The Steeple Times

Tag: Westminster

  • Liar Liar Theresa May

    Liar Liar Theresa May

    Captain SKA re-release 2010 anti-austerity hit ‘Liar Liar’ and this time use it to target “you can’t trust her”, Theresa May

     

    In 2010, a musicial protest group called Captain SKA released Liar Liar as part of their aim to become a “voice against austerity and neoliberal politics”.

     

    The track made some headway, but now, remixed and refocused on Theresa May in particular, includes such lyrics as “strong and stable won’t disguise, we’re still being taken for a ride” and in summary mocks her “porkie pies”.

     

    On Saturday, a spokesman for Captain SKA told The Morning Star:

     

    “We’ve remixed Liar Liar for this general election because we want to do all we can to expose the horrific effects Tory policy has had on ordinary people”.

     

    “Theresa May lies her way through interview after interview without addressing the real issues”.

     

    “We want to do all we can to make sure Theresa May is kicked out of Downing Street on 8th June”.

     

    Elsewhere, in a Facebook post, the group – who’ve already reached the top 40 with their catchy tune – added: “Download [Liar Liar] now and force the BBC to play it on our airwaves”.

     

    #MakeJuneTheEndOfMay #StrongAndStableMyArse #LiarLiar

     Liar Liar Theresa May – Captain SKA re-release tune for GE2017 – Captain SKA re-release 2010 anti-austerity hit ‘Liar Liar’ and this time use it to target “you can’t trust her”, Theresa May.Liar Liar Theresa May – Captain SKA re-release tune for GE2017 – Captain SKA re-release 2010 anti-austerity hit ‘Liar Liar’ and this time use it to target “you can’t trust her”, Theresa May.Liar Liar Theresa May – Captain SKA re-release tune for GE2017 – Captain SKA re-release 2010 anti-austerity hit ‘Liar Liar’ and this time use it to target “you can’t trust her”, Theresa May.

  • Robert Adam

    Robert Adam

    With such a name, this suave gent just had to design landmarks. University of Westminster educated and Hampshire based Robert Adam (born 1948) followed his more famous namesake (1728 – 1792) and became a designer of “progressive neo-classical style buildings” in 1975. He won “the richest prize in architecture” in January 2017 and counts the Sackler Library at the University of Oxford, a “miniature Baroque mansion” at Eastwood Farm – complete with a lion on the roof – in Herstmonceux, East Sussex and the “KGB proof” Ingliston House on the Wentworth Estate in Surrey amongst his notable works.

      (more…)

  • A Brylcream Bigot

    A Brylcream Bigot

    Nigel Farage’s communications man, “political poet” Dan Jukes, sinks to a new low in the wake of the attack on innocence in Manchester; this beer swilling bigot should henceforth be ignored

     

    In the aftermath of the appalling terrorist attack in Manchester on Monday night, Nigel Farage’s communications man, Dan Jukes, did not unite with those sharing grief. Instead, this bombastic “political poet” – one half of a duo previously known as the ‘Brylcream Boys’ – spent the next hours telling his 5,088 Twitterfollowers to “get angry, get mad” and “#sigh[ed]” of the Eiffel Tower going dark in solidarity with victims.

     

    Jukes, a man plainly lacking in any form of nuance of appropriateness, also shared a tweet that announced: “There’s no such thing as Islamophobia. It’s a word designed by Muslim Brotherhood [sic] to shut down debate” and another that read: “That’s enough hashtags and vigils. What we need now is public anger”. As well as retweeting wild and as of yet unproven suggestions that the date of the atrocity was linked to the fourth anniversary of the murder of Lee Rigby, Jukes also termed a missive by the respected human rights barrister Adam Wagner “dog shit” and then remarked: “Don’t trust this pair any further than I can throw them to sort out terrorism” alongside of an image of Theresa May and Amber Rudd.

     

    Jukes’ inane ramblings did not stop there. He continued by repeating unconfirmed information about the Manchester suicide bomber having allegedly been heard “chanting Islamic prayers loudly in the street outside his home in the week leading up [to the attack]” and then concluded: “Parents of terrorist escaped Libya and came to Britain as refugees. This is how that family repay us… Change needed… This is war”.

     

    At a time when tolerance between communities is especially essential, there’s only one thing worth doing with Dan Jukes: Let’s unite in turning off this pint-swilling little horror’s volume switch.

     

    #Manchester

     

  • Belgravia in Bloom

    Belgravia in Bloom

    Grand Belgravia apartment – complete with a garden that wouldn’t look out of place at the Chelsea Flower Show – for sale

     

    As thousands of garden lovers visit the Chelsea Flower Show this week, an individual with £8.95 million ($11.63 million, €10.39 million or درهم42.71 million) to spare could acquire a more permanent horticultural delight in the form of a ground and basement maisonette in nearby Belgravia.

     

    Flat 1 at 57 Eaton Place provides not only 3,497 square foot – with 3 reception rooms, 3 bedroom suites and staff accommodation – but also a courtyard and terrace garden that selling agent Louise Hewlett describes as giving a “country outlook in an urban Belgravia traditional white stucco building”.

     

    The flat is held on a lease of 108 years and a service charge of £11,689 ($15,187, €13,577 or درهم55,771) is payable annually.

     

    Belgravia in Bloom – Flat 1, 57 Eaton Place, Belgravia, London, SW1X 8BN, United Kingdom – For sale for £8.95 million ($11.63 million, €10.39 million or درهم42.71 million) through Louise Hewlett – Chelsea Flower Show Belgravia in Bloom – Flat 1, 57 Eaton Place, Belgravia, London, SW1X 8BN, United Kingdom – For sale for £8.95 million ($11.63 million, €10.39 million or درهم42.71 million) through Louise Hewlett – Chelsea Flower ShowBelgravia in Bloom – Flat 1, 57 Eaton Place, Belgravia, London, SW1X 8BN, United Kingdom – For sale for £8.95 million ($11.63 million, €10.39 million or درهم42.71 million) through Louise Hewlett – Chelsea Flower Show Belgravia in Bloom – Flat 1, 57 Eaton Place, Belgravia, London, SW1X 8BN, United Kingdom – For sale for £8.95 million ($11.63 million, €10.39 million or درهم42.71 million) through Louise Hewlett – Chelsea Flower ShowBelgravia in Bloom – Flat 1, 57 Eaton Place, Belgravia, London, SW1X 8BN, United Kingdom – For sale for £8.95 million ($11.63 million, €10.39 million or درهم42.71 million) through Louise Hewlett – Chelsea Flower ShowBelgravia in Bloom – Flat 1, 57 Eaton Place, Belgravia, London, SW1X 8BN, United Kingdom – For sale for £8.95 million ($11.63 million, €10.39 million or درهم42.71 million) through Louise Hewlett – Chelsea Flower Show Belgravia in Bloom – Flat 1, 57 Eaton Place, Belgravia, London, SW1X 8BN, United Kingdom – For sale for £8.95 million ($11.63 million, €10.39 million or درهم42.71 million) through Louise Hewlett – Chelsea Flower Show Belgravia in Bloom – Flat 1, 57 Eaton Place, Belgravia, London, SW1X 8BN, United Kingdom – For sale for £8.95 million ($11.63 million, €10.39 million or درهم42.71 million) through Louise Hewlett – Chelsea Flower Show

  • Double Bollocks

    Double Bollocks

    Politicians Lady Nugee and Sir Michael Fallon BOTH make total and utter fools of themselves over links to murderous dictator Bashar al-Assad

     

    Yesterday Labour’s Lady Nugee – a ridiculous woman who prefers to go by the name ‘The Rt. Hon. Emily Thornberry MP’ – succeeded in making a fool out of The Rt. Hon Sir Michael Fallon KCB, MP on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show.

     

    A previous ‘Moron of the Moment’ on these pages, Lady “I actually have quite a lot more experience than people think I do” Nugee asked the Secretary of State for Defence to reveal where he was on 27th May 2007. When Sir Michael said he did not know and “scrambled to defend himself”, Lady Nugee told him he was “talking bollocks” and curtly added: “You were in Syria and you were celebrating at a reception for the re-election of President Assad with 99% of the vote. Now, I’m not going to judge you for going to a reception with Assad”.

     

    Though Sir Michael responded: “I don’t recall any party in Syria. I remember a fact-finding visit to Syria”, Lady Nugee continued like a mad attack dog and did not give up. She continued: “You really can’t just go around making this stuff up. There’s an election and people need to make decisions on the basis of the truth”.

     

    Rather inconveniently for the Shadow Foreign Secretary, later in the day, a pictured emerged of her hapless leader, Jeremy Corbyn, at a reception with President Bashar al-Assad in 2009.

     

    #DoubleBollocks

     

    Double Bollocks – Politicians Lady Nugee (Emily Thornberry) and Sir Michael Fallon BOTH make total and utter fools of themselves over links to murderous dictator Bashar al-Assad
    Lady Nugee with Sir Michael Fallon and Andrew Marr on Sunday
  • Hero of the Hour – Chuka Umunna

    Hero of the Hour – Chuka Umunna

    Chuka Umunna MP speaks sense on Britain’s membership of the Single Market

     

    This morning, Chuka Umunna spoke for many when he was interviewed on Radio 4’s Today programme.

     

    The Labour MP commented:

     

    We’re saying from the point of view of London where you’ve got over 600,000 jobs that are linked to our membership of the Single Market, whether you voted to Remain or Leave, you didn’t vote to be poorer.

     

    Our membership of the Single Market was not on the ballot as it were, during that EU Referendum campaign. We’re saying that yes you can be outside of the European Union and be in the Customs Union, like Turkey for example and you be outside the European Union and in the Single Market like Norway.

     

    You can actually reform the ways freedom of movement works within that context. For example, at the moment there’s one thing that we don’t do that could do now under free movement rules – which have never, by the way, been unconditional. So, for example, if somebody comes here, and they’ve been here for three months, they haven’t got work, and there’s no prospects of that, they can be asked to leave. We don’t do that at the moment.

     

    And there are counties in the Single Market like, for example, Lichtenstein who have actually been able to apply quotas to the number of EU citizens coming. So, I don’t accept this kind of binary explanation of how things work.

     

    We can actually stay in the Single Market, have the benefits it brings but also reform the way our immigration arrangements work.

     

    Yesterday, Umunna was joined by sixteen general election candidates to launch a pamphlet called Stop Hard Brexit: Why London needs the Single Market. He should be saluted for this bold move and for his wise words today also.

     

  • Bob Marshall-Andrews QC

    Bob Marshall-Andrews QC

    A “libertarian-left” Labour MP between 1997 and 2010, distinguished barrister and novelist Bob Marshall-Andrews defected to the Liberal Democrats in 2017. Described as “an irritant” to his former party whilst they were in government, multi-millionaire Marshall-Andrews built and owns “one of the most innovative houses of the 20th century – the famed ‘Teletubby House’ in Druidston, Pembrokeshire – and is chairman of the George Adamson Wildlife Trust. In 2013, of him, Chambers Legal Directory remarked: “Juries love him… I’ve never seen a jury eat out of anyone’s hand as much” whilst he amusingly references himself as “the complete antidote to political humbug”. Of Labour, this “intellectually brilliant” individual added: “They’re a basket case…They effectively abdicated all responsibility [on Brexit]”.

     

    Bob Marshall-Andrews QC – Barrister, former Labour MP and novelist Bob Marshall-Andrews QC – Barrister, former Labour MP and novelist

     

  • Quote of the Week – Beasts & Crooks

    Quote of the Week – Beasts & Crooks

    Dennis Skinner on the now rejected Tory election fraud allegations

     

    Yesterday, the Electoral Commission astonishingly rejected all but one of the allegations of electoral fraud against Conservative Party candidates and officials in relation to activities during the 2015 General Election campaign. A potential charge, against Craig MacKinlay, the MP for South Thanet, is all that now “remains under consideration”.

     

    A quote and image shared on Twitter by writer Marcus Chown summed up the reaction of many to the news perfectly. It featured a picture of ‘The Beast of Bolsover’ Dennis Skinner MP and the following text:

     

    Dennis Skinner: “Half the Tories opposite are crooks”.

     

    Speaker: “Please retract”.

     

    Dennis Skinner: “OK, half the Tories opposite aren’t crooks”.

     

    In text accompanying what he shared, Chown added: “Whether it was Skinner who said this or someone else, it seems apt. #ToryElectionFraud”.

     

    Quote of the Week – Beasts & Crooks: Dennis Skinner #ToryElectionFraud

  • The Tossers vs. The 48%

    The Tossers vs. The 48%

    The 48% must make themselves heard at the 2017 General Election; they must vote tactically and do all they can to prevent the landslide ‘Queen Bee’ Theresa May is headed for

     

    With UKIP’s first MP on trial for 14 counts of electoral fraud, 30 individuals connected to the Conservative Party facing potential prosecution in connection to the ‘2015 Battlebus’ scheme and the Electoral Commission investigating Leave.EU’s dodgy finances, one could question the reasoning for Theresa May’s enthusiasm for a General Election.

     

    Right now, British politics stinks and with a hopeless and hapless Labour Party that had to rely on a Coronation Street ‘star’ with an obsession with the word “toss” to get their campaign going yesterday, Mrs May’s home run is now sadly virtually in the bag. Her timing – brilliantly executed and Lady Macbeth-like in fashion, even her critics will admit – ensures she can “bury bad news” Jo Moore-style and ensures she’ll be able to make her woes go away. The vicar’s daughter and the kowtowing garden gnome she calls husband will likely get the landslide they want and with the Queen Bee and her party campaigning in previously deemed ‘unwinnables’, Theresa May is truly going for the jugular.

     

    All right-minded people want to do right now is sit in horror with their heads in their hands, but actually, in fact, there is something we can all do. We must use our votes wisely and must use them tactically. This is not an election about “the many, not the few” and its not one about the “strong and stable” leadership of “Theresa’s May’s team”; it’s about Brexit and we must all use our votes to ensure Mrs May doesn’t forget that the 48% still deserve a voice.

     

    #MakeJuneEndOfMay

     

  • Tito’s Toy

    Tito’s Toy

    Ex-President Josip Broz Tito 1964 Fiat 500 Jolly by Ghia to be sold at auction in London

     

    Josip Broz Tito liked cars. It appears he didn’t care if they were little or large and someone without the means to purchase his £2.5 million ($3.1 million, €2.9 million or درهم11.4 million) 1971 Mercedes-Benz 600 Pullman Landaulet – featured on these pages in April – could acquire a 1964 Fiat 500 Jolly by Ghia owned by him for the lower, yet still somewhat punchy, sum of £70,000 to £100,000 ($90,500 to $129,300, €83,200 to €118,900 or درهم332,400 to درهم474,800) at an auction in London in May.

     

    Tito’s Toy – Ex-President Tito 1964 Fiat 500 Jolly Economical by Ghia to be auctioned on 18th May 2017 by Coys of Kensington at their Royal Horticultural Halls sale in Westminster, London, SW1 – Estimate £70,000 to £100,000 ($90,500 to $129,300, €83,200 to €118,900 or درهم332,400 to درهم474,800)
    Josip Broz Tito, born Josip Broz (1892 – 1980), President of Yugoslavia (1953 – 1980)

     

    To be offered by Coys of Kensington at their forthcoming Royal Horticultural Halls sale in Westminster on 18th May, the ‘Economical’ converted Fiat 500 was owned from new by the 1st President of Yugoslavia. He was pictured using it on numerous occasions.

     

    Subsequently part of the Classic Automobile Museum collection in Belgrade for a number of years, the white runaround – chassis number 1100271507 – has covered just 12,500 miles and is described as “driving like new”. It comes with a certificate of authenticity and would make the perfect accessory for the owner of a super yacht, seaside estate or golf course.

     

    Tito’s Toy – Ex-President Tito 1964 Fiat 500 Jolly Economical by Ghia to be auctioned on 18th May 2017 by Coys of Kensington at their Royal Horticultural Halls sale in Westminster, London, SW1 – Estimate £70,000 to £100,000 ($90,500 to $129,300, €83,200 to €118,900 or درهم332,400 to درهم474,800) Tito’s Toy – Ex-President Tito 1964 Fiat 500 Jolly Economical by Ghia to be auctioned on 18th May 2017 by Coys of Kensington at their Royal Horticultural Halls sale in Westminster, London, SW1 – Estimate £70,000 to £100,000 ($90,500 to $129,300, €83,200 to €118,900 or درهم332,400 to درهم474,800)Tito’s Toy – Ex-President Tito 1964 Fiat 500 Jolly Economical by Ghia to be auctioned on 18th May 2017 by Coys of Kensington at their Royal Horticultural Halls sale in Westminster, London, SW1 – Estimate £70,000 to £100,000 ($90,500 to $129,300, €83,200 to €118,900 or درهم332,400 to درهم474,800) Tito’s Toy – Ex-President Tito 1964 Fiat 500 Jolly Economical by Ghia to be auctioned on 18th May 2017 by Coys of Kensington at their Royal Horticultural Halls sale in Westminster, London, SW1 – Estimate £70,000 to £100,000 ($90,500 to $129,300, €83,200 to €118,900 or درهم332,400 to درهم474,800)Tito’s Toy – Ex-President Tito 1964 Fiat 500 Jolly Economical by Ghia to be auctioned on 18th May 2017 by Coys of Kensington at their Royal Horticultural Halls sale in Westminster, London, SW1 – Estimate £70,000 to £100,000 ($90,500 to $129,300, €83,200 to €118,900 or درهم332,400 to درهم474,800) Tito’s Toy – Ex-President Tito 1964 Fiat 500 Jolly Economical by Ghia to be auctioned on 18th May 2017 by Coys of Kensington at their Royal Horticultural Halls sale in Westminster, London, SW1 – Estimate £70,000 to £100,000 ($90,500 to $129,300, €83,200 to €118,900 or درهم332,400 to درهم474,800)