Tag: Conservative

Beating Borwick

‘The Steeple Times’ urges readers in Kensington to vote tactically to unseat Victoria Borwick

Victoria Borwick, in spite of representing a constituency that was home to a greater proportion of EU nationals than any other London borough in 2016, was a firm advocate of Brexit. In the months since the disastrous vote, she has continued to ignore the fact that 69% of residents of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea voted ‘Remain’ and on that basis we urge readers based in the locality to vote against her in the forthcoming general election.

Though Theresa May supporting Lady Borwick has a majority of 7,361 (21.1%), the best way to unseat her would be a high turnout and for voters to unite behind one candidate. Whilst Labour have previously come second, most will be unable to engage with the thought of backing Jeremy Corbyn and on that basis, the only option is the Liberal Democrat candidate Annabel Mullin.

Annabel Mullin is the only candidate who can realistically unseat the Tories in Kensington

Victoria Borwick does not represent the views of her constituents on membership of the European Union

April 25, 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
Mugged by May

Theresa May’s gamble to go to the country will likely pay off, but is it good for Britain?

Theresa May supposedly decided to go call a snap election after a trip to church and a walking holiday with her garden gnome-like husband, Philip, in Wales over Easter. She has taken a gamble but given that Sky News are projecting the Tories are likely to win 44% of the vote against Labour on 23%, it is one that will likely pay off.

Unsurprisingly and in a coward-like fashion, Mrs May has declined to partake in television debates but given her opponent Jeremy Corbyn is so hopeless, it would take only a calamity to unsettle any chances of her winning. Only the left-leaning Mirror is backing Corbyn and in spite of the Liberal Democrats likely to make a number of gains in the south-west, May will certainly hit Labour hardest.

Mrs May, however, is not good for Britain. Since taking office last year, she has performed eight U-turns on policy and as Home Secretary she was a total disgrace. One only has to remember that this is the woman who closed the police stations and this is the woman who closed the fire stations. This, also, is the politician who wastefully funded her friends Gerry and Kate McCann’s search for their missing child to the tune of £11 million and this is the woman whose inquiry into historic abuse has cost £100 million and delivered nothing.

Lady Macbeth-like May is a self-serving woman and she is not a good premier. This power grabbing vicar’s daughter’s about turn on Brexit is bad for Britain and her harshness towards immigrants is bad for business. She must be stopped and we urge our readers to vote for anyone but her on 8^th June.

April 19, 2017
Failing to Come Together

Whilst Theresa May’s Easter message is nothing but a damp squib, Jeremy Corbyn’s response is as much use as a chocolate teapot

“Let us come together… Let us build a stronger, fairer Britain that works for everyone”, clucked Theresa May on Sunday in a 3:10 minute Easter message posted on YouTube.

Mixing her Christian values with Brexit, the unelected Prime Minister went on about growing up in a vicarage and stood next to a wonky light fitting. She neglected to mention how the Mail on Sunday had exposed her “grubby, underhand deal” that sacrifices endangered species in favour of trade and growth and she said nothing of the failing inquiry into historic abuse that she’s already wasted over £100 million on.

In The Guardian, former Labour spin doctor Alastair Campbell took an axe to the message and lambasted it by commenting:

“I think even vicars’ daughters should be a little wary of allying their politics to their faith… She does not exactly say if God had a vote he would have voted Leave, but she gets closer to it than she should. If she really thinks she is leading a united country full of hope … I suggest she gets out more”.

He added:

“I don’t think I have ever known Britain more divided. As for her talk of compassion, community, citizenship and obligations to one another, she has taken an axe to those with regard to Britain’s relations to the rest of the world, and plenty of her domestic agenda points in the opposite direction”.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn responded by calling for “peace” and “reconciliation” but neither he nor Mrs May offer very much hope. God help us all and God help (once) Great Britain.

April 16, 2017
An MP’s Manor

Norfolk manor house owned by anti-Brexit Conservative politician Lord Prior of Brampton for sale for £3 million

David Prior – now The Rt. Hon. The Lord Prior of Brampton – undoubtedly was a decent and able Member of Parliament. Educated at Charterhouse and Cambridge, he became first an investment banker with Lehman Brothers and Lazard and then subsequently represented the Norfolk North constituency between 1997 and 2001.

A Conservative but one with a belief that “the role of the market is hugely limited in health and social care” and that Brexit will be “a terrible mistake”, 62-year old Mr Prior – whose father was the “Tory wet” Jim, later The Rt. Hon. The Lord Prior PC (1927 – 2016) – acquired Swannington Manor, ten miles north of Norwich in 1990 with his wife and has recently put it up for sale for £3 million ($3.8 million, €3.5 million or درهم13.8 million).

Standing in 96.5 acres, Swannington Manor is a Grade II listed red brick built house that dates to around 1700. It retains many period features, extends to 7,519 square foot and includes 5 reception rooms, 8 bedrooms and a self-contained annexe. A 3 bedroom lodge – let on a protected tenancy – stands beside the property’s entrance gates and aside from various outbuildings, barns and stores, there are formal and informal gardens, a kitchen garden, a heated outdoor swimming pool and a hard tennis court.

Primarily to the south and west of the house are grazing meadows, water meadows, a trout stream, a series of ponds and areas of woodland. These have been maintained with conservation and duck flighting in mind and form what the selling agents Savills describe as “a small sporting estate”.

Surprisingly, given his comments about Britain leaving the EU, Lord Prior of Brampton was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on 21^st December 2016.

April 13, 2017
Mugged by Mrs May

Updated: Theresa May forges a new career in post-Brexit Britain: Flogging tea towels and mugs

Theresa May, a woman who should be busy sorting out the mess that is her “red, white and blue Brexit”, is in Saudi Arabia insulting the locals and refusing to wear a headscarf. She’s also been meddling in the affairs of the National Trust, moaning about Easter eggs and on Tuesday night an email pinged into our inbox from her “nattering” registered treasurer and director general of the Conservative Party, Alan Mabbutt.

Update, 6th April, 4pm: A reader submitted an edited version of the mug; it portrays Mrs May’s plan a little more accurately

In it, hapless Mr Mabbutt – a man once forced to apologise for sending dodgy emails – emphasised he has an OBE and asked: “My ‘Plan For Britain’ mug and tea towel have just arrived, have you ordered yours yet?” He then shamelessly urged supporters to donate £35 to get these limited edition items also and ridiculously claimed “supplies are running low”.

Just as Lloyds of London plans to relocate much of their operations to Brussels and Bentley talk of escaping tariffs by moving to mainland Europe, plainly Mabbutt and May think tea towels and coffee cups are our future. God help once Great Britain.

April 5, 2017
Limehouse

Matthew Steeples extols the relevance of the Donmar Warehouse’s ‘Limehouse’ to Britain’s contemporary political climate

At a time when Brexit has divided Britain and Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour continues to provide little-to-no opposition to Theresa May’s somewhat unfocused, unelected government, the relevance of a play named Limehouse is especially poignant.

Based around the formation of the ill-fated Social Democratic Party by the ‘Gang of Four’ – Bill Rodgers, Shirley Williams, Roy Jenkins and David Owen – in 1981, what The Telegraph calls a “domestic sitcom” takes place entirely in a “bourgeois” kitchen. It occurs during a period when moderates – driven to try to find an alternative to the rise of Thatcherism on one side and the loony left on the other – despaired at a nation divided and sought out a new way forward. Limehouse – named after the area where Owen lived at the time – effectively examines what this quartet believed the UK needed then and what many believe the UK again needs today: A credible centrist party.

Played out as a kitchen table coup by four ultimately flawed politicians over two bottles of Château Lafite, the plot is cleverly guided by a fifth member, the American born literary agent wife of David Owen. She concludes the play by asking: “What if?” in the context of what might have happened had a sensible centrist political movement been successful back in the 1980s. It’s the very question that will be on the lips of so many as we head towards Theresa May triggering Article 50 on the 29^th March.

‘Limehouse’ is at the Donmar Warehouse until 15^th April.

March 25, 2017
A Musical Roller

Rolls-Royce previously owned by musicians Kenney Jones and Vangelis to be auctioned

A 1965 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud III drophead coupé complete with ‘Chinese Eyes’ quad headlights that was owned by the drummer Kenney Jones and the electronic musician Vangelis is to be sold at auction next week.

The mid-metallic blue with beige hide interior stunner, which has been “recently unearthed from a London garage”, was one of a vast collection of cars owned by Stepney born Jones – a member of Small Faces, Faces, The Who, The Law and The Jones Gang – in the 1980s. The Conservative supporting, polo club owner sold the car to Vangelis in 1993 and in an interview with Luxurious Magazine remarked: “I had to downgrade to an Audi Q7 which was big enough to hold [my six children]”.

Kenney and Jayne Jones at their Hurtwood Park Polo Club and Vangelis

Secretive Chariots of Fire score writer Vangelis – born Evanghelos Papathanassiou – kept the vehicle for 23 years yet hardly ever drove it. Despite him having left it in a London garage for decades, the vehicle “runs well” and is described by its owner as having a “very good” engine and “good” coachwork, paintwork and interior trim. Factory extras fitted to the vehicle include an electrically operated hood mechanism, electric windows and a cocktail cabinet with crystal glasses and a carafe under the dashboard.

H&H Classics have placed an estimate of £150,000 to £180,000 ($186,000 to $224,000, €173,000 to €208,000 or درهم684,000 to درهم821,000) on this “decidedly avant-garde, yet majestic” coupé and will sell it on 29^th March at their Imperial War Museum Duxford sale in Cambridgeshire.

March 19, 2017
Singleminded Sturgeon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

March 14, 2017
Big Beast Banished After Brexit Balls-up

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

March 8, 2017