Tag: General Election

Liar Liar Theresa May

Captain SKA re-release 2010 anti-austerity hit ‘Liar Liar’ and this time use it to target “you can’t trust her”, Theresa May

In 2010, a musicial protest group called Captain SKA released Liar Liar as part of their aim to become a “voice against austerity and neoliberal politics”.

The track made some headway, but now, remixed and refocused on Theresa May in particular, includes such lyrics as “strong and stable won’t disguise, we’re still being taken for a ride” and in summary mocks her “porkie pies”.

On Saturday, a spokesman for Captain SKA told The Morning Star:

“We’ve remixed Liar Liar for this general election because we want to do all we can to expose the horrific effects Tory policy has had on ordinary people”.

“Theresa May lies her way through interview after interview without addressing the real issues”.

“We want to do all we can to make sure Theresa May is kicked out of Downing Street on 8^th June”.

Elsewhere, in a Facebook post, the group – who’ve already reached the top 40 with their catchy tune – added: “Download [Liar Liar] now and force the BBC to play it on our airwaves”.

#MakeJuneTheEndOfMay #StrongAndStableMyArse #LiarLiar

May 28, 2017
The Burka Brainbox

Burka hating UKIPper Suzanne Evans again shows herself to be anything but a “brainbox” in a ‘Twitter spat’ with Matthew Steeples

Yesterday, I found myself having what can be best described as a ‘Twitter spat’ with UKIP’s Suzanne Evans.

Watchmaker’s daughter Evans, whose attempt to suggest the Manchester terrorist atrocity wouldn’t have happened if burkas had been banned (in spite of the bomber being a man in civilian clothing) was brilliantly mocked by Andrew Neil this week, took a dislike to a post I had shared about her stupidity and curtly responded: “You’re not a brainbox at all”.

When I answered the former journalist and asked: “Has @PaulNuttallUKIP ever spread fake news?” and “Have ex-BNP and EDL members ever joined @UKIP?”, Evans went quiet. Surprising that.

May 27, 2017
A Brylcream Bigot

Nigel Farage’s communications man, “political poet” Dan Jukes, sinks to a new low in the wake of the attack on innocence in Manchester; this beer swilling bigot should henceforth be ignored

In the aftermath of the appalling terrorist attack in Manchester on Monday night, Nigel Farage’s communications man, Dan Jukes, did not unite with those sharing grief. Instead, this bombastic “political poet” – one half of a duo previously known as the ‘Brylcream Boys’ – spent the next hours telling his 5,088 Twitterfollowers to “get angry, get mad” and “#sigh[ed]” of the Eiffel Tower going dark in solidarity with victims.

Jukes, a man plainly lacking in any form of nuance of appropriateness, also shared a tweet that announced: “There’s no such thing as Islamophobia. It’s a word designed by Muslim Brotherhood [sic] to shut down debate” and another that read: “That’s enough hashtags and vigils. What we need now is public anger”. As well as retweeting wild and as of yet unproven suggestions that the date of the atrocity was linked to the fourth anniversary of the murder of Lee Rigby, Jukes also termed a missive by the respected human rights barrister Adam Wagner “dog shit” and then remarked: “Don’t trust this pair any further than I can throw them to sort out terrorism” alongside of an image of Theresa May and Amber Rudd.

Jukes’ inane ramblings did not stop there. He continued by repeating unconfirmed information about the Manchester suicide bomber having allegedly been heard “chanting Islamic prayers loudly in the street outside his home in the week leading up [to the attack]” and then concluded: “Parents of terrorist escaped Libya and came to Britain as refugees. This is how that family repay us… Change needed… This is war”.

At a time when tolerance between communities is especially essential, there’s only one thing worth doing with Dan Jukes: Let’s unite in turning off this pint-swilling little horror’s volume switch.

#Manchester

May 23, 2017
A Milder May

As Theresa May’s lead in the poll halves and Jamie Oliver criticizes her policy on universal free school lunches for infants, we call on voters to act with their feet and remind the Tory leader that moderates still deserve to be heard

There’s no point denying Theresa May will win on the 8^th June and there’s no doubt she’ll win big. The ‘alternative’ – not that Jeremy Corbyn’s pathetic excuse for a party can even be called that – is beyond bad but, with news that the Conservative Party’s lead has halved to 9 points in a week, comes good news for those that do not subscribe to a desire for a one party state.

With the prospect that Mrs May – whose attempt to make her ‘Strong and Stable’ campaign about ‘Theresa’s Team’ rather than using the name of her own party is starting to backfire – will not have as big a majority as she expected, there is a chance there will be at least some form of opposition to the vicar’s daughter’s hectoring ways.

In constituencies like Kensington, for example, ‘Remain’ supporters should vote against a shown-to-be lazy MP, Lady Borwick, and back Annabel Mullin of the Liberal Democrats – a lady who issued several video messages yesterday pledging to ‘#HoldToriesToAccount’. A protest vote in this Tory stronghold would send the most powerful signal of all to Mrs May that her “red, white and blue hard Brexit” needs to be tempered and it would act as a reminder that the 48% must still be heard.

Elsewhere, food campaigner and restaurateur Jamie Oliver spoke for the majority when he put his head in his hands and told Channel 4: “Oh, it’s awful. It’s awful. She will regret that” of the Conservatives’ plan to scrap universal free school lunches for infants in their first three years at primary school. He continued:

“Well, first of all, I’m apolitical. So don’t go thinking I’m ranting about one thing or the other… As far as I see it, and I believe I’m someone that’s had my hands dirty for twelve years now and I know what I’m talking about, right? It’s completely short-sighted. It’s completely short-sighted”.

“And I want her [Theresa May] to be a brilliant Prime Minister. I want a brilliant female Prime Minister. Fundamentally, what she’s doing is taking from teachers and taking from the kids”.

“If you speak to Mark Carney and the people at the highest level of economics, if you speak to Oxford Cambridge University on the modelling, the economic modelling of public health and the cost of ill health and the investment. Like, it’s the best bang for your buck you’re going to get. Don’t take from the kids. Don’t take from the teachers”.

May 21, 2017
Poore Borwick

New contributor Mark Newton shares his views on the “dubious record” of Lady Borwick, Conservative parliamentary candidate for Kensington

Kensington, Kensington, its name beats the drum of the Conservative heartland of London. Tory grandees have worked long and hard to be fortified in this Bastion with greats like Alan Clark, Michael Portillo and Malcom Rifkind amongst its previous tenants. To be given Kensington is to be awarded one of the safest, and most convenient seats in the land – a prize to be won by only the hardest working, and most industrious of MPs and this, to my mind, makes the continued selection of Lady Borwick (née Victoria Poore) as the Tory candidate even harder to understand.

Known locally by the epithet ‘Lazy Borwick’, this latest MP is cast quite differently from the usual Kensington mould. Lady (‘Call me Victoria’) Borwick’s stance on Brexit, lousy debate participation and letter response history, questionable use of public funds and ongoing links to shady businesses is creating quite the heated storm in the chattering leafy private gardens of Kensington. Over the next three articles, I’ll be taking a look at Lady Borwick to try to get to the bottom of how and why one of the safest Tory seats of the land came to be held by the one of the least worthy occupants.

Lady Borwick succeeded in getting her hands on Kensington after Malcolm Rifkind stepped down at the 2015 General Election. The circumstances of that coup are somewhat strange, not least because of the history of Kensington in selecting high profile and hard working MPs. What seems to have happened is simple nepotism. Lady Borwick, having twice failed to make the selection list for London mayor during Steven Norris’ candidacy, finally slid into the London Assembly in 2008 as one of three London-wide Conservative members. From there it was an easy promotion from Boris Johnson to the Deputy Mayorhood, and it seems no-one less than the great ‘BoJo’ himself shoe-horned her into the Kensington seat ahead of better qualified and more industrious candidates.

So why then is the epithet ‘Lazy Borwick’ doing the rounds in the Royal Borough? Surprisingly, it has very little to do with her controversial Brexit stance in a strongly Remain constituency. What’s got Conservatives up in arms is her uselessness as a constituency MP. According to the MP tracking website TheyWorkForYou, Lady Borwick’s response rate to written enquiries is just 18% – an abysmal score that places her 618^th on a list of 641 responding MPs. If there’s one thing the well-to-do residents of Kensington don’t like it’s an MP who is too busy or lazy to respond to their well-meant enquiries, particularly a Member of Parliament who manages to be significantly less efficient than her much busier, high profile forbearers.

So, what, might you ask, is taking up so much of Lazy Borwick’s time that she can’t manage to get to her mail bag? Some suggest that it may be her tireless work for charity, yet, strangely, Lady Borwick’s parliamentary voting record seems to spit in the face of the charitable causes she purports to support. Recently, she has jumped on the laudable activities of @CleanAirLondon, a much needed initiative to clean up London’s diesel rich environment, yet in the Commons ‘Lazy Borwick’ has consistently voted against climate change measures, and against a greater public control of bus services. Hard to reconcile with the self-promotional pictures of her backing smart energy meters.

Lady Borwick also claims to support local hospitals and to regularly visit the elderly residents of Kensington. She even spoke at a recent debate in favour of mental health and mobility support. Yet in the House of Commons she has almost always voted against paying benefits to those unable to work due to illness or disability and has consistently voted against the terminally ill being given assistance to end their lives.

Finally, there are those who suggest ‘Lazy Borwick’ may simply be too busy with parliamentary duties to answer constituents’ letters, yet she spoke in just 15 debates in the last year, well below average amongst MPs, and dramatically lower than previous high profile Kensington MPs.

Whatever it is that keeps Lady Borwick entertained, it can’t then be serving the interests of her constituents, so to get answers we need to dig further, into her bizarre and odd beliefs about Europe, and her odd use of public funds and ties to ‘Big Data’ business.

Coming up next – ‘Brexit Borwick’ and residents’ anger in Kensington; the constituency with the greatest proportion of EU nationals of any London borough.

Pictured above – ‘Woman of the people’ Lady Borwick – a “director and member of Poore and Second Poore Ltd; holding companies limited by guarantee” – aboard a 40-metre yacht in 2014 with Sunseeker Cheshire’s Jonathan Kingsley. At the time Mr Kingsley commented: “It was a wonderful opportunity to promote our iconic brand and reinforce the British success of Sunseeker to this high profile, influential Lady. She, and her son, adored the boat”.

#LazyBorwick

May 18, 2017
Double Bollocks

Politicians Lady Nugee and Sir Michael Fallon BOTH make total and utter fools of themselves over links to murderous dictator Bashar al-Assad

Yesterday Labour’s Lady Nugee – a ridiculous woman who prefers to go by the name ‘The Rt. Hon. Emily Thornberry MP’ – succeeded in making a fool out of The Rt. Hon Sir Michael Fallon KCB, MP on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show.

A previous ‘Moron of the Moment’ on these pages, Lady “I actually have quite a lot more experience than people think I do” Nugee asked the Secretary of State for Defence to reveal where he was on 27^th May 2007. When Sir Michael said he did not know and “scrambled to defend himself”, Lady Nugee told him he was “talking bollocks” and curtly added: “You were in Syria and you were celebrating at a reception for the re-election of President Assad with 99% of the vote. Now, I’m not going to judge you for going to a reception with Assad”.

Though Sir Michael responded: “I don’t recall any party in Syria. I remember a fact-finding visit to Syria”, Lady Nugee continued like a mad attack dog and did not give up. She continued: “You really can’t just go around making this stuff up. There’s an election and people need to make decisions on the basis of the truth”.

Rather inconveniently for the Shadow Foreign Secretary, later in the day, a pictured emerged of her hapless leader, Jeremy Corbyn, at a reception with President Bashar al-Assad in 2009.

#DoubleBollocks

Lady Nugee with Sir Michael Fallon and Andrew Marr on Sunday

May 15, 2017
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
Bob Marshall-Andrews QC

A “libertarian-left” Labour MP between 1997 and 2010, distinguished barrister and novelist Bob Marshall-Andrews defected to the Liberal Democrats in 2017. Described as “an irritant” to his former party whilst they were in government, multi-millionaire Marshall-Andrews built and owns “one of the most innovative houses of the 20^th century – the famed ‘Teletubby House’ in Druidston, Pembrokeshire – and is chairman of the George Adamson Wildlife Trust. In 2013, of him, Chambers Legal Directory remarked: “Juries love him… I’ve never seen a jury eat out of anyone’s hand as much” whilst he amusingly references himself as “the complete antidote to political humbug”. Of Labour, this “intellectually brilliant” individual added: “They’re a basket case…They effectively abdicated all responsibility [on Brexit]”.

May 13, 2017
Hero of the Hour – Chuka Umunna

Chuka Umunna MP speaks sense on Britain’s membership of the Single Market

This morning, Chuka Umunna spoke for many when he was interviewed on Radio 4’s Today programme.

The Labour MP commented:

We’re saying from the point of view of London where you’ve got over 600,000 jobs that are linked to our membership of the Single Market, whether you voted to Remain or Leave, you didn’t vote to be poorer.

Our membership of the Single Market was not on the ballot as it were, during that EU Referendum campaign. We’re saying that yes you can be outside of the European Union and be in the Customs Union, like Turkey for example and you be outside the European Union and in the Single Market like Norway.

You can actually reform the ways freedom of movement works within that context. For example, at the moment there’s one thing that we don’t do that could do now under free movement rules – which have never, by the way, been unconditional. So, for example, if somebody comes here, and they’ve been here for three months, they haven’t got work, and there’s no prospects of that, they can be asked to leave. We don’t do that at the moment.

And there are counties in the Single Market like, for example, Lichtenstein who have actually been able to apply quotas to the number of EU citizens coming. So, I don’t accept this kind of binary explanation of how things work.

We can actually stay in the Single Market, have the benefits it brings but also reform the way our immigration arrangements work.

Yesterday, Umunna was joined by sixteen general election candidates to launch a pamphlet called Stop Hard Brexit: Why London needs the Single Market. He should be saluted for this bold move and for his wise words today also.

May 13, 2017