The Steeple Times

Tag: journalism

  • Beecher’s Muck

    Beecher’s Muck

    Ghislaine Maxwell’s latest supporter revealed to be Jay Beecher, a far right-wing political writer and ex-Ukipper with associations to the quite rightly banned-from-Facebook ‘Politicalite’

    PR peddler Brian Basham is doing his best to get just about anyone he can to come out to join the tedious twerp Richard Madeley in support of his client, the alleged child groomer and alleged sexual abuser, Ghislaine Maxwell. Frankly, for him, just about anyone who’ll bang the drum for the mucky madam as she seeks bail for a fourth time will now do.

     

    Now, today, we can reveal the latest to join Basham’s not-so-exclusive club is a man named Jay Beecher. He claims to be a ‘journalist’ and also the founder of an organisation with a currently defunct site named Vote Watch.

     

    Vote Watch, curiously, according to a Patreon page supported by just 43 people, was something that aimed to “provide groundbreaking reports exposing media bias, left-wing extremism, and corruption.” It set out to “expose crooked politicians [with]… undercover journalism, exclusive news, and in-depth investigations,” but now Beecher has plainly turned to the very, very dark side and is being lauded by RealGhislaine.com for supporting convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged head honcho.

     

    In two tweets that were subsequently shared by the ‘official’ @RealGhislaine campaign yesterday, Beecher announced:

     

    “ONE TO WATCH: The new site has now been covered by the Mail, NY Post etc, & sets out to counter MSM bias & ‘fake news.’ GHISLAINE Maxwell’s Siblings, @RealGhislaine Launch New Website To Counter MSM Fiction.”

     

    “Also worth remembering that they are Ghislaine’s brothers and sisters, so don’t deserve to be attacked simply for doing what anyone else would do – defend a family member they love.”

     

    Elsewhere, Jay Beecher is heavily involved with producing content for the controversial far right website Politicalite – which claims to be a “proudly right-wing website that supports the silent majority of forgotten working-class men and women from across the UK. We back Britain’s vote for Brexit and America’s vote for President Trump.” Politicalite was deservedly  banned from Facebook “for violating the company’s hate-speech policies” in May 2020.

     

    Beecher was also convicted of driving offences whilst standing as a Conservative candidate in a by-election for Peterborough City Council in June 2017. He was fined for driving whilst disqualified, driving with no insurance and having no MOT on his car, but in Maxwell-esque ‘innocence’ claimed: “This is a personal matter. It was a misunderstanding. It won’t affect me going forward.”

     

    Beecher’s Muck – Far right Jay Beecher supports Ghislaine Maxwell – Ghislaine Maxwell’s latest supporter revealed to be Jay Beecher, a far right-wing political writer and ex-Ukipper with associations to the quite rightly banned-from-Facebook ‘Politicalite’
    Beecher’s Muck – Ghislaine Maxwell’s race to try to attempt to stop her trial starting in July looks as likely at succeeding as a donkey successfully jumping Becher’s Brook at Aintree. Here, the now incarcerated mucky madam is pictured with her then ‘bestie’ Prince Andrew, at Royal Ascot in 2000 in the days when she was considered a “socialite” and welcomed to ritzy events across the globe along with her paedophile boss Jeffrey Epstein.
    Beecher’s Muck – Far right Jay Beecher supports Ghislaine Maxwell – Ghislaine Maxwell’s latest supporter revealed to be Jay Beecher, a far right-wing political writer and ex-Ukipper with associations to the quite rightly banned-from-Facebook ‘Politicalite’
    According to his Twitter handle, the mucky madam Ghislaine Maxwell’s latest supporter, Jay Beecher, has been called “a journalist with balls” by Rod Liddle and described by the actor Michael Sheen as “an ignorant tw*t.”
    Beecher’s Muck – Far right Jay Beecher supports Ghislaine Maxwell – Ghislaine Maxwell’s latest supporter revealed to be Jay Beecher, a far right-wing political writer and ex-Ukipper with associations to the quite rightly banned-from-Facebook ‘Politicalite’
    According to the widely respected ‘Byline Times’s’ Sian Norris and Nafeez Ahmed on March 1st this year: “Beecher has also been accused of racism himself, having sent a tweet to Black Lives Matter activist Natalie Rowe saying that she looked like a ‘cross between seabiscuit and a transexual fish.’” Going further, Norris and Ahmed added: “[He] has been accused of running a sock puppet account known as ‘Rob Daniel’ or ‘The Secret Journalist.’ The account frequently shared posts by Beecher and, when Beecher was challenged by ‘Byline Times’s’ executive editor, ‘Daniel’ sent a ‘troll reply.’ Beecher denies this, inviting ‘Daniel’ for a pint. Bots frequently share Beecher’s tweets.”
    Jay Beecher was described as being suspended from UKIP for “being a naughty boy” according to a clip posted on YouTube in October 2016 by a postman and Labour councillor called Darren Fowler.
    In June 2019, Jay Beecher was interviewed by controversial journalist Rod Liddle in the context of alleged voter fraud in Peterborough.

  • Hero of the Hour – Andy from Argos

    Hero of the Hour – Andy from Argos

    Grimsby resident takes with good humour someone attaching an Argos sign to his house on New Year’s Day whilst journalist reporting story of it goes all Miss Marple

    “I think if people were all a bit more like Andy, there would be no wars” remarked one Nick Kay on the Facebook group ‘Angry People in Local Newspapers’ of a story about an Argos sign “taking a tour of Grimsby before ending up attached” to the house of someone named Andy.

     

    Featured in GrimsbyLive on Saturday, the aforementioned sign was taken from the closed down Argos store in Osborne Street in the coastal town – a place where a UKIP candidate dopily named Victoria Ayling asked a council meeting: “What happens when renewable energy runs out?” in 2015 – on New Year’s Day.

     

    According to the paper’s Gregory Ford, a journalist with plainly a hell of a lot of other subject matter to sift through as he moves into 2021, “[the sign] first took a stop at the town hall a few yards away” and appeared the next day “at an address in West Marsh where it appeared to have been attached to the side of a house.”

     

    Ford – a man who makes Miss Marple looks like an amateur – continued:

     

    “GrimsbyLive finally caught up with the wandering logo at around 1pm where it was found still attached to the side of a property on Haycroft Street near the junction with Lord Street.”

     

    Speaking to the “resident at the property,” a man whose surname he neglected to include named ‘Andy’ subsequently, Ford gained the following surprisingly witty comment:

     

    “I think someone has put it here as a bit of a joke, we have some banter with the neighbours, one of my friends sent me a video of someone attaching it to the house last night.”

     

    “I’ve got no idea how they got it down or if they were even the ones that took it off the wall in the first place to be honest.”

     

    “I’m keeping it up though I think, it is a bit funny isn’t it? I might just treat it as a bit of a late Christmas present, I’ll have to set up my own click and collect.”

     

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    Hero of the Hour – Andy from Argos – Argos sign on Grimsby house – Grimsby resident takes with good humour someone attaching an Argos sign to his house whilst journalist reporting story of it goes all Miss Marple. Facebook group Angry People in Local Newspapers, GrimsbyLive.
    Predictably members of the Facebook ‘Angry People in Local Newspapers’ had fun with the story with one declaring: “Bet Visit Grimsby are pissing themselves over this free advertising.”
    Hero of the Hour – Andy from Argos – Argos sign on Grimsby house – Grimsby resident takes with good humour someone attaching an Argos sign to his house whilst journalist reporting story of it goes all Miss Marple. Facebook group Angry People in Local Newspapers, GrimsbyLive.
    Another added: “They’ll put a pick-up point anywhere these days” whilst another mocked: “I saw Argos tour in the 80s, before they sold out.”
    Hero of the Hour – Andy from Argos – Argos sign on Grimsby house – Grimsby resident takes with good humour someone attaching an Argos sign to his house whilst journalist reporting story of it goes all Miss Marple. Facebook group Angry People in Local Newspapers, GrimsbyLive.
    Andy from Argos’ sign is about its only highlight – Grimsby (a grim town whose residents are nicknamed ‘Grimbarians’) is the place Theresa May chose to give her final speech prior to the final vote on her ultimately rejected Brexit deal in 2019 in a hangar for housing life vests (rather appropriately); ditch loving murderess Jane Andrews (pictured with her former boss Sarah Ferguson) grew up in Grimsby and as of November was a Morrisons shelf-stacker in the town; chancellor “best known for singing in the bathtub as the economy collapsed” Norman Lamont was brought up there too and in 1974, Sir Elton even decided to sing about the accursed place. Now, in 2021, it doesn’t even have an Argos.
    Whilst Elton John waxed lyrical about Grimsby in his song – with lines including “there’s nothing to compare with my Grimsby,” “Grimsby, oh, a thousand delights” and “I miss your magic charm” – one visitor remarked of it: “The place just stinks of fish.”
    In August 2020, Argos announced it would no longer be printing paper copies of its catalogue. ITV1’s ‘This Morning’ responded by interviewing a retail studies expert named Professor Leigh Sparks who’d collected every single copy since 1973. He remarked: “It was a book of dreams in many ways. What a record of consumer tastes they were” whilst Eamonn Holmes intelligently chirped: “They can show you every stage of your life.”
    “It’s So Easy” was Argos’ strapline in advertising campaigns in the 1980s. No doubt, ‘Andy’ won’t share such sentiments when he’s bashed his head against the sign after a night out on the razzle dazzle.
  • Bombastic Basham Bashes Back

    Bombastic Basham Bashes Back

    Brian Basham, PR peddler for mucky madam Ghislaine Maxwell, suggests ‘Hunting Ghislaine’ podcast host John Sweeney is a drunk and someone he “despises”

    In spite of “socialist and vocal republican” public relations peddler Brian Basham’s most determined efforts on behalf of one-time ‘Friend of Geordie’ (Greig) Ghislaine Maxwell, the unsealed reasoning as to why the mucky madam deservedly didn’t get bail showed his client to be nothing other than a liar and a deviant.

     

    Now, in the wake of US District Judge Alison Nathan referencing Miss Maxwell as having shown a “pattern of providing incomplete or erroneous information to the court or to pretrial services,” bombastic Basham, himself, has plainly had a meltdown.

     

    Yesterday, on Twitter, the “unceremoniously dumped by British Airways” Basham turned on the journalist and host of the widely acclaimed podcast Hunting Ghislaine, John Sweeney. In a tweet, the “longtime family friend” of the Maxwells remarked:

     

    “It’s a very sad thing John. You’ve done good work in the past. Has drink got to you at last? If it has, do try AA. They’ve worked wonders for friend [sic] of mine. This work was terrific and I’m sorry to see you in the gutter.”

     

    Going further of Sweeney referencing him on a “current list of people who don’t like me” that also included the Kremlin, Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, Evgeny Lebedev, Peter Mandelson, the Barclay twins, Richard Desmond, the Church of Scientology, the BBC’s management under Tony Hall and Tommy Robinson, Basham angrily added:

     

    “Wrong word John. It’s ‘despise’ in my case. I despise you for coating your investigation [of Ghislaine Maxwell’s alleged crimes against child trafficked victims] with the slime of click bait untrue sensationalism.”

     

    Miaow!

     

    Pictured top: PR peddler for a mucky madam Brian Basham (left) and crusading investigative journalist John Sweeney (right).

     

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    Bombastic Basham Bashes Back – Brian Basham attacks John Sweeney – Brian Basham, PR peddler for mucky madam Ghislaine Maxwell, suggests ‘Hunting Ghislaine’ podcast host John Sweeney is a drunk and someone he “despises.”
    After John Sweeney shared a “current list of people who don’t like me,” Brian Basham attempted to belittle him by suggesting him to be an alcoholic before adding he “despised” rather than “disliked” him.
    Bombastic Basham Bashes Back – Brian Basham attacks John Sweeney – Brian Basham, PR peddler for mucky madam Ghislaine Maxwell, suggests ‘Hunting Ghislaine’ podcast host John Sweeney is a drunk and someone he “despises.”
    Sweeney responded and thanked the PR peddler for his “kind compliment.” He added: “I like a drink but much more important to me is telling stories power and money don’t want told. Such as #HuntingGhislaine, our podcast on Ghislaine Maxwell. In which @brianbasham features.
    Bombastic Basham Bashes Back – Brian Basham attacks John Sweeney – Brian Basham, PR peddler for mucky madam Ghislaine Maxwell, suggests ‘Hunting Ghislaine’ podcast host John Sweeney is a drunk and someone he “despises.”
    Responses from other Twitter users included: “Well I would buy him a beer… A crate full.”
    Bombastic Basham Bashes Back – Brian Basham attacks John Sweeney – Brian Basham, PR peddler for mucky madam Ghislaine Maxwell, suggests ‘Hunting Ghislaine’ podcast host John Sweeney is a drunk and someone he “despises.”
    Another user added: “I’d rather be a piss-soaked, syphilitic tramp than work for the rotten to the core Maxwell family, like some pathetic sycophant.”
  • Distraction Dawn

    Distraction Dawn

    Deranged dope Dawn Ward uses the ‘distraction technique’ by quitting ‘Real Housewives of Cheshire’ as she faces a trial for racism and cocaine possession

    When she’s not getting herself convicted for slapping Sinitta in “fish fueled fights” in Knightsbridge restaurants, motormouthed maniac Dawn Ward is often to be found seeking out attention on the nation’s telly boxes.

     

    Now, this morning, however, the MailOnline’s Natasha Hooper plainly fell for Mrs Ward’s PR spin and shared news that she’s leaving ITV’s Real Housewives of Cheshire programme after five years “so that she can focus on her family.” Hooper, however, terribly conveniently neglected to mention that this washed-up wench is actually awaiting trial for racism and cocaine possession in March 2022.

     

    Given this rather inconvenient “matter” cannot exactly sit well with a family orientated channel such as ITV was so clearly overlooked, it seems Dawn Ward, for once, has pulled a blinder and got the distraction technique into play. Shame on Natasha Hooper for not showing the slightest ounce of journalistic nous.

     

    Pictured top: Aside from swigging champagne and her terrible temper, Dawn Ward is most certainly not known for her sartorial elegance. Here, the creosoted creature is pictured taking to the catwalk to sport the ‘alien look.’

     

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    Distraction Dawn – Dawn Ward tries out the distraction technique – Dawn Ward uses the ‘distraction technique’ by quitting ‘Real Housewives of Cheshire’ as she faces a trial for racism and cocaine possession.
    Distraction Dawn – Dawn Ward with her ex-footballer husband Ashley Ward (left) and dressed up in fetish gear with what one might politely term “a gimp” (right). Here’s one classy bird. Not.
    Distraction Dawn – Dawn Ward tries out the distraction technique – Dawn Ward uses the ‘distraction technique’ by quitting ‘Real Housewives of Cheshire’ as she faces a trial for racism and cocaine possession.
    Distraction Dawn – Dawn Ward likes to turn on the tears (or wag her finger in anger) when she doesn’t get her way. The public should be reminded she already has one criminal conviction and now faces yet more serious charges as she heads back to court in March 2022.
  • A Metropolitan Mess

    A Metropolitan Mess

    Though Darren Grimes is frankly nothing but an irritating Brexiteer brat, the Metropolitan Police investigation into his conduct as an interviewer is nothing but ludicrous

    Darren Grimes, quite frankly, is someone nobody rational would normally feel any kind of affinity with. Aside from his grating nasal tones, this ropey right-wing Brexiteer brat defended the indefensible when he blubbed: “This is actually breaking my heart” over Dominic Cummings’ Barnard Castle incident and his involvement in the 2016 referendum itself was nothing but a disgrace.

     

    Now, however, with news that Grimes is to face a Metropolitan Police investigation over an interview he conducted with the out-and-out racist historian David Starkey, we unsurprisingly find ourselves agreeing with even Brendan O’Neill of Spiked whom rightly termed such “a disgraceful attack on press freedom.”

     

    Whilst the personal views of Grimes, like those that inspire him including Milo Yiannopolous and Andre Walker, are undoubtedly laughable, no supporter of democracy would justifiably prevent his right to hold such opinions. Equally, investigating him for what was essentially a discussion where a historian made a clearly racist remark is anything but rational.

     

    As O’Neill points out in his analysis: “This is about the fundamental right of journalists, reporters and podcasters to discuss anything they want with anyone they choose. For the police to investigate a journalist simply for facilitating a discussion, for asking a public figure questions, is an extreme act of authoritarianism.”

     

    The Metropolitan Police need to see sense and cease their investigation into Darren Grimes. To do otherwise will simply be yet another own goal by their crackpot chief Cressida Dick and another nail in the coffin of rationality and reason.

     

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    https://twitter.com/darrengrimes_/status/1314608615077052417
  • Locking Up Boris

    Locking Up Boris

    Petronella Wyatt takes to Twitter to suggest Boris Johnson “locks himself down” given he is “57 years old, and obese”

    When journalist Petronella Wyatt is cited in the context of Boris Johnson – her paramour between 2004 and 2008 – mention is sometimes made of how they would “ride around St John’s Wood in a taxi, listening to a tape of Petronella singing Puccini.” Now, this firecracker has changed her tune and is regularly using Twitter to mock the national embarrassment ‘Bosie The Clown.’

     

    In a tweet this morning, witty wordsmith ‘Petsy’ was spot on when she suggested:

     

    “Seems rather odd that Boris is proposing a lockdown for the over 50s, when that would mean locking himself down. After all, he is 57 years old, and obese.”

     

    Wyatt is quite right: The Prime Minister’s proposal to lockdown over 50s is indeed beyond ludicrous. Instead, he should take action against the irresponsible millennials whom don’t social distance in bars in Brighton and the larger-than-life sorts whom bask on beaches in Bournemouth first.

     

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    Locking Up Bosie The Clown – Petronella Wyatt on Boris Johnson – Petronella Wyatt takes to Twitter to suggest Boris Johnson “locks himself down” given he is 57 years old and obese.
    Petronella Wyatt’s tweet condemned her former lover’s proposal to lockdown over 50s on Twitter on Monday 3rd August 2020.
    Locking Up Bosie The Clown – Petronella Wyatt on Boris Johnson – Petronella Wyatt takes to Twitter to suggest Boris Johnson “locks himself down” given he is 57 years old and obese.
    Boris Johnson and Petronella Wyatt pictured together at a party in the happier days when people could actually gather for such.
    A witty ditty mocking Boris Johnson’s extra-marital activities.
  • Moron of the Moment – Owen Jones

    Moron of the Moment – Owen Jones

    Owen Jones has yet again proven himself to be nothing but a self-indulgent berk in banging on about ‘cancel culture’ and the right ‘playing the victim’ card

    Owen Jones just cannot help himself. A constant attention seeker, the author of Chavs has waded into the debate about ‘cancel culture’ – a new description for “the withdrawal of support or admiration for someone after an alleged misstep” – and as per usual made an utter arse of himself.

     

    Aside from correctly describing himself as “sad” on his Twitter handle, Jones rarely gets much right and in his Guardian column today, this left-wing loudmouth achieved nothing in banging on about another of his favourite topics, that of ‘victimhood.’

     

    Forever one prone to leaping on the status of being a ‘victim’ himself, Jones’ argued “millennials complaining on Twitter” are “better to be seen as the victim rather than the aggressor” when it comes to “brutal battlegrounds of the culture war.” His oversimplified view was rightly “slapped down” as “destroying democracy” previously last week by Piers Morgan and again now it should be dealt with similarly. If indeed anything should be cancelled, it is quite simply Owen Jones.

     

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  • Quote of the Week – Wilde Morality

    Quote of the Week – Wilde Morality

    Petronella Wyatt is spot on in quoting Oscar Wilde on morality in art; “books are either well written or badly written,” they are not “moral or immoral”

    In the preface to his philosophical novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde wrote: “There is no such thing as a moral or immoral book. Books are either well written or badly written. That is all.”

     

    Shared on Twitter by the witty journalist and author Petronella Wyatt at a time when ludicrously Gone With the Wind is under attack even, this is a timely reminder that works of art should be subjected to aesthetic judgment rather than moral judgment.

     

    The bosses of the BBC and Netflix would do well to remember such.

     

    Pictured top: Ben Barnes starred as Dorian Gray in the 2009 British fantasy-horror adaptation of 1890 novel ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray.’

     

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    Quote of the Week – Wilde Morality – Journalist and author Petronella Wyatt is spot on in quoting Oscar Wilde on morality in art; “books are either well written or badly written,” they are not “moral or immoral.”
    Petronella Wyatt’s tweet pointed out: “Oscar Wilde, who knew about persecution, said: ‘There is no such thing as a moral or immoral book. Books are either well written or badly written. That is all.’ ‘Gone With the Wind,’ published in 1936, won the Pulitzer Prize.’
  • Moron of the Moment – Olivia Utley

    Moron of the Moment – Olivia Utley

    Rent-a-gob stand-in for Rod Liddle at ‘The Sun’ Olivia Utley shows herself to be nothing but a big-mouthed berk in brainlessly banging on about Brexit; she should eff off!

    “Chuffed to be filling in for Rod Liddle today,” 27-year-old Olivia Utley is exactly the kind of person you’d expect to big herself up and this week was no exception for this motormouthed maniac.

     

    Utley, a somewhat tepid try-hard attempt at being Katie Hopkins yet a fan of David Cameron strangely also, on Friday, was given space to spout her views in The Sun. In a column that’d make even Karren Brady look rational titled: “It’ll do our spoiled young Remainers good to remain in Britain for the summer holidays,” this “gleefully” childlike upstart not only attacked the lovely Fiona Bruce but also suggested “it would have been easier to have come out as a paedophile than a Brexiteer.” She’d plainly been drinking vinegar as she penned this particularly puerile drivel.

     

    Here, in ramblings rooted in ridiculousness, Tom Utley of the Daily Mail’s “rent-a-reactionary” niece mocked other millenials and stupidly suggested they believed “the Lake District was a fictional place.” She attempted to justify proclaiming there being a “darker side” to young people “knowing nothing about Britain” and that now their “ignorance could finally be shattered.”

     

    Concluding on the subject of how she believes young people will forget Europe in favour of their country of birth, Utley patronisingly argued: “Reconnected to their roots at last, they might just begin to feel the first stirrings of patriotism running through their British veins.” We’d suggest otherwise: They’re more likely to just tell this moron to eff off!

     

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    Moron of the Moment – Bigmouthed berk Olivia Utley on Brexit – Rent-a-gob stand-in for Rod Liddle at ‘The Sun’ Olivia Utley shows herself to be nothing but a big-mouthed berk in banging on about Brexit; she should eff off!
    On Thursday, Olivia Utley was given a “guest column” in ‘The Sun’ in place of Rod Liddle. She was delighted to brag about it on Twitter.
    Moron of the Moment – Bigmouthed berk Olivia Utley on Brexit – Rent-a-gob stand-in for Rod Liddle at ‘The Sun’ Olivia Utley shows herself to be nothing but a big-mouthed berk in banging on about Brexit; she should eff off!
    What a hypocrite – In 2019, so-called journalist Olivia Utley bragged about going on holiday to France; in 2020, she mocked others for wanting a holiday abroad. Shame on her.
  • Berating Branson

    Berating Branson

    As a petition to strip Sir Richard Branson of his knighthood reaches 27,000 signatories, a doctor calls out this Beelzebub-like businessman’s meanness

    Sir Richard Branson, undoubtedly one of the most deserving figures of hate of the coronavirus pandemic, has rightly been panned on the left and panned on the right. With both Tory and Labour politicians after him and his key backer, Delta, refusing to inject fresh cash into his crisis-hit airline, this cretinous tax exile has truly hit the buffers and is quite rightly fast running out of friends and allies.

     

    On Tuesday in the Guardian, the columnist Marina Hyde condemned Branson’s offer of Necker Island as security for a £500 million bailout from the British government as “the most WTF-tinged piece of collateral action since that late-1980s moment when Australian entrepreneur Alan Bond bought Van Gogh’s Irises at Sotheby’s, using a loan from Sotheby’s, for which the painting itself was collateral.” She was spot on about this and in stating: “I’d encourage you to speculate on how soon it will be before Richard requests UK or US bailout money for his Virgin Galactic enterprise, where space travel has been ‘set to be a reality next year’ for a good 12 years now,” this journalist hits the nail on the head. Branson can certainly be termed an immensely clever (if deviant) stage manager and anything but a one-trick pony, but what lies beneath his mirage is nothing but a house of sand propped up by a bag of bilge.

     

    In response to the feature, one Nicholas Fox of Virgin Group wrote to the Guardian on Saturday. His missive pathetically bleated about being “saddened” by Hyde’s suggestions, but as a counterpoint, one Dr Richard O’Brien, who had travelled on one of Branson’s aircraft, provided an entirely different take. The good doctor remarked:

     

    SIR – Is Marina Hyde being a little harsh on Richard Branson? On a Virgin flight home from Los Angeles several years ago I answered the call for a doctor (the third call, actually, as hardened medics wait for somebody more gung-ho to respond) and saved the life of a businessman who had swooned during his in-flight massage (no, please, it was nothing).

     

    The crew were so relieved when I spared them the expensive inconvenience of an unscheduled landing that they gave me a free orange juice as they ushered me past the empty business seats and back to steerage. It was followed up by a letter of gratitude and a promise of 10% off my next trip. I later found out that anybody could get 10% off by booking online.

     

    So don’t tell me Branson seems to feel entitled to the free benefit of others’ generosity – I already know.

     

    Dr Richard O’Brien

    Highbridge, Somerset

     

    Elsewhere, an online petition on Change.org to strip Branson of his knighthood continues to garner support. Justifying it someone named ‘Duna Stays Mad’ calls the billionaire businessman a “disgrace to his country” and a “traitor” and suggests he is “milking the system.” Today, we urge our readers to join the 27,000 who have already signed it by clicking here.

     

    Pictured top: Sir Richard Branson getting his filthy mitts into a blonde.

     

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