Matthew Steeples urges successful readers to help an ambitious young man who had the courage to write to the residents of London’s most prosperous areas asking for advice
A letter came through my door recently from someone I’d never met. It impressed me and I want to share it with you, the successful and the talented.
In it, a 19-year old man named ‘Mark’ told of his struggles to find a fulfilling career in London but he did not bleat. Instead, this plainly bright individual, asked not for money or a job, but simply requested that those reading his missive write to him to share their “take on success [and their] journey to it.”
Adding: “It would mean a lot to me,” Mark then gave his email and I today urge readers to take a moment this Christmas to do something good: Join me and share your stories with him; this youngster deserves hope and he deserves to be saluted for having shown initiative.
I am writing this letter to ask for your input on what makes people successful.
I am 19 years old and just last year I was working on a construction site in an apprenticeship when one day I looked at everyone working and I could see in their faces that they were not happy. They had to work six days a week to earn enough money to pay the rent and some food bills and from that moment I knew that I had to change my life.
It’s as though I was looking at myself twenty years into the future and as I was walking back to Victoria train station to go home, a brand new McLaren stopped at the traffic lights beside me. I looked at the man driving it and said to myself: “I have to be like him. I have to be financially free. I cannot live the rest of my life on £9 – 10 per hour. I will not settle for that.
So, I quit my job. We as people have only a short time to truly enjoy our lives and I will not spend my time here making slightly above the minimum wage. I am here to take and achieve everything I can.
I know I have what it takes to reach my goals but I am stuck on how to accomplish them. I want to hear other people’s stories for myself, real life journeys, no matter how basic or crazy they are, so I can implement some factors into my own life and achieve my dreams. I have complete confidence in my abilities and will stop at nothing to ensure I reach my purpose.
If you could let me know your take on success or your journey to it, please email email me at [email protected]
It would mean a lot to me. Thank you for taking the time to read this.
In the wake of a rollerblader causing a woman severe head injuries, Matthew Steeples demands ‘pavement pests’ – including those blessed scooters – be banned from spaces meant for pedestrians
‘Pavement pests’ – adults on both pavements and roads on such things as children’s pavement scooters and rollerblades and people capable of walking on ‘body snatcher’ mobility scooters – truly get my goat.
Having spent a considerable period of the year with my arm in a sling, I was naturally cautious as I wandered about. People with rucksacks were naturally a hazard to keep clear of, but what truly became a danger were those I mentioned above. Each and every time I was bashed into by one, I came to realise what a menace these contraptions and those that use them truly are to anyone who gets in their way.
The author, Matthew Steeples, tries out a mobility scooter with a lady who genuinely needs one; they do have their place.
This week, proof of the true impact of such was provided when a French-born male model, Patrick Nodanche, 28, received a suspended prison sentence of fifteen months. He caused severe head injuries to an investment expert, Jean Hu, 35, when he smashed into her at high speed on rollerblades in Haymarket, London. The consequences for Ms Hu were severe: Since the incident in October last year, she has spent eight days in hospital, has needed specialist home care and has had to abandon her six-figure job at Goldman Sachs as “her injuries make long-distance travel impossible.”
It is now time that the government tightened up legislation in this area. Whilst Nodanche was rightly prosecuted, nothing can currently be done about adults knocking over old ladies on pavement scooters. Whilst one could argue, the populous should just behave responsibly, the images below prove many simply don’t. It is time to push pavement pests into the gutter and it is time to remember pavements are for pedestrians.
The face says it all – This grimacing brat plainly knows she’s doing wrong; I’d send her off to pick litter.A woman with an electric pavement scooter and a dog in a harness: A danger both to humans and animals.Headphones, rollerblades and sunglasses – What a truly stupid creature.A middle aged man who simply looks like a dunce.Katie Price may be capable of “getting her tits out” but she’s also capable of using her legs; she does not need a mobility scooter and should get off and walk.This chubby man should follow the lead of the lady on the left and ride the bicycle he has hired on the road; pavements are for pedestrians.A body snatcher and a bum – This woman should act her age, not her knicker size.This woman not only is a plague on the pavement because of her pavement scooter, she also has headphones on and thus is an even greater danger.A prat scoots on.This woman should remember that the Kings Road is a shopping street; it is not a scooting destination.At least this fool is wearing a helmet but readers should remember that if you injure him in your car, he’ll still no doubt try and blame you. Get him off the road.Two electric pavement pests in a cemetery – If they carry on this conduct, there could indeed be further bodies headed there.Snapped in Walton Street, Knightsbridge – Where does this bozo think he’s headed? Heathrow Airport?
‘Mad Friday’ thankfully calmer than ever in Chelsea reports Matthew Steeples
Last year, as I walked across the Royal Borough in the evening of the day known as ‘Mad Friday’ or ‘Black Friday’ – the Friday before Christmas and the most popular night of the year for the public to go mental on the streets – I witnessed pissed-up children vomiting in Cadogan Gardens and grown men fighting in Sloane Square.
Aside from dodging past loose looking women smeared with lipstick with their shoes off falling over in Kings Road and avoiding eye contact with yobbish sorts drunkenly attempting to croon in Pont Street, I somehow got to my destination unblemished and poured myself a stiff drink.
This year, thanks I guess to it raining, it was thankfully not quite the same. Yes, there were a few ‘over-refreshed’ sorts, but ‘Mad Friday’ definitely did not kick-off in SW3. Thank bloody goodness.
IFAW secure a ban on the sale of most items of ivory in the UK with the assistance of Michael Gove MP and ‘Fake or Fortune’s’ Philip Mould
Elephants love Wednesday, and so will you.
Elephants remember Wednesday as if it was only Tuesday.
Anthony T. Hincks, author.
Last week, the International Fund for Animal Welfare announced that the Ivory Bill had been approved in the House of Commons and will now go for Royal Assent.
Superb news for elephants in the regard that this will close most elements of the UK ivory market, The Steeple Times has long supported this cause. Prior to Theresa May’s pointless election in 2017, Matthew Steeples, editor-in-chief, wrote to Lady Borwick – then the MP for Kensington. This bizarre woman, who was also President of The British Antiques Dealers’ Association and spoke frequently in the House of Commons in support of the ivory trade, responded with the bizarre comment: “[Doesn’t everyone enjoy] tinkling the ivories – playing the piano?”
Of the news, David Cowdrey, UK head of policy and campaigns at IFAW told The Steeple Times:
“This amazing news means we can give the best present ever to elephants this year; namely that another ivory market is closing and increasing pressure for all countries to do the same and help make the killing of elephants for ivory a thing of the past.”
“The Bill’s passage through Parliament was not easy and at times worrying. There were a number of attempts by the antiques lobby to water down the Bill, putting forward amendments that would have created more loopholes than a sieve full of water, but IFAW was on the case and briefed hundreds of supportive MPs and Lords throughout the Bill’s passage through Parliament. The end result was that all of those bad amendments were either withdrawn or voted down and we will now have one of the toughest ivory bans in the world, with a few very limited exemptions, which we put forward and supported.”
“The resulting Ivory Act will now ban the sale of most ivory items in the UK, which is fantastic news and we could not have done this without you. With elephant populations in crisis and an elephant poached every 26 minutes for the illegal ivory trade, it is vital to shut down the legal markets as urgently as possible so that they can no longer be used as a smokescreen for illegal killing and trafficking.”
“IFAW would like to congratulate everyone involved, especially our supporters and the UK Government for taking such swift action since pledging to introduce a ban. It has to be said that the Ivory Bill must be one of the quickest pieces of legislation to pass through Parliament in recent years and this reflects the importance that the Government attached to it.”
“I have to personally congratulate The Rt. Hon. Michael Gove MP, Secretary of State for the Environment, who has championed this Bill from our very first meeting and also the Ivory Bill team at Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) for their amazing support and work in delivering a balanced and excellent piece of legislation. It is also important to note that all political parties supported this Bill and without their support it would not have succeeded.”
“When IFAW stepped up its campaign for an ivory ban in earnest about three years ago, we were starting from a bleak place. Though it had been included on manifesto documents little had been done politically, it was not a priority and was even dropped as a manifesto pledge by the Government at the last election. IFAW crafted a campaign that would create real change and brought in some vital players we needed to reassure and have on side, such as the Musicians’ Union, Music Industries Association and Association of British Orchestras to really understand their issues and work together as partners.”
“We spoke to museums and fine art dealers like Philip Mould and took their concerns on board, worked with them and built strong relationships that would shape the campaign and achieve real positive change for elephants. I also spoke to enforcement officers to understand what would work and what would not work, because at the end of the day any new legislation has to be enforceable and we want the people behind the illegal wildlife trade to be brought to justice. We lobbied hundreds and hundreds of MPs, Lords and civil servants. We wrote letters, IFAW published reports, gave evidence to select committees, conducted surveys, signed petitions and kept up a constant pressure, advocating real joined up solutions to the Government and all of our suggestions were taken on board.”
“As a public element to the campaign, we ran another UK ivory surrender, our fourth in the UK, where members of the public were encouraged to give up any unwanted ivory to be put beyond use and ensure it would not be traded. We continue to be overwhelmed by the huge public response to this, with hundreds of ivory trinkets and tusks donated to IFAW over recent months. The majority of donated ivory is passed to the relevant Government agency to destroy, and just a few items are retained for education work and publicity purposes.”
“Our partnership approach was supported and echoed by other NGOs and we all worked together to deliver one of the best and strongest ivory bans in the world. We now hope this will be replicated by the European Union and that they will act as courageously as the UK Government did to close down the EU to ivory and produce equally strong legislation. Our job will not be done until all ivory markets are closed and people only value ivory on a living, wild elephant.”
“It has been a hard, long and successful campaign thanks to all of your support and I hope has delivered a great Christmas present and one that we can all celebrate. The elephants won’t forget, and neither will we.”
Matthew Steeples suggests it is time to bring down the Grenfell Tower in the wake of news that £30 million has been spent on temporary accommodation for survivors
Today The Independent revealed nearly £30 million had been spent on hotel rooms for surviors of the Grenfell Tower tragedy. Whilst this is utterly shocking – and also indicative of the fact that not nearly enough has been done to rehouse residents – it also acts as a reminder that whilst the tower remains standing, further costs rack up from bills associated with stopping it collapsing.
Whilst some might argue the case for the 24-floor structure not being demolished as it serves as a ‘memorial’ to the 72 people who lost their lives there, others are, in my view rightly, calling for it now to be brought down. The possibility of replacing it with, say, a garden of remembrance seems one of the better options on offer but what should be the priority first is that the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea council do more to help the 150 households still waiting to move into permanent homes. Shame on them for their ineptitude to date.
Former Kensington MP Lady Borwick returns to the fray and is branded a #FearlessPillarOfTheCommunity in spite of her bizarre comments linking the Grenfell Tower tragedy and gangs
“Triple dipper” – branded as such because at one time she was paid nearly £100,000 of public money per year as a councillor, Member of Parliament and member of the London Assembly concurrently – Lady Borwick has now bizarrely branded #FearlessPillarOfTheCommunity on Instagram.
No doubt part of an attempt to resurrect her deservedly dented public profile, this former MP for Kensington – once one of the safest Tory seats in the land and a place where previously even a pig in a blue rosette would have easily won – Lady Borwick most recently was criticised for describing survivors of the Grenfell Tower as “rather like gangs.”
Lady Borwick is, given the evidence, out of touch with the modern electoral landscape and if the Conservative Party are to have any chance of electoral success in Kensington again, they should jolly well send her off back to a safe space where she can happily “tinkle on [her beloved] ivories” in peace.
Competition to win a Knightsbridge flat for £10 per ticket neglects to mention its former occupier, a convicted ‘gay sex plot’ royal blackmailer who died in 2016
Increasingly, with sellers unable to offload prime properties due to Theresa May’s inability to secure any kind of Brexit deal and the ongoing effects of former Chancellor George Osborne’s increases to stamp duty, those with luxury flats and houses are turning to raffling them.
An example of such comes in in the form of a ground and first floor maisonette on the corner of Walton Street and Beauchamp Place in London’s Knightsbridge. Extending to 1,063 square foot and including a large reception room, 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, the aforementioned fully furnished property is ambitiously being touted as being worth £3.2 million in spite of having sold for just £1.4 million in 2007 and £575,000 in 2000.
The ground floor sitting room of the flat; the property has been marketed for rental at a price of £2,750 per week in times pastBisexual ‘royal blackmailer’ Ian Strachan lived in the flat for a period following his release from jail
Now marketed in a competition by a company named Your Laddr – run by a former Alexander McQueen merchandiser named Santa Agolli – for £10 a ticket, Flat 1 at 132 Walton Street, SW3 is being promoted without mention of one of its most recent occupants, a controversial and now deceased ‘royal blackmailer’ who’d sought £50,000 for a set of recordings from various national newspapers in 2007.
Tried under the name of Paul Aðalsteinsson (other aliases included Paul Adalsteinsson, Paul Stein and Charles Goldstein), Grimsby trawlerman’s son turned “playboy” Ian Strachan lived at 132 Walton Street after being released following serving a sentence of five years for a gay sex blackmail plot against an unnamed, married member of the royal family. He subsequently had his left leg amputated following a 30-foot fall from a balcony in Imperial Wharf, SW6 in 2013 and then spent 10 months in jail in Dubai in 2015 after crashing an Audi R8. He died aged just 40 of a drug overdose in South Kensington on Christmas Eve 2016.
The winner of Flat 132, Walton Street will have their stamp duty, legal fees and council tax for one year paid as part of the prize. In addition, they will be ‘given’ a 2017 Jeep Wrangler Black Hawk with 800 miles on the clock, a cash amount of upto £4,000 to cover insurance for one year and a cash payment to cover a Kensington and Chelsea parking permit for one year also. Hopefully they’ll have better luck than the tragic Mr Strachan; may he rest in peace.
August 2018 – Prize draw remains open indicating that ticket sales must be rather slow.
December 2017 – Offered in a raffle for £10 per ticket with a minimum of 380,000 tickets needed to be sold. This would equate to a return of£3.8 million ($4.9 million, €4.2 million or درهم17.9 million) in ticket sales.
November 2007 – Sold for £1.436 million ($1.845 million, €1.581 million or درهم6.776 million).
October 2000 – Sold for £575,000 ($739,000, €633,000 or درهم2.713 million).
Bizarrely largely overlooked by the mainstream media, the son of the ousted ex-MP for Kensington Lady ‘Call Me Victoria’ Borwick is an extremely well connected man who keeps himself under the radar on social media. The 31-year old has just 500 followers on Twitter – a surprisingly low number given he has been described as a “computer specialist” – and was put in a position of huge power as Vote Leave’s chief technology officer from August 2015 to July 2016.
Educated at the University of Richmond, Virginia from 2006 to 2010, with a period studying law courses at Cambridge briefly during 2008, Borwick subsequently worked in IT for the financial services company Killik & Co in 2012 and simultaneously “developed music technology for interactive lessons.”
More interestingly, this youngster’s move into political data profiling came also in 2012 when he founded a company named Kanto Systems with an aim of “bring[ing] UK Campaigning into the 21st century.” Here, Borwick developed a “mobile canvassing app” and came into contact with Cambridge Analytica in order to provide them with “digital services,” according to The Huffington Post. In turn, he sold an app to Cambridge Analytica’s parent company, SCL, and now, in March this year, his firm was brought in by Ireland’s Save The 8th anti-abortion campaign group as part of their efforts “to persuade Irish voters to keep the country’s strict anti-abortion laws.”
“Hiring Thomas Borwick to create and manage a website is like employing the SAS to run security at a school hop or bringing in Einstein to tot up your shopping bill,” comments journalist Fintan O’Toole in The Irish Times, and in further revelations in the Evening Standard late March, Borwick himself admitted to also having worked with the equally controversial Canadian data firm Aggregate IQ – an operation that earned £3.5 million working for Vote Leave during the 2016 referendum campaign.
The public and press need to wake up and smell the coffee. The manipulation of politics in America, Britain, Ireland and elsewhere runs far deeper than even the most avid viewer of the Daily Politics could imagine. Figures like Thomas Borwick may well operate in the backrooms but it is increasingly becoming apparent that with doorstep canvassing all but irrelevant, such people are worryingly our new political powerhouses.
Follow The Steeple Times on Twitter at @SteepleTimes.
The Steeple Times returns after a prolonged hiatus
After not having published in quite some time, today The Steeple Times returns after a hiatus resulting from issues caused by technological nuisances connected to an old crooner terrified about what went on in a paddling pool full of olive oil.
Aside from having been busy researching stories about the forthcoming council elections and corruption in the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, our team will be reporting on news linked to Cambridge Analytica that even the mainstream media seem to be ignoring and most importantly introducing our new restaurant critic – a man unafraid to mince his words going by the name of David G. Lennox.
We thank you for your continued support and welcome your input and feedback at [email protected]
New restaurant critic David G. Lennox reviews Brompton Cross’s latest opening, Caramel London
In a knockout punch, the last of the grand old chatelaines of Kensington and the dowagers of Chelsea – not to mention their urbane nephews, in euro tweed and gossiping nieces, donning sunglasses to disguise their latest Bystander appearance – have been blown away.
The space formerly occupied by Brompton Cross’s La Brasserie has been reincarnated and pimped up to proportions that would leave corrupt dictators grinning and wealthy divorcees wincing through their plastic surgery; before prowling upon their next victim in their under length but overshined dresses in what can only be described as seduction booths which make up one rear side of the restaurant.
La Brasserie was the ideal place to break up a ‘walk of shame’ (or ‘stride of pride’) with a solo breakfast or worse still as the dumping point after a Raffles or 151 conquest – the orange juice was always top drawer and the necessity to talk minimalised by abrupt staff. But it would go on all day – coffee and a stale croissant – steak frites – an absurdly good value happy hour in the hope of meeting an evening beauty, and if not, some perfectly passable coq au vin or a veal Holstein and pomme puree and more drinks. It attracted characters, observers, faded beauties complaining at the noise not to mention the unlikely spot for an attempted hit on Venezuelan terrorist Carlos the Jackal – who was rumoured to be living incognito around the corner. The unpublishable stories are rife.
‘La Bras’ (as it was fondly known to those in the know) was a diary of Royal Borough life which always entertained and the food had a reliability which only regulars could fully comprehend. It sort of did what it said on the tin – but there was no tin. If it were in Paris, it would have been vilified. At Brompton Cross, it sort of worked.
Now patrolling this wonderful piece of no man’s land, which among about four things it could be (Chelsea, South Kensington, Brompton Cross, Brompton), we have Caramel London.
The room is black with a glass ceiling that promises to yield poles if only glass were magically removed at a certain hour. There is an anticipation whilst sitting down that a show is about to begin and that something rather adult in the most childish possible sense is about to ensue. This is lunchtime and I feel like I am in a Miami Beach nightclub which doesn’t get going until about 3am.
Bathetically, the waiter then entices us to have a cocktail. This no anti-climax – these are magnificent – the Negroni has a huge cube of ice in its tumbler and the vodka martini has a lovely balance where the droplets of vermouth take out the fumes of the spirit, also in a very good glass – the liquid is chilled naturally and is utterly smooth and delicious. Indeed, these are cocktails of the class you may expect at The Connaught or top-end hotel bars in London and anything you can find in Chelsea, or wherever we are.
Then came offerings defined as “shared for the table” – I hate this sort of language – the plates are never too big for one – you might want a really nice plate of acorn fed Iberico ham for instance – but this seems an excuse to introduce a pre-starter course or get nice people to spend extra money because they like the idea of “sharing.”
However, all was forgiven when a missile like double pyramid of prawns appeared in a big gold martini glass – TNT shrimp – they were well and truly off the charts and plentiful, glued together with a hot mayonnaise that was zingy enough to patent. It sounds completely and utterly repulsive but somehow it worked magically. Pure ‘prawnography.’ The prawns had a more swallowable give and tenderness when compared with those bouncy muscular shrimp that contaminate the States. The fact they were totally impractical to eat merely added to the absurdly glorious idea of what this space had transformed itself into. This was a knockout punch which may just bring a few of the old souls back to life from some of their pre-mausoleums upstairs or around the corner.
We then were given some really good beef sliders in a soft homemade brioche type bap that was excellent, some well-judged Chilean sea bass on a rather over creamy un-Italian risotto, with a nice enough lobster broth – the dish was ruined by some over-extracted tomato salsa paste concoction that went with absolutely nothing. And then a short rib pappardelle which had a deep and unctuous sauce but the pasta a bit thick, cardboardy and gluey and an unnecessary pimping up with black truffles that could not be tasted against such depth of flavour. Again, a thoroughly un-Italian pasta dish.
The Nutella gnocchi we had for pudding put us back on course. They were excellent oozing out chocolatiness.
The cooking at Caramel is actually promising, but I suspect the chef has been made add some culinary plastic surgery like truffles and lobster to get the perfect fit for the likely clientele. Though only time will tell what that clientele is, I will be happy to drink the cocktails and pad out on the prawns whilst it attempts to resolve its confusions.
