Tag: power

E-Scooter-ing a Shameless Minister For Rent
As the government disgracefully announces they’ll be allowing rentable e-scooters on Britain’s roads, Matthew Steeples asks: “Who gave ‘a Robert Jenrick’?” to get this multi-million market going

‘Doing a Bernie’ became the stock description of a political bung of £1 million in the Blair years and now, in ‘Bosie The Clown’ Britain, it seems ‘a Robert Jenrick’ should be the description for a much cheaper option: A £12,000 donation that allegedly could have “handed Tory donor [Richard Desmond an] extra £106 million.”

Now, at a time when coronavirus deaths look set to once again spike with what is sadly going on in Leicester being our starter-for-ten, our government has decided to put lives at risk in another totally avoidable way. Last night, in announcing that the ban on rentable e-scooters will be lifted on Britain’s roads for 12 months, Tory transport minister Rachel Maclean did just such and now this moronic woman also leaves herself open to questions of sleaze as well.

Under Maclean’s new rules, set to come into play from Saturday, rental scooters will be allowed on roads, but not pavements. Privately owned e-scooters, for now, however, will continue to be illegal.

Opening up a line for substantial profits for those set to own and manage rental e-scooter operations, Maclean is endangering the public quite unnecessarily. Whilst she argues that her scheme will “ease the burden on the transport network… and allow for social distancing,” she neglects to mention that in July last year, YouTuber Emily Hartridge died after being struck by a lorry in Battersea whilst riding an e-scooter on the road. There have been many injuries as a result of accidents caused by these ridiculous contraptions in addition on both roads and pavements.

Last night, in response to the news, registered blind disability awareness campaigner Deborah Farley-Persaud told the BBC: “[E-scooters] are frightening because you can’t hear them and you can’t see them.” Mrs Farley-Pesaud was “injured last year following a collision with an e-scooter” in Old Street and now “does not feel safe to go out.” She added: “They clearly haven’t got any regard for the rules of the road,” whilst previously Colin Wingrove of the Metropolitan Police stated: “Electric scooters should not be on the pavement or the road.”

As was pointed out by Inc. in their winter 2018/2019 edition, one e-scooter rental operator in America, Bird, was alone valued at £1.6 billion. The numbers involved in this new market are potentially colossal and now, in the UK, the questions that need to be answered are:
- “What donations have those who’ll be operating e-scooter rental businesses in Britain given to the Conservative Party to date?”
- And: “Who’s been Robert Jenrick-ed?”
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Rachel Maclean took to Twitter on Tuesday to boast about having “accelerated [e-scooter] trials to provide a safe, fun and zero emission way to travel!” One is left asking: “What really motivated her actions?”

Many Twitter users reacted with fury at the decision. One suggested: “A&E is going to be rammed” whilst another argued the “trouble with e-scooters… is the people who ride them.” They added: “Unfortunately there will be deaths because they don’t stick to road rules.”

Another tweeted: “This coincides with half the population hitting the pubs with a thirst like a kangaroo’s jockstrap. Excellent.” Another quite rightly pointed out: “They are really dangerous for pedestrians.”

In July 2019, ‘The Steeple Times’ reported on a twerp named Ambar Zohra bashing into a pensioner on a scooter in Walton Street, Chelsea. At the time, this foul-mouthed horror was rightly asked by Jane Morris of Percy Bass: “Where do you think you are from? The five floors of whores?”

In August 2019, ‘The Steeple Times’ highlighted an example of a danger on the road on an e-scooter. Of this particular terror, a taxi driver rightly observed: “If I’d hit him, I’d have blood on my hands but he isn’t meant to be there. He is breaking the law purely by his presence. He should be prosecuted and that thing should be confiscated.”

Emily Hartridge tragically died after being hit by a lorry whilst on her e-scooter in Battersea in July 2019. After such an occurrence, you’d think the government would ban these dangerous contraptions; Conservative minister Rachel Maclean has shamefully gone and done to the contrary.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilNc6WeqCHc
E-scooters are deservedly disliked contraptions. They are, after all, dangerous and generally operated by irresponsible idiots.

Vile porn star and alleged sex offender Ron Jeremy “nearly died” on an e-scooter in October 2017.
July 1, 2020
Dumb & Dumber

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, in stoking a new war with the press (but strangely not including ‘The Sunday Sport’) just prior to the commencement of their case against Associated Newspapers, have yet again proved themselves as nothing but ridiculous attention seekers suggests Matthew Steeples

In a way you can’t blame the “tone death wastrels” that are the Duke and Duchess of Sussex for their latest move. In announcing they’ll childishly be ignoring the likes of the Daily Mail and The Sun completely henceforth, one can fathom that they think that such a strategy will make their ‘problems’ go away. Frankly, these entitled brats will very deservedly find quite to the contrary.

In a statement that appears to have been written by someone with no grasp or command of common sense or correct use of grammar, sent at the height of a global pandemic killing thousands each day, attention seeker ‘MeGain’ has achieved exactly what she wants: A return to herself garnering acres of press attention each and every moment. This mendacious madam has utterly no shame – after all, for her, it’s always just been the “me, me and more about bloody me” show – and in calling her out Andrew Neil is quite right. In a tweet, the veteran broadcaster remarked: “Their solipsism is amazing. Can’t they just consign themselves to oblivion for a while? Or at least hire someone who can write a press release in clear, decent English” and now this wicked wench will find to her cost that the silent majority will agree. We have all heard enough and more and more sympathy is switching to poor old Thomas Markle – a father who has been treated utterly abysmally by a deviant who’d put herself in the White House if she thought it might get herself just a bit more fame.

On Friday, the first hearing relating to Associated Newspapers publishing ‘The Modern Day Mrs Simpson’s’ correspondence to her father is due. Plainly, thus, this badly advised move is related to stoking the media up as part of a strategy to fight that case. It won’t work as the public are not as stupid as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex think, but most amusingly as one Dr Midd pointed out on Twitter: “Notice that Meghan and Harry haven’t included the Sunday Sport in their blacklisting, a victory for quality journalism.”

The full statement from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex:

As the Duke and Duchess of Sussex now settle into the next chapter of their lives and no longer receive any publicly funded support, we are writing to set a new media relations policy, specifically as it pertains to your organisation.

Like you, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex believe that a free press is a cornerstone to any democracy – particularly in moments of crisis. At its best, this free press shines light on dark places, telling stories that would otherwise go untold, standing up for what’s right, challenging power, and holding those who abuse the system to account.

It has been said that journalism’s first obligation is to the truth. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex agree wholeheartedly.

It is gravely concerning that an influential slice of the media, over many years, has sought to insulate themselves from taking accountability for what they say or print – even when they know it to be distorted, false, or invasive beyond reason. When power is enjoyed without responsibility, the trust we all place in this much needed industry is degraded.

There is a real human cost to this way of doing business and it affects every corner of society.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have watched people they know – as well as complete strangers – have their lives completely pulled apart for no good reason, other than the fact that salacious gossip boosts advertising revenue.

With that said, please note that The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will not be engaging with your outlet. There will be no corroboration and zero engagement. This is also a policy being instated for their communications team, in order to protect that team from the side of the industry that readers never see.

This policy is not about avoiding criticism. It’s not about shutting down public conversation or censoring accurate reporting. Media have every right to report on The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, good or bad. But it can’t be based on a lie. They also want to be very clear: this is not in any way a blanket policy for all media.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are looking forward to working with journalists and media organisations all over the world, engaging with grassroots media, regional and local media, and young, and up-and-coming journalists, to spotlight issues and causes that so desperately need acknowledging. And they look forward to doing whatever they can to help further opportunities for more diverse and underrepresented voices, who are needed now more than ever.

What they won’t do is offer themselves up as currency for an economy of clickbait and distortion.

We are encouraged that this new approach will be heard and respected.

The publications that the couple will not engage with not engage with henceforth are:

Daily Express

Daily Mail

Daily Mirror

express.co.uk

Mail on Sunday

MailOnline, including US outlet DailyMail.com

mirror.co.uk

Sunday Express

Sunday Mirror

Sunday People

The Sun

The Sun on Sunday

thesun.co.uk

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April 20, 2020
Down With Dumb Diane

After retreating to the backbenches, can life get better for the thickest politician in history, Diane Abbott? She’s got the sentencing of her criminal son to look forward to for starters… And a few paid gigs at the Beeb no doubt too

Life is not so rosy for Diane Abbott right now. She had to “resign” from her Shadow Cabinet post (well, she’d never have accepted being inevitably “pushed” if she hadn’t gone willingly) and on Wednesday, she’ll see her degenerate son, James Abbott-Thompson, sentenced for biting a policeman and spitting at another.

Remembered in Tuesday’s Telegraph as having an “infelicity with words and numbers that made John Prescott look like JFK,” Abbott pathetically told Sky News in February: “I was a backbencher for a few years and there is an awful lot to do on the backbenches” (take that to mean: “I’ll keep causing trouble and making a berk of myself and dipping my grubby mitts in the till via gigs at the BBC and elsewhere”).

Calculator-less, “most abused of any Labour MP ever” Abbott – whom also claims she’s going to be singlehandedly able to stop Labour going into a “dead end” with a “swerve to the right on migration policy” – however, did find time to once again block The Steeple Times on Twitter. She also get one positive call out in the little-read Independent where the self-declared “fangirl of Naomi Campbell” and “she/her/I” Lola Oriowo accused anyone having a go at Jeremy Corbyn’s ex-sexual partner of being “institutional racists.”

A selection of the opinions of Twitter users about Miss Abbott’s departure follows below. This double left footer will certainly not be missed by many.

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Diane Abbott has busied herself by once again blocking ‘The Steeple Times’ since being demoted. Plainly she hasn’t got much else to do.

April 7, 2020
Jessica Jackson Sloan (born Jessica Hurst)

Born in Alabama in 1982, Jessica Jackson Sloan has morphed from a high-school dropout with a baby and a drug addict, jailbird husband in 2004 to, most bizarrely, one half of a “criminal justice reform dream team” with Kim Kardashian in 2020. “Steely-eyed blonde,” divorced and the co-founder of #Cut50 – a bipartisan effort aimed at reducing America’s incarceration rate – this Santa Clara University of Law graduate became Mayor of Mill Valley City Council in Marin County, California in 2015 and got herself involved with her “famous reality star legal apprentice” thanks to Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Jackson Sloan claims to want to “craft better policies that help, not hurt,” yet the choice of the somewhat shady company she keeps will continue to leave many questioning this plainly fame and power hungry woman’s true motivations.

April 6, 2020
A Bowled Down Price

Texan estate for sale for sum 43% less than in 2011; it comes with the “finest private bowling alley in America” and a car museum

In March 2015, The Steeple Times featured a Texan mansion described by some as “more iconic than Southfork.” Back then this “replica of George Washington’s Virginia estate” had been for sale for four years already and now, in March 2020, it’s still on the market.

Offered at prices as high as £26.1 million and as low as £12 million, Mount Vernon overlooks White Rock Lake in Dallas and was built between 1928 and 1930. It was sold in 1938 to one of the world’s largest oil baron’s, H. L. Hunt (1889 – 1974) – a man “reputed to have the highest net worth of any individual in the world” at the time of his death.

John Amend with Laura Bush at the bowling alley at Mount Vernon and with his wife Teresa.

One of the entrances to Mount Vernon, 4009 West Lawther Drive, Dallas, Texas, TX 75214, United States of America.

Passing on to a commercial real estate tycoon and fellow supporter of the Bush political dynasty named John Amend in 1999, the 10,511 square foot house was subsequently renovated and aside from creating spaces including a prayer room, a 10,000 bottle wine cellar, a 1950s style diner and a car museum, what is considered to be the finest private bowling centre in America was added. It comes complete with a digital jukebox that has over 500,000 songs on its concert hall quality sound system

Whilst Mr Amend and his wife Teresa hosted guests including Glenn Close and President George W. Bush at Mount Vernon, in 2011 they decided to “simplify their lives” and placed it for sale. In the time since, its yoyo-ed on and off the market but speaking about the property to the Dallas News in February this year, realtor Allie Beth Allman claimed the Amends have now “made it a goal to sell the property this year.” She went further and stated:

“Many interested buyers have made offers, but the family has been reluctant to sell… The kids are just now at the age that they really enjoy it, and they spend a lot of time over there. It’s hard to give that up when your grandkids are saying, ‘Oh, don’t sell.’”

Allie Beth Allman & Associates now seek £14.9 million for Mount Vernon and the 10 acres that surround it.

The Names & Numbers – Mount Vernon, 4009 West Lawther Drive, Dallas, Texas, TX 75214, United States of America

March 2020 – Relisted at £14.9 million ($18.5 million, €16.6 million or درهم67.9 million) and still for sale through Allie Beth Allman & Associates.

May 2019 – Relisted at a price of £12 million ($14.9 million, €13.4 million or درهم54.7 million).

May 2016 – Relisted at a price of £14.1 million ($17.5 million, €15.7 million or درهم64.3 million).

March 2015 – Featured in The Steeple Times whilst listed with Allie Beth Allman & Associates and Christie’s Real Estate at a price of £15.3 million ($19 million, €17 million or درهم68 million).

September 2013 – Reduced in price to £15.3 million ($19 million, €17 million or درهم68 million).

November 2012 – Reduced in price to £23.7 million ($29.5 million, €26.5 million or درهم108.3 million).

2011 – Placed for sale for £26.1 million ($32.5 million, €29.2 million or درهم119.4 million).

2004 – Hosted its first event as “the nation’s finest professionally equipped bowling centre.” The alley reportedly cost £1.16 million ($1.45 million, €1.3 million or درهم5.33 million) to construct.

2002 – Renovated and expanded.

1999 – Sold to the self-declared real estate “pioneer and innovator” John T. Amend and his wife Teresa for an undisclosed sum.

1938 – Sold by Thomas Y. Pickett to Harold Lafayette Hunt, Jr. for $69,000 or the equivalent of £740,000 today ($922,000, €826,000 or درهم3.4 million today).

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March 29, 2020
Shame on the Met

Matthew Steeples suggests that at a time when public resources are totally overstretched, that the Met Police are set to waste more money on the plainly pointless search for Madeleine McCann is an outrage

Let’s be honest: Madeleine McCann will most likely never be found. Whatever people might say and however much they might hope, with nearly £12 million of public money and much more private cash wasted on a search that has achieved zilch, zero, nada, anything more is just throwing good wonga after bad.

Now, with news last night that the Met Police will be allocating further funds to continue the search (at a time when they’re asking for retired officers to return to help police the public during the coronavirus outbreak), the public will be rightly outraged.

Whilst I and others have for years argued that the disproportionate allocation of resources to this case stinks and that other missing children (whose cases get little to no financial aid) deserve parity, this latest announcement is a step too far. Speaking to The Sun yesterday, an unnamed police source stated:

“There has been some recent speculation that the investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance could be put on hold or discontinued because of the coronavirus epidemic and a shortage of officers working. This isn’t the case and we can’t see the outbreak causing a problem for this ongoing inquiry. Neither can the Home Office. We’ve been told there will hopefully be no problem with new funding.”

Gerry and Kate McCann’s closeness to the likes of Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Theresa May and Baroness Meyer has also aided their ability to keep the cash rolling in since their daughter ‘disappeared’ in May 2007. Equally, with mega rich ‘friends’ like the job killer Sir Richard Branson, the alleged sex abuser Sir Philip Green and the angry busybody J. K. Rowling on their side, the McCanns – unlike less wealthy parents of other missing children such as Kerry Needham – have been able to manipulate the media without good reason.

Frankly, nothing new has been uncovered in this case in years and now it is not the time to give more money. Instead, it’s time to shelve the search for Madeleine McCann and instead use precious and scarce financial resources to solve cases that can actually be solved.

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Missing still yet little to no police resources for their cases – Ben Needham disappeared in Kos, Greece on the 24th July 1991 aged 1 and his mother gets little help for her search; Martin Allen disappeared in London on 5th November 1979 aged 15 and though his brother, Kevin, keeps the case in the public eye as much as he can, he gets little to no help from the Metropolitan Police.

Meanwhile, Madeleine McCann – whose parents left the doors and windows to the apartment they were staying in and did not pay for childcare on that fateful night – disappeared on the 3rd May 2007 in Praia da Luz, Portugal. The investigation into how she went ‘missing’ has cost nearly £12 million of British public money thus far and more is going to be given. Something, frankly, does not add up and interested individuals should take a look at our previous analysis: “Missing Madeleine – Questions without Answers.”

March 28, 2020
A Seriously Slow Subaru

Quirky 1970 Subaru 360 police car to be sold at auction; unlike anything Colin McRae drove it’s as slow as a snail

Advertised quite accurately in the United States as “cheap and ugly” by its importer Malcolm Bricklin, the Subaru 360 was the first car produced by the Japanese transport conglomerate Fuji Heavy Industries.

Exempt from normal safety standards because it weighed less than 1,000 pounds, the car was branded “not acceptable” because of safety concerns and lack of power, but now one of the few left – many were “tossed overboard” off boats or “shredded to pieces” due to their unpopularity – is now headed to auction via RM Sotheby’s in May.

The car to be offered by RM Sotheby’s is nothing like the vehicles that Subaru later created in terms of their abilities to drive at speed; in the 1990s the company became renowned for its wins at the World Rally Championships courtesy of the likes of the late Colin McRae MBE – the Subaru 360 would not have even have got off the starting block in such rallies.

The fibreglass monocque construction car to be sold, an example from 1970, comes in the form of a police car complete with the livery of the New Zealand Ministry of Transport. It has a siren, light bar and included also are bobby hats according to the auctioneers.

They will offer the vehicle as part of their single owner Elkhart Collection sale on 1^st and 2^nd of May in Elkhart, Indiana and remark: “[It’s] unlikely to catch any speeders.” Like most of the 230 cars to be auctioned, no reserve set.

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March 27, 2020
Illuminating the Illuminati

As ‘The Guardian’ explores the power of the Illuminati, Matthew Steeples argues that the few claiming links to such are nothing but mad, old cranks

This morning, The Guardian’s Martha Gill asked: “What is the Illuminati?” in an article that jokingly suggested Googling such would put one at “great personal risk.”

Referencing the organisation’s “top bananas – such as for example the Queen – [as] ancient lizards dating from an era before man existed” without even bringing the crackpot David Icke into it, politics, culture and neuroscience expert Gill made connections instead to Beyoncé, Madonna and Katy Perry. She called the Illuminati a “very clever cover-up” and a “myth” and a group that formed because a German philosopher named Adam Weishaupt “couldn’t afford the Freemason admission fee.” Overall, she concluded: “It is a powerful and savagely guarded organisation that secretly controls the entire modern world, probably while wearing cloaks. It has done this mainly through infiltrating the media and brainwashing everybody. It could be doing it right now.”

Whilst such claims are both countered and at the same time mocked in such works as Roman Polanski’s 2010 film The Ghost Writer –where a fictional former British Prime Minister turns out to have been controlled by a very shady operation named the Hatherton Corporation – what Gill misses is that the groups that continue to claim links to the Illuminati – such as the Ordo Templi Orientis – are, in fact, actually nothing but a bunch of mad, old cranks.

Follow The Steeple Times on Twitter at @SteepleTimes and Matthew Steeples at @M_Steeples.

November 22, 2017
Anne Marie Waters

The “Donald Trump of the UK” (without the power) according to her fans but just a “piss poor Nazi bigot” according to others, Anne Marie Waters failed to become leader of UKIP in September 2017. Born in Dublin, educated at Nottingham Trent University and a lesbian, Waters condemned her loss as “Jihadi – 1, Truth – 0” and went on to form a joke of a new party named For Britain in October 2017. A former Labour candidate also, this immigrant hater surprisingly has 65,000 followers on Twitter and repeatedly makes claims such as “Islam is evil” and: “The law will be used to silence anyone with a semi-right opinion.” She especially hates the Pope and Somali refugees. What a delight!

October 14, 2017
A Bargain Boat

Edward Kay reports on the sale of a truly striking 1-of-1 Aguti 20-metre wooden motor yacht that cost £6.4 million to build; it is offered for just £1.4 million

As most of Germany is relatively landlocked, with just the borders of the far northern cities meeting the Atlantic Ocean, it’s no surprise that some of the world’s best performance cars have come out of Deutschland. But, for a yacht building business, one generally might assume that the lack of water access would be quite a difficult hurdle to overcome. Luckily for a firm named Aguti, it set up shop on the coast of Lake Constance – one of the largest lakes in Germany – and here the company’s founder and designer Andreas Grieger has brought what truly must be considered nautical masterpieces to life.

Grieger had a desire to create a yacht with all the grand old opulence of time’s past, yet also with all the benefits of modern fittings and building technologies. He began designing such a vessel in 2003, and over the next 40 months, a fabulous wooden motor yacht slowly came to life at a build cost of some £6.4 million ($8.2 million, €7 million or درهم30.1 million). Where old and new design technologies came together most were in the hull. Here, the traditional yacht construction of utilising precious woods – in this case, mahogany – was upgraded with the integration of carbon fibre and epoxy resin. This process took 50,000 hours of craftsmanship, 40 cubic metres of mahogany, 50 cubic metres of cedar, 650 square metres of carbon fibre, and two tonnes of epoxy to complete, but the end result – a ship that had the visual appeal of a traditional wooden boat with the advantages of a modern composite yacht – was most definitely worth the effort.

This 20-metre, Riva-style owner’s driver yacht is, in my view, a design dream. Not only is it clean, crisp, and curvaceous, while also being angular, it cuts through the waves off the south of France like a hot knife through butter. It has twin 10-cylinder MAN engines – which each develop 1,100hp and together produce a maximum speed of 32 knots. All that power is hidden beneath a beautifully fitted heat-treated teak deck, spreading from bow to stern, including the extendable bathing platform. Elsewhere, the modern nautical technology of the cockpit is complemented by beautifully hand-stitched leather seats and a hydraulic ‘hard top’ roof, offering shade as well as airflow.

The openness of the cabin below allows direct passage from the cockpit and provides the captain with a view of the opulence underneath. The saloon and kitchen lead to three spacious bedrooms (larger in size than those of most London flats) which feature red mahogany furnishings, King-sized beds, and bathrooms finished in natural stone. For those looking for an escape this summer — a private oasis for you and your eleven closest friends — you’re sure to find it on this Aguti yacht.

£1.4 million ($1.8 million, €1.5 million or درهم6.5 million) is sought for the craft – a 78% discount on the cost when new.

Interested parties can contact yacht broker Edward Kay of Boatshed Riviera via email at [email protected] or +44 (0) 786 780 0908.

August 15, 2017