The Steeple Times

Tag: Conservative

  • Nick Harrington

    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 .

     

    Racist Tory councillor and director of Ambay Software Nick Harrington – Bigot Nick Harrington tweeted: “You can keep your f***ing gypsies” after Ireland gave Britain ‘nul points’ in Eurovision Song Contest.Racist Tory councillor and director of Ambay Software Nick Harrington – Bigot Nick Harrington tweeted: “You can keep your f***ing gypsies” after Ireland gave Britain ‘nul points’ in Eurovision Song Contest.

  • Lady Ridsdale DBE (1921 – 2009, née Victoire Bennett)

    Lady Ridsdale DBE (1921 – 2009, née Victoire Bennett)

    Dame Paddy Ridsdale, as she generally known, was an intelligence operative, secretary to Ian Fleming during WW2 and the inspiration for the Bond character Miss Moneypenny.

     

    A Conservative Party stalwart and married to Member of Parliament for Harwich from 1954 to 1992 Sir Julian Ridsdale CBE (1915 – 2004), Dame Paddy – or Vicky, as she was known to some – is best known for her role in ‘Operation Mincemeat’, a “famous caper” concerning a “man who never was” in 1943.

     

    In the war, Dame Paddy wrote love letters and telegrams that were planted on the body of ‘Major William Martin’, an invented, drowned naval officer, that was floated in the ocean off Spain. The body carried fictitious plans of a purported Allied invasion of Sardinia and Greece and formed part of a plot designed to deflect attention from the Allied landings in Sicily. Of it, she later remarked: “I was sent to buy clothes in all the best men’s shops and had to pose as his girlfriend. I had to go to post offices and rather loudly send this telegram to ‘my boyfriend’, hoping of course that somebody would overhear me”. In due course, the body was indeed found, the Axis powers completely taken in and “Mincemeat swallowed whole, hook, line, and sinker”. A BAFTA winning film directed by Ronald Neame, The Man Who Never Was, made about the deceptive scheme in 1956.

     

    Dame Paddy was known as a “political hostess in the style of a bygone era”, lived in a mansion “sandwiched between a sheikh and a Saudi prince” in The Boltons for the majority of her adult life and is buried in the grounds of the church there. She had one daughter, became Lady Ridsdale when her husband was knighted in 1981 and was appointed Dame Commander of the British Empire (DBE) in her own right, for political services, in 1991.

     

    Of her relationship with her one-time employer Fleming, she concluded: “Ian had so many girlfriends that I was not tempted to become one of them”.

     

     

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xemGlAV6TAw

     

  • Quote of the Week – Beasts & Crooks

    Quote of the Week – Beasts & Crooks

    Dennis Skinner on the now rejected Tory election fraud allegations

     

    Yesterday, the Electoral Commission astonishingly rejected all but one of the allegations of electoral fraud against Conservative Party candidates and officials in relation to activities during the 2015 General Election campaign. A potential charge, against Craig MacKinlay, the MP for South Thanet, is all that now “remains under consideration”.

     

    A quote and image shared on Twitter by writer Marcus Chown summed up the reaction of many to the news perfectly. It featured a picture of ‘The Beast of Bolsover’ Dennis Skinner MP and the following text:

     

    Dennis Skinner: “Half the Tories opposite are crooks”.

     

    Speaker: “Please retract”.

     

    Dennis Skinner: “OK, half the Tories opposite aren’t crooks”.

     

    In text accompanying what he shared, Chown added: “Whether it was Skinner who said this or someone else, it seems apt. #ToryElectionFraud”.

     

    Quote of the Week – Beasts & Crooks: Dennis Skinner #ToryElectionFraud

  • The Tossers vs. The 48%

    The Tossers vs. The 48%

    The 48% must make themselves heard at the 2017 General Election; they must vote tactically and do all they can to prevent the landslide ‘Queen Bee’ Theresa May is headed for

     

    With UKIP’s first MP on trial for 14 counts of electoral fraud, 30 individuals connected to the Conservative Party facing potential prosecution in connection to the ‘2015 Battlebus’ scheme and the Electoral Commission investigating Leave.EU’s dodgy finances, one could question the reasoning for Theresa May’s enthusiasm for a General Election.

     

    Right now, British politics stinks and with a hopeless and hapless Labour Party that had to rely on a Coronation Street ‘star’ with an obsession with the word “toss” to get their campaign going yesterday, Mrs May’s home run is now sadly virtually in the bag. Her timing – brilliantly executed and Lady Macbeth-like in fashion, even her critics will admit – ensures she can “bury bad news” Jo Moore-style and ensures she’ll be able to make her woes go away. The vicar’s daughter and the kowtowing garden gnome she calls husband will likely get the landslide they want and with the Queen Bee and her party campaigning in previously deemed ‘unwinnables’, Theresa May is truly going for the jugular.

     

    All right-minded people want to do right now is sit in horror with their heads in their hands, but actually, in fact, there is something we can all do. We must use our votes wisely and must use them tactically. This is not an election about “the many, not the few” and its not one about the “strong and stable” leadership of “Theresa’s May’s team”; it’s about Brexit and we must all use our votes to ensure Mrs May doesn’t forget that the 48% still deserve a voice.

     

    #MakeJuneEndOfMay

     

  • Take Me To The Titanic

    Take Me To The Titanic

    Apartment in mansion block in Sloane Square for sale for £6.2 million in spite of needing updating; it is within the building from which a Mayor of Chelsea lived and departed to his death on RMS Titanic

     

    A third floor flat in a portered mansion block on Sloane Square has gone on sale for £6.2 million ($8 million, €7.3 million or درهم29.5 million) through Cluttons in spite of being decorated like a relic from the 1980s. It is situated above Hugo Boss’ flagship store and within Grade II listed Wyndham House, the building from which a former Mayor of Chelsea went to his untimely death aboard the RMS Titanic in 1912.

     

    Previously priced at £6.5 million ($8.4 million, €7.7 million or درهم30.9 million) when marketed by Russell & Simpson in February 2016, the 2,684 square foot lateral apartment includes a 30-foot long reception room, 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms and features such details as ornate ceiling friezes and plasterwork and working fireplaces. A larger 5 bedroom flat within Wyndham House sold for the staggering sum of £12 million ($15.5 million, €14.2 million or درهم57 million) in July 2015 according to Land Registry records.

     

    Take Me To The Titanic – Wyndham House, Sloane Square, London, SW1W 8AR – For sale for £6.2 million ($8 million, €7.3 million or درهم29.5 million) through Cluttons – Home to Christopher Head (1869 – 1912), former Mayor of Chelsea, who died on the RMS Titanic on 15th April 1912
    Wyndham House resident and Mayor of Chelsea from 1909 to 1911 Charles Head (1869 – 1912) perished aboard RMS Titanic, his body was never recovered but a sundial was erected in his memory in nearby Cadogan Place Gardens

     

    Aside from being one of Chelsea’s grandest residential blocks, Wyndham House was at home to one of the victims of the Titanic maritime disaster in the early 1900s and it was from here that Charles Head, Mayor of Chelsea between 1909 and 1911, went to his death in April 1912. Head, a Cambridge educated barrister turned director of Head & Co. insurance brokers and underwriters at Lloyds of London, was a well known supporter of the arts, a councilor from 1906 and had only married 18 months earlier. He travelled alone on a £42 first class ticket (the equivalent of £4,400, $5,700, €5,200 or درهم20,900 today) on the Titanic’s maiden voyage and bizarrely had taken out a £25,000 insurance policy “against ocean accidents”. His precaution left his widow very well provided for given such a sum was the equivalent of £2.6 million today ($3.4 million, €3.1 million or درهم12.4 million).

     

    Take Me To The Titanic – Wyndham House, Sloane Square, London, SW1W 8AR – For sale for £6.2 million ($8 million, €7.3 million or درهم29.5 million) through Cluttons – Home to Christopher Head (1869 – 1912), former Mayor of Chelsea, who died on the RMS Titanic on 15th April 1912Take Me To The Titanic – Wyndham House, Sloane Square, London, SW1W 8AR – For sale for £6.2 million ($8 million, €7.3 million or درهم29.5 million) through Cluttons – Home to Christopher Head (1869 – 1912), former Mayor of Chelsea, who died on the RMS Titanic on 15th April 1912Take Me To The Titanic – Wyndham House, Sloane Square, London, SW1W 8AR – For sale for £6.2 million ($8 million, €7.3 million or درهم29.5 million) through Cluttons – Home to Christopher Head (1869 – 1912), former Mayor of Chelsea, who died on the RMS Titanic on 15th April 1912Take Me To The Titanic – Wyndham House, Sloane Square, London, SW1W 8AR – For sale for £6.2 million ($8 million, €7.3 million or درهم29.5 million) through Cluttons – Home to Christopher Head (1869 – 1912), former Mayor of Chelsea, who died on the RMS Titanic on 15th April 1912Take Me To The Titanic – Wyndham House, Sloane Square, London, SW1W 8AR – For sale for £6.2 million ($8 million, €7.3 million or درهم29.5 million) through Cluttons – Home to Christopher Head (1869 – 1912), former Mayor of Chelsea, who died on the RMS Titanic on 15th April 1912Take Me To The Titanic – Wyndham House, Sloane Square, London, SW1W 8AR – For sale for £6.2 million ($8 million, €7.3 million or درهم29.5 million) through Cluttons – Home to Christopher Head (1869 – 1912), former Mayor of Chelsea, who died on the RMS Titanic on 15th April 1912Take Me To The Titanic – Wyndham House, Sloane Square, London, SW1W 8AR – For sale for £6.2 million ($8 million, €7.3 million or درهم29.5 million) through Cluttons – Home to Christopher Head (1869 – 1912), former Mayor of Chelsea, who died on the RMS Titanic on 15th April 1912Take Me To The Titanic – Wyndham House, Sloane Square, London, SW1W 8AR – For sale for £6.2 million ($8 million, €7.3 million or درهم29.5 million) through Cluttons – Home to Christopher Head (1869 – 1912), former Mayor of Chelsea, who died on the RMS Titanic on 15th April 1912Take Me To The Titanic – Wyndham House, Sloane Square, London, SW1W 8AR – For sale for £6.2 million ($8 million, €7.3 million or درهم29.5 million) through Cluttons – Home to Christopher Head (1869 – 1912), former Mayor of Chelsea, who died on the RMS Titanic on 15th April 1912Take Me To The Titanic – Wyndham House, Sloane Square, London, SW1W 8AR – For sale for £6.2 million ($8 million, €7.3 million or درهم29.5 million) through Cluttons – Home to Christopher Head (1869 – 1912), former Mayor of Chelsea, who died on the RMS Titanic on 15th April 1912 Take Me To The Titanic – Wyndham House, Sloane Square, London, SW1W 8AR – For sale for £6.2 million ($8 million, €7.3 million or درهم29.5 million) through Cluttons – Home to Christopher Head (1869 – 1912), former Mayor of Chelsea, who died on the RMS Titanic on 15th April 1912Take Me To The Titanic – Wyndham House, Sloane Square, London, SW1W 8AR – For sale for £6.2 million ($8 million, €7.3 million or درهم29.5 million) through Cluttons – Home to Christopher Head (1869 – 1912), former Mayor of Chelsea, who died on the RMS Titanic on 15th April 1912

  • Brenda from Bristol

    Brenda from Bristol

    Pearl clad pensioner ‘Brenda from Bristol’ became the Gillian Duffy of the 2017 General Election when she shared her views about politics with a BBC reporter. This 75-year old retired secretary spoke for the nation in remarking: “You’re joking? Not another one!” Oh for God’s sake, I can’t honestly… I can’t stand this. There’s too much politics going on at the moment. Why does she [Theresa May] need to do it?” and later added: “There’s hardly anybody in any of the parties that you’d put your life on the line for. We need somebody who’s got a little bit of guts to get us all going”. Brenda is entirely right: It is time that politicians stopped bothering us.

     

    #BrendaForPM

     

    Brenda from Bristol – The voice of the nation, 2017’s Gillian Duffy – Pearl clad ‘Brenda from Bristol’ became the Gillian Duffy of 2017 General Election when she shared her views about politics with a reporter.Brenda from Bristol – The voice of the nation, 2017’s Gillian Duffy – Pearl clad ‘Brenda from Bristol’ became the Gillian Duffy of 2017 General Election when she shared her views about politics with a reporter. Brenda from Bristol – The voice of the nation, 2017’s Gillian Duffy – Pearl clad ‘Brenda from Bristol’ became the Gillian Duffy of 2017 General Election when she shared her views about politics with a reporter.Brenda from Bristol – The voice of the nation, 2017’s Gillian Duffy – Pearl clad ‘Brenda from Bristol’ became the Gillian Duffy of 2017 General Election when she shared her views about politics with a reporter.

  • Backing Borwick

    Backing Borwick

    K&C resident Justin Downes shares his reasons for supporting Victoria Borwick, the Conservative Party Parliamentary Candidate for Kensington

     

    It is sad that politics has become – if it ever wasn’t – such a filthy business. It is sadder still when a politician noted for integrity, hard work and compassion becomes the subject of a barrage of lies and politically motivated vilification.

     

    Reading some of the remarks about the Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Kensington Victoria Borwick in the comments section of a recent article in The Steeple Times, I wondered whether the individual referenced could possibly be same person I have known for so many years.

     

    Could I be prejudiced because I vote Tory? That is doubtful: I haven’t voted Tory for many a year. Maybe, it is because I don’t think I have the political agenda that those attacking Victoria seem to and maybe it is because I believe I actually take people as I find them.

     

    Like many thousands of other residents, I have always found Victoria Borwick ready to help anyone at any time, irrespective of who they might be. Have those authoring these derogatory comments ever met her? I doubt it.

     

    In a world of boring conformity Victoria stands out as her own person. Many will remember the time RBK&C proposed destroying Sloane Square. Victoria – a lady I’ve never known to use the title ‘Lady Borwick’ – stood side by side with residents to the detriment of her political career. It was made clear to her by the then leader of the council, the hideous Sir Merrick Cockell, she would be out in the cold for years to come.

     

    If Victoria faces one criticism, in my view, it’s that she gets over-involved in cases where an overbearing council is bullying the weak. I particularly remember the case of an old soldier, living in the most terrible of conditions, with developers harassing him at every turn. Victoria fought for him like a lioness. She would even pop by to ensure he had food for the weekend.

     

    On a separate but connected note, I have recently been advising a very bright young Conservative candidate (yes, I am politically indifferent). He is facing selection for a Midlands seat: one that overwhelmingly voted ‘Leave’. He, himself, was a dogged and campaigning ‘Remainer’.  He asked me, if asked, whether he should deny the fact.

     

    My question to him was this: “Are you, or are you not, a conviction politician?” He replied he hoped he was. He answered his own question, took his chance and got selected. So, integrity does count in politics.

     

    Justin Downes is a resident of the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea. He has been a reader of The Steeple Times for a number of years.

     

    The Steeple Times welcomes well-reasoned and contrasting contributions from readers on all subjects as long as they comply with our editorial guidelines. Should you wish to contact us in such regard, please email [email protected]

     

  • Turncoat Tory Predicts Troubles for Theresa

    Turncoat Tory Predicts Troubles for Theresa

    Scandal prone Tory activist turned Jared Kushner employed journalist Andre Walker claims Theresa May is fearful of electoral disaster due to MPs from her party likely being jailed

     

    A widely criticised one-time Tory activist turned journalist with links to the party’s dubious 2015 ‘battlebus scandal’ has claimed that “a criminal investigation is the real reason Theresa May called the General Election”.

     

    In an opinion piece, Andre Walker – currently a columnist for Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner’s The New York Observer and formerly part of the team that established the far-right Breitbart London news network – referenced a widely reported story about thirty senior Conservatives facing prosecution for electoral fraud but went far further than most in adding: “In all likelihood, there will be MPs standing for re-election on 8th June who are also facing jail”.

     

    Referencing the Conservative Party’s controversial 2015 election buses that toured Britain under the banner the ‘Road Trip’ campaigning group, Walker pointedly remarked:

     

    “It is illegal to make a mistake – accidental or otherwise. In any case, failure to remember that you had five buses traveling to every key area of the country stretches credibility”.

     

    Curiously, in his article, the hard Brexiteer made no reference to his own connections to that scandal and nor did he make mention of his long-term friend and founder of ‘Road Trip’, Mark Clarke – a disgraced individual who has since been expelled from the Conservative Party and banished for life.

     

    In 2010, The Telegraph revealed Walker – a larger-than-life figure with 59,000 followers on Twitter – was forced to resign as political aide after been caught plotting to smear a deputy council leader in Windsor in a clip posted on YouTube. Subsequently, in 2016, in an interview for the BBC’s Sunday Politics, Walker claimed to have been the boyfriend of Elliott Johnson, an activist who committed suicide in 2015, leaving a note suggesting he’d been “bullied by Mark Clarke and betrayed by Andre Walker”.

     

  • Breaking with Boris

    Breaking with Boris

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

     

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

     

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

     

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

     

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

     

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

     

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

     

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

     

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

     

    #BritainDeservesBetter #MakeJuneEndOfMay

     

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

    Video of the Week – Mocking May

    Comedian Jan Ravens’ impersonation of Theresa May is utterly brilliant

     

    With the election campaign under way, a little humour is definitely required and a comical video shared on YouTube provides just such.

     

    Featuring the actress Jan Ravens’ take on Theresa May, the 2:45 minute clip has over attracted over 70,000 hits – and even Tory supporters have celebrated its sheer brilliance.

     

    In it, Ravens mocks Mrs May’s enthusiasm for grammar schools and remarks on her having put an alternative to the Chuckle brothers in charge of Brexit. She speaks of us “now [being] the cautionary tale other countries tell their electorates to stop them doing anything so bloody stupid in the future” and adds: “We are now the global ghost of Christmas future: Asymmetric neckline, bad blow dry, tense mouth”.