Tag: business

Nick Harrington

Racist Tory councillor Nick Harrington tweeted: “You can keep your f***ing gypsies” after Ireland gave Britain ‘nul points’ in the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest. The bigot, magistrate and director of Ambay Software Ltd. then added: “Hard border coming folks!” but showed no remorse when contacted at his £400,000 home in Weston-under-Wetherley, near Leamington Spa, Warwickshire. Though Harrington was subsequently suspended by the Conservative Party and has now taken his Twitter account down, other social media users subsequently exposed previously highly inappropriate posts that this vile shocker had made elsewhere .

May 14, 2017
Louise Rowntree – What’s on your mantelpiece?

A 20-question interview with public affairs and communications consultant and Liberal Democrat candidate for Chelsea & Fulham Louise Rowntree

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

Treat others the way you want to be treated.

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

You’re not living unless you take risks.

Kerry Katona was considered unacceptable in 2007. Who or what is unacceptable in 2017?

Theresa May.

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

Time to ‘mong’.

What might you swap all your wealth for?

Being the fastest swimmer in the world.

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 state of the financial system?

It was going quite well in Britain until Brexit.

What phrase or word do you most loathe?

“How are you?” instead of “hello”.

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

With three children, a small business and the General Election, I am conscious that I don’t do enough to help out in the local community currently. Locally, I’m ambassador for the Fulham Cricket Club – which gives free cricket training to children whose parents wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford it, and has linked up with a number of charities including Hammersmith & Fulham Refugees Welcome. More generally, I donate (a modest sum) to Save the Children each month.

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?

My late father always said: “You can tell who’s important. They’re the ones without a phone”. When on a train take calls in the corridor, try to avoid taking them when with others but – if you must – ask permission first. Never put your phone on a table if with others.

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

Vincent Cassel, Nancy Wake (‘The White Mouse’), Ian Hislop, Michelle Obama, Mick Jagger, Amy Schumer, Guillaume Canet, Diana Ross, Jimmy Fallon and the entire cast of Saturday Night Live.

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

Chinese dim sum, on a boat on the River Thames going through Chelsea and Fulham.

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

Any time, as long the occasion fits and you can handle your drink.

A Negroni, a martini or a cup of tea?

A Negroni, but in a glass, not from the bottle.

Whose parties do you enjoy the most and why?

Ours: Because my husband DJ’s and we always have to threaten to call the police at 4am.

Who is the most positive person you know?

Jessica Arora: Fashion guru, co-founder of NotSuchAModelMum and a good friend.

What’s your most guilty pleasure?

Eating a whole box of salt and vinegar Pringles whilst drinking wine in bed and watching American TV series’.

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

A rowan tree: I’m a descendant of Vikings who invaded York over a thousand years ago and took their name from the local rowan tree – which morphed into ‘Rowntree’: Rooted, earth, strong, proud – it sums up both my Yorkshire ancestors and me.

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

A Lada: Old fashioned, rare, traditional and scrubs up surprisingly well with a bit of polish.

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

I was taught how to fight at the age of five, but thankfully have only once had to.

What’s currently sitting on your mantelpiece?

A Mappin & Webb clock my late father was given when he retired from the bank he ran, a couple of Delft vases from a Belgian flee market, a Limoges egg which belonged to my late grandmother, and my son’s Grade 2 Music Theory certificate.

Louise Rowntree is a lawyer-turned-public affairs and communications consultant who grew up in Chelsea and lives in Fulham. She is married to Raphael, a Belgian lawyer, has three sons and is standing as the Liberal Democrat for Chelsea & Fulham in the 2017 General Election.

Louise worked for several years in Brussels – where she ran Hill & Knowlton’s Trade & Competition department. In 2012 she founded her own, niche, consultancy Rowntree & Associates and moved back to London soon after. She has personally advised heads of state, ambassadors, ministers, multinationals, NGOs and law firms.

Follow her on Twitter at @louise_rowntree.

Photograph by Micki Scupin Rogers.

May 14, 2017
Pete Cashmore (AKA ‘The Sage of Media’)

Born in Banchory, Aberdeenshire in 1985, Pete Cashmore founded Mashable, a “one-stop-shop” digital media news and blogging site, in his bedroom in 2005 with the aim of “changing the world”. The firm now has over 120 employees, is based in New York and has 9 million followers on Twitter and achieves over 45 million unique views per month. He was once described as “one of the most influential voices of his generation – on and offline” and was also called “more than just a superb head of hair” by Hearst’s Town & Country magazine in 2016.

May 7, 2017
The Busy Borwicks

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 8^th 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

May 7, 2017
Living Large

New Jersey mansion, complete with 58 rooms, for sale for equivalent sum to what it cost to build in 1909; the £37 million house’s original owner was a man whose extravagance knew absolutely no bounds

George Crocker (1856 – 1909) makes F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Jay Gatsby seem like an amateur. Born in Sacramento and the son of a railway magnate worth some $30 million on his death (the equivalent of £634 million or $812 million today), Crocker was willed a significant $6 million (the equivalent of £127 million or $163 million today) on the condition that “after the space of five years continuously he shall abstain from the use of spirituous, vinous, and malt liquors to the extent that he shall not during this period have been intoxicated”.

Crocker decided to ignore the terms of his father’s behest and from 1888 to 1891 lived in San Francisco as “one of the most reckless young men about town when reckless young men thereabouts were common” but then admitted himself to a sanatorium, put himself on the straight and narrow and finally collected the sum of $6 million in 1898.

With wealth and a glamorous wife, Emma Rutherford, a widow from California, Crocker set himself up as the toast of New York society. Though he owned a townhouse at 1 East 64^th Street and a villa in Newport, it was on paying $96,500 (the equivalent of £2.2 million or $2.8 million today) for the 1,100 acre Darling estate in Bergen County, Mahwah, New Jersey in 1901 that he truly became someone noticeable.

Choosing what he called “the finest site for a residence in the country”, Crocker commissioned an architect named James Brite (died 1942) to build him a mansion “sparing no expense”. Modeled on a Jacobean prodigy house, Bramshill House in Hampshire, England and built from Indiana limestone and Harvard brick, the “Crocker Mansion” or “Darlington” – as it is more widely known – cost $2 million to build (the equivalent of £38.2 million or $49 million today) and included 75 rooms and around 50,000 square foot of accommodation. Its features included steam heating, elevators, ice cream freezers, integrated vacuum systems and a switchboard and in its grounds a racetrack and 16 greenhouses were constructed whilst a pond was stocked with 4,000 trout.

George Crocker and Emerson McMillin

The design of Darlington was based on “one of the most haunted houses in England”, Bramshill in Hampshire; that building itself was also eventually separated from much of its estate and after being used as the European Police College was sold to developers City & Country for £25 million ($19.5 million) in 2014

Commentators wowed at the resulting creation and noted details such as a library painted after the style of the Italian Renaissance by Tiffany Studios, elaborate wood carving by Italian craftsmen and Tiffany silver chandeliers and a 1906 Aeolian player pipe organ in the building’s 30-foot high Great Hall. In 1912, Architectural Record, chose even to swoon over the basement. They remarked:

“Where Bramshill’s cellar housed for centuries lanterns, tallow dips, forest faggots, wooden vessels for the distribution of light, heat and water through personal service of human slaveys, its American reincarnation is a storehouse of miracle workers in the comfort and luxury of modern domestic life”.

Unfortunately, Mr and Mrs Crocker did not truly get to enjoy the fruits of their extravagant spending. Emma Crocker died in 1904 of cancer and George Crocker also succumbed to the disease in 1909. His estate was valued at $20 million (the equivalent of £422 million or $541 million today) and amongst items found at his mansion were 60,000 personally monogrammed, custom-made cigars valued at $30,000 (the equivalent of £635,000 or $813,000 today).

Sold subsequently to a “self-made” banker, industrialist and astronomy enthusiast named Emerson McMillin (1844 – 1922) in 1909 for $1 million (the equivalent of £21.1 million or $27.1 million), Darlington was next used to display a fine collection of Chinese and Japanese porcelain whilst a herd of Jerseys were kept in the grounds.

After McMillin’s death, his widow sold the estate in 1924 for $685,000 (the equivalent of £7.6 million or $9.8 million) to the Darlington Development Company, which in turn made it available to the Darling Golf and Country Club. They converted the building to a hotel and club that “promised to offer a new dimension to life in Mahwah” but “the development corporation and the club were soon in financial difficulties” and the McMillin estate foreclosed and regained possession.

A new buyer came forward in the form of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Newark. They paid $478,000 for the property in 1926 (the equivalent of £5.2 million or $6.6 million today) and used Darlington as a theological seminary. The surrounding land was gradually sold off and in 1986, the Immaculate Conception Seminary also departed.

Darlington today – The 30-foot high Great Hall is still dominated by a 1906 Aeolian player pipe organ

Darlington today – Ilija Pavlovic expanded the mansion by some 12,000 square foot and amongst other things added a large home cinema

Darlington today – Another addition comes in the form of a vast wine cellar; George Crocker’s father would not have approved

Subsequently restored and modernised with, according to Forbes, plumbing, heating, air conditioning and communications systems being installed, Darlington was placed on the market with just 12.1 acres in 2005 by Darlington Associates, a firm who’d built “multiple residential communities surrounding the mansion”. An ambitious figure of $25 million (the equivalent of £24.4 million or $31.3 million today) was sought for the now classified historic site but it was not until 2008 that a buyer came forth in the form of a local businessman named Ilija Pavlovic. He paid just $8.875 million (the equivalent of £8 million or $10.2 million today) and then embarked on the “challenge” of “both preserving the historic home while also restoring it to meet 21st-century standards”. The resulting creation spans four floors and includes amongst many other things a tea room, 3 libraries, 2 game rooms, 2 kitchens, a “his and her master bedroom wing”, 12 further guest bedrooms and 5 staff bedrooms.

The biggest issue with the house, it transpired, was that its 476 leaded windows needed to be replaced. This reportedly cost $2 million alone (the equivalent of £1.8 million or $2.3 million today) and in addition, Pavlovic renewed all the mechanical systems, redid all 19 bathrooms, replaced the slate roof and added amongst other things a spa with an indoor lap pool, a gym, a massage room, a beauty salon and a home cinema. There is also a gatehouse, a professional kitchen that can serve 250 meals at a time, a wine cellar, a poker room, a cigar room, a billiards room, an 8-car garage, a tennis court and an outdoor swimming pool.

Property blog 6sqft – which claimed Friday that the current owners do not live at Darlington full-time and simply use it to host events – reported that this still massive mansion minus its formerly equally gigantic estate is now for sale now for £37.4 million ($48 million, €44.7 million or درهم176.3 million) through a firm Mr Pavlovic chairs, Special Properties Real Estate Services – an affiliate of Christie’s International Real Estate. Any buyer will undoubtedly be a vastly wealthy figure, but one can guarantee one thing: They’ll never live as lavishly as the barmy boozer George Crocker.

April 23, 2017
Living Large

New Jersey mansion Darlington, complete with 58 rooms, for sale for equivalent sum to what it cost to build in 1909; the £37 million house’s original owner was a man whose extravagance knew absolutely no bounds

George Crocker (1856 – 1909) makes F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Jay Gatsby seem like an amateur. Born in Sacramento and the son of a railway magnate worth some $30 million on his death (the equivalent of £634 million or $812 million today), Crocker was willed a significant $6 million (the equivalent of £127 million or $163 million today) on the condition that “after the space of five years continuously he shall abstain from the use of spirituous, vinous, and malt liquors to the extent that he shall not during this period have been intoxicated”.

Crocker decided to ignore the terms of his father’s behest and from 1888 to 1891 lived in San Francisco as “one of the most reckless young men about town when reckless young men thereabouts were common” but then admitted himself to a sanatorium, put himself on the straight and narrow and finally collected the sum of $6 million in 1898.

With wealth and a glamorous wife, Emma Rutherford, a widow from California, Crocker set himself up as the toast of New York society. Though he owned a townhouse at 1 East 64^th Street and a villa in Newport, it was on paying $96,500 (the equivalent of £2.2 million or $2.8 million today) for the 1,100 acre Darling estate in Bergen County, Mahwah, New Jersey in 1901 that he truly became someone noticeable.

Choosing what he called “the finest site for a residence in the country”, Crocker commissioned an architect named James Brite (died 1942) to build him a mansion “sparing no expense”. Modeled on a Jacobean prodigy house, Bramshill House in Hampshire, England and built from Indiana limestone and Harvard brick, the “Crocker Mansion” or “Darlington” – as it is more widely known – cost $2 million to build (the equivalent of £38.2 million or $49 million today) and included 75 rooms and around 50,000 square foot of accommodation. Its features included steam heating, elevators, ice cream freezers, integrated vacuum systems and a switchboard and in its grounds a racetrack and 16 greenhouses were constructed whilst a pond was stocked with 4,000 trout.

George Crocker and Emerson McMillin

The design of Darlington was based on “one of the most haunted houses in England”, Bramshill in Hampshire; that building itself was also eventually separated from much of its estate and after being used as the European Police College was sold to developers City & Country for £25 million ($19.5 million) in 2014

Commentators wowed at the resulting creation and noted details such as a library painted after the style of the Italian Renaissance by Tiffany Studios, elaborate wood carving by Italian craftsmen and Tiffany silver chandeliers and a 1906 Aeolian player pipe organ in the building’s 30-foot high Great Hall. In 1912, Architectural Record, chose even to swoon over the basement. They remarked:

“Where Bramshill’s cellar housed for centuries lanterns, tallow dips, forest faggots, wooden vessels for the distribution of light, heat and water through personal service of human slaveys, its American reincarnation is a storehouse of miracle workers in the comfort and luxury of modern domestic life”.

Unfortunately, Mr and Mrs Crocker did not truly get to enjoy the fruits of their extravagant spending. Emma Crocker died in 1904 of cancer and George Crocker also succumbed to the disease in 1909. His estate was valued at $20 million (the equivalent of £422 million or $541 million today) and amongst items found at his mansion were 60,000 personally monogrammed, custom-made cigars valued at $30,000 (the equivalent of £635,000 or $813,000 today).

Sold subsequently to a “self-made” banker, industrialist and astronomy enthusiast named Emerson McMillin (1844 – 1922) in 1909 for $1 million (the equivalent of £21.1 million or $27.1 million), Darlington was next used to display a fine collection of Chinese and Japanese porcelain whilst a herd of Jerseys were kept in the grounds.

After McMillin’s death, his widow sold the estate in 1924 for $685,000 (the equivalent of £7.6 million or $9.8 million) to the Darlington Development Company, which in turn made it available to the Darling Golf and Country Club. They converted the building to a hotel and club that “promised to offer a new dimension to life in Mahwah” but “the development corporation and the club were soon in financial difficulties” and the McMillin estate foreclosed and regained possession.

A new buyer came forward in the form of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Newark. They paid $478,000 for the property in 1926 (the equivalent of £5.2 million or $6.6 million today) and used Darlington as a theological seminary. The surrounding land was gradually sold off and in 1986, the Immaculate Conception Seminary also departed.

Darlington today – The 30-foot high Great Hall is still dominated by a 1906 Aeolian player pipe organ

Darlington today – Ilija Pavlovic expanded the mansion by some 12,000 square foot and amongst other things added a large home cinema

Darlington today – Another addition comes in the form of a vast wine cellar; George Crocker’s father would not have approved

Subsequently restored and modernised with, according to Forbes, plumbing, heating, air conditioning and communications systems being installed, Darlington was placed on the market with just 12.1 acres in 2005 by Darlington Associates, a firm who’d built “multiple residential communities surrounding the mansion”.

An ambitious figure of $25 million (the equivalent of £24.4 million or $31.3 million today) was sought for the now classified historic site but it was not until 2008 that a buyer came forth in the form of a local businessman named Ilija Pavlovic. He paid just $8.875 million (the equivalent of £8 million or $10.2 million today) and then embarked on the “challenge” of “both preserving the historic home while also restoring it to meet 21st-century standards”. The resulting creation spans four floors and includes amongst many other things a tea room, 3 libraries, 2 game rooms, 2 kitchens, a “his and her master bedroom wing”, 12 further guest bedrooms and 5 staff bedrooms.

The biggest issue with the house, it transpired, was that its 476 leaded windows needed to be replaced. This reportedly cost $2 million alone (the equivalent of £1.8 million or $2.3 million today) and in addition, Pavlovic renewed all the mechanical systems, redid all 19 bathrooms, replaced the slate roof and added amongst other things a spa with an indoor lap pool, a gym, a massage room, a beauty salon and a home cinema. There is also a gatehouse, a professional kitchen that can serve 250 meals at a time, a wine cellar, a poker room, a cigar room, a billiards room, an 8-car garage, a tennis court and an outdoor swimming pool.

Property blog 6sqft – which claimed Friday that the current owners do not live at Darlington full-time and simply use it to host events – reported that this still massive mansion minus its formerly equally gigantic estate is now for sale now for £37.4 million ($48 million, €44.7 million or درهم176.3 million) through a firm Mr Pavlovic chairs, Special Properties Real Estate Services – an affiliate of Christie’s International Real Estate. Any buyer will undoubtedly be a vastly wealthy figure, but one can guarantee one thing: They’ll never live as lavishly as the barmy boozer George Crocker.

April 23, 2017
Alfie Best – What’s on your mantelpiece?

A 20-question interview with self-made businessman and star of ‘My Fat Gypsy Fortune’ Alfie Best

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

For a man to know where he is going, he must remember where he is from.

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

Life is a light, it is your job to make it shine brighter.

Kerry Katona was considered unacceptable in 2007. Who or what is unacceptable in 2017?

Internet trolls who are brave behind keyboards.

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

Time.

What might you swap all your wealth for?

More time.

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 state of the financial system?

If you treat the bank as a bank, they will treat you as a customer but if you treat the banks as a partner within your business and build your relationship with the management of the bank, they will consider you as a partner and offer much more insight and help which it is own way, is free to you as a business.

What phrase or word do you most loathe?

“We have a problem”; one man’s problem is another man’s opportunity.

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

I do believe charity begins at home but I also believe giving is not as good as teaching. If you give a man a fish, he will feed his family for a night, show the man how to fish and he will feed his family for a lifetime.

We’re actually setting up own charity – Wyldecrest Parks Charity – which hopefully we’ll be able to help vulnerable people in need.

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?

Connection is unbelievable and the forward bounds it has given us a society is unprecedented but we have to remember not to become disconnected from society.

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

I would fill the carriage with my family and friends and invite Tracy Chapman and the musical artist Rodriguez; I would look for them to enjoy the ride and party whilst it lasted.

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

Pie, mash and liquor at the White House with the President to try and get a reprieve whilst eating my last meal.

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

6:30am with a nice cup of lemon tea.

A Negroni, a martini or a cup of tea?

A cup of tea.

Whose parties do you enjoy the most and why?

I enjoy my son’s parties because the charisma he brings to the room is like a ray of sunshine on the beach.

Who is the most positive person you know?

Me.

What’s your most guilty pleasure?

Chocolate.

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

If I were to have a tattoo, it would state ‘BEST’ across my back because it would mean the best is behind me and there is even better to come.

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

A black Lamborghini.

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

After becoming a millionaire at 20, I nearly went bust and slept in my car for 3 months.

What’s currently sitting on your mantelpiece?

A backward clock – it confuses everyone!

Alfie Best is a successful entrepreneur driven by tenacity. With humble origins, born and raised in a Romany Gypsy family, this self-made man started his professional path totally from scratch. Alongside Wyldecrest Parks, Alfie Best also owns other very successful businesses within the hospitality and leisure, events, trading and finance industries including Vinyl Bar, Kyoto Furniture, Axiom Uno and Wylde Event Management.

Follow him on Twitter at @alfiebest33.

April 20, 2017
Backing Best for Britain

Gina Miller achieves 1,000% of target in less than 24 hours in crowdfunding drive to fund tactical voting initiative against hard Brexit

On Wednesday, businesswoman and philanthropist Gina Miller launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise £10,000 to “support the country’s biggest tactical voting drive ever and stop extreme Brexit”. Within twenty-four hours, that target was smashed and as of 10:30am Thursday morning, the total amount raised stands at £110,000.

Of the initiative, which will fund a group launching next week named ‘Best for Britain’, Mrs Miller told The Guardian:

“We want to build the biggest tactical voting effort in UK history to ensure that candidates across the country that promise to do what’s best for Britain in the Brexit process get the extra support they need to win”.

“If the deal the next government negotiates doesn’t match up to our current terms, MPs should do what’s best for Britain and reject it. We will be asking MPs to pledge to keep an open mind and not be bullied into giving the next government a blank cheque for the final deal”.

“There isn’t time to organise a formal progressive alliance. We have to do what we can in the time available. We need to re-energise people about the importance of voting tactically”.

“We need to have a galvanising moment. We need to have a strategy and a structure… We have to put aside egos. It is about being pragmatic”.

On the page itself, Miller gives further detail of how the money raised will be spent. She remarked:

“We will support candidates who campaign for a real final vote on Brexit, including rejecting any deal that leaves Britain worse off”.

“We will use the money to back candidates who pledge to support a full and free vote on the Brexit deal. We will also work with organisations with the same goals. The money raised will not pay staff salaries”.

Best for Britain has already appointed Eloise Todd, previously executive director of policy for anti-poverty organisation the ONE Campaign, as a campaign director. She added:

“We will support different parties and independents, and organisations working in this space. We are not party political. We stand for democracy in this country and a constitution that respects proper balance of powers and doesn’t railroad the country into an extreme Brexit”.

To support Gina Miller’s fundraising drive, click here. The maximum donation any individual can make is £499.

April 20, 2017
Martin Raffa – What’s on your mantelpiece?

A 20-question interview with Paris based fashion designer Martin Raffa

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

The search beauty and harmony. From an early age, I understood the importance of both in my entourage.

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

“Beauty is interior”.

Kerry Katona was considered unacceptable in 2007. Who or what is unacceptable in 2017?

The mediatic terrorism of the Kardashian family.

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

Palm trees and tropical rainforest vegetation.

What might you swap all your wealth for?

For God to grant me an obedient heart.

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 state of the financial system?

I don’t understand much about finance, but I think the worst thing of all is that there is a lack of help to help small entrepreneurs since they are the true wealth creators.

What phrase or word do you most loathe?

“It’s impossible to achieve”.

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

Personally, I work with friends to create an association protect animals. I especially like protecting dogs.

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?

Being connected is great, but do not be connected for too long.

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

I would invite Andy Warhol so we could have great pictures, Truman Capote to enjoy great conversations, Marvin Gaye for the music, Ferran Adrià to have great meals and my French bulldog, Batman.

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

Soy risotto with oysters and black truffles at Le Sur Mesure by Thierry Marx at the Mandarin Oriental in Paris.

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

It depends on the city. In Paris, it would be 6pm with my team at the office at the end of a long, productive day.

A Negroni, a martini or a cup of tea?

A martini, always.

Whose parties do you enjoy the most and why?

I enjoy my own pool parties the best.

Who is the most positive person you know?

Milagros Schmoll, my muse. She is an Argentinian artist and international model.

What’s your most guilty pleasure?

To stay in bed in the morning playing with my dog Batman when I have a thousand things to do.

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

A very fine line on my arm that could only be read with a magnifying glass. It would say: “The beauty is in the eyes of the beholder” (Oscar Wilde).

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

A black Aston Martin DB4 Zagato.

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

When I was young, I spent three years in the navy. I was honoured as a submariner.

What’s currently sitting on your mantelpiece?

Books about the photographer Steichen, a candle by Cire Trudon, lithospheres from Bernardaud and a big bottle of Sycomore by Chanel.

Martin Raffa was born in Argentina of Italian origin. He was the first Argentinian designer to present a collection during the haute couture shows in Paris. He now works for private clients around the world. Contact him at [email protected]

‘Like’ his page on Facebook by clicking here.

April 17, 2017
Banished by Brexit

HSBC to relocate 1,000 key jobs from London to Paris because of Brexit

Theresa May, a woman more interested in getting het up about Easter eggs than the fate of the British economy, should take note. HSBC are planning on relocating as many as 1,000 of its traders and salespeople from London to Paris due to Brexit.

Representing a section of the firm’s staff that generates a most significant 20% of its revenue, the move accompanies news that the bank’s clients “are asking to book more of their trade and foreign exchange activity in their French operation through [the firm’s] Paris office than their UK” divisions.

On Wednesday, Noel Quinn, head of global commercial banking at HSBC Holdings Plc, told Stephen Morris of Bloomberg Markets:

“Some companies are also evaluating whether to ‘flip’ their regional head offices to European cities from Britain. This would require them to reclassify the UK branch as a country office that would become a subsidiary of the continental headquarters”.

April 13, 2017