As the 1980s faded and more recently the 2010s brought the gaucheness of the Made in Chelsea set (in spite of the fact most of them lived in Fulham) along with the money-parking, “no lights on, nobody’s home” UHNW’s (‘Ultra High Net Worth’s’ to the unaware), the once civilised Royal Borough – a place once the haunt of the likes of Whistler and Wilde – has descended into an abyss.
On New Year’s Day in a restaurant near Sloane Square, two supposedly local ‘women’ (most definitely not ‘ladies’) were heard loudly recounting their respective Christmas and New Year’s Eve experiences. The following numbered amongst their most definitely banal banter:
“I drink tequila like water… We had a party at The Standard and I then slept with my best friend’s boyfriend’s brother… I’m glad I did as his parents live in Monaco… He paid for a suite. And more tequila.”
“After f**king, we watched a documentary on Satanists in America… And then we ended up having sex again.”
“Do you have a trashy female I can bring tomorrow? I need one for my best friend’s boyfriend’s brother… The one I slept with wants another to join in with us.”
“Whenever I got f**ked up, as I did with my best friend’s brother, I eat fifty Chicken McNuggets.”
“I love a good Italian [restaurant] but you have to check their Insta first. No point going without doing that… But actually, you know what, I prefer Chicken McNuggets.”
“I kind of did a pre-party on the day before New Year’s Eve… I liked that we were going in a private room at Gold in Notting, but then we all went to McDonald’s in Kensington High Street… Well, we were really f**ked up.”
“We had a dinner at Lucky Cat on New Year’s Eve. It was not a ‘party, party’ … But then we bounced, bounced… So we bounced… Oh my God, I did not know what the f**k we were doing but we were doing it, so we bounced to Lulu’s… Empty, empty – just like Halloween, naff… So we bounced to Annabel’s… It was bangin’.”
“I took drugs last night. Do you think that might be why my nose might be sore?”
We are sure readers will agree that these potty mouthed specimens need only one thing: No more Chicken McNuggets and instead a bar of soap in each of their mouths.
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.
Veteran political heavyweight Melvyn Bragg lays into Brexit, David Cameron, Jeremy Corbyn and Sir James Dyson
In an interview in The House magazine, Lord Bragg spoke complete sense in condemning the madness of the current British political scene.
Remarks included:
“I’m looking forward to getting hold of [David Cameron’s] book, I can tell you. Self-serving, and now this swaggering on – ‘I’m very bored, I’d like another job now. Bit bored, so I’d like to be Foreign Secretary’. He ran away. He ran a lousy campaign and then he ran away – he said he’d stay but ran away, he resigned from the Commons – we’ve never heard a pip or a squeak from him. He didn’t go on the Remain march, he didn’t do anything. Cameron could have saved his name by leading the Remain minority. Who the f*** does he think he is?”
“Now, Cameron, with his usual bloody stupidity, should have said ‘it’s got to be at least a 55%’ and so on. But he didn’t think that through because he doesn’t think things through. He is a smarmy PR man.”
“These bunch of squirearchal, hedge funding, over-privileged people who think [Brexit is] going to be okay – it’s going to be okay for them. They’re not going to suffer – not a bit of it. They don’t offer any evidence now. It’s ceased to be a programme or a process, it’s a cult. It’s a bit like the Moonies. They just believe it because they believe because they believe it. Because they are who they are, they think them believing it is significant. No, it isn’t.”
“Their so-called figureheads like [Sir James] Dyson runs away, buggers off – traitorous you could say, in some ways. ‘I’m a big Brexit man’ – as soon as he sees an opportunity, he goes to Singapore. Puts two billion in there when he could have done it here. Isn’t he rich enough? He’s the biggest landowner in the country. How greedy can somebody get?… Horrible… Everything is wrong about it. It speaks to what is wrong about our country. It also has unleashed feelings that are very unpleasant. We were getting on pretty well.”
“I would like for Jeremy Corbyn to go flat out for another referendum and back it and say Remain because that is going to be the way to keep this country prosperous, to keep it tolerant by accepting people who come from other countries instead of setting up a system that repudiates people from other countries. I’d say come off the fence, back Remain and get on with it. His dallying is doing the Labour party no good. They should be streaking away, they should be streaking away. So, that’s disappointing.”
“I was canvassing in Carlisle for the Labour party – you couldn’t believe it really – they were worried about immigration. Nearly ninety per cent of the people in Carlisle had been born in and around Carlisle… but ‘oh, this terrible threat of immigration!’ Why didn’t the Labour party tell people that. Why isn’t the Labour party behind the truth?”
“Forty-eight per cent is not a minority. This country has been built on minorities. The slave trade was abolished because of the minority pegging away. The suffragettes, the trade unions… universal education came in… again and again and again. Minorities turn into majorities quite quickly, especially when they’re right. I won’t go as far as Oscar Wilde, who said that minorities are always right. They’re not always right – but they were in this case.”
All at The Steeple Times today salute Melvyn. His analysis was utterly (sadly) brilliant.
As Knightsbridge’s Brompton Road is invaded by Arabs, The Steeple Times finds that there is both good and bad in their number
Last night, it was a party of two halves on Knightsbridge’s Brompton Road.
At one end, close to the Caramel restaurant, a gaggle of vulgar Chanel handbag wielding Arab women (pictured top right) showed their low class ways when approached by an Englishwoman who simply asked them to let her pass. One remarked: “We have more money than you and we do what we want, whenever we want. You walk in the road. This pavement is our space.”
Elsewhere, closer to the Brompton Road hoards of young Saudis and Kuwaitis gathered on the pavements. Asked why they were there, two Qatari men (pictured top left) politely explained that they would actually like to integrate with locals. They claimed they didn’t know where to find such but apologised profusely for others in their number blocking the streets.
As is often the case, here was illustration that generalisations are never fair. There is good and bad in every part of society and we would all do well to remember that.
Grime and hip hop artist Stormzy should be saluted for using his fame to do good; the vile harpy Amanda Platell owes him an apology
Michael Ebenazer Kwadjo Omari Owuo Jr. – better known by his stage name Stormzy – used his fifteen minutes of fame after winning the best album and the best male artist at the Brit Awards for the good of others.
Using the evening’s final performance, the grime and hip-hop artist rapped:
“Yo Theresa May, where’s the money for Grenfell? What, you thought we just forgot about Grenfell? You criminals, and you’ve got the cheek to call us savages, you should do some jail time, you should pay some damages, you should burn your house down and see if you can manage this.”
He added:
“MPs sniff coke, we just smoke some cannabis; So don’t get me for this, so be woke; This year I am dishing out Ls for free smoke; You tell us that we’re thugs, I try to bust a myth; But someone tell the Daily Mail that they can suck my…”
The opposite of the cowardly and self-loving members of ‘The Club’ that includes the likes of the withering old crooner Sir Elton John and his moaning titleless husband David Furnish, Stormzy has since continued to communicate his campaign in the days since. Communicating to his 1.18 million followers on Twitter, he encouraged the nation to sign a petition to take action to support the victims of the Grenfell Tower tragedy and as of 11:50am Saturday over 130,000 people had signed a petition calling for a parliamentary debate.
Elsewhere on Saturday in the Daily Mail, the acid tongued Australian harpy Amanda Platell demanded: “[Stormzy] show a scintilla of gratitude to the country that offered his mother and him so much instead of trashing it.” This self-declared “dear friend” of the paedophile Rolf Harris should be ashamed of herself; Stormzy has used his fame for the good others whilst she is simply known for taking the dirty money of the nastiest newspaper in Britain.
Sign the petition to “Call on PM to take action to build public trust in the Grenfell Tower Inquiry” by clicking here.
Follow The Steeple Times on Twitter at @SteepleTimes.
The government’s cowardly response in full to the petition follows:
The Grenfell Tower fire was a truly unimaginable tragedy that should never have happened.
The Government’s highest priority remains making sure that survivors, bereaved families and the wider Grenfell community receive all the support they need.
The independent public Inquiry into the fire is an important part of the process and will help those affected get the answers they need to get to the truth of what happened.
The Prime Minister committed to considering the issue of panel members once the Chair had confirmed who had been appointed as assessors to assist the Inquiry. Section 7 of the Inquiries Act 2005 allows the Minister responsible for an inquiry to appoint further panel members during the course of an inquiry with the agreement of the Chair.
In October 2017, the Chair announced the appointment of 7 expert witnesses with backgrounds in fire safety, forensic fire analysis, fire engineering, disaster resilience and also anatomy and human identification. The expert witnesses will provide a range of technical advice and expert reports to assist the work of the Inquiry in delivering its terms of reference.
In addition, in November 2017, the Chair announced the appointment of 3 assessors with backgrounds in community engagement and social housing, local authority administration and structural engineering. The Chair also confirmed at the Inquiry’s preliminary hearing in September that he would expect the assessors to see all the evidence and sit with him when taking oral evidence. The Chair has also confirmed that he may make further appointments if needed.
Following the announcement of these appointments, the Prime Minister carefully considered the composition of the Inquiry panel in light of the diversity and expertise of advice now available to the Inquiry.
The Prime Minister wrote to the representatives of the survivors and bereaved families on 21 December 2017 and informed them of her decision not to appoint additional panel members. The Prime Minister’s decision was similarly communicated to the Inquiry on the same date.
Having regard to the terms of reference and the assistance to be provided by the assessors, and the expert witnesses, it is the Prime Minister’s view that the Inquiry panel has the necessary expertise to undertake the Inquiry as it is currently constituted. The Prime Minister is also conscious of the need for the Inquiry to complete its initial report as quickly as reasonably possible. The Prime Minister therefore considers that additional panel members should not be appointed at this stage.
In reaching this conclusion, the Prime Minister fully took into account her duty under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010 (the Public Sector Equality Duty – PSED).
The Government recognises the importance of ensuring that those most affected by the tragedy are able to contribute fully to the Inquiry and that is why the Prime Minister welcomes the consideration being given by Sir Martin Moore-Bick to the establishment of a community advisory panel, as proposed at the December procedural hearing.
Such a panel, similar to that which has worked well for the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, could play a very beneficial role in putting those most affected at the heart of the Inquiry and enabling them to ensure that their views and experiences are heard. It is for Sir Martin, as Chair of the independent Inquiry, to take this forward, in consultation with the Grenfell Tower community, and the Government hopes that he will be able to do this as soon as possible.
In line with the Inquiry Rules 2006, legal representatives of the Grenfell community core participants will receive in advance of hearings disclosure of relevant evidence; will be able to make opening and closing statements at certain hearings and can suggest lines of questioning to be pursued by Counsel to the Inquiry. They can also apply to the Chair to ask questions of a witness.
Daughter-in-law of fraudster Bernard Madoff illustrates how utterly out of touch she truly is with normality and the lives of ordinary, decent people
“The biggest mistake is putting on something you don’t feel comfortable in” casually commented Stephanie Mack (formerly Madoff) to The New York Times’ ‘Style’ in an interview this week.
As if without a care in the world, the daughter-in-law of the world’s worst Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff – a man whose actions led to financial ruin for many and the suicides of several of his victims – talked to the paper’s Hilary Sargent and shared news that she’s now gone into the business of advising women on how to “choose simple pieces like the best jeans and the kicky accessories to go with them.”
Tastelessly titled: “A Madoff gets a makeover, by giving them,” this cringeworthy feature was plainly designed to give this out of touch with normality woman (whom “loves a good beanie”) room to try and show her human side. It failed and simply illustrated yet another example of the very self-serving entitlement that brought down her father-in-law and those around him.
Remarks such as “I have nothing to hide” are all very well from Ms Mack, but in sharing that she now urges clients coming out of “their recent breakup or divorce” to “drop… $1,200 on a jacket by Iro” she illustrates that money is still her mantra. In adding that her mother-in-law Ruth Madoff is “so much fun to be around” she forgets that this very same woman was shown to be a greedy cross between Imelda Marcos and Barbara Amiel but in commenting: “I’ve urged her to have a comeback. Everyone loves a comeback,” Mack most definitely fails to understand that the public have no desire to see such.
Whilst Guest of a Guest, in toadily referencing the article, decided to term this pointless clothes peddler “the best friend you didn’t know you needed,” we would suggest otherwise: Stephanie Mack – a woman whose new name includes ‘M’ for ‘Madoff’ and vulgarly ‘ACK’ after the airport code for Nantucket (a ritzy location where she once had a holiday home) – is someone one most definitely doesn’t need.
Protestors descend on H.R. Owen Ferrari dealership in South Kensington screaming: “Kill the Rich!”
On Saturday afternoon a bunch of protestors held a protest outside the Brompton Road Ferrari dealership H.R. Owen.
Seemingly something to do with rights for cleaners, the assembled ragbag waved Communist flags and shouted: “Kill the rich!” and “Fight back!” Aside from banners about dirt, the mop wielding mob displayed a banner declaring: “Class war: We must devastate the avenues where the wealthy live” and proceeded to block the street for over half an hour.
As security guards and officers of the law descended, a near neighbour of the showroom told The Steeple Times: “The police couldn’t do anything as they told me there were not enough of them to stop these despicable people blocking the road. It’s awful and I am afraid that they’ll smash the windows and trash the beautiful cars.”
Elsewhere, on social media, organisers of the gathering shared posts that declared: “Sack us and we’ll shut you down!” and urged participants to: “Bring your noise and anger.”
Long Island mansion with links to ‘The Great Gatsby’ and ‘The Big Short’ for sale for £13.1 million (or 152% more than it sold for in 2011)
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896 – 1940) set his ‘Roaring Twenties’ classic The Great Gatsby in the fictional locations of East Egg and West Egg on Long Island and now one of the homes that inspired him is available for sale.
Owned by Cornwall Capital founder James Mai – a man whose firm ironically made over 80 times its capital by buying credit default swaps on CDOs prior to the 2008 financial crisis – and his wife Chiara since 2011, 235 Middle Neck Road at Sands Point on Long Island’s Gold Coast was built in 1926 and home to the Rumsey-Harriman railroad dynasty from 1929.
Fitzgerald is said to have spent time at the residence learning about “the lifestyle of the moneyed aristocracy of Old Westport, Long Island, and their involvement in the movement of eugenics” from the Rumseys and ironically, James Mai, is also representative of a clash between ‘old’ and ‘new’ money. In 2008, he and his partner are said to have been the ones “screaming about [the coming crash] as loud as they could, but everyone turned a deaf ear.” The character Jamie Shipley, played by Finn Wittrock in the 2015 film The Big Short, is loosely based upon him.
Current owners Chiara and James Mai are said to have spent vast sums on the renovation of the estate
Featuring 11,955 square foot of renovated accommodation that includes formal and informal entertaining spaces, 13 bedrooms and 8 bathrooms. There is also a 6-car garage with a 3-bedroom caretaker’s cottage, a 4-bedroom beachside cottage and a boat house.
Outside, on a plot of some 5.3 acres, there is a 391-foot private beach, a tennis court and in spite of its seeming isolation, the property is situated just 29 miles from Downtown Manhattan and 25 minutes by boat.
235 Middle Neck Road is listed by Nava Mitnick of Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International. In December 2016, of it, she commented: “Obviously, it’s so imposing – you drive down and see the sweeping views. But when we entered the house, I described it as a ‘glorified cottage’, because it’s so homey.”
Billionaire founder of Netscape has failed to sell his Palm Beach mansion in a year; it remains on the market for £105 million (or 754% more than he paid for it in 1999)
Four times married, a father of four and a collector of rather large gin palaces, Texan James H. Clark founded Netscape in 1994 and earnt $2 billion (the equivalent of $3 billion, £2.3 billion, €2.6 billion or درهم11 billion today) from that project when it was sold to AOL in 1998.
Clark paid just $11 million for a Palm Beach mansion named ‘Il Palmetto’ in 1999 (the equivalent of $16.2 million, £12.3 million €13.8 million or درهم59.5 million today) and spent four years renovating the 5.46-acre property. He placed it for sale for $137 million (£105 million, €117 million or درهم503 million) last August but has plainly failed to attract a buyer.
Built to the designs of the Swiss architect Maurice Fatio (1897 – 1943) as an “Italian Renaissance-style palazzo” in 1930, the house – which is also known as 1500 South Ocean Boulevard – is described by selling agents Sotheby’s International Realty as “without peer in Palm Beach.” The building was subjected to a four year renovation by Mr Clark, reportedly extends to around 44,200 square foot and aside from including 10 bedrooms, 14 full-bathrooms and 12 partial-bathrooms, also comes with a 20,000 bottle wine cellar and a second cellar for an additional 1,000 crates.
Architecturally “a series of pavilions connected by cloisters,” the main house is dominated by formal entertaining areas with 16th century carved ceilings and accessed from a private tunnel underneath the road is a 2-bedroom beach house with an infinity pool that “blends into the turquoise waters of the Atlantic Ocean.” To the other boundary, on Lake Worth, is a boathouse with motorised launches for two vessels and a 2-bedroom apartment above.
After a Chelsea chef who came out of nowhere named Michael Riemenschneider is revealed to be a “conman” in the ‘Mail on Sunday’, readers tell of his past form
As can only be expected of a paper that loves a bit of sensationalism this week’s Mail on Sunday’s ‘YOU’ got rather carried away in an interview with a “wealthy widow” named Flora Mascolo – a woman who claims to be a victim of, mind the magazine’s gushingly cringeworthy description, a “delicious romance soon turned sour” with a Michelin starred chef named Michael Riemenschneider.
Bizarrely, that Riemenschneider – a man whose first London restaurant, we noted in February 2014, was literally covered with images of his face and captions referencing his name – is lauded as a “handsome celebrity chef” in the feature by Margarette Driscoll is somewhat ambitious given several locals we contacted remember him as “podgy” and a “little bit greasy.” A well-known Chelsea restaurateur – where the Swiss born chef opened a replacement restaurant that few ever even got to hear of just months after opening and nigh on immediately closing his original Marylebone premises in summer 2014 – recalls an individual whose “ability to talk about himself and his achievements made me immediately question the truth of his claims.”
That Driscoll lauds this individual as “talented and dynamic” is perhaps fair given his “experimental cuisine” most definitely had many merits, but that she describes a man Mascolo herself calls a “coward of a man” and “somebody who was a lie, from the beginning” as “destined for similar success” to Heston Blumenthal and Gordon Ramsay is nothing but far fetched. Here was someone who opened in bizarre off-piste locations, insisted diners fitted into limited time spots and ridiculously thought he could limit customers to a set menu priced at £275 per head or a ‘cheaper’ one at £95 per head.
Riemenschneider, a man whose exploits are reported to have cost the widow of the co-founder of the Toni & Guy hairdressing empire some £2.27 million, is now supposedly bankrupt and living in Austria. Cars bought by him including a Mercedes-Benz GTS have reportedly been seized and of him Mascolo comments: “If you wrong me, you will remember my name. He didn’t know who he was messing with.”
A wealthy female reader of The Steeple Times contacted us to share her thoughts on the interview. She did not wish to be named but stated: “This strange, anything but handsome individual, pestered me on social media. He messaged me one day out of the blue in 2013 and he told me that we had friends in common. I am glad I did not fall for his attempts to lure me. Plainly, Mrs Mascolo did and I am sorry for her.”
She continued:
“This man wasn’t a ‘celebrity chef’ but, in fact, a Facebook stalker of ladies he thought had a bit of cash. In his messages to me, I quickly realised he was an individual who’d come out of nowhere and brought with him an ego the size of Harrods.”
“The journalist [Margarette Driscoll] gets rather carried away about his restaurant. It was in a sub-basement off Sloane Square and it didn’t even have a website. Nobody went there because nobody even knew about it. Where there’s money, there’s muck.”
Michael Riemenschneider will no doubt reemerge someday. He was certainly a good cook, but sadly he turned out to be an even better conman.
