As Victoria Beckham embraces being a ‘bag lady,’ one could argue she’d simply do best to keep her head inside for good
On the surface, Victoria Beckham has it all: Fame, fortune and friends. In spite of this, this pop princess turned fashion fiesta never smiles and frankly seems as miserable as sin.
Former Kensington MP Lady Borwick returns to the fray and is branded a #FearlessPillarOfTheCommunity in spite of her bizarre comments linking the Grenfell Tower tragedy and gangs
“Triple dipper” – branded as such because at one time she was paid nearly £100,000 of public money per year as a councillor, Member of Parliament and member of the London Assembly concurrently – Lady Borwick has now bizarrely branded #FearlessPillarOfTheCommunity on Instagram.
No doubt part of an attempt to resurrect her deservedly dented public profile, this former MP for Kensington – once one of the safest Tory seats in the land and a place where previously even a pig in a blue rosette would have easily won – Lady Borwick most recently was criticised for describing survivors of the Grenfell Tower as “rather like gangs.”
Lady Borwick is, given the evidence, out of touch with the modern electoral landscape and if the Conservative Party are to have any chance of electoral success in Kensington again, they should jolly well send her off back to a safe space where she can happily “tinkle on [her beloved] ivories” in peace.
In the first edition of a header for an article about a star who’d taken to the dating app Bumble to “seek someone who isn’t uptight,” the paper falsely suggested that the somewhat drippy adventurer turned television presenter Ben Fogle was divorcing a woman (a singer and ‘Hottest Female 2009’ named Una Healey) who isn’t even his wife and having an affair with another (an until now unknown PR woman named Becky Milne) he’s unlikely never met also. Instead, they meant to reference a somewhat vain rugby player who likes to get his kit off for photoshoots called Ben Foden but somehow got the surnames mixed up.
Though errors happen at all levels, the Daily Mail – a paper that is part of a company with a revenue of nearly £2 billion annually and a vast staff of around 10,000 globally – could surely do better. This was not a story that was run on Page 54 in the graveyard section, but one that they have plastered as headline news and run as story number one online also.
We may well be living in the era of hashtags and fake news and are certainly currently in August’s ‘silly season’, but come on Lord Rothermere – employ yourself a bloody half-decent copy checker.
Pictured top: Rugby player Ben Foden (left) supposedly embarked on a relationship with PR woman Becky Milne (second left) whilst still married to ‘The Saturdays’ singer Una Healy (second from right); television presenter Ben Fogle was mistakenly brought into the mix by a rather ineffectual ‘Mail Online’ copy checker.
The Daily Mail’s first header to the story began “Ben Fogle” (left) whilst later they were forced to amend it to the correct name: “Ben Foden”; surprisingly this mistake was made in a story that they ran as their number one headline on the Mail Online.The acclaimed 1956 film ‘The Man Who Never Was’ was based on the true story of a British attempt to trick the Germans into weakening Sicily’s defenses before their 1943 attack there, using a dead man with faked papers. The late Dame Paddy Ridsdale, at one time Ian Fleming’s secretary and the inspiration for the Bond character Miss Moneypenny, formed part of the plot and pretended to be having an affair with the aforementioned dead man in order to aid the deception.
“With champagne wishes and caviar dreams” was the famous signoff of London born Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous host Robin Leach. Harrow High School educated, this one-time Daily Mail reporter moved to the US in 1963 with $145 in his pocket and after briefly becoming a shoe salesman founded a music publication named Go Magazine.
After selling up “at considerable profit,” Leach worked for The National Star and CNN before coming up with Lifestyles in 1984. He attributed the show’s popularity to Jimmy Carter exiting the White House and boasted: “[It was] because the Reagans brought in an aura of wealth. Jimmy Carter was too ordinary. So, when Reagan came in, it was time for a show about wealth and success… Hear this: In the course of an hour, I deliver twice as much audio information and visual images as any other show on television. I’m fast and loud on purpose. I cram 10 pounds of caviar into an eight-pound pack.”
“Sensational, not scandalous” in his approach, twice married, father of three Leach’s subjects numbered everyone from Celine Dion to Madonna and Adnan Khashoggi and Donald Trump. As a result this celebrant of wealth and capitalism became a millionaire and pretty famous himself and in 2007, in the Fergie song Glamorous featuring Ludacris, the latter rapped: “Lifestyles so rich and famous, Robin Leach’ll get jealous.” With his passing, most certainly, this much parodied “life of the party” has most definitely moved to the skies.
In a statement, aside from apologising yet again to the plainly strange Christian crooner, the Corporation thankfully, however, announced they would be taking its case to a higher level and stated:
“The BBC is writing today to ask the Government to consider a review of the law in this important area to protect the right to properly and fairly report criminal investigations, and to name the person under investigation.”
“There is a fundamental principle of press freedom at stake here and one upon which we believe Parliament, as our lawmakers, should decide.”
They are quite right and given this ruling is tantamount to new legislation, this ultimately will go down in history as taking Britain down a very dangerous road.
Pictured top: Convicted paedophile Rolf Harris with Sir Cliff Richard.
Matthew Steeples suggests Noel Edmonds’ latest outburst just confirms himself to be a strange, publicity desperate fool
Spiritualist television personality Noel Edmonds is certainly an off-the-scale oddity. He blamed the banking giant HBOS for getting cancer and then claimed he knew of an electric box that could cure the disease; he tried to “comfort” a cat on Jeremy Vine’s radio show in 2016 and he’ll also forever be associated with his financially disastrous ‘Blobby Land’ theme park in Morecambe, Lancashire.
Determined to keep himself in the public eye, Edmonds recently chose to participate in a BBC Two “endurance rally show” programme named Eight Go Rallying: The Road To Saigon. Likely paid handsomely for driving 2,500 miles through Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam in an MGB GT with his wife, the television presenter have since complained that the experience was “a farce” and that he was even “deceived” into attending a wrap party in a brothel.
In an article for The Sunday Times, Edmonds commented:
“We were trapped in the worst kind of reality TV show, in which the reality is that the producers are deceiving the viewers.”
“After months of silence, I assumed they had come to the only sensible conclusion and had decided to drop the series. But no — out of the blue I received an email announcing the dates for broadcast. To compound the insanity, the BBC is using my name and image to promote the series.”
“No, Auntie, you’re misbehaving and I won’t be implicated.”
Seriously Noel, stop drinking the Kool Aid: We all know you are publicity desperate and we all know you planted this story simply to boost your own pathetic ego.
As the comedy character David Brent once quipped:
“You know, like poor Noel Edmonds. People going, What’s he doing going round hospitals at Christmas giving out presents? He’s doing it for himself, isn’t he? He’s not doing it for himself! He’s doing it for them. He’s not doing it at all any more. He can’t get on telly for love nor money. But when he did it, he did it for them.”
In summary Noel: Please. Please just shut up.
Pictured top: Noel Edmonds hugging his creation ‘Mr Blobby’ at the opening of Crinkley Bottom at Happy Mount Park in Morecambe, Lancashire in 1994.
A bit of a wildchild, Kyra Kennedy is the daughter of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (‘RFK’ to his friends). In 2015, she “freaked out” at a New York club that refused to let her in and “screamed”: “I’m a Kennedy, Google me!” whilst in 2016, she again hit headlines after allegedly cyberbullying a blogger named Allie Jones. Born in 1995 in Massachusetts and educated in New York and Italy, Kennedy tells her 14,000 Instagram followers that she’s “somewhere between psychotic and iconic.”
Crackpot Christian crooner Cliff Richard’s lawyers allude to him owning air
The libel case brought by Sir Cliff Richard – a self-declared “genuine international celebrity” with an ego the size of China – against the BBC took an unexpected turn yesterday, according to a report on the corporation’s very own website.
“Sir Cliff’s barrister, Justin Rushbrooke QC, asked [Jonathan] Munro [the BBC’s head of newsgathering] if he thought it had been acceptable to fly a helicopter over a private estate to ‘spy’ on the singer’s home.”
“Mr Munro said he would not use the word ‘spy’ and added he thought it was acceptable to film police searching the home of someone under investigation.”
“Mr Rushbrooke said: ‘If that is your genuine belief I suggest to you that you are unfit for your job.’”
Clearly, aside from being supposedly cheated out of winning Eurovision by General Franco, ‘Cliffy’ now plainly is of the belief he was robbed of the airspace above the apartment complex he used to live in. No congratulations required; the man’s an airhead.
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Image of Theresa May’s ‘Brexit war cabinet’ illustrates how divided her government truly is
Thursday’s ‘Brexit war cabinet’ was supposedly a bit of a bloodbath but now – in a picture published in the Mail Online late on Saturday –the frostiness between those in her pathetic orbit was made truly clear.
Photographed in the Great Hall of the Buckinghamshire mansion Chequeurs with the Worst Prime Minister in History sat bolt upright next to a roaring fire, May arranged Brexiteers and Remainers as far apart as possible. Indicative of the clear divide amongst those plotting as to her succession, never has a clearer image of a government deservedly about to fall been shown.
#BringHerDown #MakeFebruaryTheEndOfMay
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A numbered list of attendees at Theresa May’s meeting at Chequers follows:
1) Theresa May, Prime Minister
2) David Davis, Brexit Secretary
3) Boris Johnson, Foreign Secretary
4) Julian Smith, Chief Whip
5) Philip Hammond, Chancellor
6) Greg Clark, Business Secretary
7) Liam Fox, International Trade Secretary
8) Gavin Williamson, Defence Secretary
9) David Lidington, Cabinet Office Minister
10) Amber Rudd, Home Secretary
11) Karen Bradley, Northern Ireland Secretary
12) Michael Gove, Environment Secretary
13) Peter Hill, Principal Private Secretary to the PM
Grime and hip hop artist Stormzy should be saluted for using his fame to do good; the vile harpy Amanda Platell owes him an apology
Michael Ebenazer Kwadjo Omari Owuo Jr. – better known by his stage name Stormzy – used his fifteen minutes of fame after winning the best album and the best male artist at the Brit Awards for the good of others.
Using the evening’s final performance, the grime and hip-hop artist rapped:
“Yo Theresa May, where’s the money for Grenfell? What, you thought we just forgot about Grenfell? You criminals, and you’ve got the cheek to call us savages, you should do some jail time, you should pay some damages, you should burn your house down and see if you can manage this.”
He added:
“MPs sniff coke, we just smoke some cannabis; So don’t get me for this, so be woke; This year I am dishing out Ls for free smoke; You tell us that we’re thugs, I try to bust a myth; But someone tell the Daily Mail that they can suck my…”
The opposite of the cowardly and self-loving members of ‘The Club’ that includes the likes of the withering old crooner Sir Elton John and his moaning titleless husband David Furnish, Stormzy has since continued to communicate his campaign in the days since. Communicating to his 1.18 million followers on Twitter, he encouraged the nation to sign a petition to take action to support the victims of the Grenfell Tower tragedy and as of 11:50am Saturday over 130,000 people had signed a petition calling for a parliamentary debate.
Elsewhere on Saturday in the Daily Mail, the acid tongued Australian harpy Amanda Platell demanded: “[Stormzy] show a scintilla of gratitude to the country that offered his mother and him so much instead of trashing it.” This self-declared “dear friend” of the paedophile Rolf Harris should be ashamed of herself; Stormzy has used his fame for the good others whilst she is simply known for taking the dirty money of the nastiest newspaper in Britain.
Sign the petition to “Call on PM to take action to build public trust in the Grenfell Tower Inquiry” by clicking here.
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The government’s cowardly response in full to the petition follows:
The Grenfell Tower fire was a truly unimaginable tragedy that should never have happened.
The Government’s highest priority remains making sure that survivors, bereaved families and the wider Grenfell community receive all the support they need.
The independent public Inquiry into the fire is an important part of the process and will help those affected get the answers they need to get to the truth of what happened.
The Prime Minister committed to considering the issue of panel members once the Chair had confirmed who had been appointed as assessors to assist the Inquiry. Section 7 of the Inquiries Act 2005 allows the Minister responsible for an inquiry to appoint further panel members during the course of an inquiry with the agreement of the Chair.
In October 2017, the Chair announced the appointment of 7 expert witnesses with backgrounds in fire safety, forensic fire analysis, fire engineering, disaster resilience and also anatomy and human identification. The expert witnesses will provide a range of technical advice and expert reports to assist the work of the Inquiry in delivering its terms of reference.
In addition, in November 2017, the Chair announced the appointment of 3 assessors with backgrounds in community engagement and social housing, local authority administration and structural engineering. The Chair also confirmed at the Inquiry’s preliminary hearing in September that he would expect the assessors to see all the evidence and sit with him when taking oral evidence. The Chair has also confirmed that he may make further appointments if needed.
Following the announcement of these appointments, the Prime Minister carefully considered the composition of the Inquiry panel in light of the diversity and expertise of advice now available to the Inquiry.
The Prime Minister wrote to the representatives of the survivors and bereaved families on 21 December 2017 and informed them of her decision not to appoint additional panel members. The Prime Minister’s decision was similarly communicated to the Inquiry on the same date.
Having regard to the terms of reference and the assistance to be provided by the assessors, and the expert witnesses, it is the Prime Minister’s view that the Inquiry panel has the necessary expertise to undertake the Inquiry as it is currently constituted. The Prime Minister is also conscious of the need for the Inquiry to complete its initial report as quickly as reasonably possible. The Prime Minister therefore considers that additional panel members should not be appointed at this stage.
In reaching this conclusion, the Prime Minister fully took into account her duty under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010 (the Public Sector Equality Duty – PSED).
The Government recognises the importance of ensuring that those most affected by the tragedy are able to contribute fully to the Inquiry and that is why the Prime Minister welcomes the consideration being given by Sir Martin Moore-Bick to the establishment of a community advisory panel, as proposed at the December procedural hearing.
Such a panel, similar to that which has worked well for the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, could play a very beneficial role in putting those most affected at the heart of the Inquiry and enabling them to ensure that their views and experiences are heard. It is for Sir Martin, as Chair of the independent Inquiry, to take this forward, in consultation with the Grenfell Tower community, and the Government hopes that he will be able to do this as soon as possible.
In line with the Inquiry Rules 2006, legal representatives of the Grenfell community core participants will receive in advance of hearings disclosure of relevant evidence; will be able to make opening and closing statements at certain hearings and can suggest lines of questioning to be pursued by Counsel to the Inquiry. They can also apply to the Chair to ask questions of a witness.
