Tag: intelligence

  • Mucky Madam’s Mark Twain Moment

    Mucky Madam’s Mark Twain Moment

    As she faces sentencing for sex trafficking, morally bankrupt mucky madam Ghislaine Maxwell turns to the words of morally superior Mark Twain; all they really have in common is mutual experience of financial bankruptcy

    As deranged and delusional as only a woman who “makes monster moves” and “growls” in front of prison guards most certainly has to be – qualities apparently moulded into her by her equally deranged and delusional crook father – it must be said that when she gave a TED talk in 2014, the since convicted mucky madam sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell did exhibit obvious intellectual intelligence.

     

    University of Oxford educated and the holder of both a BA and an MA – courtesy, it must be remembered, of her decidedly dodgy daddy bunging a fair wad of wonga to the college both she and her school chum Dame Cressida Dick attended – Miss Maxwell (AKA ‘Mrs Scott Borgerson’ – if he’s not given up on her and run off with his sexually “saucy” yoga partner) is now gunning for an appeal against her conviction.

     

    As part of a strategy they believe will set this sordid sex trafficker free, the Maxwell family are using their @RealGhislaine Twitter account to peddle yet more piffle about their “beloved sister.” The account has attracted 10,000 followers and some media attention, but most responses to it have without a shadow of a doubt been beyond negative.

     

    Yesterday evening whilst currently facing a long wait until sentencing on the 28th June, taking a turn further into the bizarre after babbling on about the ‘Bouncing Czech’s’ favourite child – a child he also allegedly abused, if you’d believe a word that morphs out of the mouth of onetime owner of The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph Lord Hartwell’s daughter Eleanor Berry – @RealGhislaine went for the “intellectual” angle and tweeted:

     

    “‘When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it happened or not. But I’m getting older, and soon, I’ll remember only the things that never happened.’ Mark Twain.”

     

    In sharing this, the Maxwells may think themselves clever, but they seem to forget that though Mark Twain shared having been bankrupt financially once with them, he most certainly wasn’t also morally bankrupt like their evil, murderer father. Unlike the pension pot plunderer’s kiddies with a still missing £500 million on their collective consciences, Twain paid back his creditors in full and unlike them, history remembers him fondly. History and especially the pensioners cheated out of comfortable retirements will never remember the duplicitous Maxwells in that way.

     

    On the last day of January, obviously irritated at the way in which their seriously sinister sibling was quite deservedly being presented, @RealGhislaine shared another laughable tweet. It read:

     

    “The narrative that says ‘she’s the daughter of a bad man, she’s treated badly, she goes with another bad man’ it’s so simplistic… It’s just intellectually lazy and it’s wrong.”

     

    As crusading author Kirby Sommers highlighted in Ghislaine Maxwell: An Unauthorized Biography, Robert Maxwell once remarked: “I have a beautiful daughter and she’s just like me.” As, we have pointed out repeatedly when quoting it: The word “beautiful” should be replaced with “deviant” and it is jolly well time the mendacious Maxwell family faced that unsavoury truth.

     

    To purchase a copy of ‘Ghislaine Maxwell: An Unauthorized Biography’ by Kirby Sommers, click here.

     

    Jeffrey Epstein Ghislaine Maxwell
    Ghislaine Maxwell might like to think of herself as a bit of a brainbox, but forevermore she’ll be remembered for sex trafficking young girls with the croaked paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and for teaching the dimwitted dumb disgrace Lady Victoria Hervey how to give blowjobs.
    Ghislaine Maxwell TED 2014
    Ghislaine Maxwell has spoken on TED and at such events as the Westchester Digital Summit. In promotional material for such she was referenced as “a private helicopter pilot, a trained EMT, and a qualified ROV and Deepworker submarine pilot.” They added: “She speaks four languages: English, French, Spanish and Italian,” but neglected to mention that in addition to her American, British and French passports, she bizarrely told lawyers at Boies Schiller & Flexner that she was “a citizen of TerraMar” in April 2016.
    @RealGhislaine Tweet 1
    The @RealGhislaine ‘Mark Twain Moment’ tweet didn’t exactly go viral. It was liked just 24 times, quoted once and retweeted by 3 other accounts.

    Responses to @RealGhislaine’s ‘Mark Twain Moment’:

    “F**king what? The whole family is delusional lmfao.”

     

    “This is so disgusting! Your basically say all those women are liars, f**k outs here. This account is pathetic.”

     

    “You wouldn’t know Mark Twain if you ran into him! He wasn’t a sick person such as yourself. #guilty #pedophile.”

     

    “If I raped a bunch of kids (like you), I’d probably wish for that outcome as well.”

     

    @RealGhislaine Tweet 2
    The @RealGhislaine ‘Bad Man’ tweet was equally badly received and only liked 28 times and retweeted by 3 other accounts.
    @RealGhislaine Tweet 3
    The second part of this missive, complete with a link to a toady interview with Ian Maxwell in ‘La Repubblica’ on 31st January 2022, was liked only 18 times.

    Responses to @RealGhislaine’s ‘Bad Man Moment’:

    “Let’s be honest. For donkey’s years, your sister has had the media on her side with the rich and famous for her own aggrandizement and projects. You are lucky you are given a platform to speak. Most people are not.”

     

    “Whichever way you cut it, you cannot get beyond the fact that your sister had a business with/was in business with Jeffrey Epstein and that she herself or her reps have admitted to his misconduct. She could have done something to stop it. So why didn’t she?”

     

    “When your sister was deposed she could have said something. She didn’t. That was her choice. She could have gone to the FBI herself. She didn’t. These were conscious decisions she made. She does have to bear responsibility of her own decisions to keep quiet.”

     

    “If your sister was a victim of Jeffrey Epstein’s, she could have told the FBI, she could have called trafficking hotlines. It’’ not as if she was not extremely well connected, including to Clinton, Trump, Gates, Jobs, Rothschild, Kerry… She was better connected than 99.9%.”

     

    “Ghislaine Maxwell traded on being the daughter of Robert Maxwell and girlfriend/associate of Jeffrey Epstein. She didn’t have a problem with being associated with them when it served her purpose. Only now is it a problem…”

     

    “I guess we need to see the sex photos to prove her brother is wrong.”

     

    “What a vomit inducing family.”

     

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pUzcRORDIg&list=PLrpYYSyHdJhhUgM5HW7vYXL92eDMSWA73
  • Moron of the Moment 2021 – Richard Madeley

    Moron of the Moment 2021 – Richard Madeley

    As the new Diana, Princess of Wales statue is mocked as looking like him, ‘Dorian Gray of Daytime Telly’ Richard Madeley pathetically claims he got PTSD due to worrying about his son’s wedding

    Normally it’s his boozed-up, ‘mummy figure’ and all-round washed-up wastrel wife Judy Finnigan who makes the headlines for such things as tittie flashing, but, today, motormouthed madman Richard Madeley made headlines in The Sun after ludicrously claiming he “suffered from PTSD after his son’s wedding.”

     

    Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is something defined by the NHS as “anxiety disorder caused by very stressful, frightening or distressing events” and its causes are listed on their website as such things as:

     

    • Serious road accidents.
    • Violent personal assaults, such as sexual assault, mugging or robbery.
    • Serious health problems.
    • Childbirth experiences.

     

    Though messed-up maniac Madeley soppily suggested worrying about his son’s nuptials had been “so choppy,” his comparison of his situation to such yet again proves this utter nutter to be nothing but a blithering berk. “How very dare he insult those who’ve fought in war zones and survived rape and torture,” commented one especially irate reader in an email to The Steeple Times.

     

    ‘Deranged Dicky’ – Please keep taking your happy pills; you plainly need ‘em, old chap.

     

    Richard Madeley’s ‘finest’ moments

    On his son’s wedding

    “There’s been so much angst about it… It’s been so choppy, but, yes, he got married and now we’ve got a daughter-in-law.”

     

    In conversation with President Clinton

    “I know what it’s like to be wronged by the press. I was once accused of shoplifting. Unlike you though, I knew I was innocent.”

     

    Of women

    “I’ve never met a single woman who’s happy with the way she looks, except Jordan, although I’ve never met her.”

     

    On elephants

    “So, are you telling me elephants are not born evil?”

     

    To a man crying after paramedics saved his life

    “Stop crying! This is supposed to make you happy! Anyway, after the break, the biggest dog in the UK. And he really is big. Don’t miss it!”

     

    In Nostradamus-like fashion on coronavirus

    We are being duped… [They are trying to] put the fear of God into the public. A great reckoning is coming.”

     

    On lockdowns

    “There’s no point in running away and hiding from the virus.”

     

    Of old women skipping

    “There’s not many better things than seeing an older woman skipping.”

     

    Of wanting to be black

    “I hope when I’m reincarnated I come back black because you age better.”

     

    To Keira Knightley

    “Can we get some make up please, get Keira looking like a crack whore, she’d make a good crack whore.”

     

    Of an autistic teenager

    “The thing with Daniel [Wakeford, a ‘star’ on Channel 4’s Undateables] is, he has autism but is very intelligent and as we can see extremely talented. Has Daniel always been autistic?”

     

    To a caller

    “I understand you have a little lad of 12. Is it a boy or a girl?”

     

    Richard Madeley Ali G
    When Richard Madeley dressed up as Ali G to present ‘This Morning,’ it was later voted “one of the worst moments in television history,” ‘Digital Spy’ reported.
    Richard Madeley dressed as Judy Finnigan
    On another occasion, attention seeking Madeley dressed up as his very own wife. Clearly, this crackpot’s ‘mummy’ issues are genuinely really an issue.
    Richard Madeley Diana Princess of Wales 1
    In recent days, Twitter users – aside from suggesting it as resembling a cross between Theresa May and Sean Bean – have argued that the new Diana, Princess of Wales actually could be of Richard Madeley. No doubt, television’s ultimate twerp will actually be annoyed that it’s not his name on the statue instead; one could imagine a monument to his ‘genius’ in Trafalgar Square potentially also.
    The telly-box twerp is regularly compared to Alan Partridge and can be relied upon to play the fool at the drop of a hat.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcx3FUarNiI&t=1s
    Alleged shoplifter Madeley’s ‘mummy’ wife, Judy Finnigan, is best known for quaffing, flashing her boobs and falling off sofas. In October 2014, she inexcusably defended a footballer later convicted of rape by saying: “The rape wasn’t violent… He didn’t cause any bodily harm to the person… She had far too much to drink.”
  • Carrie PRs On

    Carrie PRs On

    The Prime Minister’s puppet mistress Carrie Johnson’s latest PR spin campaign yet again illustrates her deviancy suggests Matthew Steeples

    Let’s be frank: Carrie Symonds (AKA ‘Princess Nut Nuts,’ ‘Carrie Antoinette’ and ‘Costly Carrie’) is famous simply for being Boris Johnson’s latest baby mama, but now she’s well and truly upping her antics and most definitely wants a hell of a lot more.

     

    This weekend, this wine chucking wench and one half of ‘The Convenient Catholic Couple’ used the G7 summit to implant not only herself but also her child firmly into a convention where no other politician foisted their brats into the photo ops. Here was a woman with one agenda: Making herself the centre of attention.

     

    In addition, the new Mrs Boris Johnson plainly made a point of getting Downing Street spin doctors to share that she hadn’t actually bought costly clothes, but instead hired them. Was this something the public actually needed to know at an event that was meant to be about discussing global issues? I think not, but Carrie, desperate to rid herself of the ‘Antoinette’ moniker she so deserves after bingeing on expensive Daylesford delicacies, will PR on regardless.

     

    What’s “in” for Carrie Symonds…

    • “Chatty rat” Henry Newman singing ABBA and dancing the tango with this particularly bonkers bestie.

     

    • Dining dashes to Daylesford (courtesy of ‘Lady Doors To Manual’ Carole Bamford’s credit card).

     

    • “Borrowed clothing” to suggest she’s “ordinary.”

     

    • Pushing her child into any photo opportunity possible so as to make a point that her kid is more important than her hubby’s other legitimate and illegitimate brats.

     

    What’s “out” for Carrie Symonds…

    • Anything from “nightmarish” John Lewis. Too “Theresa Maybe Not” for our Carrie, of course.

     

    • Anything connected with her number one hater, Dominic Cummings, can take a trip to Barnard Castle via a visit to SpecSavers.

     

    • Anybody who dares to criticise the antics of her out of control dog, Dilyn will make her “go crackers” … Don’t dare make Carrie “furious” with even a single remark – even if the dastardly dog pisses all over a visitor’s handbag.

     

    • Any talk of her associations with Ghislaine Maxwell and far right ex-boyfriends involved in the Traditional Britain Group.

     

    Carrie Symonds Linda Snell
    In December 2020, ‘The Steeple Times’ highlighted: “Whilst Denis Thatcher happily took a back seat and parked himself in a corner with a stiff G&T and Norma Major steered clear of anything to do with curried eggs, Symonds is increasingly showing herself as the Lynda Snell of Downing Street.”
    Carrie Symonds Ghislaine Maxwell
    Aside from her obsession with attention, the former Carrie Symonds counts working for a charity that was funded by the mucky madam Ghislaine Maxwell on her somewhat dodgy CV.
    Oliver Haiste Carrie Symonds
    The then Carrie Symonds with her then boyfriend Oliver Haiste (sometimes spelt ‘Haste’), an alleged hoaxer of fake news about Russia according to the BBC. Of his then “public relations specialist” on-off lover, the ‘Mail on Sunday’ declared: “his own three-year relationship with the young woman at the centre of Britain’s latest political storm involved an electrifying dose of dramatic and often fiery conflict… ‘We had quite a tumultuous relationship,’ he admits today. ‘I found when times were good with Carrie they were great – they were fantastic. When times were bad they were awful. It was a highly passionate relationship. And I don’t mean that in a salacious, physical sense. I mean in terms of emotional context – very emotionally charged. It’s the most up and down relationship I have had,’ Haiste continues, choosing his words carefully. Today, describing their relationship for the first time, he paints an intriguing portrait of a ‘high-octane’ partnership with a woman as passionate as she is intelligent.”
    Carrie Symonds drugs
    The Prime Minister’s spouse previously dated a man associated with spreading fake news whom was also involved in the Traditional Britain Group – a sick, far right organisation that has expressed a desire to hang Baroness Lawrence, the mother of a murder victim, from a tree. ‘Britain’s 3rd Loose Woman’ also partook in a play where she dressed as a crack whore whilst at university. Is this someone the nation really wants representing it on the world stage?
  • Spying a Watch

    Spying a Watch

    1950s Cold War espionage device disguised as a watch to be auctioned for a surprisingly low sum; someone could end up spying a bargain and something akin to what Jack Ruby even once owned

    FBI informant and ‘assassin’s assassin’ Jack Ruby – the man whom fatally shot Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged assassin of John F. Kennedy in November 1963 – supposedly owned a Protona microphone wrist watch, but these German devices were primarily used in Europe during the Cold War by police and intelligence organisations.

     

    Now, an opportunity to buy a Protona in an online auction has arisen for what seems a surprisingly low price. The item concerned appears to the eye as a 40mm chronograph stainless steel wrist watch, but it also has an insert where a wire can be attached and hidden under the sleeve of the clothing of the person wearing it. That wire would then connect to a portable recording device concealed over their shoulder that could pick up audio for upto one hour.

     

    Remarking of the quirky item her firm is set to sell, Laura Bishop, watch manager at Fellows auction house, commented:

     

    “This is the perfect opportunity to own a fascinating piece of espionage and an intriguing watch combined. I can only imagine some of the conversations that this device might have recorded. We have been unable to gain access to the movement of the watch to find out its exact condition, however the dial is intact with no visible marks. History and watch enthusiasts alike won’t want to miss this one. I’m sure it will fly above its estimate.”

     

    Fellows have set an estimate of £140 to £200 ($187 to $267, €157 to €224 or درهم687 to درهم982) and will sell it online on 8th December whilst elsewhere on eBay, another example is for sale along with a case full of extras for a far more punchy £897.50 ($1,199, €1,007 or درهم4,406).

     

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    Spying a Watch – 1950s Cold War espionage watch to be auctioned – 1950s Cold War espionage device disguised as a watch to be auctioned for a surprisingly low sum; someone could end up spying a bargain and something akin to what Jack Ruby even once owned. Fellows auctioneers have set an estimate of £140 to £200 ($187 to $267, €157 to €224 or درهم687 to درهم982) and will sell it online on 8th December 2020.
    The watch to be sold on someone’s wrist.
    Spying a Watch – 1950s Cold War espionage watch to be auctioned – 1950s Cold War espionage device disguised as a watch to be auctioned for a surprisingly low sum; someone could end up spying a bargain and something akin to what Jack Ruby even once owned. Fellows auctioneers have set an estimate of £140 to £200 ($187 to $267, €157 to €224 or درهم687 to درهم982) and will sell it online on 8th December 2020.
    The watch has a brown leather strap and a gold plated pin buckle.
    Spying a Watch – 1950s Cold War espionage watch to be auctioned – 1950s Cold War espionage device disguised as a watch to be auctioned for a surprisingly low sum; someone could end up spying a bargain and something akin to what Jack Ruby even once owned. Fellows auctioneers have set an estimate of £140 to £200 ($187 to $267, €157 to €224 or درهم687 to درهم982) and will sell it online on 8th December 2020.
    Items associated with espionage and those linked to JFK’s assassination sell for ludicrous sums. In June 2013, we featured the sale of two pieces of bloodstained leather from the back from the back seat of the Lincoln Continental in which President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. They sold for £9,785 ($13,045, €10,963 or درهم47,908) whilst in the same year Lee Harvey Oswald’s widow sold his wedding ring for £68,000 ($90,600, €76,200 or درهم332,900).
    Spying a Watch – 1950s Cold War espionage watch to be auctioned – 1950s Cold War espionage device disguised as a watch to be auctioned for a surprisingly low sum; someone could end up spying a bargain and something akin to what Jack Ruby even once owned. Fellows auctioneers have set an estimate of £140 to £200 ($187 to $267, €157 to €224 or درهم687 to درهم982) and will sell it online on 8th December 2020.
    In January 2015, we featured an Aston Martin DB10 used in the film ‘Spectre’ that was sold at auction by Christie’s for the staggering sum of £2.785 million ($3.711 million, €3.118 million or درهم13.629 million). A fan of the ultimate spy James Bond plainly truly fell under the spell as the car was simply just an undriveable show item.
  • Dopey Darren on Defeated Donald

    Dopey Darren on Defeated Donald

    Dopey Darren Grimes claims Donald Trump will win again in 2024 and crazily announced “Trumpism is alive and well”

    Whilst the Metropolitan Police investigation into Darren Grimes was quite rightly thrown into the long grass recently, the dimwit sadly still has not learnt the art of silence and last night returned to social media to ludicrously bang on about how he believes “Trumpism, my friends, is alive and well.”

     

    In a 6:09 minute YouTube video missive, Grimes appeared with a poster of Margaret Thatcher and elsewhere tweeted an image of himself in a ‘Make America Great Again’ hat (with a lightbulb bizarrely above his head as part of a presumed attempt to show intelligence).

     

    Whilst Trump will indeed most certainly contest his defeat, he won’t get anywhere and that ‘Dopey Darren’ believes otherwise is proof of only one thing: The pair of them belong together in the asylum.

     

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    ‘Dopey Darren’ attempted to come across seriously in his YouTube missive about the defeat of Donald Trump. In reality, he just showed himself as a fool and in response one Twitter user, @LawyerLaughing, remarked: “You are doing anything to be negative Biden winning the election, and it is making you look a twat. You are behaving in exactly the same way as those you criticised in 2016. You lost. Get over it.” Another, former Conservative MP Jerry Hayes, added: “Er, Joe Biden had the largest vote of any Presidential candidate. EVER.”
    Dopey Darren on Defeated Donald – Darren Grimes on Trump defeat – Dopey Darren Grimes claims Donald Trump will win again in 2024 and crazily announced “Trumpism is alive and well.”
    ‘Dopey Darren’ well and truly showed himself up in a series of subsequent tweets. His claim that “the future is bright for the Right” was deservedly deemed laughable by many respondents.
  • Not Such Divine Intervention

    Not Such Divine Intervention

    Empty Gothic church in Kelso, Scotland for sale for just £130,000; it was home until 2006 to the conspiracy theorist Dean Warwick – who collapsed and died on stage at a UFO conference in Blackpool mid speech

    “Alternative energy pioneer” Dean Warwick (1944 – 2006) believed 9/11 was a “farce.” This controversial crackpot claimed he had been trained in the military to bring down the Twin Towers using satellite waves in the mid-1960s and that he also categorically knew exactly who JFK’s murderer was.

     

    Whilst “going on and on and on” at Probe International’s paranormal conference in Blackpool, Lancashire on 7th October 2006 about these matters and “children having their skin eaten whilst they were still alive in the New Forest” and about how he knew who the “real” killers of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman were also, Warwick supposedly announced: “Bear with me for a moment.” He then “leaned with his left elbow on a nearby table with his right arm across his body, and then fell flat on his face. Shortly afterwards he was pronounced dead.” Fellow conspiracy cranks (including David Icke) later claimed: “This was an Intelligence agency ‘hit’ using an ELF (Extremely Low Frequency) weapon,” but this was never ultimately proven true.

     

    Warwick had, for about twenty years, lived in the heart of the national hunt racecourse town of Kelso in the Scottish Borders. Here, along with his actress wife Jean, he occupied in a Gothic church and now that building, North Trinity Church is once again for sale.

     

    Not Such Divine Intervention – £130,000 for North Trinity Church, East Bowmont Street, Kelso, Roxboroughshire, Scotland, TD5 7JH, United Kingdom through agents Ballantynes – Empty Gothic church in Kelso, Scotland for sale for just £130,000; it was home until 2006 to the conspiracy theorist Dean Warwick (1944 – 7th October 2006) – who collapsed and died on stage at the Probe International paranormal and UFO conference in Blackpool mid speech.
    After Dean Warwick collapsed on stage in Blackpool, Lancashire on 7th October 2006, one fellow conspiracy theorist present observed: “When Dean collapsed on the floor a woman witnessed a man with dark hair slip out of the hall. She followed this man who then proceeded to walk down the stairs whistling merrily to himself, get into a car and make a phone call. He was then seen laughing down the phone to whoever he was speaking to. Who walks out of a hall whistling happily to themselves and then starts laughing down the phone after a man has just collapsed and stopped breathing on stage?”
    Not Such Divine Intervention – £130,000 for North Trinity Church, East Bowmont Street, Kelso, Roxboroughshire, Scotland, TD5 7JH, United Kingdom through agents Ballantynes – Empty Gothic church in Kelso, Scotland for sale for just £130,000; it was home until 2006 to the conspiracy theorist Dean Warwick (1944 – 7th October 2006) – who collapsed and died on stage at the Probe International paranormal and UFO conference in Blackpool mid speech.
    Bulgarian businessman Kirk Kirchev paid £80,000 for North Trinity Church, Kelso in November 2018 and intended to use £35,000 of his mother’s savings to restore the building.

    Recorded as having changed hands in August 2014 for the sum of £45,000, the 6,877 square foot building was again sold in November 2018 for about £80,000 to a Bulgarian businessman named Kirk Kirchev. Of his purchase, in December 2019 talking to Borders TV, the camping tent manufacturer turned face mask retailer remarked:

     

    “I saw the church online and thought this is amazing… It was very cheap, nobody wanted to touch it, the windows were boarded up… When I got in, it was dark, scary with pigeons circling in the main hall, but I could see that it had the soul, the spirit, the sort of magic, that, that bought me.”

     

    “I’ve done 90% of the work I needed, I’ve made it usable. It’s still retaining its derelict and magical look… People think I’m crazy: It’s a given, but I think this place needs someone crazy to take it on because otherwise it will simply fall apart.”

     

    “[When it’s finished” I hope it’ll be a great venue and the focal point of the town. It has a lot of potential as a gathering place for people. I am kind of surprised why people don’t see this because it’s right in the middle of town, it’s got car parks all around, it’s great for a venue and all it needs is a little bit. I think people like the character and all it needs is to be made safe and legal and certified and all that.”

     

    Standing on a site extending to 0.4 acres, Mr Kirchev plainly has decided not to proceed further with his project to find another use for this former religious building. North Trinity Church is now on the market for £130,000 through agents Ballantynes and could be used for residential or commercial purposes. No doubt, however, local residents very much hope another Dean Warwick type doesn’t turn up with yet another conspiracy theory; that, indeed, would be even worse than the shameful local councillors who proposed pulling down this beautiful Category B listed building last November.

     

    The Names & Numbers – North Trinity Church, East Bowmont Street, Kelso, Roxboroughshire, Scotland, TD5 7JH, United Kingdom

     

    April 2020 – For sale for £130,000 ($163,000, €150,000 or درهم597,000) through agents Ballantynes.

     

    November 2019 – Local councillors are reported calling for the demolition of the Category B listed building citing the need for more car parking spaces in Kelso’s town centre.

     

    November 2018 – Sold to Bulgarian born Kirk Kirchev for £80,000 ($100,000, €92,000 or درهم367,000).

     

    December 2017 – Offered for sale as a “development opportunity” for £75,000 ($94,000, €86,000 or درهم344,000) by Edwin Thompson.

     

    August 2014 – Sold for £45,000 ($56,000, €52,000 or درهم207,000).

     

    2011 – A community organisation, The Future Kelso Group, attempted to convert the church into a community hub. These plans did not come to fruition.

     

    2006 onwards – The building “fell into disrepair” after the death of the New Zealand-born conspiracy theorist Dean Warwick during a UFO conference in Blackpool on 7th October 2006 aged 62. The building had been home to him and his actress wife, Jean, for “over 20 years.”

     

    1885 – 1886 – Built to the designs of architect John Starforth for use as the Kelso United Presbyterian Church on the site of a previous church that was built in 1788. Prominent features are said to “include a four-stage angle buttressed tower over the gable porch to the southern end of the building; lanceted belfry; gabled transepts: and decorative detailing to ridge tiles to main roof. The tower is flanked by two-storey circular stair towers with slated conical roofs, each with side entrances.”

     

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    Not Such Divine Intervention – £130,000 for North Trinity Church, East Bowmont Street, Kelso, Roxboroughshire, Scotland, TD5 7JH, United Kingdom through agents Ballantynes – Empty Gothic church in Kelso, Scotland for sale for just £130,000; it was home until 2006 to the conspiracy theorist Dean Warwick (1944 – 7th October 2006) – who collapsed and died on stage at the Probe International paranormal and UFO conference in Blackpool mid speech.
    Not Such Divine Intervention – £130,000 for North Trinity Church, East Bowmont Street, Kelso, Roxboroughshire, Scotland, TD5 7JH, United Kingdom through agents Ballantynes – Empty Gothic church in Kelso, Scotland for sale for just £130,000; it was home until 2006 to the conspiracy theorist Dean Warwick (1944 – 7th October 2006) – who collapsed and died on stage at the Probe International paranormal and UFO conference in Blackpool mid speech.
    Not Such Divine Intervention – £130,000 for North Trinity Church, East Bowmont Street, Kelso, Roxboroughshire, Scotland, TD5 7JH, United Kingdom through agents Ballantynes – Empty Gothic church in Kelso, Scotland for sale for just £130,000; it was home until 2006 to the conspiracy theorist Dean Warwick (1944 – 7th October 2006) – who collapsed and died on stage at the Probe International paranormal and UFO conference in Blackpool mid speech.
    Not Such Divine Intervention – £130,000 for North Trinity Church, East Bowmont Street, Kelso, Roxboroughshire, Scotland, TD5 7JH, United Kingdom through agents Ballantynes – Empty Gothic church in Kelso, Scotland for sale for just £130,000; it was home until 2006 to the conspiracy theorist Dean Warwick (1944 – 7th October 2006) – who collapsed and died on stage at the Probe International paranormal and UFO conference in Blackpool mid speech.
    Not Such Divine Intervention – £130,000 for North Trinity Church, East Bowmont Street, Kelso, Roxboroughshire, Scotland, TD5 7JH, United Kingdom through agents Ballantynes – Empty Gothic church in Kelso, Scotland for sale for just £130,000; it was home until 2006 to the conspiracy theorist Dean Warwick (1944 – 7th October 2006) – who collapsed and died on stage at the Probe International paranormal and UFO conference in Blackpool mid speech.
    Not Such Divine Intervention – £130,000 for North Trinity Church, East Bowmont Street, Kelso, Roxboroughshire, Scotland, TD5 7JH, United Kingdom through agents Ballantynes – Empty Gothic church in Kelso, Scotland for sale for just £130,000; it was home until 2006 to the conspiracy theorist Dean Warwick (1944 – 7th October 2006) – who collapsed and died on stage at the Probe International paranormal and UFO conference in Blackpool mid speech.
    Not Such Divine Intervention – £130,000 for North Trinity Church, East Bowmont Street, Kelso, Roxboroughshire, Scotland, TD5 7JH, United Kingdom through agents Ballantynes – Empty Gothic church in Kelso, Scotland for sale for just £130,000; it was home until 2006 to the conspiracy theorist Dean Warwick (1944 – 7th October 2006) – who collapsed and died on stage at the Probe International paranormal and UFO conference in Blackpool mid speech.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJ1z9QpWFUY
  • Philly G. Fails

    Philly G. Fails

    Bully and braggart Sir Philip Green ditches his libel action against ‘The Telegraph’ and is deservedly met with a bill of £3 million in costs alone

     

    Described as “Shylock meets Al Capone” in this publication by the actor Steven Berkoff, the now increasingly potless and rudderless Sir Philip Green has well and truly hit the buffers this morning.

     

    Fat bruiser ‘Philly G’ tried to destroy The Telegraph in a bid to protect himself against their investigation into allegations of racial and sexual abuse against him. This brash, one-time “modern day monarch” – whose pig-like daughter has recently got herself pregnant by a violent felon – can now by heard in taped conversations with the paper’s Daniel Foggo. They reveal a foul-mouthed egoist with an incapability to respond rationally.

     

    A businessman described once as “having the Midas touch,” Sir Philip – whose primary aim in all of this seems to be to protect his Lady Docker-like title obsessed wife, ‘Lady Tina’ – has finally met his match. We imagine he’ll today be wishing copies of The Telegraph be yesterday’s chip papers.

     

    Some of the remarks made by Sir Philip Green in phone conversations with The Telegraph’s Daniel Foggo

     

    “Let’s be intelligent.”

     

    “If you damage the business, these people will need a new job… And your paper will end up bankrupt.”

     

    “You’re not going [to publish] tomorrow… Do you want me to go and seek an injunction? I’ve got one against the government, I’ll get one against you.”

     

    “Tell your editor to get smart… We’re not running away… So we don’t have to have a punch up… Get smart.”

     

    Pictured above: Sir Philip Green looking disheveled and sweaty and with the then wife of his friend Richard Caring in better times. What a difference a few years make.

     

     

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  • Lady Ridsdale DBE (1921 – 2009, née Victoire Bennett)

    Lady Ridsdale DBE (1921 – 2009, née Victoire Bennett)

    Dame Paddy Ridsdale, as she generally known, was an intelligence operative, secretary to Ian Fleming during WW2 and the inspiration for the Bond character Miss Moneypenny.

     

    A Conservative Party stalwart and married to Member of Parliament for Harwich from 1954 to 1992 Sir Julian Ridsdale CBE (1915 – 2004), Dame Paddy – or Vicky, as she was known to some – is best known for her role in ‘Operation Mincemeat’, a “famous caper” concerning a “man who never was” in 1943.

     

    In the war, Dame Paddy wrote love letters and telegrams that were planted on the body of ‘Major William Martin’, an invented, drowned naval officer, that was floated in the ocean off Spain. The body carried fictitious plans of a purported Allied invasion of Sardinia and Greece and formed part of a plot designed to deflect attention from the Allied landings in Sicily. Of it, she later remarked: “I was sent to buy clothes in all the best men’s shops and had to pose as his girlfriend. I had to go to post offices and rather loudly send this telegram to ‘my boyfriend’, hoping of course that somebody would overhear me”. In due course, the body was indeed found, the Axis powers completely taken in and “Mincemeat swallowed whole, hook, line, and sinker”. A BAFTA winning film directed by Ronald Neame, The Man Who Never Was, made about the deceptive scheme in 1956.

     

    Dame Paddy was known as a “political hostess in the style of a bygone era”, lived in a mansion “sandwiched between a sheikh and a Saudi prince” in The Boltons for the majority of her adult life and is buried in the grounds of the church there. She had one daughter, became Lady Ridsdale when her husband was knighted in 1981 and was appointed Dame Commander of the British Empire (DBE) in her own right, for political services, in 1991.

     

    Of her relationship with her one-time employer Fleming, she concluded: “Ian had so many girlfriends that I was not tempted to become one of them”.

     

     

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xemGlAV6TAw

     

  • Jon Levy: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”

    Jon Levy: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”

    ‘The Steeple Times’ asks behaviour expert, consultant, writer and speaker Jon Levy: “What’s on your mantelpiece?” (more…)

  • Spying bees

    Spying bees

    A review of the St. Ermin’s Hotel

     

    I first visited the St. Ermin’s Hotel close to Scotland Yard in St James’s in June 2012 for the first Intelligence Book of the Year Awards. Today, I will return there to attend a reception to announce the second winner of this annual prize by judges Andrew Lownie, Dan Mulvenna, Glenmore Trenear-Harvey, Michael Smith and Nigel West.

     

    The courtyard entrance to the St. Ermin's Hotel, 2 Caxton St, London, SW1H 0QW
    The courtyard entrance to the St. Ermin’s Hotel, 2 Caxton St, London, SW1H 0QW

    The grand entrance lobby of the hotel
    The grand entrance lobby of the hotel

     

    As I reported in my last article on this Victorian property, the St. Ermin’s Hotel’s links with the worlds of politics and espionage are indeed strong. Built in the Queen Anne revival style to the designs of Edwin T. Hall (1851 – 1923) in 1887 and completed in 1889, the horse-shoe shaped building was originally a mansion block prior to being converted to a hotel that opened in 1899 after a major refurbishment by the theatre architect J. P. Briggs (1869 – 1944). Briggs remodeled the public areas and created a spectacular neo-Baroque entrance with balconies, ornate plasterwork and a double staircase.

     

    Due to the building’s proximity to the powerhouses of government, the St. Ermin’s Hotel became a meeting point for officers of the Secret Intelligence Service and, as a result, various traitors and spies. Some worked from offices in the building and amongst them were Kim Philby, Guy Burgess, Laurence Grand and Eric Maschwitz. Others came there to be interviewed and the hotel’s bar, The Caxton Bar, is renowned as having been a noted meeting place for secret intelligence officers.

     

    Intelligence officer turned Cambridge Five spy ring member Guy Francis de Moncy Burgess (1911 - 1963)
    Intelligence officer turned Cambridge Five spy ring member Guy Francis de Moncy Burgess (1911 – 1963)

    One of the most notable meetings at the St. Ermin’s Hotel was held in 1940 when Winston Churchill brought together a group to join him in “Setting Europe Ablaze”. These founding members of what was to become the Special Operations Executive (SOE) took over an entire floor of the hotel and carried out covert operations from there throughout the Second World War. MI6 were stationed two floors above and then in the 1950s, the hotel’s bar was the meeting point of Guy Burgess and his Soviet counterpoint when he passed intelligence to the USSR.

     

    A typical bedroom
    A typical bedroom

    A luxuriously appointed shower room
    A luxuriously appointed shower room

    Following on from a £30 million refurbishment to designs by Dayna Lee of Los Angeles-based Powerstrip Studio, the 331 rooms and suites at the St. Ermin’s Hotel are now comfortable, well appointed and decorated in a contemporary style. The two that I inspected, whilst perhaps lacking the charm of a boutique hotel such as Blakes, are absolutely ideal for a business traveller or tourist given the location close to the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey. They are well worthy of their four star rating and I slept well given how centrally located the hotel is.

     

    The Caxton Grill
    The Caxton Grill

    The Caxton Bar
    The Caxton Bar

    The Caxton Grill, the hotel’s restaurant, continues the traditions of the St. Ermin’s in that it plainly is the haunt of politicians and policeman. Whilst dining there, I met an officer from Scotland Yard who was involved with Operation Yewtree. I can report that, though I had a most fascinating conversation with him about Savile, Davidson and Clifford, I did not leave with any state secrets that I could share here. The restaurant also featured on a recent episode of the BBC One’s MasterChef with Gregg Wallace and John Torode and frankly one could also imagine Hercule Poirot having taken rather a liking to it also. It is modern in style and features wooden flooring, bright décor and snazzy seating.

     

    The restaurant features a menu that focuses on a Josper grill. This £17,000 hybrid barbeque–oven, which I saw so cleverly used by Chris Golding at Beauchamp Place’s Galoupet, allows a chef to cook, barbeque and roast at the same time over charcoal embers at temperatures of upto 600 degrees. Filled with Kentish hardwood every morning, the Josper recirculates smoke via adjustable draughts and, for example, as a result, it takes only about a minute to char infuse lamb and thick-cut beef sirloins. The real thrill of it, though, is that the Josper process ensures that none of the flavor or natural moistness of whatever is cooked in it is lost.

     

    I began with a salad of soured plums, gorgonzola and blackberries (£8) that was colourful and most welcome on a grim winter’s day. My companion tried a roast celeriac and truffle veloute (£7) that though perfectly adequate, did not truly excite.

     

    I continued with a half Temple Farm chicken (£20) that was cooked on the Josper Grill. Well presented and served with a green peppercorn sauce and some garlic and parsley French fries (£4), the cooking process was clearly illustrated. The meat was tender and I must say it was one of the best pieces of chicken I have eaten in years. My companion, an Icelandic financial titan, maxed out on a 300g vintage dry aged sirloin steak (£30) served with béarnaise sauce. Again, cooked to perfection, he was impressed.

     

    Though more than amply fed, we finished by sharing a chocolate fondant (£7). This simple dish melted in the mouth and the accompanying ice cream was just superb.

     

    Wines in the restaurant start at a very reasonable £19.95 for the house white and rise upwards to the £300 a bottle range. A Chablis is priced at £41 and a Gavi di Gavi at £33. The restaurant’s bar, the Caxton Bar, offers a huge array of cocktails but I must say I was rather sad that none of them were spy themed.

     

    The hotel's rooftop is home to 200,000 Buckfast bees
    The hotel’s rooftop is home to 200,000 Buckfast bees

    The honey they produce is truly delicious
    The honey they produce is truly delicious

     

    The most quirky thing about the St. Ermin’s Hotel is that it has its own colony of bees. “Bees… In Wesminster?”, I hear you cry. Yes, indeed, 200,000 of them prosper on the roof of the hotel and produce the most delicious honey that is available to guests. From three hives, the Buckfast bees, described as being “good tempered”, have fantastic access to London’s parks and travel within a three mile radius collecting pollen and nectar. “London”, states the hotel’s website, is “a perfect environment for bees as… cities actually trap heat, which means they can start foraging earlier in the year than rural bees and continue later into the autumn”. Who’d have thought it? Where once lived spies, now prospers a colony of bees.

     
    St. Ermin’s Hotel, 2 Caxton Street, London, SW1H 0QW. Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7222 7888. Website: http://www.sterminshotel.co.uk

     

    Follow the St. Ermin’s Hotel on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/sterminshotel

     

    Read our report on the first Intelligence Book of the Year Awards at: http://thesteepletimes.com/da-steeps-speaks/long-live-the-spies