of ‘The Telegraph.’ He has run the paper’s campaign for the vessel since September 2016 and written three dozen articles in support of what he believes to be “putting right [the] historical wrong” of not having a royal yacht.
  • Deranged Dom & Bashful BoJo’s Rotten Regime

    Deranged Dom & Bashful BoJo’s Rotten Regime

    Nikolay Kalinin concludes that both Dominic Cummings and Boris Johnson’s rotten regime come out of this week disgraced

    Dominic Cummings’ questioning at the COVID select committee has undoubtedly provoked a tsunami of responses. Cummings branded the PM he once advised as “unfit for job” and condemned Matt Hancock by saying that he “should have been fired for at least 15, 20 things, including lying to everybody on multiple occasions.”

     

    Cummings claimed during questioning that Hancock lied about people getting treatment during the summer and stated: “We were told explicitly people did not get the treatment they deserved, many people were left to die in horrific circumstances.”

     

    Not only that, but Cummings also stated that Johnson did indeed say that he would rather “let the bodies pile high in their thousands” that enforce another lockdown. If true, this demonstrates that the Prime Minister is absolutely not fit to rule a country whose people he has put in peril as a result of his continued incompetence.

     

    There is no denying that the response of government officials to Cummings’ accusations has been plainly childish, including the response of Liz Truss, who stated that she “hasn’t had time to look at it yet” but also then stated: “I’m not going to engage with the false claims that are being made today.”

     

    Meanwhile, Peter Kyle, Labour MP for Hove has decided to try to kill two birds with one stone by releasing a PMQ video from 25th March 2020 where he told the PM about the lack of COVID tests available in his constituency and how long it took to deliver them, captioning it with the words “They knew. THEY KNEW!”

     

    Not only has Cummings’ dropped a bomb on the government but on ‘Costly Carrie’ too. In stating that his resignation from the role of Chief Adviser was linked “to the fact that the prime minister’s girlfriend was trying to change a whole bunch of different appointments at Number 10 and appoint her friends to particular jobs” – which sounds like a totally legitimate claim, especially considering how desperate ‘BoJo’ was to defend Carrie’s friend Henry Newman who got exposed as the man who leaked info about a second lockdown.

     

    A YouGov poll conducted after the questioning concluded that although 55% of people do not trust Boris Johnson and how he has painted the government’s handling of the pandemic, a whopping 75% do not trust Cummings’ claims. This is not surprising considering the fact that he was responsible for the deceptive propaganda of Vote Leave and its “£350 million for NHS” claim.

     

    Another poll conducted by Survation has concluded that even after Cummings’ revelations, the Conservatives extended their lead over Labour by 11 points, which is extremely concerning, because this shows that more people would rather trust the words of a man who throughout this pandemic has demonstrated barely any decent leadership and whose utter idiocy has destroyed the lives of many.

     

    Not only that, but this poll shows that the people of Britain seem more likely to support a man whose fiancé wants to undermine the democratic process on which this country stands on and replace it with a rotten regime and controlled cronyism.

     

    It truly feels as if most of Britain’s population are in the ‘Cult of BoJo’ and cannot stop ignoring all the terrible things he and his lackeys have done. If this is the kind of country that we are destined to live in for the next few years, then I’d argue that we are truly doomed.

     

    Deranged Dom & Bashful BoJo’s Rotten Regime 2021 – Nikolay Kalinin concludes that both Dominic Cummings and Boris Johnson’s rotten regime come out of this week disgraced.
    Dominic Cummings’ grilling this week told the public what they already knew about Boris Johnson’s rotten regime.
    Deranged Dom & Bashful BoJo’s Rotten Regime 2021 – Nikolay Kalinin concludes that both Dominic Cummings and Boris Johnson’s rotten regime come out of this week disgraced.
    Boris Johnson comes out of this sorry saga looking more and more like a puppet and one formerly controlled by Cummings and now most definitely in the clutches of his latest ‘baby mama,’ Carrie Symonds.
    Deranged Dom & Bashful BoJo’s Rotten Regime 2021 – Nikolay Kalinin concludes that both Dominic Cummings and Boris Johnson’s rotten regime come out of this week disgraced.
    The court of Carrie Symonds (pictured with her “chatty rat” bestie Henry Newman) holds more sway than anything else currently in the ear of our laughable, not laudable Prime Minister.
  • Is a Republic on the way?

    Is a Republic on the way?

    Nikolay Kalinin analyses the results of a YouGov poll that came out in favour of a republic and elected head of state

    Breaking away from the traditionalist views of their predecessors, the youth of today in Britain recently proclaimed support for the abolition of the monarchy and the establishment of an elected head of state, a YouGov poll has found.

     

    According to YouGov, which conducted its survey between 2019 and 2021, more than four in ten 18 – 24 year olds surveyed supported removing the monarch and replacing it with an elected representative. Meanwhile, 31% of 18 – 24 year olds were found to still support the monarchy, a 15-point decline from 2019.

     

    Another key headline was that general support for an elected head of state rose over the past two years, from 26% in 2019 to 41% in 2021.

     

    These results come after two years of controversies surrounding the royal family, including Prince Andrew’s juggernaut wreck of an interview on the BBC’s Newsnight regarding his friendship with pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s interview on CBS.

     

    Nevertheless, backing for the royal family itself actually remains high – three in five support the Queen and her heirs – especially amongst the older age groups. Seven in ten people between the ages of 50 – 64 were found to still be in favour of the monarchy, whilst of people aged 65 plus, that number rose to 8 out of 10.

     

    The results of this poll to me are not surprising. Many young people don’t like the idea of a monarchy and its disconnect from the rest of the population in general. Many also resent spending millions to sustain their palaces whilst more and more people become homeless in the UK every year.

     

    We also have to remember that the government is planning on spending £200 million of taxpayers’ money – which could have been used to fund the NHS or to build more police stations – on a massive yacht named after the late Duke of Edinburgh. I join those questioning how that yacht will benefit the British public.

     

    To young people, the monarchy is a reminder of an age when society was more backward, and to them there is also no need for a sovereign ruler whose very existence undermines the principle of democracy. Young people are also more likely to be critical of what they see as the cult-like attitude of the media towards the monarchy, even having ‘royal correspondents’ who report on their affairs. To them, it’s all so unnecessary and out of place in the 21st century.

     

    Opposition to the monarchy is not leaderless; the pressure group Republic has risen to prominence in the recent years and currently has around 80,000 supporters in the country. Responding to the poll results, the organisation’s CEO Graham Smith stated: “Support for the monarchy has been sustained by the Queen’s long reign. The automatic succession of King Charles will dramatically alter the debate and public attitudes, putting the monarchy on collision course with modern British values. This latest poll is another reminder of the urgent need for a serious, honest and grown up debate about the future of the monarchy and the democratic alternative.”

     

    Still, just as the Martin Bashir scandal and the intense hatred of the British public for ‘MeGain’ rumbles on, the royal family continues to enjoy popularity amongst the older traditionalist crowd. This comes especially as the Queen herself has reportedly been “deeply upset” by Prince Harry’s comments on his upbringing in a “cycle of suffering,” which he revealed on his new Apple TV+ series with Oprah Winfrey.

     

    Inevitably, however, the older generation is going to die out, and the increasing republican and younger members of society will become more outspoken. There is even a parliamentary petition with almost 7,000 signatures calling for a referendum on the abolition of the monarchy, though it still needs to reach 10,000 signatures before a government response is even orchestrated.

     

    This dissatisfaction with the monarchy can be easily reflected in Nick Abbott’s radio episode on LBC on 21st May, in which he commented on the negative response to Prince Harry’s comments by stating: “It’s as if though we’re obsessed with time not advancing, and Brexit is a lot like that. We just want to regain some imagined past, some Disneyfication of the nation.”

     

    Is a Republic on the way in the 2020s? YouGov poll supports republic – Nikolay Kalinin analyses the results of a YouGov poll that came out in favour of a republic and elected head of state.
    Will the monarchy survive into the 2030s? Young people don’t seem especially enthusiastic for it if YouGov’s latest poll is to be believed. The scandal of Prince Andrew’s involvement with Jeffrey Epstein and other unsavoury characters hasn’t helped and nor has the behaviour of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, but the Queen remains firmly in the nation’s hearts – that is for sure.
    “Replacing the monarchy with a museum” is the desire of some in the UK, but that most certainly is not backed by older British citizens.
    In June 2012, ‘The Steeple Times’ featured reader favourite Anton Lorien’s tribute to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. It stands as a testament to the legacy of an esteemed lady whose service to her country is widely believed to have been exemplary.
  • A Wetherspoons Washout 2021

    A Wetherspoons Washout 2021

    On ‘Unlockdown Day 2021’ the Truro branch of Wetherspoons was empty; given its owner Tim Martin’s joy in banning just about everything, could anybody be surprised?

    Wetherspoons pub chain owner Tim Martin is a bore, a braggart and an on-off Boris Johnson groupie. This deservedly disliked dimwit is known for ranting in support of Brexit and not allowing European alcohol brands to be served in his venues and in January 2020, the draconian drip even “limited customers with children to just two alcoholic drinks each.” This laughable lunatic even once went as far as to put a stop to champagne on the basis of where it has to be made.

     

    Prior to these decidedly deranged decisions, 66-year-old Martin banned dogs both inside and outside his pubs (on the basis that his workers “are sick of picking up poop”) and then added social media usage to his list of things prohibited across all premises. Here is a man whom claimed to dislike the rules of the EU, but here also is one obsessed with creating ridiculous rules of his own.

     

    Yesterday, when British pubs were finally allowed to reopen after the easing of the third lockdown and patrons flocked to bars to get pissed, the public took rightful revenge on Tim Martin.

     

    Featured in an article by a trainee reporter for Cornwall Live named Edward Church, the Truro branch of the painfully picky chain, a dirty looking dump named Try Dowr, “wasn’t met with a stampede” on reopening and nor did it get “much of a fanfare.”

     

    “By 7.30am, no one had shown up,” commented Church, before adding: “A few passersby seemed tempted… [But] none of them stuck around in chilly, windy Lemon Square for their chance of a cheap pint, and they wandered off to Pannier Market and elsewhere on the square… Time passed, however, and no queue materialised.”

     

    Diddums to Tim Martin and perhaps a warning also: Nobody likes a killjoy and frankly nobody wanted to return to his funless dumps when freedom allowed. Perhaps it’s time for ‘Dim Tim’ to relax his ridiculous rules and turn his pubs back into places people might actually enjoy. Next!

     

    Pictured top: Tim Martin, a man once voted ‘PR Week’s’ “Flop of the Month,” with his on-off Brexiteering bestie Boris Johnson.

     

    A Wetherspoons Washout 2021 – No shows at Wetherspoons pubs – On ‘Unlockdown Day 2021’ the Truro branch of Wetherspoons was still empty; given its owner Tim Martin’s joy in banning just about everything, could anybody be surprised?
    A Wetherspoons Washout 2021 – The Try Dowr branch of Wetherspoons is not exactly Britain’s most beautiful boozer, but one would have thought it would have had at least a few loyal customers willing to return to celebrate reopening. Plainly, the impact of tiresome Tim Martin’s ridiculous rules proved to the contrary on ‘Unlockdown Day 2021.’
    A Wetherspoons Washout 2021 – In July 2020, just before lockdown restrictions were for the first time relaxed, the @SteepleTimes Twitter account shared this clip of “a male and a female are seen staggering up and falling down a staircase whilst, frankly, p***ed out of their skulls” and accompanied it with the caption: “Two J. D. Wetherspoons customers at 3pm tomorrow.” It went viral and was liked by nearly 500 people and shared by nearly 200 also.
    A Wetherspoons Washout 2021 – No shows at Wetherspoons pubs – On ‘Unlockdown Day 2021’ the Truro branch of Wetherspoons was still empty; given its owner Tim Martin’s joy in banning just about everything, could anybody be surprised?
    A Wetherspoons Washout 2021 – Members of the Facebook group ‘Angry People in Local Newspapers’ got somewhat worked up about the ‘Cornwall Live’ story. Some strangely actually supported Tim Martin, but the majority expressed sentiments such as: “That’s Wetherspoons for you, the locals are good judges. Actually a piece of half decent journalism from ‘Cornwall Live’ for once.”
    A Wetherspoons Washout 2021 – No shows at Wetherspoons pubs – On ‘Unlockdown Day 2021’ the Truro branch of Wetherspoons was still empty; given its owner Tim Martin’s joy in banning just about everything, could anybody be surprised?
    A Wetherspoons Washout 2021 – Another ‘APLIN’ member, Gerard Montgomery, concluded: “It would be nice to think this is people supporting local pubs and remembering how poorly ‘Spoons treated their staff,” whilst one Ian McGowan concluded: “I am waiting for ‘Hull Live’ to run a story of the first post lockdown punch-up in one of the local ‘Spoons. We should not have long to wait.”
  • A Hiding in Hartlepool

    A Hiding in Hartlepool

    Nikolay Kalinin shares his thoughts on Labour’s electoral hiding in Hartlepool

    On Friday, came the result that everybody expected: The Labour Party lost the Hartlepool by-election to the Conservatives and for the first time since the constituency was created in 1974, a party other than Labour has the seat.

     

    The outcome is both surprising and not surprising; after all, back in 2016 nearly 70% of Hartlepool voters supported leaving the EU, and the successful COVID-19 vaccine rollout has ensured that the government has the majority of public support. Yet in 2017, the Corbyn led Labour managed to retain the seat, even gaining the majority of the vote, and in the 2019 election Labour retained the seat, even though the party was seen as the biggest opponent of Brexit.

     

    The truth is that there’s no single reason why Labour lost the by-election; Lord Mandelson for example has attributed Labour’s defeat to the “two Cs – Corbyn and COVID,” while casting Brexit as a secondary issue: “Believe it or not, not on one door that I knocked did a single voter mention Brexit to me. The one thing they did raise with me however is Jeremy Corbyn – he is still casting a very dark cloud over Labour,” Mandelson remarked.

     

    Labour’s defeat and Jill Mortimer’s win also lies in the absence of the Brexit Party, now named Reform UK; back in 2019 the party split the vote, gaining 25.8% whereas the Conservatives gained 28.9%, which was instrumental in allowing Labour to win with just 37% of the vote. Had the Brexit Party not run that year, the Conservatives would have definitely won.

     

    The disconnect between Labour and the electorate can be evidenced in Friday’s episode of BBC Radio 5 Live Breakfast, where several callers voiced their dissatisfactions with the party; one Conservative voter and small business owner stated that Labour “have taken Hartlepool for granted” and “chose a guy who was a devout Remainer.” Another caller added that Labour “needs to work on actually speaking to the working classes again” and connect with “small business owners, self-employed, Deliveroo drivers” as they “are the new working class.”

     

    The choice of Paul Williams as Labour’s candidate for Hartlepool was also a factor in the party’s undoing in the by-election, since his choice once again evokes a disconnect between Labour and the voters they are trying to appeal to; not only was Williams an MP for another constituency – namely Stockton South – but he also opposed Brexit when most of the voters in his seat voted to leave the EU. You shouldn’t choose a Remainer to represent a Brexiteer constituency, just like you shouldn’t choose Priti Patel as ambassador for a mental health organisation, would be my conclusion.

     

    Even Sir Keir Starmer seems to agree that Labour has been disconnected with the voters, as he reacted to the election results by saying, “Very often we’ve been talking to ourselves, instead of to the country, and we’ve lost the trust of working people, particularly in places like Hartlepool. I intend to do whatever is necessary to fix that.”

     

    To a lesser extent another reason for Labour’s defeat is the fact that their previous MP, Mike Hill, was a sexual predator, which makes me wonder: “Why was Stephen Crabb, Conservative MP for Preseli Pembrokeshire, not forced out of his seat considering he was shown to be a degenerate with an unrestrained sexual desire.”

     

    So, what is my overall analysis? Labour’s defeat in Hartlepool and the collapse of an important part of the ‘Red Wall’ was brought on by a wide range of factors, ranging from the time of Corbyn’s leadership, the successful vaccination rollout by the Conservative government, and also the issue over EU, which suggests that Brexit is still a prevalent issue among the British public.

     

    Many would blame Corbyn for where the party is now, and I can agree that he dragged Labour down in 2019, but the truth is that Sir Keir might actually drag them down even further; whereas Corbyn tried to appeal to the “new working class” of young workers – which was essential in getting more young people to vote in 2017 – Starmer has decided to go after the older homeowners who are more likely to vote Conservative.

     

    If Labour wants to regain the seat and have a chance at challenging ‘Bosie The Clown’ and his sleazy Eton friends in 2024, they must connect with their core working-class electorate, no matter whether they voted for Brexit or not. The ‘Wallpapergate’ sleaze scandal seems to have no impact on the government at all, so it’s probably best if Labour now instead dedicates its time to connecting with those that actually could get them elected.

     

    Pictured top: Sir Keir Starmer campaigning in Hartlepool with wannabe MP for the Paul Williams.

     

    A Hiding in Hartlepool 2021 – Labour loses Hartlepool to the Tories – Nikolay Kalinin shares his thoughts on Labour’s electoral hiding in Hartlepool.
    A Hiding in Hartlepool 2021 – Jill Mortimer didn’t win over voters in Hartlepool. Labour, in fact, lost them.
  • Who REALLY is Henry Newman?

    Who REALLY is Henry Newman?

    Whilst only a few newspapers have delved into his political past, we today ask: “Who REALLY is the bestie of Carrie Symonds and alleged ‘Chatty Rat’ Henry Newman?”

    In 2019, ‘Carrie Symonds’ bestie’ and supposed clatterfart Henry Newman described Dominic Cummings as “one of only a few political advisers who understands the importance of, and is truly committed to, reforming the Whitehall machine.” In April 2020, Cummings responded by branding Newman a leaker.

     

    Now, as the media delve into the scandal of Boris Johnson’s hole riddled ship and he seeks to dissipate the disgrace of his decorating debacle, with Cummings’ intervention on Friday, elements of the media have begun to examine exactly who Henry Newman is.

     

    Whilst widely referenced for dancing to ABBA with his longstanding chum Symonds and for being the go-to mouthpiece in support of Brexit during Theresa May’s “Brexit means Brexit” era, Newman should also go down in history for banging on about a need for fortnightly bin collections in Hampstead and Kilburn and for his somewhat bizarre Facebook ramblings.

     

    On his wall on the social media site, former special adviser (SPAD) to Francis Maude and Michael Gove, Newman – a graduate of ritzy institutions including the University of Oxford, Harvard University and the London School of Economics – has shared posts about being drunk. He has remarked that he was once “discreetly charmed by the bourgeoisie” and bragged that he even listened “to the Stones as the economy [collapsed].”

     

    Tellingly also, this one-time “rising star” and “Goveite” also declared he was “drowning in honey, stingless” and, most appropriately, providing illustration of why Daylesford addict ‘Costly Carrie’ counts him as “one of her four favourite people,” once announced: “[I’m] opening an organic box.”

     

    ‘Henry The Bin Boy’ Newman’s words of wisdom on Facebook…

    “Is drunk.”

     

    “Is opening an organic box.”

     

    “Is discreetly charmed by the bourgeoisie.”

     

    “Is drowning in honey, stingless.”

     

    “Once you kill a cow you gotta make a burger.”

     

    “Wondering if he is really a top concern for US immigration.”

     

    “Waiting for Jacqui Smith to resign.”

     

    “Is dancing, dancing, dancing… Is listening to rumba in W. Hartford… Is dancing in the dark… Is missing dancing.”

     

    “Is listening to the Stones while the economy collapses.”

     

    “Is watching his tan fall off.”

     

    “Hates people who don’t know how to use a rowing machine.”

     

    “Is thinking what this country needs is a new taskforce.”

     

    Who REALLY is Henry Newman? Alleged ‘Chatty Rat’ with a liking for organic boxes – Whilst a few newspapers have delved into his political past, we ask: “Who REALLY is the bestie of Carrie Symonds and alleged ‘Chatty Rat’ Henry Newman?” Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, Dominic Cummings, Francis Maude, Conservative, Tory, Vote Leave.
    Who is Henry Newman? Facebook posts by him give a clue to his personality.

    Descriptions of Henry Newman by…

    Boris Johnson:

    “One of my three musketeers.”

     

    Carrie Symonds:

    “One of my four favourite people.”

     

    Toby Young:

    “He is new role model… If you were a [politics show] booker who had to find someone… Newman was the only name on your Rolodex.”

     

    “As the oxygen went out of Theresa May’s premiership, and her withdrawal agreement began to breathe its last, the great balloon of his career became more and more inflated.”

     

    Dominic Cummings:

    “All the evidence [regarding the second lockdown leak] definitely leads to Henry Newman… I’m just trying to get the communications data to prove it.”

     

    An unnamed “senior government source”:

    “The allegations against Henry Newman are entirely false. He wouldn’t be working in Downing Street if he was suspected of leaking information.”

     

    Follow Henry Newman on his now somewhat secretive social media (if he lets you) at @henryjohnnewman on Facebook, @henryjohnnewman on Instagram and @HenryNewman on Twitter.

     

    Who REALLY is Henry Newman? Alleged ‘Chatty Rat’ with a liking for organic boxes – Whilst a few newspapers have delved into his political past, we ask: “Who REALLY is the bestie of Carrie Symonds and alleged ‘Chatty Rat’ Henry Newman?” Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, Dominic Cummings, Francis Maude, Conservative, Tory, Vote Leave.
    Who is Henry Newman? A fan of wearing beanie hats that declare: “Let’s get Brexit done,” here is a young man who taught politics at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), after studying at the University of Oxford, Harvard University and the London School of Economics. He reportedly then “cut his teeth” working in the Cabinet Office during the coalition government years and then joined Michael Gove’s entourage in the Ministry of Justice after he was appointed as the Lord Chancellor in 2015.
    Who REALLY is Henry Newman? Alleged ‘Chatty Rat’ with a liking for organic boxes – Whilst a few newspapers have delved into his political past, we ask: “Who REALLY is the bestie of Carrie Symonds and alleged ‘Chatty Rat’ Henry Newman?” Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, Dominic Cummings, Francis Maude, Conservative, Tory, Vote Leave.
    Who is Henry Newman? Aside from having travelled to Russia in his youth, Newman joined the Vote Leave campaign during the 2016 referendum campaign and, according to ‘The Telegraph’ “was among a close circle of Mr Gove’s friends who were said to have helped to convince him to ‘knife’ Mr Johnson and torpedo his bid for the Tory leadership by deciding to run himself.” Later, a director of the pro-Brexit Open Europe think-tank, Newman was then rewarded for being “loyal” to Carrie Symonds when Boris Johnson came to power.
    Who REALLY is Henry Newman? Alleged ‘Chatty Rat’ with a liking for organic boxes – Whilst a few newspapers have delved into his political past, we ask: “Who REALLY is the bestie of Carrie Symonds and alleged ‘Chatty Rat’ Henry Newman?” Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, Dominic Cummings, Francis Maude, Conservative, Tory, Vote Leave.
    Who is Henry Newman? Let’s not forget that this young man’s best friend Carrie Symonds was previously dating a man, Oliver Haiste (sometimes spelt ‘Haste’), exposed by the BBC in October 2016 for a Russian fake news scandal and for his friendship with Henry Hopwood-Phillips, an individual involved in the far-right, racist Traditional Britain Group. Miss Symonds must be noted also for her having been employed by Oceana, an oceanic charity that Ghislaine Maxwell – the now incarcerated alleged mucky madam to Jeffrey Epstein – was also a tin banger for.
    https://twitter.com/JoshBerryComedy/status/1386235119002955776
  • Picture of the Week – Cesspit Street

    Picture of the Week – Cesspit Street

    Protestors brandishing envelopes of ‘taxpayers’ money’ sum up the state of Boris Johnson’s rotten government as ex-minister Johnny Mercer quite rightly brands it a “cesspit”

    If you’re the pro-Brexit billionaire Sir James Dyson or the diplomat killer Mohammed bin Salman, you get the right to have the British Prime Minister on ‘speed-text.’ If you’re an ordinary taxpaying citizen, you get sweet Fanny Adams.

     

    Summing up the present government’s attitude to the public and taxpayers’ money, our picture of the week – shared by the @WinstonCProject on Twitter – shows a protest outside the entrance to Downing Street by individuals sporting masks of amongst others Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak and David Cameron.

     

    Featuring also envelopes stuffed with £50 notes emblazoned with ‘Taxpayers’ Money’ in red, the message attached also reads: “To Tory chums, Dodgy contracts, Jobs for mates… If found please return to The Conservative Party.”

     

    Elsewhere yesterday, after resigning from Johnson’s rotten government, Johnny Mercer remarked:

     

    “I think it’s pretty clear that not everyone tells the truth up here do they. I mean, I told people, I was resigning as a courtesy to government. You know, three hours later, it’s in the press. And, of course, they all denied they ever leaked it.”

     

    “This is the most distrustful, awful environment I’ve ever worked in, in government. Almost nobody tells the truth is what I’ve worked out over the last 36 hours.”

     

    “And, you know, I don’t think anyone really can get on their high horse about trust and ethics and all the rest of it in politics, because as far as I’m concerned, most of it is a bit of a cesspit.”

     

    #JohnsonOut

     

    Picture of the Week – Cesspit Street – Protestors brandishing envelopes of ‘taxpayers’ money’ sum up the state of Boris Johnson’s rotten government as ex-minister Johnny Mercer quite rightly brands it a “cesspit”
    Cesspit Street – This morning, the ‘Guardian’ shared this cartoon by Nicola Jennings that accurately sums up the relationship between Sir James Dyson and Boris Johnson.
    Picture of the Week – Cesspit Street – Protestors brandishing envelopes of ‘taxpayers’ money’ sum up the state of Boris Johnson’s rotten government as ex-minister Johnny Mercer quite rightly brands it a “cesspit”
    Cesspit Street – On Monday, it was revealed that leaked emails showed that the Conservative Party WAS fully aware that £58,000 in donations was to be used to refit the Downing Street flat occupied by serial shagger Boris Johnson and his wine chucking latest baby mama, ‘Costly Carrie’ Symonds.
    https://twitter.com/EmmaKennedy/status/1385116534805303296
  • Don’t Come On Carrie!

    Don’t Come On Carrie!

    Matthew Steeples argues that Daniel Johnson’s “Come on Carrie: your country needs you!” call to Boris Johnson’s wine chucking latest baby mama is nothing but claptrap

    The Article is one of those online titles that one can dip into from time to time and find an array of opinions about politics. It claims to show “the world in all its shades of grey” and though that’s not meant in a ‘John Major style’ (thank the Lord), the publication’s attempts to “see a story from every angle” is indeed refreshing.

     

    Yesterday, however, the title’s editor Daniel Johnson – the brother of the controversial right-wing Vote Leave and anti-lockdown COVID Recovery Group funding former owner of the Pizza Express group Luke Johnson – penned quite frankly the most bizarre article known to man.

     

    Daniel Johnson, also a founding editor of Standpoint and described by the Independent as having “the air of a classics don” and listed on Wikipedia for having “asserted that Islam in not a peaceful religion,” asked: “Why isn’t the Prime Minister calling for a post-Covid catch-up campaign [for British school children]?” He then turned to what he believes should happen in the wake of Prince Philip’s funeral tomorrow.

     

    Bizarrely and from utterly nowhere, the journalist went off on a seriously odd tangent and declared:

     

    “Our sympathy for the Royal Family is all the greater because this has been a sad time for so many others, too. After so many funerals, a wedding would not come amiss. It is a truth universally acknowledged that a divorced man in possession of the good fortune to be Prime Minister must be in want of a wife.”

     

    “Next month Boris Johnson and Carrie Symonds will have been engaged for 18 months. Once the restrictions on weddings have been lifted in June, there is nothing to stop them getting married. Not everyone would rejoice, but most people would wish them well. Royal weddings happen regularly; prime ministerial ones are rare birds. Indeed, the last time a Prime Minister tied the knot while in office was in 1822, when Lord Liverpool remarried after being widowed.”

     

    “If a week is a long time in politics, two centuries is an aeon. There are many reasons why Boris might be hesitant, but his fiancée is no shrinking violet and is quite capable of insisting that the time has come. Little Wilfred is growing fast. The nation needs cheering up. Come on, Carrie: your country needs you!”

     

    Aside from the fact that most of the nation would prefer Prime Minister Johnson to be focusing on getting the current out of the Covid crisis and fixing our economy, ‘Journalist Johnson’ misses the point entirely about the country’s thoughts about our serial shagging head honcho.

     

    Whilst Tory sleaze – with the Greenshill scandal and the likes of Matt Hancock handing out multi-million pound contracts willy-nilly to his mates – is dominating the headlines, I’d argue that our country needs a little less of ‘Costly Carrie’ and not a bit more. With her penchant for £200,000 “monstrous” interior design makeovers and £12,500 deliveries of food from ritzy Daylesford, here is a Barbara Amiel-esque wastrel completely out of touch with the nation.

     

    A wedding for Carrie Symonds would certainly cement the status of a wine chucking wench with a penchant for hanging around with members of the far-right Traditional Britain Group and working for organisations supported by the deservedly incarcerated mucky madam Ghislaine Maxwell, but what would it actually do for the great British public?

     

    “Absolutely nothing” is frankly the only acceptable answer.

     

    Next!

     

    Don’t Come On Carrie! The nation does NOT need Carrie Symonds – Matthew Steeples argues that Daniel Johnson’s “Come on, Carrie: your country needs you!” call to Boris Johnson’s wine chucking latest baby mama is nothing but claptrap.
    Don’t Come On Carrie! Boris Johnson’s current squeeze Carrie Symonds was described by her alleged spreader of fake news about Russia ex-boyfriend Oliver Haiste (sometimes spelt ‘Haste’) as: “Any relationship with Carrie or friendship with Carrie is very intense and can often burn brightly… Never boring… Tumultuous… Intense and passionate… That passion can work the other way when she is not happy with you… It’s the most up and down relationship I have had.”
    Don’t Come On Carrie! The nation does NOT need Carrie Symonds – Matthew Steeples argues that Daniel Johnson’s “Come on, Carrie: your country needs you!” call to Boris Johnson’s wine chucking latest baby mama is nothing but claptrap.
    Don’t Come On Carrie! Rumours of Boris Johnson’s affairs continue to do the rounds on social media. Aside from a supposed ongoing fling with a certain tame BBC journalist, the Prime Minister has been repeatedly linked to various Russians.
    Don’t Come On Carrie! The nation does NOT need Carrie Symonds – Matthew Steeples argues that Daniel Johnson’s “Come on, Carrie: your country needs you!” call to Boris Johnson’s wine chucking latest baby mama is nothing but claptrap.
    Don’t Come On Carrie! The man pictured left believes “Boris Johnson was sent by Christ” to “fulfill bible prophecy” whilst a parody magazine mocked the Prime Minister with a headline: “Scumbag Exposed! My hubby had TWELVE children before WE MET!”
  • Theresa’s in the Trough

    Theresa’s in the Trough

    Matthew Steeples highlights that it is not just David Cameron who has been sticking his piggy fingers in the trough; Theresa May also ‘pocketed’ over £1.2 million in the last year alone

    Whilst the media are busy banging on about David Cameron’s bungled attempts at lobbying for Greenshill Capital and the ensuing sleaze scandal that has followed, the majority have missed what his immediate successor has been upto since she was turfed out with the trash by her fellow Tory turncoats.

     

    Yesterday afternoon, however, Guido Fawkes shared news of the ‘Jobs for the Boys and Jobs for the Girls’ ex Tory leader – and don’t forget it’s bins for Sir Philip May and wandering in the wheatfields for his weird wife, the new ‘Lady T’ – when they suggested that the hapless Conservative MP for Maidenhead has pocketed over £700,000 from speeches since standing down as Prime Minister.

     

    Going further this morning, after analysing the Register of Members’ Financial Interests as of 15th March 2021, The Steeple Times can reveal “Brexit means Brexit” Lady May’s latest declaration to be an astonishing £1,075,706 in total – and that’s before adding in her £81,932 MP’s salary and office expenses.

     

    Of this sum for outside earnings, all but one payment is for work for foreign entities and the only payment for ‘work’ in the UK came from JP Morgan. That totalled £160,370 for “two speaking engagements that were cancelled” and this accounted for just 15% of the total ‘earned.’

     

    Whilst we’re at it, let’s not forget ‘MayBeNot’ also managed to secure herself life membership of the Carlton Club and ‘VIP’ perks at Heathrow Airport and Amanda Wakeley and this is all before we get onto her hubby’s no doubt not-too-shabby salary from Capital Group also.

     

    Today we politely enquire: “Why isn’t anyone in the mainstream media wagging a finger at the greedy grubber Theresa May yet or asking her: ‘How on earth do you find the time to serve your constituents?’”

     

    Theresa’s (mostly overseas) trough since February 2020 – £1,075,706

    • 19th February 2020 – Dubai Women Establishment, UAE
      • Speech – £115,000 for 19 hours work (including travel).
    • 26th March 2020 – Structured Finance Association, USA
      • Speech – £115,000 for 25 hours work (including travel).
    • 6th March 2020 – Brown University, USA
      • Speech – £115,000 for 14 hours work (including travel).
    • 6th March 2020 – Trinity University, USA
      • Speech – £115,000 for 26 hours work (including travel).
    • 22nd April 2020 – JP Morgan Chase, UK
      • 2 speaking engagements – £160,370 for zero hours to date (will be rescheduled).
    • 25th June 2020 – World 50 Inc, USA
      • 3 speaking engagements – £101,169 for 7 hours work “to date.”
    • 17th September 2020 – Telmex Foundation, Mexico
      • Virtual speaking engagement – £46,750 for 6 hours work.
    • 18th September 2020 – World Knowledge Forum, South Korea
      • Speaking engagement – £136,000 for 30 hours work (including travel).
    • 9th November 2020 – Lancaster Chamber of Commerce & Industry, USA
      • Virtual speaking engagement – £45,500 for 6 hours work.
    • 20th January 2021 –The Richmond Forum, USA
      • Speech – £48,245 for 3 hours work.
    • 20th January 2021 – TPG Communication, France
      • Speech – £39,000 for 2 hours work.
    • 4th February 2021 – Society of the Four Arts, USA
      • Virtual speaking engagement – £38,672 for 5 hours work.

     

    What else has Theresa been pocketing lately from her ‘Magic Money Tree’?

    • An MPs salary of £81,932 plus expenses “to cover the costs of running an office, employing staff, having somewhere to live in London or their constituency, and travelling between Parliament and their constituency.”
    • An £85,000 per year salary from the Office of Theresa May Limited “until further notice” for just 24 hours work per month or just 288 hours work per year.
    • Honorary life membership of the Carlton Club.
    • ‘VIP treatment’ at Heathrow Airport, valued at £4,200 a pop, at least 14 times totalling at least £58,800.
    • Substantial rental income from a flat in London owned jointly with her husband.
    • A discount card from Amanda Wakeley, “which has the potential to be of registrable value.”

     

    Follow Matthew Steeples on Twitter at @M_Steeples.

     

    Theresa’s in the Trough – Theresa May MP’s £1.2m in 2020 – 2021 – Matthew Steeples highlights that it is not just David Cameron who has been sticking his piggy fingers in the trough; Theresa May also ‘pocketed’ over £1.2 million in the last year alone.
    Theresa’s in the Trough – Theresa May may go down in history as one of the very worst Prime Ministers ever, yet she and her hedge fund tin banger husband Philip have pocketed titles and are set to receive multi-millions of pounds in future income.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cc9tToN5XGk
    Theresa’s in the Trough – Sir Philip May’s employer’s, Capital Group, are regularly quite rightly criticised over the legitimacy of their potentially unethical investments. Plainly and frankly, he and his wife don’t give a damn.
  • Beecher’s Muck

    Beecher’s Muck

    Ghislaine Maxwell’s latest supporter revealed to be Jay Beecher, a far right-wing political writer and ex-Ukipper with associations to the quite rightly banned-from-Facebook ‘Politicalite’

    PR peddler Brian Basham is doing his best to get just about anyone he can to come out to join the tedious twerp Richard Madeley in support of his client, the alleged child groomer and alleged sexual abuser, Ghislaine Maxwell. Frankly, for him, just about anyone who’ll bang the drum for the mucky madam as she seeks bail for a fourth time will now do.

     

    Now, today, we can reveal the latest to join Basham’s not-so-exclusive club is a man named Jay Beecher. He claims to be a ‘journalist’ and also the founder of an organisation with a currently defunct site named Vote Watch.

     

    Vote Watch, curiously, according to a Patreon page supported by just 43 people, was something that aimed to “provide groundbreaking reports exposing media bias, left-wing extremism, and corruption.” It set out to “expose crooked politicians [with]… undercover journalism, exclusive news, and in-depth investigations,” but now Beecher has plainly turned to the very, very dark side and is being lauded by RealGhislaine.com for supporting convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged head honcho.

     

    In two tweets that were subsequently shared by the ‘official’ @RealGhislaine campaign yesterday, Beecher announced:

     

    “ONE TO WATCH: The new site has now been covered by the Mail, NY Post etc, & sets out to counter MSM bias & ‘fake news.’ GHISLAINE Maxwell’s Siblings, @RealGhislaine Launch New Website To Counter MSM Fiction.”

     

    “Also worth remembering that they are Ghislaine’s brothers and sisters, so don’t deserve to be attacked simply for doing what anyone else would do – defend a family member they love.”

     

    Elsewhere, Jay Beecher is heavily involved with producing content for the controversial far right website Politicalite – which claims to be a “proudly right-wing website that supports the silent majority of forgotten working-class men and women from across the UK. We back Britain’s vote for Brexit and America’s vote for President Trump.” Politicalite was deservedly  banned from Facebook “for violating the company’s hate-speech policies” in May 2020.

     

    Beecher was also convicted of driving offences whilst standing as a Conservative candidate in a by-election for Peterborough City Council in June 2017. He was fined for driving whilst disqualified, driving with no insurance and having no MOT on his car, but in Maxwell-esque ‘innocence’ claimed: “This is a personal matter. It was a misunderstanding. It won’t affect me going forward.”

     

    Beecher’s Muck – Far right Jay Beecher supports Ghislaine Maxwell – Ghislaine Maxwell’s latest supporter revealed to be Jay Beecher, a far right-wing political writer and ex-Ukipper with associations to the quite rightly banned-from-Facebook ‘Politicalite’
    Beecher’s Muck – Ghislaine Maxwell’s race to try to attempt to stop her trial starting in July looks as likely at succeeding as a donkey successfully jumping Becher’s Brook at Aintree. Here, the now incarcerated mucky madam is pictured with her then ‘bestie’ Prince Andrew, at Royal Ascot in 2000 in the days when she was considered a “socialite” and welcomed to ritzy events across the globe along with her paedophile boss Jeffrey Epstein.
    Beecher’s Muck – Far right Jay Beecher supports Ghislaine Maxwell – Ghislaine Maxwell’s latest supporter revealed to be Jay Beecher, a far right-wing political writer and ex-Ukipper with associations to the quite rightly banned-from-Facebook ‘Politicalite’
    According to his Twitter handle, the mucky madam Ghislaine Maxwell’s latest supporter, Jay Beecher, has been called “a journalist with balls” by Rod Liddle and described by the actor Michael Sheen as “an ignorant tw*t.”
    Beecher’s Muck – Far right Jay Beecher supports Ghislaine Maxwell – Ghislaine Maxwell’s latest supporter revealed to be Jay Beecher, a far right-wing political writer and ex-Ukipper with associations to the quite rightly banned-from-Facebook ‘Politicalite’
    According to the widely respected ‘Byline Times’s’ Sian Norris and Nafeez Ahmed on March 1st this year: “Beecher has also been accused of racism himself, having sent a tweet to Black Lives Matter activist Natalie Rowe saying that she looked like a ‘cross between seabiscuit and a transexual fish.’” Going further, Norris and Ahmed added: “[He] has been accused of running a sock puppet account known as ‘Rob Daniel’ or ‘The Secret Journalist.’ The account frequently shared posts by Beecher and, when Beecher was challenged by ‘Byline Times’s’ executive editor, ‘Daniel’ sent a ‘troll reply.’ Beecher denies this, inviting ‘Daniel’ for a pint. Bots frequently share Beecher’s tweets.”
    Jay Beecher was described as being suspended from UKIP for “being a naughty boy” according to a clip posted on YouTube in October 2016 by a postman and Labour councillor called Darren Fowler.
    In June 2019, Jay Beecher was interviewed by controversial journalist Rod Liddle in the context of alleged voter fraud in Peterborough.