Tag: The Telegraph

Carrie Antoinette, The Cardinal & The Binned Abba Dancing Spad

Whilst Cardinal (John) Henry Newman got made a saint, Carrie Johnson’s Abba dancing buddy Henry Newman has been binned and turfed out with the rubbish

Oxford University educated Cardinal John Henry Newman was canonised as a saint in the Catholic Church in October 2019. Meanwhile earlier that year, his namesake, a spad of plainer birth but of the same alma mater, “discretely charmed by the bourgeoisie” Henry John Newman, got himself elevated when his Abba dancing partner, Carrie Johnson, got her clammering claws on the keys to the nation’s second most famous home, 10 Downing Street.

Now, whilst supposedly “sublimated homosexual” Saint John Henry Newman C.O. – despite having being dead for 132 years – is considered a “national treasure” and described as “the first English saint of the modern era” according to The Tablet, his openly gay namesake was this weekend turfed out of Downing Street with the rubbish.

Gone for Brexiteer ‘Bin Boy’ Henry Newman – who was bizarrely photographed pointing at bags of refuse in Camden in 2017 whilst standing to become a councillor – will be the days of quaffing booze on the terrace of the half acre garden behind the official residences of the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Now, instead, this graduate also of equally fabled institutions including Harvard and the London School of Economics, will have to pleasure himself with a pint in a pub in The Marquis of Granby after days working in the less salubrious surrounds of Marsham Street back with his supposed sometime flatmate Michael Gove.

According to the Daily Mail’s Andrew Pierce this morning, Newman was so important to Carrie Johnson that the Prime Minister allowed him to celebrate his 38^th birthday last summer – hardly a milestone of any note – with a lavish bash at Chequers, the grace-and-favour residence intended for entertaining visiting statesmen and international dignitaries.

“It turned out to be a very high-spirited affair,” Pierce reported, with “Housing Secretary Michael Gove riding pillion as Boris Johnson took him on a joy-ride on his second-hand Yamaha motorcycle around the grounds. Gove clasped his hands around Boris’s ample waist as they nudged speeds of 55mph, while Newman – clutching a flute of champagne – laughed and cheered.”

Gone now are such privileges and gone also is Newman’s desk close to Boris Johnson’s study and instead this alleged “Chatty Rat” – if we are to believe Dominic Cummings – “has been banished to work with his former mentor Gove at his departmental HQ a 15-minute walk away in Marsham Street.” This once influential spad – whom once suggested on Facebook: “[What I’m] thinking [is that] this country needs is a new taskforce” – it appears, has been disposed just like a binbag full of stinking, rotten fish.

For Newman, this downgrade will no doubt seem heartless and unfair, but, as Pierce added: “It was [his] intimate relationship with Mrs Johnson that has proved his undoing.” He now faces likely criticism into what went on with ‘Partygate’ in Sue Gray’s report and as the journalist concluded: “There will be fewer cosy chats in the Downing Street flat in the future.”

Elsewhere, in a ‘Comment’ piece this morning, The Sun declared: “Only time will tell if the ‘greased piglet’ [Boris Johnson’ left it too late to escape” slaughter by his very own party. They neglected to remark on how it will continue to go from bad to worse for his spendaholic, power crazed wife ‘Carrie Antoinette’ now that she’s lost “her rock” and equivalent of Paul Burrell to the late Diana, Princess of Wales.

A fan of wearing beanie hats that declare: “Let’s get Brexit done,” here is a young man who taught politics at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), after studying at the University of Oxford, Harvard University and the London School of Economics. Henry Newman reportedly then “cut his teeth” working in the Cabinet Office during the coalition government years and then joined Michael Gove’s entourage in the Ministry of Justice after he was appointed as the Lord Chancellor in 2015.

Aside from having travelled to Russia in his youth, Henry Newman joined the Vote Leave campaign during the 2016 referendum campaign and, according to ‘The Telegraph’ “was among a close circle of Mr Gove’s friends who were said to have helped to convince him to ‘knife’ Mr Johnson and torpedo his bid for the Tory leadership by deciding to run himself.” Later, a director of the pro-Brexit Open Europe think-tank, Newman was then rewarded for being “loyal” to his wine chucking bestie Carrie Symonds when Boris Johnson came to power.

‘Bin Boy’ Henry Newman’s words of wisdom on Facebook…

“Is drunk.”

“Is opening an organic box.”

“Is discreetly charmed by the bourgeoisie.”

“Is drowning in honey, stingless.”

“Once you kill a cow you gotta make a burger.”

“Wondering if he is really a top concern for US immigration.”

“Waiting for Jacqui Smith to resign.”

“Is dancing, dancing, dancing… Is listening to rumba in W. Hartford… Is dancing in the dark… Is missing dancing.”

“Is listening to the Stones while the economy collapses.”

“Is watching his tan fall off.”

“Hates people who don’t know how to use a rowing machine.”

“Is thinking what this country needs is a new taskforce.”

Descriptions of Henry Newman by…

Boris Johnson:

“One of my three musketeers.”

Carrie Symonds:

“One of my four favourite people.”

Toby Young:

“He is a new role model… If you were a [politics show] booker who had to find someone… Newman was the only name on your Rolodex.”

“As the oxygen went out of Theresa May’s premiership, and her withdrawal agreement began to breathe its last, the great balloon of his career became more and more inflated.”

Dominic Cummings:

“All the evidence [regarding the second lockdown leak] definitely leads to Henry Newman… I’m just trying to get the communications data to prove it.”

An unnamed “senior government source”:

“The allegations against Henry Newman are entirely false. He wouldn’t be working in Downing Street if he was suspected of leaking information.”

An unnamed “Downing Street insider” to The Mail on Sunday:

“This is the man who did more than anyone to encourage Michael [Gove] to stab Boris in the back.”

“But he’s used his relationship with Carrie to ingratiate himself back into the inner circle. He’s always up in the flat with her, and that gives him direct access to the PM. The rest of the No. 10 team have no idea what he’s saying to him. And that’s the root cause of a lot of this.”

Andrew Pierce:

“The leader of the Carrie clique at No. 10.”

“The leader of the liberal camp in No. 10.”

Follow Henry Newman on his now somewhat secretive social media (if he lets you) at @henryjohnnewman on Facebook, @henryjohnnewman on Instagram and @HenryNewman on Twitter.

Newman’s childish Facebook posts are not indicative of someone of academic note and his rise through government should be questioned as a result. Did he get there because of merit or simply because he was a ‘FOC’ (‘Friend of Carrie’)? The answer seems very, very clear.

Henry Newman, like fellow mouthy sorts such as Diane Abbott, Jay Beecher and Owen Jones, likes to pontificate and peddle, but when called out, he simply hits the block button. Hardly the actions of someone who would like to think himself an able debater at the Oxford Union and more those of someone ‘trained’ by the wine chucking harpy Carrie Johnson.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCZdFOBQM-w&feature=emb_imp_woyt

February 7, 2022
The Boat Britain Didn’t Ask For (Or Need)

Nikolay Kalinin joins those condemning Boris Johnson’s decision to waste £200 million on a boat Britain didn’t ask for (or need)

Remember when Eurosceptics pledged Brexit would enable the government to give £350 million per week ($496 million, €406 million or درهم1.8 billion per week) to the NHS? Well, now we finally know where that money is actually going as the government has officially decided to waste some of it commissioning a vanity ship they claim will showcase the “best of British.”

The £200 million ($284 million, €232 million or درهم1 billion) gin palace – which was to be named after the late Duke of Edinburgh though even the royal family have supposedly raised objections to such as they don’t think an association with it will do them any favours – is set to be the successor to the Royal Yacht Britannia, which was retired in 1997. Boris Johnson has stated that the vessel will “represent and promote the best of British – a clear and powerful symbol of our commitment to be an active player on the world stage.”

Yet, one cannot ignore that this project seems so pointless and unnecessarily expensive, a fact that has been called out by figures in Parliament. When asked about the diplomatic benefits of “recommissioning HM Yacht Britannia” by Conservative MP for Romford, Andrew Rosindell, President for COP26, Alok Sharma, admitted: “The royal yacht was used on just 37 occasions for… signing trade deals during 1989 – 1997. There’s no evidence that the yacht made a difference to the trade deals secured in these years and this level of use would not represent a good return on investment.”

The Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Bridget Phillipson, also seemed to agree, stating: “We want to see public money used for targeted investment in a green economic recovery, resources for our NHS, and supporting families to succeed.”

She added that if the government does go ahead with the plan to build the yacht: “We’d want to see it built in Britain, supporting jobs and skills in shipyards here, and with a real focus on value for money at every stage.”

What we are seeing here once again is the government misappropriating taxpayers’ money in order to reinforce the fake vision of muscular unionism. The government is trying to reinforce a vision of a united Britain and ‘Britishness’ not through progressive deeds that reflect ‘British values,’ but through objects such as yachts named after recognisable things.

It’s not only the costly yacht however that reflects the idea that ‘muscular unionism’ is so empty, as some time ago an autonomous company launched trials of a self-driving bus in Cambridge, which was draped in the Union Jack.

Comedian Jonathan Pie reacted to the news by calling the bus “the perfect visual metaphor for a country in the grips of such inept and directionless leadership,” while Lord Andrew Adonis mockingly wrote that it “looks like a Brexit bus.”

While I like flags as much as the next man, the fact that ‘BoJo’ seems hellbent on putting them up everywhere demonstrates that his government has nothing much to offer. If Johnson really wants to unite the people of his country, he should work on fixing the rift between his government and Scotland and solve the problems Northern Ireland is facing as a result of Brexit.

The Queen’s love of the Royal Yacht Britannia was never a secret, but even she’s said to believe the decision to order a replacement to be quite beyond unrequired. Meanwhile, the most enthusiastic tin banger for the expensive tub has been Christopher Hope of ‘The Telegraph.’ He has run the paper’s campaign for the vessel since September 2016 and written three dozen articles in support of what he believes to be “putting right [the] historical wrong” of not having a royal yacht.

June 1, 2021
Who REALLY is Henry Newman?

Whilst only a few newspapers have delved into his political past, we today ask: “Who REALLY is the bestie of Carrie Symonds and alleged ‘Chatty Rat’ Henry Newman?”

In 2019, ‘Carrie Symonds’ bestie’ and supposed clatterfart Henry Newman described Dominic Cummings as “one of only a few political advisers who understands the importance of, and is truly committed to, reforming the Whitehall machine.” In April 2020, Cummings responded by branding Newman a leaker.

Now, as the media delve into the scandal of Boris Johnson’s hole riddled ship and he seeks to dissipate the disgrace of his decorating debacle, with Cummings’ intervention on Friday, elements of the media have begun to examine exactly who Henry Newman is.

Whilst widely referenced for dancing to ABBA with his longstanding chum Symonds and for being the go-to mouthpiece in support of Brexit during Theresa May’s “Brexit means Brexit” era, Newman should also go down in history for banging on about a need for fortnightly bin collections in Hampstead and Kilburn and for his somewhat bizarre Facebook ramblings.

On his wall on the social media site, former special adviser (SPAD) to Francis Maude and Michael Gove, Newman – a graduate of ritzy institutions including the University of Oxford, Harvard University and the London School of Economics – has shared posts about being drunk. He has remarked that he was once “discreetly charmed by the bourgeoisie” and bragged that he even listened “to the Stones as the economy [collapsed].”

Tellingly also, this one-time “rising star” and “Goveite” also declared he was “drowning in honey, stingless” and, most appropriately, providing illustration of why Daylesford addict ‘Costly Carrie’ counts him as “one of her four favourite people,” once announced: “[I’m] opening an organic box.”

‘Henry The Bin Boy’ Newman’s words of wisdom on Facebook…

“Is drunk.”

“Is opening an organic box.”

“Is discreetly charmed by the bourgeoisie.”

“Is drowning in honey, stingless.”

“Once you kill a cow you gotta make a burger.”

“Wondering if he is really a top concern for US immigration.”

“Waiting for Jacqui Smith to resign.”

“Is dancing, dancing, dancing… Is listening to rumba in W. Hartford… Is dancing in the dark… Is missing dancing.”

“Is listening to the Stones while the economy collapses.”

“Is watching his tan fall off.”

“Hates people who don’t know how to use a rowing machine.”

“Is thinking what this country needs is a new taskforce.”

Who is Henry Newman? Facebook posts by him give a clue to his personality.

Descriptions of Henry Newman by…

Boris Johnson:

“One of my three musketeers.”

Carrie Symonds:

“One of my four favourite people.”

Toby Young:

“He is new role model… If you were a [politics show] booker who had to find someone… Newman was the only name on your Rolodex.”

“As the oxygen went out of Theresa May’s premiership, and her withdrawal agreement began to breathe its last, the great balloon of his career became more and more inflated.”

Dominic Cummings:

“All the evidence [regarding the second lockdown leak] definitely leads to Henry Newman… I’m just trying to get the communications data to prove it.”

An unnamed “senior government source”:

“The allegations against Henry Newman are entirely false. He wouldn’t be working in Downing Street if he was suspected of leaking information.”

Follow Henry Newman on his now somewhat secretive social media (if he lets you) at @henryjohnnewman on Facebook, @henryjohnnewman on Instagram and @HenryNewman on Twitter.

Who is Henry Newman? A fan of wearing beanie hats that declare: “Let’s get Brexit done,” here is a young man who taught politics at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), after studying at the University of Oxford, Harvard University and the London School of Economics. He reportedly then “cut his teeth” working in the Cabinet Office during the coalition government years and then joined Michael Gove’s entourage in the Ministry of Justice after he was appointed as the Lord Chancellor in 2015.

Who is Henry Newman? Aside from having travelled to Russia in his youth, Newman joined the Vote Leave campaign during the 2016 referendum campaign and, according to ‘The Telegraph’ “was among a close circle of Mr Gove’s friends who were said to have helped to convince him to ‘knife’ Mr Johnson and torpedo his bid for the Tory leadership by deciding to run himself.” Later, a director of the pro-Brexit Open Europe think-tank, Newman was then rewarded for being “loyal” to Carrie Symonds when Boris Johnson came to power.

Who is Henry Newman? Let’s not forget that this young man’s best friend Carrie Symonds was previously dating a man, Oliver Haiste (sometimes spelt ‘Haste’), exposed by the BBC in October 2016 for a Russian fake news scandal and for his friendship with Henry Hopwood-Phillips, an individual involved in the far-right, racist Traditional Britain Group. Miss Symonds must be noted also for her having been employed by Oceana, an oceanic charity that Ghislaine Maxwell – the now incarcerated alleged mucky madam to Jeffrey Epstein – was also a tin banger for.

https://twitter.com/JoshBerryComedy/status/1386235119002955776

April 25, 2021
Basham-ing About

As Brian Basham peddles another puff piece for mucky madam Ghislaine Maxwell today, ‘The Steeple Times’ reminds him that we covered this news first on the 6^th March

PR peddler Brian Basham has friends in high and low places and today, yet again, his chums at The Telegraph gave him acreage in a puff piece where he tried to big up the currently incarcerated mucky madam he’s acting as “spokesman” for, Ghislaine Maxwell.

Of “breaking news” this morning (that we’d covered first on the 6^th March and later on 10^th March also) that Maxwell was selling her “showgirl-hooker-esque” Belgravia mews house, bombastic Basham – who’s also been prone to keeping his fingers busy retweeting the obnoxious oddity Owen Jones of late – told the Barclay family owned rightwing rag:

“She is selling the house in order to pay her lawyers. There is already £5 million ($7 million, €5.9 million or درهم25.7 million) set aside but this will take it to more than £7.2 million ($10 million, €8.4 million or درهم36.7 million).”

“Ghislaine will be sad to see the house sold. She is devastated by all this. She will have a lot of good memories. She will be terribly sad to sell the house. It was her refuge in London.”

Whether such “good memories” included Prince Andrew bonking in the romp pad’s supposedly tiny bathtub on 10^th March 2001 was unsurprisingly not discussed, but yet again Brian Basham’s obsequious spin that the ‘Bouncing Czech’s’ daughter is trying to cooperate with authorities as she seeks bail ought to be called out for what it truly is and that is “complete Barry bull.”

Elsewhere on Wednesday, our editor, Matthew Steeples, appeared on Shaun Attwood’s True Crime Channel to discuss Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein’s curious real estate shenanigans. A link to the half hour discussion will follow on YouTube in due course and will be published in The Steeple Times also.

Pictured top: PR peddler Brian Basham (left) and demanding deviant Ghislaine Maxwell with her one-time lover croaked paedophile and ‘ex-bestie’ of ‘Randy Andy,’ Jeffrey Epstein.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGnUxiOADzY&feature=emb_logo
Basham-ing About – Shaun Attwood visited 44 Kinnerton Street, Belgravia, London, SW1X 8ES in September 2019 and managed to film the white bannister that was also seen in the now infamous photograph of Ghislaine Maxwell lurking as the Duke of York wrapped his chubby fingers round the waist of Virginia Roberts (now married and known as Virginia Giuffre) on 10^th March 2001.

Basham-ing About – ‘That’ photograph that Prince Andrew has so desperately tried to claim to be a fake that nobody at all has managed to discredit yet. Of it, even ‘Grubby Ghislaine’s’ own brother, Ian Maxwell, told Radio 4 this week: “I recognise the setting.”

Bashaming About – Ghislaine Maxwell purchased 1,000 square foot 44 Kinnerton Street on 22nd January 1997 for £290,000 ($401,000, €337,000 or درهم5 million) and tried to flog it for £2.6 million ($3.6 million, €3 million or درهم3 million) in September 2020 through agents Aylesford. Of it, one leading property commentator remarked: “It’s the kind of house that could have featured in ‘Smiley’s People,’ in fact it’s the kind of house where the showgirl-hooker Mandy Rice-Davies could have cavorted with John Profumo.”

March 12, 2021
Runners & Riders – Gold Cup Day at ‘Royal Ascot At Home’

‘The Steeple Times’ analyses the selections for a somewhat damp Gold Cup Day at ‘Royal Ascot At Home’ – very much a day to stay indoors and watch Stradavarius, Frankie Dettori and Sir John Gosden

Rain could shake everything up today at ‘Royal Ascot At Home’ – as this year’s closed doors meeting has been branded – and though Stradivarius will not especially love any significant downpours, he is the horse that will surely be the highlight of Gold Cup day.

Trained by the Sir John Gosden, ridden by Frankie Dettori and owned by Bjorn Nielson, here is a horse seeking to secure a Royal Ascot hat-trick. Speaking to the Daily Mail’s Marcus Townend, Sir John commented: “He is in good form” whilst GG.co.uk concluded: “Stradivarius, and Frankie Dettori of course, are the undoubted top bill on day three of Royal Ascot 2020.”

Obvious Options

1.50pm – Wolferton Stakes (15 runners) – Ryan Moore and A. P. O’Brien’s Sir Dragonet at 12/5 has been branded as “among Thursday’s worthy support acts” (GG.co.uk).

Racing Post not especially enthusiastic: “Shade disappointing since close fifth in last year’s Derby but still has time on his side.”

3.35pm – Gold Cup (8 runners) – The horse of the day is Stradivarius at 8/11 (The Telegraph, The Sun TREBLE).

Racing Post concludes: “Top-class stayer, including winning this race for the last two years; hard to beat.”

4.40pm – Sandringham Stakes – Sir John Gosden’s African Dream at 13/8 (The Telegraph, Guardian). As Simon Rowlands of At The Races sensibly concludes: “The very short price makes him unplayable to me.” Watch and enjoy.

Chris Cook of the Guardian comments: “It is hard to resist the claims of African Dream, who ran way above her rating when second at Newbury last week. Whether she can reproduce that effort in these very different circumstances is a fair question but her connections give her every chance.”

Darker Horses

1.15pm – Golden Gates Handicap (16 runners) – Sticking with the combo of the Dettori-Gosden dream team, Hypothetical is an appealing each way at 9/2 from 4/1 earlier (Radio 4).

Racing Post says: “Opening mark is reasonable and profile points to strong potential for improvement” with their verdict being: “Despite the big field Acquitted makes a good bit of appeal. Hypothetical may be next best, ahead of Maori Knight.”

‘Templegate’ for The Sun adds: “Hypothetical comes from John Gosden and Frankie Dettori and is dropping in class after a solid fourth in the Group 3 Classic Trial at Sandown on comeback. He went well until the lack of a recent run appeared to take its toll. It would be a surprise if he doesn’t take a step forward from that.”

3.35pm – Gold Cup (8 runners) – An each way on the James Doyle-Charlie Appleby combo Cross Counter could be a more appealing each way at 11/1 (The Sun ‘Next Best’).

Racing Post says: “Held behind Stradivarius when in the frame in this (4th) & at Goodwood (3rd); could be 2nd.”

4.10pm – Britannia Stakes (24 runners) – An each way on Ralph Beckett’s Great Ambassador at 12/1 (Guardian NAP, At The Races) could be worthwhile.

Chris Cook of The Guardian says: “His final outing as a juvenile suggested Great Ambassador was in line for a big three-year-old season. From a hot yard and drawn on the favoured side, he is on a handy rating in view of some of his form, which includes a close second in Pyledriver’s maiden.”

Hugh Taylor for At The Races says: “Great Ambassador had five runs as a 2yo and might look too exposed for a race like this, but those runs really do stand up to close inspection… I think he’s capable of proving much better than his current mark when everything drops right, and although he lacks a recent run, he looks well worth chancing on his reappearance, especially from a potentially handy draw… He carries a 5lb penalty here, but goes up 12lb from Saturday, and given he’s a keen-going type who promises to be well suited by the demands of a big-field handicap, he has clear claims here.”

Racing Post adds: “Hacked up on final 2yo start; should stay 1m; enters calculations.”

Also in the 4.10pm – Britannia Stakes (24 runners) – Our wildcard is Richard Hannon trained Ziggle Pops at 22/1 from 20/1 earlier (Radio 4).

Racing Post says: “Came home strongly to beat a few of these in 7f AW handicap; up 5lb; should stay 1m.”

With no Ladies Day fashion parade due to lockdown, today is one to stay indoors, pour yourself a glass of something special and enjoy a happy afternoon’s racing. Cheers to y’all!

Watch Gold Cup Day at ‘Royal Ascot at Home’ on ITV1 from 1.30pm to 5pm.

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Stradivarius won his second G1 Gold Cup at Royal Ascot in 2019.

June 18, 2020
Kingly Kinlet
Grand Grade I listed Shropshire mansion Kinlet Hall for sale after coronavirus forced the closure of its wedding venue and summer school
- Striking Grade I listed Palladian mansion in Shropshire for sale.
- Kinlet Hall is priced at £3.5 million or just £104 per square foot.
- The house has until recently been a school and wedding venue, but this usage has been stopped because of the coronavirus lockdown.
- A cricket ground included with the property was lauded as one of “Britain’s most scenic” by ‘The Telegraph’ whilst HRH Princess Anne has competed in horse trials in the parkland.
Coinciding with the partial relaxation of the coronavirus lockdown, the ‘trophy country house’ market seems to be revving up with the commencement of marketing of several historically significant residences.

Now, following on from our feature on Saturday on the £10 million crumbling Jacobean gem Lilford Hall Estate in Northamptonshire, the same agents, Savills, have now introduced the sale of another treasure – the utterly stunning Palladian architectural treasure that is Kinlet Hall in Shropshire.

Significantly cheaper at £3.5 million or £104 per square foot and in far better condition than 33,406 square foot Lilford Hall, the 33,609 square foot Grade I listed Kinlet Hall comes with less land – 102 acres as opposed to 321 acres. It is further from London, which may limit its appeal to wealthy city sorts, but given it has been used as both a school and wedding venue until lockdown, it is in actual “working condition” as opposed to the perilously falling down state that Lilford is sadly currently in. That is, indeed, a major plus.

Featuring a seven-bayed central block of three storeys plus cellars, the hall is flanked by two two-storey wings. Presently configured to provide 5 reception rooms and 15 bedrooms, there are classrooms, gyms and flats also. Surprisingly, unlike with many residential to school conversions of mansions in the 1940s where ugly modern extensions were distastefully tacked on, damage to the integrity of the original structure has been minimal.

In addition, to a 5-bedroom detached house named ‘The Old House’ and a range of farm buildings within the grounds, there is a cricket pavilion and a cricket pitch. The Telegraph named its runner-up for “Britain’s most scenic cricket ground” in 2008 and interestingly amongst the many established plant and tree species in the grounds is a Wellingtonia that allegedly came as a seed in a matchbox from the Americas.

Of Kinlet Hall, Tony Morris-Eyton of Savills comments: “[This is] an exquisitely beautiful Palladian country house, formerly a prep school, awaiting its next chapter with enormous potential as either a private home or [for] other uses.”

The village of Kinlet is situated on the northern edge of the Wyre Forest about 18 miles from Telford and 23 miles from Birmingham.

Design Maestros – Villa Pisani, Montagnana (top left) by Andrea Palladio (lower centre) inspired both Francis Smith of Warwick (lower left) in his designs for Kinlet Hall and William Buckland (lower right) in his creation of the Hammond-Harwood House (top right).

The Names & Numbers – Kinlet Hall, Kinlet, Bewdley, Shropshire, DY12 3AY, United Kingdom

June 2020 – Put up for sale for £3.5 million ($4.4 million, €3.9 million or درهم16.3 million) through agents Savills. Orchard Lodge, a 4-bedroom cottage with an acre of paddock, is available by separate negotiation.

July 2017 – Moffats School closes for the final time citing financial pressures. Of the decision, school chairman Julian Engleheart told the Shropshire Star: “We have always been a small school by choice, maintaining the family ethos of our founders. However, the current financial climate is putting enormous pressure on small schools and we have decided that it would be unwise to commit to a new year this September. However, we will continue to run educational activities in our lovely house and grounds, which provide such a wonderful environment for learning.”

1946 – Moffats School (founded in 1934 by the children’s writer Natalie Engleheart in a Hertfordshire house called Moffats) is relocated to Kinlet Hall.

1939 – 1945 – The house was temporarily home to a school for the blind; the parkland became a camp for the US army as part of their preparations for the Normandy Landings.

1827 – Ballroom added to the designs of Sir Jeffrey Wyattville (1766 – 1840) trained architect Edward Haycock (1790 – 1870) for William Baldwyn Childe. He died three years before it was completed and “this is the only significant part of the house not dating from 1729.”

1727 – 1729 – Kinlet Hall is “built in a classic early Georgian style with the symmetry and grand elevations synonymous with [the English master-builder and architect] Francis Smith of Warwick (1672 – 1738)” for Tory politician William Lacon Childe (1700 – 1757) close to the site of an older Tudor manor house.

Other notable works by Smith and his family include Calke Abbey, Fawsley Hall, Kirtlington House, Ombersley Court and Stoneleigh Abbey. His design was said to be inspired by Andrea Palladio’s (1508 – 1580) Villa Pisani at Montagnana – which also reportedly was the influence for the ‘Anglo-Palladian’ Hammond-Harwood House by the English architect William Buckland (1734 – 1774) in Annapolois, Maryland, USA.

During construction, the old village was removed to “improve” the setting. Only the original church, St. John the Baptist, which contains monuments dating to the 1580s, was left as a “remnant.” It was restored subsequently in 1892.

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June 17, 2020
Are We Nearly Redundant Yet?

Travel writer Sarah Tucker shares news of her latest novella – it’s timely and its titled ‘The Redundant Travel Journalist’

My book The Redundant Travel Journalist has just come out. I would say “just in time for the holidays and in all good book shops” – but, as I don’t know which shops will be open and whether anyone will be taking anything vaguely resembling a holiday, I become aware of how many social constructs surround us. Holidays are one of them. The short novel is a dystopian tale of what travel will be like post-virus, although there may never be a post-virus.

It started off as fiction, but now I’m not so sure such is the boundary between what we think could never happen and what actually occurs. The travel industry has been most vulnerable to this surreal quality of wistful creatively about envisaging a normal, or a new normal, when really the industry is well off the cliff and currently walking on air, spin and hope. We dare not look down because we know, deep down, we have fallen, and are just waiting for the thud or a branch to break the fall.

Travel editors are in overdrive about what travel will be like, although their pages are thinning as there is no advertising and no one is going anywhere (well they are, they are just doing it illegally and in their own private jets).

There are so many webinars with very cross looking travel editors being signposted on Instagram and papers are asking writers in these unprecedented times to not write in these unprecedented times, and also drop all intention of writing virtual travel stories.

They are quote: “Fucking sick of them.” Travel experts are contradicting financial experts about asking for refunds from tour operators and the idea of staycations fills people with apathy and also incredulity (will hotels be open, expensive, can I afford them and then there’s the hygiene issues).

So, I thought I would write a ‘non-fiction’ tale of what it will be like post virus. (‘non-fiction’ being ‘nothing is intentionally made up’). Although research out this week (“What day is it?” I hear you ask) has just shown that all research and advice about what travel will be like during a crisis (the 2008 financial one, for example) never comes true. So, there you have it: There has been research to disprove the value of research.

Travel has become even more bonkers and surreal than it usually is. The dream destination has turned into exactly that, the journey of a lifetime, could be the last journey you take and getting way from the crowds is more of a necessity and less of a casual ask.

But, the Brits have always been ones to take their lives in their hands and travel whilst other nationalities stay put. There just may not be the airlines to fly with, or hotels to stay in. If airlines crash, there will be no use for airports, in which case, they could turn them into socially distancing schools, where children can learn and have the sense they are going somewhere metaphorically even if they aren’t. Or can’t. Like the rest though, I live in hope.

Sarah Tucker is an award-winning travel journalist, novelist, producer and broadcaster. She has edited, produced and presented a number of radio and TV series’ as well as presenting reports for the BBC’s ‘Holiday Programme’ and anchoring ‘I Want That House’ on ITV. She is the author of best-selling novels ‘The Playground Mafia,’ ‘The Battle for Big School,’ ‘The Last Year of Being Single’ and ‘The Control Freak Chronicles.’

To buy a copy of ‘The Redundant Travel Journalist’ by Sarah Tucker for £6.99 through Amazon, click here. Tucker has also recently written ‘The Witches of Richmond’ – it is also available on Amazon for £6.99.

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“When you can travel, where will you go?” – Italy’s foreign minister Luigi Di Maio yesterday promised “foreign tourists will be welcome this summer” according to ‘The Telegraph.’

May 31, 2020
Wally of the Week – Vanessa Branson

At a time when her billionaire brother Sir Richard is deservedly taking a pounding for trying to rape the state, multi-millionairess Vanessa Branson could have perhaps postponed the launch of her self-indulgent autobiography

It’s not Vanessa Branson’s fault that she’s the sister of the all-round dickhead Sir Richard Branson, but it is she alone whom made the choice to gauchely publicise a book about her anything but modest life during the worst pandemic since Spanish Flu.

Serialised, as only it could be in the top paying publication for such guff, the Daily Mail, Vanessa Branson’s One Hundred Summers: A Family Story has a stench of what the Scottish would call “guff” about it. Aside from bemoaning “sulking about” buying a tidal island complete with 9 houses in the Inner Hebrides – which she terms “Neverland Found” – this privileged woman boldly touts her book as: “Taking the reader on a journey from the dying embers of Edwardian England, through the trauma of two world wars, the hedonism of London in the 1980s and ‘Cool Britannia’ in the 1990s right up to the present day.” How utterly endearing.

Just like her self-publicising brother, this constantly crying 61-year old former art gallery owner plainly cannot get enough of herself. Here is a ramble through holidays in palazzos in Venice and trips to LA; there’s an arts festival in Morocco and there’s a second home in Sussex. Life ain’t that shabby for this woman, but all she does is moan. Her husband comes and goes (and comes and goes again and again), but with such she name-drops how Grayson Perry gave her a pot charmingly featuring the words “Marriage Wrecker” next to “images of fat middle-aged men with drooping breasts and sagging scrotums” and Tracey Emin wrote her a poem for her to use on her headboard. Its read: “Oh God you made me feel so beautiful/ And then I wanted to feel it again and again. With myself, by myself/ Never forgetting.” That’s surely enough to make anyone join in blubbering with this very, very rich multi-millionairess.

With her brattish brother condemned even by that pillar of capitalism that is The Telegraph as “Now Virgin Atlantic’s biggest liability,” Vanessa Branson could not have chosen a worse time to launch her tome. Though lauded as: “A vivid and charming tapestry of English eccentricity, fortune, fate and passion,” One Hundred Summers is more likely to ultimately be remembered just as a tale of the pathetic appendage of the deservedly most loathed man of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. Here is one book we most definitely will not be recommending as essential lockdown literature.

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May 8, 2020
Lockdown The Gin

With neighbours putting gin and tonics on each other’s doorsteps during the COVID-19 lockdown, we select the most amusing quotes about this fine spirit

In a letter, published in The Telegraph on Tuesday, one Madeline Glancy remarked:

SIR – Every Friday in lockdown, my neighbour has left a delicious gin and tonic at my front door. Beats tinned tomatoes hands down.

Madeline Glancy

Prestwich, Lancashire

If only if all neighbours were so community minded.

Some of the best quotes about gin follow for your amusement:

Not so strangely, most of them are without citation – probably due to the fact that they were likely made when their originators were suitably imbibed in juniper flavoured heaven.

“Let the evening beGIN!” – Anon.

“I don’t know what reception I’m at, but for God’s sake, give me a gin and tonic” –the well-known gin lover and husband of Margaret Thatcher, Denis Thatcher.

“Life is too short for single gins” – Anon.

“Red meat and gin” – America’s answer to Keith Floyd, Julia Child, on the reason for her longevity.

“I love water, especially when it’s frozen and surrounded by gin” – Anon.

“I exercise strong self-control. I never drink anything stronger than gin before breakfast” – American actor and comedian W. C. Fields.

“Gin-drinking is a great vice in England, but wretchedness and dirt are a greater [vice]” – Charles Dickens, Sketches (1836).

“When life gives you juniper, make gin!” – Holistic health author Laurie Buchanan.

“Don’t cry over spilt milk, it could’ve been gin” – Anon.

Night school tutor: “Write a horror story in six words.”

Student: “I-have-run-out-of-gin” – Anon.

“A perfect martini should be made by filling a glass with gin then waving it in the general direction of Italy” – Noël Coward.

“The proper union of gin and vermouth is a great and sudden glory; it is one of the happiest marriages on earth, and one of the shortest lived” – American historian Bernard DeVoto.

“The gin and tonic has saved more Englishmen’s lives, and minds, than all the doctors in the Empire” – Winston Churchill.

“Of all the gin joints, in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine” – Humphrey Bogart as Rick in Casablanca (1942).

“Gym? I thought you said: ‘Gin’” – Anon.

“The only time I ever enjoyed ironing was the day I accidentally got gin in the steam iron” – Comedian Phyllis Diller.

“Stop saying I’m hard to buy for… You know where the gin aisle is” – Anon.

“You’d learn more about the world by lying on the couch and drinking gin out of a bottle than by watching the news” – American radio personality Garrison Keillor.

“Fortunately there is gin, the sole glimmer in this darkness. Do you feel the golden, copper-coloured light it kindles in you? I like walking through the city of an evening in the warmth of gin” – French philosopher and journalist Albert Camus.

“I tried to say no to gin… But it’s 40% stronger than me” – Anon.

“I’ll stick with gin. Champagne is just ginger ale that knows somebody” – Dr. Hawkeye Pierce from M*A*S*H.

“Things, since you left, have not gone well with me: they have taken me from a place where there was gin to a place where there is no gin” – British barrister and detective story author Sarah Cockburn (pseudonym Sarah Caudwell).

“According to chemists, gin IS a solution” – Anon.

“Gin and drugs, dear lady, gin and drugs” – The reply of T. S. Eliot when asked about inspiration.

“It’s always gin o’clock” – Anon.

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May 6, 2020
On Yer Bike Nige

As Nigel Farage ludicrously suggests Britain is “a country of doubtful democratic legitimacy” (in spite of it giving him the Brexit he so desired this very year), we join those suggesting that this furious Firestarter is still very welcome to leave

“This incident has confirmed my worst fears about the country Britain is becoming” wrote Nostradamus-like Nigel Farage in The Telegraph on Tuesday evening. The same Farage, that is, that was celebrating Boris Johnson and Brexit on 31^st January in Parliament Square; the same Farage who finally had the Darling Buds of May mixed with Last of the Summer Wine pastiche version of Britain he has for so long dreamt of.

Farage, at that moment, was “optimistic” and “celebrating the free world” and whilst braying about his dream having finally come true, boldly went as far as to state: “This is the greatest moment ever in the history of our great nation.”

Now, it’s all gone so horribly wrong. After having a visit from the police as a result of breaching lockdown restrictions that ordinary people have willingly obeyed, Farage angrily proclaimed of the police: “I was astonished and, although I remained polite, incredulous. I replied: ‘I’m not going to take that.’”

Continuing his diatribe about what he calls the “new police state” run for the “sneerocracy,” hypocritical Farage – whose two children have German passports (which allows them continued free movement in Europe) – concluded: “I don’t know if I will be stopped and fined if I attempt to do my job again. However, I will look at the shipping forecast. Without question, on the next calm day they will come again, and I will be there to cover this scandal.”

Perhaps, instead, of meddling at a time of pandemic lockdown when his interventions are most definitely not required, this berk could just adapt the advice of Norman Tebbitt and get in a boat. Nigel Farage could sail away to somewhere he’s actually wanted – that being his very own mecca, Trumpland. There, in the manner of Dick Whittington, this fervent Firestarter might even find the streets paved with currency to replace that that he used to take in very, very generous EU expenses.

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May 5, 2020