As usual, well-known bully ‘Priti Useless’ proved that this is a government that believes in gettin’ things movin’ without botherin’ with detail. God help us all.
Pictured top: Priti Patel donned a British Airways hostess style neck garment to cover something up (love bites or restraint bruising, perhaps) when she appeared in Parliament earlier this week.
Matthew Steeples joins those saying: “I wish I was in the pub” and lauds the ‘Guardian’ for suggesting: “Pubs are part of Britain’s fabric. Why are they not being properly helped?”
In the 2000s, greedy property developers snapped up pub sites to redevelop as housing. Breweries realised their prime location real estate assets to be cash-in-able and then, with supermarkets selling alcohol dirt cheap and a stricter enforcement of drink driving legislation, the population decided to drink more at home.
The onset of coronavirus last year only further added to the woes of the sector and in November 2020 it was revealed that “in spite of research finding that 82% of pubgoers believed “that hospitality venues offered a Covid-secure environment,” 7 out of 10 pubs will never reopen post un-lockdown.
In a further twist, Pete Brown, chair of the British Guild of Beer Writers, penned an opinion piece on the subject for the Guardian this morning. In it, he began by whimsically musing: “I wish I was in the pub. I wish I was writing this at a wonky table, imprinting it with sticky rings each time I take a sip of my pint, a muddy dog curled at my feet.”
Moving on, he added of this locked up sector:
“The worry is that, the longer the pandemic drags on, the more likely this particular loss may be permanent.”
“Christmas, which can account for a quarter of annual profits, didn’t happen. May is now the likely reopening date for any pubs that survive until then. The government’s promised grant of £1,000 for every pub doesn’t go far when a closed pub costs its owners an average £800 a week.”
“Lack of help is hard enough to deal with. Being unfairly scapegoated for the spread of Covid is even worse.”
“Back in March, in the first lockdown, [hospitality sector venues] were forced to close before any other businesses. When they reopened in July, many commentators across the media predicted a wave of drunks creating nationwide super-spreader events. This never materialised.”
“And yet, pubs were subjected to stricter controls than any other business. At the same time as we were being told that it was our national duty to shop at chains such as Pret a Manger and Costa, [hospitality sector venues] required you to sign in or register with the test-and-trace app before you could enter. Social distancing and mask-wearing were enforced far more rigorously in many pubs than in shops or on public transport.”
“With the extra costs and diminished income from being limited to table service and 10pm curfews, by the time pubs were finally closed again in November, a third had already shut their doors because they couldn’t operate profitably.”
“Pubs proved an easy target then. In a nation that’s hung-up about its work ethic, time spent in the pub is seen as not worthwhile, even by many who frequent them. Many accept restrictions more easily on things we feel we probably shouldn’t be doing anyway.”
In further depressing news elsewhere for the hospitality sector in general yesterday, Big Hospitality claimed that 79% of operators believed they “will not be able to survive a lockdown until May without further government support. Their polling also revealed that “just 3% of operators are ‘very confident’ in the future of their businesses.”
Whilst Pete Brown concluded by summing up pubs as “part of Britain’s fabric,” the third wife of Ernest Hemmingway and war correspondent Martha Gellhorn’s analysis of their necessary role in society is definitely applicable now. “In the end, in England, when you want to find out how people are feeling, you always go to the pubs,” she once remarked. This government should remember that and it should do more to help the hospitality sector now before we lose the best of it for good.
Follow Matthew Steeples on Twitter at @M_Steeples.
‘Big Hospitality’ also revealed that 9,930 licensed premises closed in 2020, with only 3,955 opening for the first time – a net decline of 5,975 sites – this week.Shame on Bosie The Clown – Boris Johnson’s government has done little to nothing to help the beleaguered hospitality sector in spite of his own penchant for opportunistically posing with a pint at any given opportunity.
Anita Rani arrives as a BBC Radio 4 ‘Woman’s Hour’ morning show presenter and announces: “If you’ve had enough, pour yourself a G&T, you have my permission”
An opponent of Scottish independence and a former co-presenter of Rogue Restaurants for BBC One, Bradford born Anita Rani’s appointment this week as a presenter of the Friday and Saturday editions of BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour is a breath of fresh air.
Known for being a place of forthright views – with the programme’s stalwart Dame Jenni Murray having pointedly declared of the Archers potentially quitting The Archers in November 2014: “I will kill the editor if he lets David and Ruth and Jill go to Northumberland. Brookfield simply cannot go. It’s just not possible; there will be a national scandal if that happens,” for example – Rani marked her arrival by telling home-schooling parents: “If you’ve had enough, pour yourself a G&T, you have my permission” whilst tuning in to her morning show.
Plainly a woman after our own hearts with a “if you can’t have one at eleven, have eleven at one” attitude, Anita Rani has previously stated: “I’ve hated being putted into boxes my whole life.” Now, in declaring her love of gin, she’s most definitely boxing clever and is well on her way to getting the approval of the famously gin-soaked Lillian Bellamy of The Archers, but also the entire nation.
Previously in her BBC One show ‘War on Plastic: The Fight Goes On’ last August with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Anita Rani sensibly declared: “It’s been a tough time for everyone, but now that we are getting into the rhythm of the new world we can remember the importance of sustainability. If once again we come together, we can make change happen. We need big businesses and government to make bold and important decisions to get single use plastic out of the system.”Lillian Bellamy – played by the delightful Sunny Ormonde in ‘The Archers’ and a lady with her own Facebook fan club – is possibly Radio 4’s best known gin swiller and now Anita Rani has quite rightly got in on the act in urging her listeners to take up the view: “Time is only for the middle classes” when it comes to gin drinking.
Management of Fulham Road Italian The Chelsea Corner share their anger at the British government with protest posters against Lockup 3.0 and restaurants being branded “non-essential”
Deservedly featured as one of our ‘Five Stalwart Restaurants for your Rolodex in The Royal Borough’ in May 2019, the management of The Chelsea Corner on Fulham Road, SW10 have quite rightly taken a stand against the latest ludicrous government rules that categorise them as “non-essential.”
Echoing our sentiments last September when ‘Bosie The Clown’ brought in his stupid 10pm bar, pub and restaurant curfew, hardworking Jonny Lekaj has decided to put a number of posters in his windows slamming the blanket closure of restaurants nationwide as an “attack on small businesses.”
Aside from highlighting the fact that multi-national, big businesses like Starbucks and McDonald’s are allowed to continue to operate, Mr Lekaj sensibly argues: “If you can close businesses at will, without a though for anyone’s livelihood, why not close junk food producers? If junk food, alcohol and cigarettes kill 21 million people ever year… Why are those items constantly available?”
He is also correct to highlight the greed of landlords at this time and the uselessness of the government and of them remarked: “Landlords aren’t negotiating with us in RENT, open or closed they want their money! Neither is the GOV helping us with it.”
We salute the management of The Chelsea Corner and urge our readers to stand with them and other small businesses against this shameful business wrecking Tory government.
The Chelsea Corner, 451 Fulham Road, London, SW10 9UZ remains open for takeaway. Telephone: +44 (0) 20 3055 0088.
Pictured top: One of The Chelsea Corner’s notice with, rather ironically, a police car to the left on Sunday 10th January.
Jonny Lekaj, manager of The Chelsea Corner, is right to make a stand against the ludicrous decision to force restaurants to close nationwide in Lockdown 3.0.
The signs at The Chelsea Corner read:
This is an attack to small businesses, our hard work and the people of this country. When is enough enough?
If you are not going to pay my rent, why should I close?
Closed because you’re unsafe in a restaurant where tables get cleaned for every person, where staff uses masks, where everyone uses hand sanitizers… But you are safe to shop at a big company where a product has been touched by thousands and cleaned by no one.
We have a choice to make Eating and having a Place To Live or “Staying Home” as the Gov says. We can’t all do Zoom calls, we aren’t all rich and this shouldn’t be a choice we have to make.
We are all essential businesses as long as we are out here trying to make a living for our children.
Everyone at the Parliament got a raise of £3,000 for doing what? Zoom calls and misleading this country into depression but we the ones fighting to keep food in table are being shut down while following every GUIDELINE that came from them.
Landlords aren’t negotiating with us in RENT, open or closed they want their money! Neither is the GOV helping us with it.
You can go shopping in a supermarket or in a shopping centre with more than 200 people, but you can’t come and eat with your family at a restaurant with a max capacity of 50 people.
Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Costco, McDonald’s, KFC, Starbucks etc can stay open. Only small businesses need to shut down because the highest risk to get infected is inside a small business.
If you can close businesses at will, without a though for anyone’s livelihood, why not close junk food producers? If junk food, alcohol and cigarettes kill 21 million people ever year… Why are those items constantly available?
The Chelsea Corner is a popular neighbourhood Italian restaurant situated at the corner of Fulham Road and Gunter Grove in London, SW10.In another image, captured yesterday, the same police car appears to the left of yet another of The Chelsea Corner’s protest signs.
Matthew Steeples suggests the government has made progress with its decision to help the homeless in the UK during ‘Lockup 3.0’ – but it must go further
On Christmas Eve, we featured the tragic story of Knightsbridge’s Brompton Road morphing into a ‘tent city’ for the homeless and now with a nationwide lockdown this January with ‘Lockup 3.0,’ it has become even more essential that these unfortunate people are given more help.
This morning, for once, came good news in the Guardian in a report about the government telling councils to “redouble their efforts to house all rough sleepers, and make sure they are registered with a GP to enable them to receive a Covid vaccine over the next few weeks.”
In addition to £10 million extra in funding as well, with the extension of the ban on evictions in all but the most extreme cases until at least 21st February also, for once, Robert Jenrick, the controversial communities secretary, has finally done something right.
Of the decision, Jenrick remarked:
“At the start of this pandemic we made sure that the most vulnerable in society were protected. This winter, we are continuing in this vein and redoubling our efforts to help those most in need.”
Rightly acknowledged as a step in the right direction, in response, Jon Sparkes, CEO of the homeless charity Crisis, called the move a “lifesaving intervention [at the] most dangerous moment of the pandemic for those without a home.”
In December, ‘The Steeple Times’ reported on Brompton Road, Knightsbridge, London SW3 – home to Harrods and the Brompton Oratory church amongst other things – becoming a homeless hub. That people are living in such conditions alongside such wealth during a pandemic brings shame upon us all, but most especially upon Boris Johnson’s rudderless government.
In June 2020, ‘Vice’ shared a video by the homeless filmmaker David Fussell with its 13.7 million followers. In it, Fussell gave “an insight into how the coronavirus epidemic has affected the homeless.”
Matthew Steeples condemns the government’s slapdash decision to lockup Britain (other than estate agents) once again as ludicrous
The government’s brutal decision to lockup the British population once again will bankrupt yet more businesses and wreck many more lives and for no good reason.
Here, in a country that will now allow takeaway food but has banned takeaway alcohol, previous lockup-lockdown’s have taken away our civil liberties but have not been proven to stop the spread of coronavirus. In response, what are this incompetent, inept rudderless government now doing? They’ve decided not to find another solution, but instead opted to just hit repeat.
Now, at a time of year when many deaths are actually being caused by pneumonia yet this year are being pinned with “caused by coronavirus” to suit the government’s all over the bloody place strategy-less-strategy, Boris Johnson has finally gone too far with his one-rule for one sector and one-rule for the rest.
Depression will soar in this dark lockup and businesses (other than estate agents) will go bust and before the end of it, where will we likely be? In a position no better than where we are now. Shame on ‘Bosie The Clown’ and shame on his puppet mistress ‘Carrie Not On Regardless’ and her controlling cronies.
Avocados and a “lack of British chefs in the kitchens” get the goat of out-of-touch British peers just as Norman Fowler calls for their numbers to be cut
This morning, the Mirror revealed that “pampered peers” in the House of Lords have spent 2020 complaining about the quality of avocados just as, in a year when the country teeters on bankruptcy, the taxpayer has propped up their loss-making dining rooms and bars to the tune of nearly £2 million in subsidies.
“Boris Johnson stuffing the House of Lords with his dodgy mates is clearly having its effect.”
“Instead of playing at Downton Abbey, these peers should be looking beyond their own dinner plate and address the real problems people across the country are facing.
Shockingly paid £305 plus travel expenses for each and every day they attend, yet charged just £3.70 for a full English breakfast, peers also “griped” about the halting of the sale of alcohol of the Parliamentary Estate due to coronavirus restrictions. One even whinged that “there were not enough British chefs in the kitchens.”
Elsewhere, last week, Lord Fowler, the lord speaker of the House of Lords, quite rightly argued in the Guardian that “there are too many lords” and remarked on Boris Johnson adding another 52 peers during 2020.
He questioned the sense of the resulting total number of 830 – “despite a cross-party agreement three years ago that numbers should over time be reduced to 600” – and questioned the fact the Lords is almost 200 larger in number than the Commons “and far in excess of what needed to transact its business.”
“As we have just seen, its recommendations can be overridden by No 10. The result is that a prime minister has the power on his or her own to add peers to a house of parliament that can make and, within limits, unmake laws. Is this what the public expect in the third decade of the 21st century?”
“When making appointments it has become obvious that governments wish to avoid parliamentary scrutiny. Both of the initial announcements of new peerages in the last 12 months have been made when parliament has not been sitting. It simply adds to the impression that the choice of peers is the exclusive preserve of No 10 – and the less publicity the better. This may be fine for the government’s public relations team: whether it is fine for parliament is another matter.”
Pampered Peers Prattle About Avocados –In March 2015, ‘The Steeple Times’ reported that “peers had complained about being left ‘scarred’ after having had their dinner bookings cancelled and were angered by the size of the menus, ‘chaotic’ table layouts and ‘inferior cappuccinos.’”Pampered Peers Prattle About Avocados – Norman Fowler, Baron Fowler PC is quite right to call for reform of the House of Lords. A 2017 “analysis of voting, speaking and expenses records in the Lords, [showed a] ‘something for nothing culture among peers” by the Electoral Reform Society astonishingly revealed “115 Lords – one in seven of the total – failed to speak at all in the 2016/17 session, despite claiming an average of £11,091 each, while 18 peers failed to vote but still claimed £93,162” and that expenses claims had soared by 20% in just two years “at a time when public services have been under strain.”
Pampered Peers Prattle About Avocados – In January 2018, the ‘National Geographic Discovery Channel’ reported on a peer complaining about a pork chop that was “uneatable, tough and dry, and clearly cooked for hours before.” Of some “gone off” smoked salmon, another member added: “It really was disgrace.”
As two victims of Jeffrey Epstein do deals with his estate, will mucky madam Ghislaine Maxwell now getaway from the charges against her?
Ghislaine Maxwell’s purchase of a house named ‘Tuckedaway’ was indicative of her arrogant decision to try to evade justice and now, maybe, if she pulls off a coup she’ll name her next residence ‘Getaway.’
In it, tellingly, Sommers suggested that ‘Bouncing Bob’s’ daughter “is probably doing cartwheels in her 6 x 9 jail cell” and argued:
“Two victims of the three victims expected to testify as witnesses in the United States v Ghislaine Maxwell case have accepted settlements from Jeffrey Epstein’s estate. This will no doubt weaken the government’s stance against Maxwell and may, in fact, signal the beginning of the end of any possible indictment.”
“Maxwell’s attorneys had begun to argue, as early as July 14th, 2020, during the initial bail hearing, that the case against her is ‘weak, supported by only three accusers who are expected to testify about events that are more than 25 years old.’”
“During the past couple of weeks Annie Farmer and a second ‘Jane Doe’ (believed to be soap opera actress Nadia Bjorlin) accepted settlements from the Epstein’s Victims’ Compensation Program. The restitution fund, handled by Kenneth Feinberg – who was also the ‘9/11 Fund Administrator’ – requires them to dismiss any pending litigation against Jeffrey Epstein’s estate and any of his former employees. Ghislaine Maxwell among them. It also requires they dismiss the civil lawsuits they each initiated against their alleged abuser: Maxwell.”
Getaway Ghislaine – Will Ghislaine Maxwell get a pardon as Donald Trump departs office, will prosecutors drop charges against her or will she actually face the trial she truly, genuinely deserves in 2021? Whatever happens, this wicked wastrel will wield her power packed address book in her battle and she will attempt to damage the reputations of anyone who gets in her path.
Getaway Ghislaine – Whilst Ghislaine Maxwell’s time in prison has been amusingly parodied, the seriousness of the possibility of her potentially now evading justice thanks to some dodgy deals and/or Donald Trump is quite shocking.
As Knightsbridge’s Brompton Road turns into a ‘tent city’ for the homeless, Matthew Steeples urges readers to support such people this Christmas
In September 2019, The Steeple Times illustrated the tragic paradox between wealth and poverty in Belgravia with a picture of a passed out homeless man and today, just as most of our readers likely get ready to sit down tomorrow to a veritable feast in their warm residences, we sadly have to reveal that Knightsbridge has gone the same way.
Aside from a charming, aged Irishwoman living in the doorway of the shuttered Bunch of Grapes pub, there are a total of seven tents along this strip. It is truly sad to behold and we urge all our readers to leave something good for such people wherever and whenever you can.
Pictured top: Contrasting wealth and poverty with one of Knightsbridge’s ‘Tent City’ residences set against a £300,000 Rolls-Royce Cullinan 4×4 speeding by behind it.
Knightsbridge – Tent City 2020 – A tent surrounded by rubbish situated on Brompton Road, London, SW3.Knightsbridge – Tent City 2020 – Another tent is located opposite The Bunch of Grapes pub and the now closed Lord’s Food & Wine store. Knightsbridge – Tent City 2020 – Further tents are to be found in Beaufort Gardens, a street where Firmdale Hotels operate the Knightsbridge Hotel, a chi-chi “luxury property” where rooms cost upwards “from £447 per night” this Christmas.
Jobsworth Robert Jenrick announces estate agents CAN take potential virus spreaders into peoples’ homes even in Tier 4 lockdown areas; a QUARTER of donations to the Tory party come from the property sector
Housing secretary Robert Jenrick likes to do favours for his ridiculously rich cronies. He came to attention in May when he “unlawfully approved” a planning scheme for Richard Desmond (AKA ‘Mr Badger’) and on Saturday, this murky multi-millionaire Tory MP again showed his true colours when he bizarrely tweeted celebrating the fact that estate agents could remain open in Tier 4 areas even.
Whilst the public are cruelly banned from going to a socially distanced restaurant space or from having dinner with their lonely granny in her kitchen because of the risk of spreading coronavirus, how is it acceptable for estate agents to be allowed to take members of the public into the private spaces of peoples’ homes for viewings?
For jobsworth Jenrick, it seems, allowing prospective buyers and tenants to touch doors, walls and surfaces in confined spaces is not at all risky, but one is left wondering how he came to this conclusion. In June, the Independent revealed that the Conservative Party had received £11 million (or over a quarter of their donations) from the property sector since Boris Johnson became Prime Minister.
Pictured top: Disgracefully, Robert Jenrick MP and his government have not made property viewings a “restricted zone” in Tier 4 lockdown areas.
Stay Homes, Save Lives… But NOT if you’re an estate agent… Why have estate agents not been lumped into “non-essential” businesses forced to close by our incompetent government? The answer as to why “Stay Home, Save Lives” has not been applied to the property sector is unsurprising: A quarter of donations to the Tory Party comes from the property sector and we all know that Robert Jenrick enjoys Carlton Club suppers with rich developers like Richard Desmond.Jenrick tweeted jubilantly about estate agents remaining open for business on Saturday. His government, meanwhile, has forced many other businesses to close and many of them will most likely tragically never reopen.Twitter users were unsurprisingly unimpressed by Robert Jenrick’s enthusiasm for estate agents remaining open. One, Gavin Wilkins, remarked: “So thanks to the announcement my mum’s shit scared to come to my house for Xmas (she’s on her own), but I can go to value or view as many houses as I want. Sums it all up. Shitshow – government should be ashamed.”Boris Johnson is equally happy to hang out with porn baron turned property developer. He should now be asked: “What first attracted you to the multi-millionaire Richard Desmond, Boris?”
