The Steeple Times

Tag: Daily Mail

  • Alfie Best – What’s on your mantelpiece?

    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.

     

  • Backing Best for Britain

    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.

     

  • Mugged by May

    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 8th June.

     

  • Failing to Come Together

    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.

     

  • Carol Bowditch

    Carol Bowditch

    Whilst the problem play The Goat, or who is Sylvia? – which, in a 2017 adaptation, starred Damian Lewis as a man who falls head over heels for a goat named Sylvia – shocked many, pensioner Carol Bowditch is a true life example of someone whom repeatedly engaged in carnal activities with animals. Spared jail for being filmed having penetrative vaginal and oral sex with a St Bernard, a black Labrador and an Alsatian in April 2017, Mrs Bowditch of Evedon, Lincolnshire bizarrely claimed: “I was unaware it was illegal”. After giving her a given a community order with 12 months supervision and a 16 week night-time curfew, Judge Michael Heath concluded: “I am told that you have received public humiliation as a result of the publicity that this case has attracted. That does not surprise me”.

     

  • Martina Big

    Martina Big

    Born white in Bernkastel-Kues, Germany in 1989, but now perceived by many to be black, “pneumatic chested” Martina Big increased her cleavage to a 32S and “turned her pale skin a deep mahogany shade that draws stares from strangers everywhere she goes”. A former air hostess turned glamour model, Miss Big appeared on ITV1’s This Morning in April 2017 and alongside her equally tanned partner, Michael, curiously announced: “I love being an exotic Barbie”. On her website, this Katie Price fan goes further and proclaims: “My motto is ‘Big is not big enough!’”

     

    Martina Big – The name of this “mahogany skinned” German is a giveaway. Martina Big – The name of this “mahogany skinned” German is a giveaway.Martina Big – The name of this “mahogany skinned” German is a giveaway.

  • A Balls-Up

    A Balls-Up

    Shame on ‘The Sun’ for publishing a non-story about a child being hit by a football in Belgrave Square; the ball was kicked by a girl who was with the footballer Cesc Fàbregas

     

    On Wednesday, the The Sun indulged in one of their most sensationalist pieces of journalism in recent months when they published an article that reported on a child being hit on the head by a football in Belgrave Square.

     

    According to Victoria Diethardt – the 29-year old wife of an investment banker and mother of the child hit by the ball – after her “little ray of sunshine” suffered the unwelcome “ordeal”, she confronted Chelsea player Cesc Fàbregas, who was with a girl who had kicked the ball. Mrs Diethardt told The Sun:

     

    “I wasn’t going to let them leave without knowing who was responsible. I asked the man his name but his wife stepped forward and said she was Daniella [Cesc Fàbregas’ partner] and gave me her number… I had no idea who Fàbregas was until after he left when others in the park told me”.

     

    Mrs Diehardt’s child was later diagnosed with a minor head injury but, as is now typically the way, she gave her story to The Sun (presumably for a fee) and ridiculously told the tabloid: “Fàbregas should pay for the rest of his life”.

     

    In response, a spokesman for Mr Fàbregas sensibly remarked:

     

    “Both Daniella and her daughter apologised profusely and Daniella has called and texted since to see if the baby was OK. When they got no response they presumed there was no cause for concern”.

     

    Plainly only published due to a lack of other news, the story generated many comments when later shared by the Mail Online. Amongst them, were many suggesting that the Diehardt was trying to make money out of a non-incident. One went as far as to remark: “This woman is trying to cash in because of who he is” whilst another added: “Call her out for what she is – a FREELOADER”.

     

  • K&C Doesn’t Care

    K&C Doesn’t Care

    As 50% of care homes in Kensington & Chelsea are rated “inadequate”, we suggest this reflects what the area has become: A money park for the selfish rich

     

    A society that does not care for its elderly is, as the Pope pointed out in 2015, a “perverse society” and bizarrely, it has just been revealed, Britain’s richest borough, Kensington and Chelsea, has some of the worst care homes in the country.

     

    A study by the charity Independent Age found that Kensington and Chelsea falls within the five worst areas in the United Kingdom for its percentage of care homes rated “inadequate”. It found that one was even infested with mice and another “put residents at risk from poor management of medicines”. Out of ten care homes in the borough, five were rated poor.

     

    On Tuesday, Andrew Kaye, head of policy and campaigns at Independent Age, told the MailOnline:

     

    “It definitely surprised us to find affluent areas among those with poor rates, but this shows older people who pay to enter care homes, as well as those who are funded, are losing out”.

     

    “This might be because of staff vacancies, difficulty recruiting, or a lack of support. It is unacceptable that some older people are forced to choose a care home that is unsatisfactory”.

     

    In an area where basement flats sell for upto £5 million and houses and flats go for upto £250 million, it is shocking that so little effort is being put into taking care of the old and infirm. It is a reflection on the priorities of our society and yet another sad indication of what the money park that is the Royal Borough has become.

     

  • Morons of the Moment – Piccadilly Boy Racers

    Morons of the Moment – Piccadilly Boy Racers

    Insensitive showoffs wreak havoc in Parliament Square with their gaudy supercars; they claimed to be honouring the dead and injured of the Westminster attack but simply caused annoyance

     

    Though five people died and around fifty others were injured as a result of Khalid Masood smashing his rented 4×4 into them on Westminster Bridge on 22nd March, a group of insensitive showoffs decided it would be appropriate to cause gridlock with their gaudy supercars in Parliament Square on Sunday.

     

    Shabs Ahmad, a spokesman for the group, which is known as the Piccadilly Boy Racers, told the MailOnline:

     

    “Following recent attacks in Westminster which cost the lives of innocent civilians as well as PC Keith Palmer, we felt it was only right to pay our condolences and show our love by standing united to oppose the atrocious acts of violence”.

     

    “We felt that being British Muslims with a platform, we wanted to speak up against such acts and bring people of all race and religion together as a symbol of peace, love and unity”.

     

    The police felt quite differently about their presence and told these ridiculous vulgarians to swiftly to move on.

     

    Morons of the Moment – Piccadilly Boy Racers – Insensitive showoffs cause havoc in Parliament Square with their gaudy supercars. The Piccadilly Boy Racers should be ashamed of themselves.

  • Alfie Best II

    Alfie Best II

    A tenacious Romany Gypsy turned multi-millionaire businessman, Mayfair and Hertfordshire based Alfie Best overcame “many obstacles and prejudices” to make his fortune in cars, mobile phone stores and mobile home parks. The owner of Wyldecrest Parks also produces his own gin and claims his life philosophy is “90% perspiration and 10% inspiration”. His equally entrepreneurial son, Alfie Best III, appeared with him on Channel 4’s My Big Fat Gypsy Fortune.