Tag: United Kingdom

Jack Turner – What’s on your mantelpiece?

A 20-question interview with English born, Los Angeles based actor and musician Jack Turner

The Steeple Times shares “wit and wisdom”. What’s your guiding force?

Treat people well. Try and learn your blind spots.

“Don’t get even, get medieval” is, in our humble opinion, a great motto. What’s yours?

Be nice, but don’t get shat on.

Kerry Katona was considered unacceptable in 2007. Who or what is unacceptable in 2017?

Everything seems to be acceptable. People are being absolutely despicable because of messaging they see from those in power. Perhaps the only unacceptable thing is calm and clear discourse.

Tony Blair misses being Prime Minister. What do you miss most in your life?

My family and Weymouth Beach.

What might you swap all your wealth for?

Everyone having some.

Donald Trump was once a case of: “If you owe the bank a thousand, they close you down; but if you owe the bank a billion, you own the bank”. What’s your view on the state of the financial system?

That, and the political system (similar principles), make me most unhappy to be an atheist.

What phrase or word do you most loathe?

“Reach out”. The word I maybe most love is “tosspot”.

In the UK, some people consider charity to “begin at home”. What’s your view and what causes do you personally support?

I think there’s a threshold of financial and social safety below which there is no hope to ascend, and that people below that threshold need help. What we have in the UK and US would be considered a ludicrous luxury in many places. I personally just donated a pretty solid sum to Syria and Somalia.

The judge in Law Abiding Citizen states: “I can pretty much do whatever I want” before being blown up whilst answering her mobile phone. What’s your view on the appropriate use of such devices?

I wish my phone would blow me up. These devices are ruining people’s presence, empathy, and ability to talk. I just read a great summary of the evidence linking socialization and our neurobiology. When you consider socialisation is being replaced by phones, I fear sociopathy will rise massively. Put the fucking phone away, or on silent if you just can’t be without it, you tosspot.

If you could fill a carriage on The Orient Express, who would be your fellow passengers?

People without phones, who can like each other even if they disagree. I pick my girlfriend and my mate Monte. Anyone else is welcome. That should ignite some fun.

If you were unfortunate enough to end up on death row, what would be your last meal and where would you eat it?

Curry from Mirch Masala in Tooting, and bitter. Followed by red velvet cake and some Law Estates Cab.

What time is it acceptable to consume the first drink of the day?

Not so much a case of “Is this acceptable?” as: “Will my body reject this now?”

A Negroni, a martini or a cup of tea?

I don’t know what a Negroni is. Martinis are frightening. So I’ll go for some tea, please.

Whose parties do you enjoy the most and why?

Those I curate carefully to avoid tosspots. Because I loathe tosspots.

Who is the most positive person you know?

My girlfriend. I’m lucky enough that this is a pretty competitive decision, but she takes the cake.

What’s your most guilty pleasure?

Aforementioned red velvet cake. And guitars.

If a tattoo were to sum you up, what would it be of?

I don’t like tattoos, which I think sums me up.

If you were a car, what marque would you be?

Public transport or a bicycle. I now realise both sound dirty.

Cilla Black presented Surprise, Surprise. Tell us the most surprising thing about you.

To my shame I didn’t know what an incredible singer she was. I thought she was just a host. That surprised me. I’m a terrible singer. Which maybe makes it surprising that I was in a great band and continue to make music. Check out our old stuff if you’re interested – Cable Car on Spotify, iTunes, etc.

What’s currently sitting on your mantelpiece?

Our place isn’t fancy enough to have a mantlepiece. However, we do have a cupboard, upon which we put meaningful things. My mum potted me an Oscar statue, which we call ‘Oscar’. Probably unoriginal, but, I think it’s very sweet, and I’ll take what I can get.

Jack Turner grew up in Weymouth, Dorset, where he was a dubiously-skilled mackerel fishing tour guide. He studied psychology at Oxford before working for Google in London and San Francisco. He’s now an actor in Hollywood and has starred in Netflix’s ‘The 10 Year Plan’ and Hallmark’s ‘My Summer Prince’.

Follow him on Twitter at @jackoturner and Instagram at @jaxonturner.

May 4, 2017
The Commerce of Selfies

A review of the showcase of vanity that is the Saatchi Gallery’s ‘Selfie to Self-Expression’ exhibition

The first ever ‘selfie’ was supposedly taken on the roof of the Marceau studio on Fifth Avenue in New York. Featuring a photographer named Joseph Byron and his colleagues, the image was captured in December 1920 and now, an exhibition at London’s Saatchi Gallery examines the story of what has become a modern day social phenomenon.

The first ever selfie

Aside from images of Hillary Clinton during the 2016 American election and lookalikes of the British royal family by Alison Jackson, this exhibition – sponsored rather appropriately by a mobile phone manufacturer plainly desperate to get its product into the public eye in England named Huawei – features everything from selfies taken with selfie sticks to selfies taken underwater. It is an array of ridiculousness and most definitely a display of extreme vanity that is present here, but with opportunities for visitors to participate, it is also something that anyone except a true killjoy will have a little fun with.

The word ‘selfie’ was announced as the Oxford English Dictionary “word of the year” in 2013 and subsequently, Business Insider, published a story that referenced selfies of groups as “usies”. Huawei Technologies, it transpires, trademarked the word “groufie” around the same time and thus it’s no wonder they managed to cut a deal with the ever-so-commercial Charles Saatchi.

‘Selfie to Self-Expression’ is on display at the Saatchi Gallery, Duke of York’s Headquarters, Kings Road, London, SW3 4RY until 30^th May. The exhibition is free and open seven days a week, 10am to 6pm.

#SaatchiSelfie

May 4, 2017
Viscount St Davids

A statement from Matthew Steeples about the man who, in a London courtroom, called him a “wanker”

Yesterday, in London, in a stained tweed gilet more appropriate to Wiltshire than Westminster, Viscount St Davids – amusingly referenced in court as plain old ‘Mr St Davids’ much to the disgust of him and his and his somewhat pointless American barrister chum, Andrew Rinker – called me a “wanker”.

According to much of the mainstream press – including The Guardian and The Sun – Viscount St Davids has now been banned from using social media and prohibited to contact me. I have yet to be informed of exactly what this means and have not seen any transcript of the court’s decision, but, in view of the fact that this thrice bankrupt individual decided to allegedly “laugh” as he was told of the conditions of granting him bail, I hereby record that I am proud to be the individual who first reported this intolerant individual to the police last year.

I will be very happy to give evidence on 10^th July and look forward to witnessing justice run its course. What is posted on social media, in my terribly humble opinion, does not stay on social media.

Comments on this article will be moderated for legal reasons.

May 3, 2017
Domesticity Above A Canal

Conversion of “one of Europe’s first purpose-built office blocks” for sale; £3.5 million Grade II* listed Georgian house in Bath literally straddles a canal

Some people dream of living beside a lake or a river, but a Grade II* listed detached property recently placed on the market in Bath gives anyone with £3.5 million ($4.2 million, €4.5 million or درهم16.6 million) to spare the opportunity to literally live above a man-made waterway.

Cleveland House – originally known as Canal House – stands on top of a bridge and tunnel that straddles the Kennet & Avon Canal and in spite of being built as “one of Europe’s first purpose-built office blocks” has a look that is very much “Georgian domestic”. The limestone ashlar, three-storey building was constructed to the designs of one of Bath’s greatest architects, John Pinch the Elder (1769 – 1827), between 1817 and 1820 and served as the canal’s management headquarters until 1864.

Converted next to residential usage and then requisitioned for government use in 1939, the building again reverted to office usage. A property developer named Trevor Osborne then acquired it and commenced a transformation into what is described as “a truly exceptional Bath residence” in 2015.

Aside from 7,218 square foot of accommodation, including 5 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms, what makes Cleveland House truly remarkable are its entertaining spaces. The 30-foot long former company boardroom, complete with a 20-foot high newly repainted domed ceiling, is now the house’s drawing room and in addition there is a formal dining room and a library. Whilst a fully prepared cinema room and wine cellars are housed in the basement, other points of note are a large, newly built family room, a first floor roof terrace and garaging for four cars.

Cleveland House is offered by Carter Jonas.

May 1, 2017
Turncoat Tory Predicts Troubles for Theresa

Scandal prone Tory activist turned Jared Kushner employed journalist Andre Walker claims Theresa May is fearful of electoral disaster due to MPs from her party likely being jailed

A widely criticised one-time Tory activist turned journalist with links to the party’s dubious 2015 ‘battlebus scandal’ has claimed that “a criminal investigation is the real reason Theresa May called the General Election”.

In an opinion piece, Andre Walker – currently a columnist for Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner’s The New York Observer and formerly part of the team that established the far-right Breitbart London news network – referenced a widely reported story about thirty senior Conservatives facing prosecution for electoral fraud but went far further than most in adding: “In all likelihood, there will be MPs standing for re-election on 8^th June who are also facing jail”.

Referencing the Conservative Party’s controversial 2015 election buses that toured Britain under the banner the ‘Road Trip’ campaigning group, Walker pointedly remarked:

“It is illegal to make a mistake – accidental or otherwise. In any case, failure to remember that you had five buses traveling to every key area of the country stretches credibility”.

Curiously, in his article, the hard Brexiteer made no reference to his own connections to that scandal and nor did he make mention of his long-term friend and founder of ‘Road Trip’, Mark Clarke – a disgraced individual who has since been expelled from the Conservative Party and banished for life.

In 2010, The Telegraph revealed Walker – a larger-than-life figure with 59,000 followers on Twitter – was forced to resign as political aide after been caught plotting to smear a deputy council leader in Windsor in a clip posted on YouTube. Subsequently, in 2016, in an interview for the BBC’s Sunday Politics, Walker claimed to have been the boyfriend of Elliott Johnson, an activist who committed suicide in 2015, leaving a note suggesting he’d been “bullied by Mark Clarke and betrayed by Andre Walker”.

May 1, 2017
Miriam Margolyes OBE

In April 2017, esteemed actress Miriam Margolyes described Theresa May as “that awful woman” and hinted that she had little-to-any enthusiasm for Jeremy Corbyn’s “hell of a mess” also. In the same interview, in her “distinctive voice”, she added: “It is the job of the arts to engage in life… That’s what I care about”. She is best known for having won a BAFTA for her role in Martin Scorsese’s The Age of Innocence in 1993 but is famous to younger audiences for having appeared in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows. A dual British-Australian citizen and humanitarian advocate, Oxford born Margolyes also played the self-made cosmetics billionairess Helena Rubinstein in 2017 and lives with her partner, Heather Sutherland, in London, Tuscany and New South Wales.

April 30, 2017
(Not) Wedded by Ward

Loudmouth champagne swiller Dawn Ward once again fails to get permission to turn her vulgar home into a wedding venue

Marketing material for Dawn Ward’s tastelessly decorated home, Warford Hall, near Alderley Edge in Cheshire, boldly describes it as “the finest entertaining house ever conceived”. She’s failed to generate any interest in it since putting it on the market for the ridiculously ambitious sum of £12 million ($15.4 million, €14.4 million or درهم56.4 million) and has now, once again, failed to get planning permission to turn the building into a conference centre and banqueting venue for boot camps, functions and weddings.

Of why he scuppered Mr and Mrs Ward’s application as an “inappropriate development in the Green Belt”, planning inspector Jonathan Clarke remarked:

“I have found that it has not been satisfactorily demonstrated that the proposal would operate without causing substantial harm to the living conditions of occupiers of nearby dwellings. Therefore, the very special circumstances needed to justify the development do not exist”.

In May 2016, champagne loving, prosecco hating Mrs Ward spoke to the Manchester Evening News about her plans. She moaned:

“Neighbours don’t like noise. I understand. It’s unbelievable. Fair enough (to complain) if you are local, but we are getting complaints as far as Tytherington. How it can affect people as far away as Tytherington I have not idea. It’s ludicrous”.

Later, her husband, former footballer Ashley Ward, added:

“In October 2015 I attended a meeting hosted by the Parish Council at which people were advised that ‘the only way we can stop this application is to ensure we send as many written complaints as possible and beat the number of 60 plus that we managed to raise for the previous owner’s application’”.

“An organised campaign was created with letters of objection even coming from people living completely out of the area and flyers distributed giving tips on how easiest to provide a complaint”.

“I am concerned about the motives for the campaigns against all Warford Hall applications and in particular that this one is prejudicing the facts of the application and the findings of the local authority experts; planning officers, environmental health and highways officers”.

Bad news comes in droves for Dawn Ward, it seems. In February, it was revealed she was being taken to court by her former friend and fellow WAG Leanne Brown in the wake of her having failed to repay a loan of £500,000 ($640,000, €598,000 or درهم2.4 million) and in June 2016 she was convicted of assaulting the singer Sinitta at the now closed Belgravia restaurant Salmontini.

Warford Hall, Merryman’s Lane Great Warford, Alderley Edge, Cheshire, SK9 7TP, United Kingdom

Dawn Ward is a woman known for liking to get her own way

April 21, 2017
A Homely Castle

Britain’s smallest castle is for sale; it comes with 10 acres, a 44 million gallon moat and a narrow boat

Last marketed in 2003 for £1 million (the equivalent of £1.45 million, $1.86 million, €1.73 million or درهم6.83 million today), what is allegedly Britain’s smallest castle is back for sale for the slightly higher sum of £1.75 million ($2.24 million, €2.09 million or درهم8.24 million).

Offered by Belgravia based Henry & James, Starborough Castle is situated on the border of Kent and Surrey and stands in 10 acres of moated gardens and grounds. It is listed Grade II* and also as a scheduled ancient monument.

Dating to around 1754 and constructed on the site of a medieval house built circa 1341, the current dressed stone Neo-Gothic building on the site was restored by a farmer in the 1980s. He sold it to a purveyor of antique maps named Warwick Leadlay (1929 – 2013) in 1995 and in the years since, the grounds were landscaped and outbuildings and a cottage added.

Used by the Leadley family to host a “Glyndebourne of jazz-style” festival and more recently available for both short and long-term lets, Starborough Castle itself currently provides a total of 1,959 square foot of accommodation. There is a mini great hall, minstrel gallery kitchen, two double bedrooms and a bathroom in the main house and a detached one bedroom cottage offers further space for guests.

Of the pint-sized property, James Bailey of Henry & James told the Mail Online:

“It’s an amazing property, a complete one off, and a house of historical importance. The first recorded settlement was there in AD490. The moat was created around the medieval castle that occupied the entire island in the 1300s. That was torn down under Cromwell’s orders in the 1600s”.

“What is there now takes up just a small part of the island, it was built as a summerhouse and you could argue over whether it’s a folly or a castle”.

“It would be a perfect weekend destination place for a professional couple or an individual looking for something unique. The current owners have had it about 20 years and that’s what they have used it for, but they are based in London again now so don’t get to use it much”.

“They also put a barge on the moat to provide extra guest space. It’s a bit of fun, obviously you could only drive it in a circle round the moat, you can’t go anywhere”.

April 20, 2017
Mugged by May

Theresa May’s gamble to go to the country will likely pay off, but is it good for Britain?

Theresa May supposedly decided to go call a snap election after a trip to church and a walking holiday with her garden gnome-like husband, Philip, in Wales over Easter. She has taken a gamble but given that Sky News are projecting the Tories are likely to win 44% of the vote against Labour on 23%, it is one that will likely pay off.

Unsurprisingly and in a coward-like fashion, Mrs May has declined to partake in television debates but given her opponent Jeremy Corbyn is so hopeless, it would take only a calamity to unsettle any chances of her winning. Only the left-leaning Mirror is backing Corbyn and in spite of the Liberal Democrats likely to make a number of gains in the south-west, May will certainly hit Labour hardest.

Mrs May, however, is not good for Britain. Since taking office last year, she has performed eight U-turns on policy and as Home Secretary she was a total disgrace. One only has to remember that this is the woman who closed the police stations and this is the woman who closed the fire stations. This, also, is the politician who wastefully funded her friends Gerry and Kate McCann’s search for their missing child to the tune of £11 million and this is the woman whose inquiry into historic abuse has cost £100 million and delivered nothing.

Lady Macbeth-like May is a self-serving woman and she is not a good premier. This power grabbing vicar’s daughter’s about turn on Brexit is bad for Britain and her harshness towards immigrants is bad for business. She must be stopped and we urge our readers to vote for anyone but her on 8^th June.

April 19, 2017
Failing to Come Together

Whilst Theresa May’s Easter message is nothing but a damp squib, Jeremy Corbyn’s response is as much use as a chocolate teapot

“Let us come together… Let us build a stronger, fairer Britain that works for everyone”, clucked Theresa May on Sunday in a 3:10 minute Easter message posted on YouTube.

Mixing her Christian values with Brexit, the unelected Prime Minister went on about growing up in a vicarage and stood next to a wonky light fitting. She neglected to mention how the Mail on Sunday had exposed her “grubby, underhand deal” that sacrifices endangered species in favour of trade and growth and she said nothing of the failing inquiry into historic abuse that she’s already wasted over £100 million on.

In The Guardian, former Labour spin doctor Alastair Campbell took an axe to the message and lambasted it by commenting:

“I think even vicars’ daughters should be a little wary of allying their politics to their faith… She does not exactly say if God had a vote he would have voted Leave, but she gets closer to it than she should. If she really thinks she is leading a united country full of hope … I suggest she gets out more”.

He added:

“I don’t think I have ever known Britain more divided. As for her talk of compassion, community, citizenship and obligations to one another, she has taken an axe to those with regard to Britain’s relations to the rest of the world, and plenty of her domestic agenda points in the opposite direction”.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn responded by calling for “peace” and “reconciliation” but neither he nor Mrs May offer very much hope. God help us all and God help (once) Great Britain.

April 16, 2017