The Steeple Times

Tag: middle-class

  • The Return of the Yellow Card 2021

    The Return of the Yellow Card 2021

    Nikolay Kalinin analyses the reasons behind the Liberal Democrats’ success in the 2021 Chesham and Amersham by-election; is Boris Johnson about to suffer further at the hands of the ‘yellow peril’?

    A month after the Conservatives obliterated Labour in Hartlepool, the Liberal Democrats have struck back by winning Chesham and Amersham, a Conservative stronghold since its creation in 1974.

     

    The Liberal Democrat candidate Sarah Green won 56.7% of the vote, compared to the Conservatives 35.5% of the vote; this is not surprising, considering the fact that 55% of the constituency’s voters supported remaining in the EU in 2016, which reflects the region’s more liberal, middle-class electorate.

     

    Although Brexit was still a prevalent issue during the campaign, the HS2 was a more major concern in the lead-up to the election, as many individuals within the constituency were concerned that the government’s plans to remove the locals’ rights to decide on developments would lead to the railway system being built in the Chilterns. Home County areas like Chesham and Amersham were the place where Reform UK was able to make gains back in 2019 due to their promise to scrap the HS2, and it’s clear that the Lib Dems capitalised on that ‘NIMBY’ attitude.

     

    The demographics have also been influential in determining the outcome, since many within the area are young, middle-class liberal voters who have moved out of London and who were more likely to vote Remain in 2016.

     

    Not only is this the greatest thing to happen to Lib Dems in a long time, but also the victory has shown that the “blue wall” in Southern England is not unbreakable, a fact that was teased back in May when the party lost several councillors in strongholds such as Tunbridge Wells, Surrey and Chipping Norton, and also when they lost the Oxfordshire council.

     

    The Lib Dems ability to appeal to the locals’ concerns regarding HS2 should show Labour MPs the importance of appealing to the needs of the people in their constituency; at the same time, it also should be of serious concern to Boris Johnson, because even though he can bring down the red wall, the opposition parties can do the same.

     

    Much of this is because according to Ed Davey, the people in traditionally-Conservative constituencies “feel they’re being ignored by the Conservatives, taken for granted.” One southern Conservative MP further elaborated by stating: “There’s an element that our party is trying too hard to be Brexiteers”.

     

    The defeat of the Conservatives in the by-election should be taken seriously by the public and by the politicians, because this could be a foreshadowing to further defeats of Conservatives in the south of England – especially the Home Counties – as the party tries to appeal to more Northern working-class voters, which will definitely alienate the more traditional base of the Conservative party in the South who are more liberal.

     

    Ed Davey Chesham and Amersham blue wall
    Sir Ed Davey celebrated his party’s win in Chesham and Amersham – where his party’s candidate Sarah Green got 21,517 votes (56.7% vote share) as opposed to the Conservative Party’s Peter Fleet’s 13,489 (35.5% vote share) – by hammering at a wall of blue bricks in the style of Timmy Mallett. Overturning a 16,000 Conservative majority with 8,028 more votes than her rival, Green increased her party’s percentage share by 30.4%.
    In the by-election, Labour came off even worse than the Tories with just 622 votes and of her win Sarah Green remarked: “Tonight the voice of Chesham and Amersham is unmistakable. Together we have said, ‘enough is enough, we will be heard and this government will listen.’” The by-election was caused by the death in April of former Welsh Secretary Dame Cheryl Gillan. In 2019, she retained the seat with more than half of the vote. But the Conservative majority has been steadily decreasing since the 2015 General Election, when it was 23,920, with UKIP coming second.
  • Bonkers Book Sexchange Saga

    Bonkers Book Sexchange Saga

    Reaction of “pooterish residents” of Hurstbourne Tarrant, Hampshire to community library becoming a “book sexchange” is laughable and condemned as “righteous indignation”

    ‘Book Sexchange’ scandal hits Hants – You’d have thought any populous would be grateful, especially in times of lockup boredom, for a book exchange, but the raucous residents of Hurstbourne Tarrant in Hampshire (population 851) most certainly are not after erotic fiction was discovered in their phone box library.

     

    Echoing the uproar that followed our having made bookseller Olivia Clements a ‘Heroine of the Hour’ in February after she installed a free community library box in her garden in Exeter, a spokesman for the local council complained: “We love our phone box library but we don’t love salacious adult literature being left in there… Please find another outlet for your collection.”

     

    Speaking to The Sun, a local councillor, Kirsty North, furiously exclaimed: “This certainly wasn’t what I had in mind when the village bought the kiosk,” whilst an angry parish council clerk named Miriam Edwards added:

     

    “A lot of people don’t find this funny. We don’t want this made into some sort of laughing stock and a sideshow when the underlying issue is actually very important. We don’t want somebody acting like it’s OK to put porn in a public phone box.”

     

    Analysed further by Daniel Johnson in The Article yesterday also in an article titled: “The great British telephone box library scandal,” the “righteous indignation” and of the “pooterish” South Downs National Park residents about “smutty paperbacks in a phone box” was deservedly condemned. He quite rightly observed:

     

    “Is it possible that the good people of Hurstbourne Tarrant are stuck in a 1950s time warp, perhaps connected with their telephone kiosk library? (Where is Doctor Who when you need her?) Has news of the Lady Chatterley trial and the abolition of censorship yet to reach this corner of the South Downs National Park, an area of outstanding natural beauty and seemingly of unnatural prudishness?”

     

    “The point about libraries – even very, very small ones – is that they almost always contain books that are ‘inappropriate’ for somebody. But the moral jeopardy of letting children roam fancy-free among the bookcases is far outweighed by the value of serendipity – the magical moment when a child discovers the joy of reading for him or herself.”

     

    “To treat adult literature as dangerous is to infantilise young readers – and counter-productive, too. Do parents and teachers worry about child protection every time boys and girls set foot in the local public library, lest they stray into the ‘grown-up’ sections? In reality, most are more likely to be glad that the kids are reading books at all, rather than spending their leisure looking at who-knows-what online. Their innocence is at incomparably greater risk from the smartphones they all have.”

     

    In March 2013, we reported that the number of BT telephone boxes in the UK had declined from 92,000 to just 51,500 in 2012. Since then many more have been removed and in their place a book exchange would surely be a good thing for any community – unless, of course, you are a doddering denizen of Hurstbourne Tarrant, of course.

     

    Bonkers Book Sexchange Saga 2021 – Book exchange filled with erotica – Reaction of “pooterish residents” of Hurstbourne Tarrant, Hampshire to community library becoming a “book sexchange” is laughable and condemned as “righteous indignation.”
    Bonkers Book Sexchange Saga 2021 – A unnamed less prudish resident of Hurstbourne Tarrant told ‘The Sun’: “I have heard that there are some salacious books – I’m number 20 in the queue.” The paper added: “One title is ‘Hot Blooded’ by Nancy Holder and Debbie Viguié. The blurb reveals that one character is ‘struggling to resist her own animal urges’.”
    Bonkers Book Sexchange Saga 2021 – Book exchange filled with erotica – Reaction of “pooterish residents” of Hurstbourne Tarrant, Hampshire to community library becoming a “book sexchange” is laughable and condemned as “righteous indignation.”
    Bonkers Book Sexchange Saga 2021 – When we featured the generous act of Olivia Clements in setting up a community library in her garden in Exeter in February, a tedious twerp named Mark Wicks took to Twitter and complained that it was “a really middle class thing to do with no real understanding of collection management or the role of libraries as a place maker in the local community.” We’d like to know what good Mr Wicks has ever done for anybody and what he has to say about Hurstbourne Tarrant’s ‘book sexchange’ scandal also.
  • Heroine of the Hour 2021 – Olivia Clements

    Heroine of the Hour 2021 – Olivia Clements

    Bookseller Olivia Clements deserves commendation for setting up a free book exchange in her garden during ‘Lockup 3.0’ in Bristol

    University of York history graduate and bookseller at Waterstones (formerly Waterstone’s) and Max Minerva’s independent bookshop Olivia Clements trended on Twitter over the weekend.

     

    In spite of just having 675 followers, a tweet by Clements on Friday touched the hearts of thousands. In it, she announced:

     

    “I made a community library! If you’re in the Bishopston area of Bristol please feel free to visit, borrow, swap out, and enjoy some much needed escapism.”

     

    The response to the missive was extraordinary and aside from 1,500 retweets and 13,500 likes, thoughtful and plainly kind Clements received over 330 comments including ones from Professor Michelle Ryan who’d set up a ‘free library’ just outside of Exeter.

     

    Whilst one Mark Wicks nastily mocked this as “a really middle class thing to do with no real understanding of collection management or the role of libraries as a place maker in the local community,” unsurprisingly most celebrated this “great individual effort” in the spirit in was plainly intended.

     

    For those living in Bristol, Olivia Clements’ book exchange can be found in Elton Road, Bishopston, BS7 and those wishing to donate books should contact her directly on Twitter.

     

    Heroine of the Hour 2021 – Olivia Clements – Book exchange – Bookseller Olivia Clements deserves commendation for setting up a free book exchange in her garden during ‘Lockup 3.0’ in Bristol.
    Doing Good During Lockup – Olivia Clements shared on Twitter that she’d created a community library in the Bishopston area of Bristol on 5th February and already 13,400 pressed ‘love’ and 1,500 shared news of her generous gesture.
    Heroine of the Hour 2021 – Olivia Clements – Book exchange – Bookseller Olivia Clements deserves commendation for setting up a free book exchange in her garden during ‘Lockup 3.0’ in Bristol.
    Doing Good During Lockup – On Saturday, Clements tweeted again with an image of the well-stocked ‘The Little Library’ and remarked: “Today’s donations for The Little Library! You guys have great taste in books.”

    Five Sensible Souls of Lockup-Lockdown

    Heroine of the Hour 2021 – Olivia Clements – Book exchange – Bookseller Olivia Clements deserves commendation for setting up a free book exchange in her garden during ‘Lockup 3.0’ in Bristol.
    Doing Good During Lockup – In March 2020, we featured the story of a “lovely gesture” by an anonymous Good Samaritan in Denchworth, Oxfordshire. Said individual paid for the local pub, The Fox, to provide fish and chips once per week for the 171 residents during the first lockdown.
    Heroine of the Hour 2021 – Olivia Clements – Book exchange – Bookseller Olivia Clements deserves commendation for setting up a free book exchange in her garden during ‘Lockup 3.0’ in Bristol.
    Doing Good During Lockup – In March 2020, Dame Vera Lynn (20th March 1917 – 18th June 2020) told Britons to “weather the storm” of the coronavirus crisis by “pulling together.” She very correctly added: “Keep calm and follow sensible advice… Remain positive and look after each other.”
    Heroine of the Hour 2021 – Olivia Clements – Book exchange – Bookseller Olivia Clements deserves commendation for setting up a free book exchange in her garden during ‘Lockup 3.0’ in Bristol.
    Doing Good During Lockup – In April 2020, we reported on how the 29-year-old Duke of Westminster had given £12.5 million to “provide support to NHS staff, key workers and their children and families” during the first lockdown. He remarked: ““On behalf of my family and everyone at the Grosvenor Estate, I want to say a huge thank you to all our amazing NHS staff and everyone providing critical frontline services. We are all humbled and incredibly grateful that you are working tirelessly to keep us safe and keep the country functioning.”
    Heroine of the Hour 2021 – Olivia Clements – Book exchange – Bookseller Olivia Clements deserves commendation for setting up a free book exchange in her garden during ‘Lockup 3.0’ in Bristol.
    Doing Good During Lockup – The ‘Queen of Gorbals Gobbledygook’ Lorraine Kelly OBE quite sensibly told obese people to slim to avoid death by coronavirus in May 2020. Whilst some would suggest this cruel, the daytime presenter remarked: “This awful coronavirus is far deadlier to those who are overweight… This is not about going on a stupid faddy diet. It’s all about a lifestyle change and doing exercise you enjoy. My advice, which is hard-earned over the years, is not to have too much unhealthy food in the house, especially right now in lockdown when it’s so easy to sit watching TV while guzzling whole packets of biscuits. If you don’t buy the junk, you won’t be able to gorge on it. That’s not to say you can’t have a treat. You can. Just don’t eat a whole plus-sized bag of Maltesers or only leave a few Hobnobs in the biscuit tin.”
    Heroine of the Hour 2021 – Olivia Clements – Book exchange – Bookseller Olivia Clements deserves commendation for setting up a free book exchange in her garden during ‘Lockup 3.0’ in Bristol.
    Doing Good During Lockup – Captain Sir Tom Moore (30th April 1920 – 2nd February 2021) undoubtedly became the figurehead of fundraising and positivity from the first lockdown onwards. Aside from raising well over £30 million, his message of “tomorrow will be a good day” inspired millions. Here he is pictured in Barbados being serenaded by singer Melinda Hughes.
  • Is Now a Good Time?

    Is Now a Good Time?

    As Britain likely moves into further lockdowns, drug dealers are changing the way they operate and communicate; they now bizarrely demand customers ask: “Is now a good time?”

    IS NOW A GOOD TIME? – In June, Misha Glenny – the author of McMafia and a fellow at the Berggruen Institute – penned a fascinating article for the Guardian about how organised crime has had to adapt due to coronavirus lockdown restrictions.

     

    Glenny highlighted how it was “too risky for [drug] dealers to move around” in cities like London and how prices had risen as a result. He rather over generously suggested “criminals are humans too” and were “abiding by the rules [of lockdown],” but also pointed out that the growth in online crime had been accelerated by COVID-19.

     

    In a series of WhatsApp messages seen recently by The Steeple Times between a reader who works in the financial services sector and a London based drug peddler, the way in which such people have changed the way they communicate with their “customers” was fascinatingly illustrated.

     

    We share said criminal’s messages below and highlight how he now uses that devoid of utterly anything phrase “reaching out” to communicate with his customers via all means other than Sim phone calls and SMS messages. He begins:

     

    I hope this message finds you well. Just reaching out to inform you that I have changed my number from (old number: +44XXXXXXXXX) to (new number: +44XXXXXXXXXXX). Please save new number as old one will soon be inactive. Please make contact on WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal only (no Sim phone calls or SMS messages please). And as always, when referring my services to friends/colleagues/family, please call/message me in advance to inform me that you have done or intend to do so. Please also kindly forward me their contact details. Apologies if you have already received this message from my previous broadcast. Thanks.

     

    In a further message, said individual laid his “is now a good time?” message on thick and continued:

     

    Thank you for using my service and thank you for your valued custom. Moving forward I want to lay out my terms and conditions. In order for you to receive the best service and customer care it is advisable that you abide by them. They are as follows:

    • I will be your main point of contact for any disputes/feedback.
    • When contacting me please remember to use WhatsApp only (unless I advise otherwise).
    • Please message only and don’t call unless I ask you to you to (very important).
    • The first message you send should always be “is now a good time?”
    • Don’t engage in further contact until you have had a response to the first message. This is for your safety.
    • If I am unavailable you will receive a message with clear instructions to follow. Please follow them.
    • I won’t allways [sic] be available to meet you in person, and in this event you will be allocated an alternative driver. However I cannot guarantee you will be allocated the same driver every occasion I am unavailable.
    • You will be able to request a particular driver if they are available.
    • Contact the driver through WhatsApp only, with the first message being “is now a good time?”
    • All drivers carry the same stock.
    • All of my products have a distinctive packaging/branding.
    • If product presentation/quality is not up to standard it means that it has probably been tampered with and in which case you should report back to me immediately.
    • Allways [sic] make your order clear to the driver and have cash ready before they depart.
    • When referring my services to friends/colleagues/family, please message me in advance to inform me that you have done or intend to do so. Please also kindly forward me their contact details. And remember to tell them to use WhatsApp only using the phrase “is now a good time?”
    • And last but not least, always treat the driver with the same respect you would expect to have reciprocated.

    Once again thank you for your business and I look forward to hearing from you in the future.

     

    Our typically middle class reader – someone astonishingly typical of the majority using cocaine in Britain and a member of a social group where abuse of this substance is more common than alcoholism – sensibly wrote back: “Now is NOT a good time” and ended the dialogue. Sadly, many others will act to the contrary and that’s what will keep this vile piece of toerag in business now and “allways” [sic].

     

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    Misha Glenny’s 2008 non-fiction book ‘McMafia: A Journey Through the Global Criminal Underworld’ inspired the brilliant eight-chapter, 2018 BBC One series of the same name. A second eight-chapter series is due to be aired in due course.
  • Take Me To The Titanic

    Take Me To The Titanic

    Apartment in mansion block in Sloane Square for sale for £6.2 million in spite of needing updating; it is within the building from which a Mayor of Chelsea lived and departed to his death on RMS Titanic

     

    A third floor flat in a portered mansion block on Sloane Square has gone on sale for £6.2 million ($8 million, €7.3 million or درهم29.5 million) through Cluttons in spite of being decorated like a relic from the 1980s. It is situated above Hugo Boss’ flagship store and within Grade II listed Wyndham House, the building from which a former Mayor of Chelsea went to his untimely death aboard the RMS Titanic in 1912.

     

    Previously priced at £6.5 million ($8.4 million, €7.7 million or درهم30.9 million) when marketed by Russell & Simpson in February 2016, the 2,684 square foot lateral apartment includes a 30-foot long reception room, 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms and features such details as ornate ceiling friezes and plasterwork and working fireplaces. A larger 5 bedroom flat within Wyndham House sold for the staggering sum of £12 million ($15.5 million, €14.2 million or درهم57 million) in July 2015 according to Land Registry records.

     

    Take Me To The Titanic – Wyndham House, Sloane Square, London, SW1W 8AR – For sale for £6.2 million ($8 million, €7.3 million or درهم29.5 million) through Cluttons – Home to Christopher Head (1869 – 1912), former Mayor of Chelsea, who died on the RMS Titanic on 15th April 1912
    Wyndham House resident and Mayor of Chelsea from 1909 to 1911 Charles Head (1869 – 1912) perished aboard RMS Titanic, his body was never recovered but a sundial was erected in his memory in nearby Cadogan Place Gardens

     

    Aside from being one of Chelsea’s grandest residential blocks, Wyndham House was at home to one of the victims of the Titanic maritime disaster in the early 1900s and it was from here that Charles Head, Mayor of Chelsea between 1909 and 1911, went to his death in April 1912. Head, a Cambridge educated barrister turned director of Head & Co. insurance brokers and underwriters at Lloyds of London, was a well known supporter of the arts, a councilor from 1906 and had only married 18 months earlier. He travelled alone on a £42 first class ticket (the equivalent of £4,400, $5,700, €5,200 or درهم20,900 today) on the Titanic’s maiden voyage and bizarrely had taken out a £25,000 insurance policy “against ocean accidents”. His precaution left his widow very well provided for given such a sum was the equivalent of £2.6 million today ($3.4 million, €3.1 million or درهم12.4 million).

     

    Take Me To The Titanic – Wyndham House, Sloane Square, London, SW1W 8AR – For sale for £6.2 million ($8 million, €7.3 million or درهم29.5 million) through Cluttons – Home to Christopher Head (1869 – 1912), former Mayor of Chelsea, who died on the RMS Titanic on 15th April 1912Take Me To The Titanic – Wyndham House, Sloane Square, London, SW1W 8AR – For sale for £6.2 million ($8 million, €7.3 million or درهم29.5 million) through Cluttons – Home to Christopher Head (1869 – 1912), former Mayor of Chelsea, who died on the RMS Titanic on 15th April 1912Take Me To The Titanic – Wyndham House, Sloane Square, London, SW1W 8AR – For sale for £6.2 million ($8 million, €7.3 million or درهم29.5 million) through Cluttons – Home to Christopher Head (1869 – 1912), former Mayor of Chelsea, who died on the RMS Titanic on 15th April 1912Take Me To The Titanic – Wyndham House, Sloane Square, London, SW1W 8AR – For sale for £6.2 million ($8 million, €7.3 million or درهم29.5 million) through Cluttons – Home to Christopher Head (1869 – 1912), former Mayor of Chelsea, who died on the RMS Titanic on 15th April 1912Take Me To The Titanic – Wyndham House, Sloane Square, London, SW1W 8AR – For sale for £6.2 million ($8 million, €7.3 million or درهم29.5 million) through Cluttons – Home to Christopher Head (1869 – 1912), former Mayor of Chelsea, who died on the RMS Titanic on 15th April 1912Take Me To The Titanic – Wyndham House, Sloane Square, London, SW1W 8AR – For sale for £6.2 million ($8 million, €7.3 million or درهم29.5 million) through Cluttons – Home to Christopher Head (1869 – 1912), former Mayor of Chelsea, who died on the RMS Titanic on 15th April 1912Take Me To The Titanic – Wyndham House, Sloane Square, London, SW1W 8AR – For sale for £6.2 million ($8 million, €7.3 million or درهم29.5 million) through Cluttons – Home to Christopher Head (1869 – 1912), former Mayor of Chelsea, who died on the RMS Titanic on 15th April 1912Take Me To The Titanic – Wyndham House, Sloane Square, London, SW1W 8AR – For sale for £6.2 million ($8 million, €7.3 million or درهم29.5 million) through Cluttons – Home to Christopher Head (1869 – 1912), former Mayor of Chelsea, who died on the RMS Titanic on 15th April 1912Take Me To The Titanic – Wyndham House, Sloane Square, London, SW1W 8AR – For sale for £6.2 million ($8 million, €7.3 million or درهم29.5 million) through Cluttons – Home to Christopher Head (1869 – 1912), former Mayor of Chelsea, who died on the RMS Titanic on 15th April 1912Take Me To The Titanic – Wyndham House, Sloane Square, London, SW1W 8AR – For sale for £6.2 million ($8 million, €7.3 million or درهم29.5 million) through Cluttons – Home to Christopher Head (1869 – 1912), former Mayor of Chelsea, who died on the RMS Titanic on 15th April 1912 Take Me To The Titanic – Wyndham House, Sloane Square, London, SW1W 8AR – For sale for £6.2 million ($8 million, €7.3 million or درهم29.5 million) through Cluttons – Home to Christopher Head (1869 – 1912), former Mayor of Chelsea, who died on the RMS Titanic on 15th April 1912Take Me To The Titanic – Wyndham House, Sloane Square, London, SW1W 8AR – For sale for £6.2 million ($8 million, €7.3 million or درهم29.5 million) through Cluttons – Home to Christopher Head (1869 – 1912), former Mayor of Chelsea, who died on the RMS Titanic on 15th April 1912

  • Bigots & Baseball Caps

    Bigots & Baseball Caps

    Intolerance comes in many forms but the very worst kind is middle class hypocrisy

     

    In a week when Damien Hirst was told: “Go home!” by animal rights activists in Venice (who also dumped 40kg of dung outside where he is due to exhibit a non-animal related show at the Palazzo Grassi), I, myself, experienced the wrath of a middle class maniac.

     

    On Saturday, minding my own business, walking along a quiet South Kensington street, I was accosted by a well-dressed woman. She screeched at me: “Take that hat off. It promotes terrorism”.

     

    My crime? Wearing a William Evans baseball cap. The reasoning for her distaste? The cap was captioned: “Gun and rifle makers, 1883”.

     

    After I responded to this ridiculous individual by telling her: “I can wear whatever I wish” and she had had her chance to rant about about intolerance and extremism, I realized one sorry thing: Here, in front of me, stood was nothing but the worst kind of bigot.

     

    William Evans signature baseball caps are available for £25. Wear one at your peril.

     

  • A rich man’s Fiat

    A rich man’s Fiat

    Quirky Autobianchi Bianchina Transformabile to be auctioned (more…)

  • Milo Yiannopoulos (Μίλων Γιαννόπουλος, formerly Milo Wagner)

    Milo Yiannopoulos (Μίλων Γιαννόπουλος, formerly Milo Wagner)

    Milo YiannopoulosOnce described as a “cynical, ignorant f**ker” by Stephen Fry, Milo Yiannopoulos is a gay, Roman Catholic, Greek writer (more…)

  • The hypocrisy of England

    The hypocrisy of England

    Playwright Alan Bennett chooses ‘hypocrisy’ as Britain’s best achievement (more…)

  • Heathrowed out

    Heathrowed out

    An update on the allegedly homeless Heathrow duo Alan Lane and Katrina Smith (more…)