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.
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Spectacular hacienda near Seville for sale for £3 million
Anyone who has watched the somewhat cringeworthy television programme A Place In The Sun expects a Spanish holiday home to be somewhat beyond vulgar, but in The Palacio, near Seville, a buyer could purchase something truly spectacular.
Restored over the last five years, this traditional hacienda or small estate stands on nine acres of Andalusian olive groves and centres around a 12,900 square foot traditional house with seven large bedroom suites. It is approached by a tree-lined avenue, has two swimming pools and is situated in a part of Spain that “enjoys over 300 sunny days a year and mild, frost-free night-time temperatures.”
Aylesford International seek £3 million ($4.3 million, €3.5 million or درهم15.9 million) for the property and advise buyers to factor in a further 10% to 15% for “additional fees and taxes.”
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Britain’s weirdest home for sale for a sum 61% lower than the £13 million sum asked for it in 2016; it has been repossessed and comes with a 69-foot long indoor beach
In October 2016, The Steeple Times featured what could quite possibly be Britain’s weirdest home. Offered then for £10 million, The Chalet at East Molesey in Surrey has now been repossessed and is being marketed for just £5 million – or a sum 61% lower than its initial asking price of £13 million in August 2016.
Now marketed by Savills on behalf of LPA Receivers, the Grade II listed chalet was imported from Switzerland in 1882. It includes an indoor 69-foot man-made beach filled with 40 tonnes of sand, a dining room with an especially vulgar 18-seat Swarovski crystal table and a kitchen with just what any budding Mary Berry couldn’t live without – five Gaggenau fridges.
Extending to 5,478 square foot in total, The Chalet also comes with a number of private moorings on the River Thames.
The Chalet, Hampton Court Road, East Molesey, Surrey, KT8 9BP – The Numbers
March 2018 – £5 million ($6.9 million, €5.6 million or درهم25.3 million).
October 2016 – £10 million ($13.8 million, €11.2 million or درهم50.7 million).
August 2016 – £13 million ($17.9 million, €14.6 million or درهم65.9 million).
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San Francisco condominium with a plaque that falsely claims Sir Arthur Conan Doyle lived there for sale for £2.6m; it was actually home to a whackjob doctor who believed he could cure any disease
Offered last for £1.779 million ($2.495 million, €2.010 million or درهم9.163 million) in 2012, 2151 Sacramento Street in San Francisco’s Pacific Heights has just been brought to the market by the well-known and often eccentrically dressed realtor Joel Goodrich for £2.637 million ($3.698 million, €2.979 million or درهم13.581 million).
Adorned with a plaque that reads: “This house, built in 1881, was once occupied by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,” the apartment offered is one of four within a Beaux-Arts building that replaced the original structure in the 1920s. It extends to 2,528 square foot and includes 2 reception rooms, 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 3 parking spaces and a south facing roof deck.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859 – 1930) and the plaque to him at 2151 Sacramento Street; he actually stayed at The Clift Hotel during his brief visitDr Albert Abrams (1863 – 1924) was facinated with curing vibrations and came up with radionics and the theory of spondylotherapy; here he is pictured with his pointless invention
Just as in Britain with Elizabeth I – a woman who, it seems, slept in virtually every bed in the land – the truth about Conan Doyle’s association is much more mundane. The author and creator of Sherlock Holmes did visit the then owner of the property, one Dr Albert Abrams, whilst on a short visit to San Francisco in 1923 but actually only for a few hours.
Conan Doyle is noted for having supported Abrams, a controversial professor of pathology at Stanford University and the inventor of a whackjob device named a dynamizer, when others turned there backs on him. His claim to fame was that his contraption could analyse a single drop of blood and then transmit a cure back by radio waves. As with many others of that time, this hocus-pocus was eventually discounted as utterly outrageous and Abrams was in turn branded: “The dean of twentieth century charlatans.”
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Ultimate bachelor pad for sale for £6 million in South Kensington; it has garaging for five cars
Originally a mews that was home to Rothmans’ Shire horses, a £6 million ($8.5 million, €6.8 million or درهم31.1 million) property in Elvaston Mews, South Kensington has been transformed into a perfect bachelor pad.
Sold in July 2006 for £1.95 million ($2.75 million, €2.21 million or درهم10.11 million), 7 Elvaston Mews extends to 2,552 square foot and is primarily made up of a 53-foot long state-of-the-art garage on the ground level with an internal office and cloakroom.
Situated in the heart of an area known as the ‘Queen’s Gate Grid’, this petrolhead’s paradise also comes with an “immaculately presented” two double bedroom apartment above. It features a large reception room, a dining kitchen, two shower rooms and two terraces.
Neglected Georgian mansion that has been home to Sir Dirk Bogarde, Basil Dearden, Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne, Matt Aitken and Robert Kilroy-Silk for sale for 39% less than it sold for in 2014
A dilapidated Grade II* listed country house whose extensive roster of owners numbers aristocrats, rock and film stars and politicians is on sale for £3.95 million or 39% less from the £6.5 million sum it sold for in 2014.
Built for the Duke of Buckingham in the 1600s and extending to 10,743 square foot, Beel House in Little Chalfont, near Amersham in Buckinghamshire stands in 13.5 acres of land. It comprises of a 7 reception room, 8 bedroom, 6 bathroom main house and also comes with an indoor swimming pool complex, a tennis court and garaging for 5 cars.
Home to The Hon. Lady Caroline Cavendish in the 1830s and Colonel Abram ‘Arthur’ Lyle of the Tate & Lyle dynasty from 1909 to 1920, Beel House was bought by the actor Sir Dirk Bogarde in a “dilapidated state” in 1954. Of discovering it, Bogarde, who had been renting a cottage in the close vicinity on the Bendrose Estate, stated:
“[The actress Kay Kendall and I] walked across muddy fields from my rented home to look at Beel House. It was a horror. Bleak and empty, few of its twenty-six rooms caught the sun, and the garden surrounding it was a tangle of overgrown rosebeds. Inside it seemed a labyrinth of corridors and stone passages. It was painted throughout in dejected yellow and brown and each room had a rusty gas fire in it.”
Bogarde made significant changes to the building and pulled down a wing of 11 rooms. In their place, he built a swimming pool and a 30-foot long conservatory in the grounds – which Kay Kendall later described as looking like “an out patients’ department” – and it seems he spent several happy years there. He moved to another property nearby named Drummer’s Yard in 1960 and sold Beel House to Basil Dearden, the director of The Assassination Bureau, Khartoum and The Man Who Haunted Himself.
An aerial photo of Beel House, Little Chalfont, Amersham, Buckinghamshire, HP7 9QP, United KingdomImages of the exterior of Beel House in the 1950sActor Anthony Forwood, Sir Dirk Bogarde’s eventual “life partner,” at Beel House with his dogs Sinuhe and Bogie; Sir Dirk Bogarde in his study at the houseSir Dirk Bogarde outside Beel House with one of many Rolls-Royces he owned and inside on the house’s main staircaseFilm director Basil Dearden, owner of Beel House between 1960 and 1966, worked with Sir Dirk Bogarde on the controversial film ‘Victim’ in 1961; it was the first English language film to use the word “homosexual” and of it one Italian critic remarked: “At last the British have stopped being hypocrites”
Dearden sold up in 1966 and the next famous owners were Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne in the early 1980s. It was whilst here that Mr Osbourne “decided to murder his wife” and of the ensuing incident on 3rd September 1989, the Amersham Museum’s website reports:
“Ozzy Osbourne put the house up for sale after he had been arrested for the attempted murder of his wife whilst living at Beel House. After taking a cocktail of drugs and drinking heavily during a family meal at the Chinese restaurant at Nightingales Corner he attacked his wife and was subsequently arrested. He had no memory of the attack but the conditions of his bail were that he entered a rehab centre, did not contact his wife and did not return to Beel House.”
Marketed for £1.75 million in 1991, unsurprisingly Sharon Osbourne, herself, did not have much positive to say about her time at Beel House either. In her 2006 autobiography, Extreme, she remarked:
“I decided I wanted to go back to England. By this time we had already sold Beel House. I had enough bad memories not to be too sorry to see it go. Also it had reached what the builder called the domino point: mending one thing only triggered something else that needed to be done.”
Ozzy Osbourne, photographed by Conrad Rickenbacker, sitting on his four poster bed at Beel House in the 1980sImages of Beel House during the ownership of Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne (photographs by Conrad Rickenbacker)Robert Kilroy-Silk at Beel House prior to his appearance on ‘I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here’ in November 2008The house as furnished by Robert Kilroy-Silk and his wife Jan Beech, circa 2014
Matt Aitken, the composer of chart toppers for Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan, Rick Astley and Bananarama, supposedly lived at Beel House for a period subsequently and in the 1990s, the property was sold to the “exotically handsome man, with a very un-English facial glow and ice blue eyes” Robert Kilroy-Silk and his wife, Jan Beech.
Controversial television personality Mr Kilroy-Silk, an MP from 1974 to 1986 and an MEP from 2004 to 2009, brought with him a herd of fallow deer as well as Vietnamese pheasants and bantams to Beel House. He lived between there and his home in Spain and then sold up for the staggering sum of £6.5 million in 2014 to an “international buyer” who, according to Country Life’s Penny Churchill, immediately found “it ‘surplus to requirements’ and put it straight back on the market” through Savills.
Of the estate, which by then had been for sale for three years, in October 2017, then selling agent Hugh Maconochie told the Bucks Free Press:
“In many respects Beel House is the archetypal country residence: a Grade II* listed home in the heart of the Chilterns, beautiful grounds and easy access to London by both rail and road. Yet, while it was completely refurbished in the 1980s – new garaging, games block and swimming pool complex included – its current state necessitates a complete restoration project.”
“For those seeking a country residence to move straight into, Beel House is not the home for them. Instead it would appeal to a buyer looking to restore and revive a Georgian gem. A reduction in price over the years reflects the refurbishment that’s required.”
Empty and plainly somewhat neglected, Edward Welton of Knight Frank’s Baker Street office is now marketing the property. His firm describes Beel House as: “An exciting opportunity for a full restoration project, giving someone the chance to create their own style on a private estate, so close to London.”
Beel House – The Names and Numbers
November 2017 – Further reduced to just £3.95 million ($5.29 million, €4.47 million or درهم19.44 million) through Knight Frank.
January 2017 – Reduced to £4.95 million ($6.63 million, €5.61 million or درهم24.37 million) through Savills.
November 2015 – For sale again for £6.5 million ($8.7 million, €7.4 million or درهم32 million) through Savills.
2014 – Sold to “an international buyer” by Robert Kilroy-Silk for “close to” the £6.5 million ($8.7 million, €7.4 million or درهم32 million) asking price.
June 1991 – For sale for £1.75 million (the equivalent of £3.45 million, $4.62 million, €3.91 million or درهم16.98 million today).
October 1989 – Placed for sale by media personalities Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne.
1966 – Placed on the market by Basil Dearden for £66,000 (the equivalent of £1.1 million, $1.5 million, €1.2 million or درهم5.4 million today).
Circa 1960 – Sold to film director Basil Dearden (1911 – 1971).
January 1954 – Sold to actor Sir Dirk Bogarde (1921 – 1999) for £4,000 (the equivalent of £101,000, $135,000, €114,000 or درهم497,000 today).
1836 to 1954 – Part of the estate of the Lowndes family, largescale landowners in the Chesham, Buckinghamshire area. During this time tenants included The Hon. Lady Caroline Cavendish and from 1909 to 1920 by Colonel Abram Lyle (of the Tate & Lyle dynasty).
1730 – Valued at £500 (the equivalent of £99,000, $133,000, €112,000 or درهم487,000 today) by Sun Insurance whilst home to Thomas White of Middle Temple.
1672 to 1682 – Home to Mary Pennington, the mother-in-law of the Quaker founder of the State of Pennsylvania, William Penn.
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Vast Greek Revival style Pennsylvania mansion for sale for 56% less than it was marketed for in 2014; it comes with a pub in the basement
An extravagant and somewhat over the top estate in Pennsylvania is on sale for £2.96 million or 56% less than the £6.75 million sum it was listed for back in 2014.
Extending to some 11,377 square foot and consisting of 7 bedrooms and 8 bathrooms, Greek Revival style ‘Fatland’ – originally known as ‘Vaux Hill’ and known as such once again since 1990 – in Lower Providence, Montgomery County dates to circa 1843 and stands on the site of an earlier stone farmhouse. That building served as the headquarters of General George Washington in 1777 and also was used by General Sir William Howe.
Now set on a plot of just 11.29 acres, the Fatland Estate used to be significantly larger but was reduced by land sales to make way for an express highway, a housing development and 154 acres towards the expansion of the Valley Forge National Historical Park.
Barbara Safford speaking at the time of the 2013 sale of the contents of ‘The Fatland Estate’The house as previously furnished
“Decorated in the rich French taste,” the house was stuffed to the brim with European antiques by an insurance tycoon named Robert Safford after he and his wife, Barbara, purchased it in 1990. The couple also altered ‘Fatland’s’ original asymmetrical composition with the addition of a west wing and end pavilion that mirrored the east wing and end pavilion and even added a pub to the building’s basement. After Mr Safford’s death in 2011, the property – which also includes an outdoor pool, tennis court and barn – was put up for sale in 2014 whilst separately, in 2013, Freeman’s auction house in Philadelphia held a sale of contents that netted £2.9 million.
After three years on the market and now with a significantly reduced asking price, Terese Brittingham and Tom McCouch of Keller Williams Realty Group are the agents currently handling ‘The Fatland Estate’s’ listing.
The Fatland Estate – The Numbers
November 2017 – For sale at a reduced price of £2.96 million ($3.95 million, €3.31 million or درهم14.50 million) after a pending sale in June failed to complete through Keller Williams Realty Group.
October 2016 – Relaunched to the market for £2.96 million ($3.95 million, €3.31 million or درهم14.50 million) through RE/MAX Elite.
August 2016 – Reduced to £3.7 million ($5 million, €4.2 million or درهم13.4 million).
February 2016 – Relaunched to the market for £5.248 million ($6.999 million, €5.866 million or درهم25.699 million).
September 2014 – For sale for £6.747 million ($8.999 million, €7.542 million or درهم33.042 million) through Kurfiss Sotheby’s International Realty.
July 1990 – Sold to Robert Safford and Barbara Harvey for £1.6 million ($2.1 million, €1.8 million or درهم7.7 million).
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Win a fully furnished, brand new £100,000 studio flat in Liverpool for free; surprisingly there are no catches to the competition
A property developer has launched a competition with a prize of a £100,000 ($133,000, €112,000 or درهم488,000) studio flat in the centre of Liverpool “free and forever.”
Situated in a 94 apartment, six-storey building named Colonial Chambers on the city’s Temple Street, the apartment offered is due to be completed in February 2018. The “affordable luxury” building itself is being marketed as coming with a two year rental investment guarantee of 8% net yield.
Of the competition Roy Ledgister, chairman of the firm developing the building, Ultimate Homes, told The Liverpool Echo:
“We’ve agreed to donate one of the studio apartments, free of charge, to the general public. Just fill in the free online entry form and keep your fingers crossed.”
“We’re delighted to be able to give something away in the city. We hope the apartment is an attractive proposition, seeing as how it’s in a really desirable part of Liverpool and also comes fully furnished.”
“It’d prove a good flat for a student or young professional in particular, or the lucky winner may want to rent it out and benefit from the rental income.”
“Hopefully it’ll make a real difference to the person who ultimately receives it, as we appreciated how hard it is for buyers to purchase property outright in the current climate.”
To be in with a chance to win, click here. Entrants are required to submit their name, age, mobile number and email address and must be over 18 years old. A winner will be chosen at random early next year.
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Well-equipped 0.5-mile harness racing track in Yorkshire for sale for £1.5 million; it was the scene of an “ear biting incident” by a traveler in 2009
A dream property for harness racing enthusiasts has been put up for sale in Yorkshire. Its star feature is a 0.5-mile all-weather racetrack and it also comes with 26 acres of land, a spectator stand, a trackside club house with bar and catering facilities, 50 stables and a horse walker.
Created by former boxer Michael Welling with what he described as “very little or no help from the racing fraternity” and built-up over ten years from 2006, York Harness Raceway and the Camden Stud was closed in 2016. It had been a destination with harness racing enthusiasts and was also the setting of a well-thought of annual horse sale.
York Harness Raceway owner Michael WellingA photograph of racing on the circuit
In 2009, a traveler turned harness racer named John Harrop was jailed for 4.5 years after biting off part of the ear of an official at the track whilst on steroids, but of it, in 2013, Welling more positively told The Yorkshire Post:
“This was where I fell in love with the sport. It is the first harness racing track I ever came to. I was intoxicated by the speed, the excitement and the atmosphere… It’s a speed thing in the same way as having a fast car and once you’re hooked you start setting aims.”
“I’m throwing everything into making the track the success it deserves to be. This place has my heart and soul and I am determined to make it work as a realistic business. When I first started racing in 1993 it was only a hobby for me but it has now taken over my time and I’m here 24/7. When I was a kid I was brought up with horses and carts so it’s really in my blood. This place holds so many happy memories and the people who come here are salt-of-the-earth families. I’m certain that if more people came to see what we offer they would be hooked in much the same way I was.”
Additional features at the property include an “almost brand new” 3 reception room, 5-bedroom detached house extending to 3,222 square foot and a large modern barn with a wash bay and tack room.
Agents Jackson-Stops seek offers over £1.5 million ($2 million, €1.7 million or درهم7.3 million) for the property. An additional 75 acres of land is available by separate negotiation that is partly prone to flooding.
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Featuring 9 bedrooms and 10 bathrooms, ‘The Owlwood Estate’ or more simply 141 South Carolwood Drive is described as “easily one of the city’s most iconic and historically significant properties.” Built in 1937 to the designs of Robert D. Farquhar in a “classic European Italian Renaissance” style, the estate was owned by Tony Curtis and Sonny Bono and Cher in the 1960s and has also been home to Joe Schenck, the first president of United Artists and a chairman of 20th Century Fox.
Now offered with designs for redevelopment by Bob Shapiro, the head of Sturmer Pippin Investments and CEO of Woodbridge Luxury Homes, the property offered also includes a sunken tennis court, a swimming pool and two guest houses.
Adam Rosenfeld of Mercer Vine is the realtor handling the sale.
The Owlwood Estate – The Numbers
July 2017 – Placed on the market for £136 million ($180 million, €153 million or درهم661 million).
September 2016 – Sold for £68 million ($90 million, €76 million or درهم331 million) to developer Bob Shapiro.
July 2012 – Placed on the market for £114 million ($150 million, €127 million or درهم551 million) by Dawn Arnall, “the widow of subprime mortgage profiteer Roland Arnall.”
2002 – Sold for £25 million ($33 million, €28 million or درهم121 million).
1999 – Listed for sale for £44 million ($58 million, €49 million or دره213 million) by Ghazi Aita complete with an adjacent property.
1978 – Sold to a “shadowy businessman” named Ghazi Aita for £3.2 million ($4.2 million, €3.6 million or درهم15 million).
1970 – Sold to Sonny and Cher for £568,000 ($750,000, €636,000 or درهم2.8 million).
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