Nikolay Kalinin contrasts ‘The Gavinator’ Gavin Newsom’s reopening of California with Boris Johnson’s still closed Britain and slams the latter for allowing the Indian variant to spread
Weeks after letting the Indian variant of COVID-19 – now dubbed the Delta variant – to get past the borders despite supposedly cutting off all communications with India, Boris Johnson has been forced to delay ‘Freedom Day’ to 19th July. Once again, ‘Bosie The Clown’ was too late to close the borders in time.
The nation’s finest gammons have responded to the news in a fashion that can only be described as “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing,” with GB News’ fruitcake Dan Wootton stating: “Those who know continued lockdowns are wrong have a duty to speak up,” while washed-up actor Laurence Fox and local weather loony Piers Corbyn predictably participated in yet another anti-lockdown protest.
Elsewhere, the state of California, which for the past 15 months has been battered by the pandemic, has fully reopened its economy, lifting measures such as social distancing, although large events such as sports will still be restricted. In addition to that, vaccinated Californians can go to most places without a face covering. I really hate to say it, but Americans led by ‘The Gavinator,’ Governor Gavin Newsom, have done something incredibly genius in a while.
The UK government meanwhile, aims to offer a vaccine to people over the age of 18 by the end of the week, in order to achieve the target of the entire British adult population receiving a first dose of the vaccine.
What’s surprising is that even though more people have been vaccinated in the UK than in California, yet more and more people in the UK are getting hospitalised. Much of this has to do with the Delta variant, which the government has foolishly allowed in and which has reduced the efficiency of the vaccines; for example, protection of AstraZeneca has fallen from 73% for the Alpha variant to 60% for the Delta variant.
The delay has also resulted in the government once again considering the implementation of vaccine passports for large events such as sports matches. Personally, I don’t think it’s a risk worth taking because of the reduced vaccine efficiency – meaning that once again the safest option is sadly to extend restrictions.
Let’s put this simply: All this comes because of the stupidity of nepotistic Prime Minister Johnson and misinformation spreaders like Fox and Corbyn and it is jolly well time they realised the errors of their ways and saw sense.
On Tuesday, Gavin Newsom shared California’s good news on Twitter. He remarked: “40 million vaccines. One of the lowest COVID rates in the country. California is BACK and fully reopen!” Earlier, he went further in sharing: “It’s reopening day. We’ve administered over 40 million vaccines. Now… No more social distancing. No more capacity limits. No more colors or county tiers. And if you’re vaccinated – no more masks. It’s a good day.” Shouldn’t Britain learn from this?Ludicrously in May, the BBC reported that an Indian couple “chartered a plan and held a mid-air wedding with more than 160 guests in an effort to escape coronavirus restrictions.” Meanwhile in April, ‘The Times of India’ reported: “India’s super-rich paid tens of thousands of pounds to get to Britain by private jets ahead of the Covid-hit country being added to the UK’s travel red list even as some charter flights arranged for others were denied landing permits. The website FlightAware show that eight private jets – which would have cost £70,000 each (around Rs 72 lakh) upwards to charter – arrived from India at London Luton airport in the 24 hours before the travel restrictions kicked in at 8.30am IST on Friday. Four of these arrived from Mumbai, three from Delhi and one from Ahmedabad.”
Yesterday in the House of Commons, Sir Keir Starmer quite rightly slammed Boris Johnson for failing to prevent the Delta variant from reaching the UK from India.
The Indian/Delta Variant Timeline…
– 1st April – Ministers told about the new strain.
– 2nd April – Pakistan and Bangladesh added to the red list, but not India.
– 15th April – Public told of this.
– 16 April – Prime Minister’s India trip still on.
– 19th April – Prime Minister’s trip cancelled and India added to red list.
– 23rd April – Ban finally kicks in.
The 3-week delay brought 20,000 passengers from India into the UK.
In response, Boris Johnson remarked: “We did all we could.”
Matthew Steeples demands to know why Boris Johnson was able to marry his puppet mistress in a Catholic cathedral given he’s already had two wives prior and highlights the wine chucking wife’s deviancy also
Ahead of lauding it over world leaders and their spouses at the forthcoming 47th G7 summit at the shameful disgrace that is the tree killing Carbis Bay Hotel next week, the wicked wench formerly known as Carrie Symonds pulled off a bit of ‘distraction technique’ excellence by marrying the man she’d previously chucked a lot of red wine at, her pointless puppet Boris Johnson, last weekend.
Decidedly deviant and also romantically involved with supporters of the far-right Traditional Britain Group – whom have expressed a desire to hang Baroness Lawrence, the mother of the victim of a racist murder, from a tree – prior to hooking up with money taker Jennifer Arcuri’s ex-bonker, the present (for how long, God only knows) Mrs Johnson’s union in a Catholic cathedral has also quite rightly attracted widespread criticism.
At a time when the general public haven’t been able to celebrate nuptials with many guests, how was it that Boris Johnson and his now wife were able to party with extras and how also could a man with two previous unions be able to pass them off as “invalid” and thus effectively heartlessly deny the existence of the children of those marriage in addition?
Whilst both Johnson – who was most definitely a confirmed member of the Church of England whilst at Eton, yet married in a Catholic ceremony last weekend – and his new wife were again laughably lauded by Daniel Johnson in Unherd on Tuesday as “deserving our congratulations, not our brickbats,” the majority of the public are left asking: “How can this sleazy oik and his 3rd concubine be allowed to so shamelessly profiteer whilst getting away with wrecking everybody else’s lives also?”
‘The Convenient Catholic Couple’ are a disgrace to our nation and after embarrassing us all before those attending the G7 summit next week, it’s surely time they finally did the decent thing: Disappear to Siberia and take their shitty Lulu Lytle decorations with them.
The Convenient Catholic Couple – Boris Johnson and his new merry wife, Carrie, are a pair of dangerous deviants. When they’re not wasting money on dodgy décor from Lulu Lytle, they’re bingeing on frightfully expensive food from ‘Lady Doors To Manual’ Carole Bamford’s ritzy Daylesford.The new Mr & Mrs Johnson’s wedding day photo showed a woman who looked like she was about to become a sacrifice. Meanwhile, the clown Prime Minister sported a tie that he’d previously worn whilst in the company of his ex-wife and another of his luscious lovers, Jennifer Arcuri, also.One has to wonder how Boris Johnson’s former shagging partner Jennifer Arcuri feels about his new union.On Twitter, many mocked the union of Boris Johnson and Carrie Symonds for exactly what it was: A comedy of errors and a prime example of the use of the distraction technique at a time when once Great Britain is facing the impending potential horrors of the Indian and Nepalese variants of COVID-19.“Is this woman suitable to be Britain’s 1st lady?” is a question the public are quite rightly asking.
EXCLUSIVE – Kirby Sommers shares another chapter from her latest book ‘Ghislaine Maxwell: An Unauthorized Biography’ with readers of ‘The Steeple Times’ and this time explores the currently incarcerated socialite’s life in London in the 1980s
Chapter Seven. Ghislaine in the 1980s.
Annabel’s is a private members’ only club in Mayfair located West of London. It was founded in 1963 by Mark Birley then married to Lady Annabel Vane-Tempest-Stewart after whom he named it. Annabel would later marry Sir Jimmy Goldsmith, rumored to be a spy, and who, in the early 1970s became a friend of Jeffrey Epstein’s.
It was the first of its kind – a club for the very affluent, the very powerful or the very famous. Their clientele included the royal family. Charles, Prince of Wales who everyone believed would be King in short order and his younger brother, Prince Andrew. It was the only club that Queen Elizabeth ever attended. In later years it became the go to club for younger royals like Princes William and Harry.
The entrance was lined even from the earliest days with the rich, the powerful and the beautiful where streams of the upper-class descended into the basement to party. Journalists were never admitted and the entertainment included The Rolling Stones, Diana Ross and in earlier days Ella Fitzgerald. Joan Collins was in the club dancing one evening and a photographer from the Sun had managed to get himself into the club. He snapped a photo of her and was immediately plucked off the dance floor by two burly men who left him lying on the pavement outside sans the film in his camera.
After tumbling down the stairs into the poshest basement on the planet one is welcome into a den of hedonistic indulgence. The rooms were covered in wild wallpaper along with paintings by Picasso and racy nude drawings. The bathroom sinks were in the shape of golden swans and the walls a sensual floral pink. A life size gorilla sitting on a chair stood guard at the end of the hallway. It was over the top eccentric, but most of all it was posh.
In the 1980s Ghislaine Maxwell was one of the ‘somebodies’ along with her friends from Oxford. As with the debutantes of days long gone Ghislaine would murmur, “Take me to Bel’s” to the man of the moment. And, one of her ‘men’ in the 1980s was David Faber – a future MP.
Annabel’s was the sort of place where anything went and where “smooching” in one of dozens of its nooks and crannies was as much a part of the experience as kicking off one’s shoes or one’s clothes and losing oneself to the pulsating euphoria of the music on the infamous wooden dancefloor.
David Faber is a descendent of several British politicians. He also happens to be the great-grandson of the founder of MacMillan Publishing.
More tidbits about David include that his uncle, Maurice Macmillan, worked with Sir Edward Heath during the time he was Prime Minister. Heath is alleged to have sexually abused children commencing in 1961. He served for 51 years as a member of Parliament and died in 2005.
It should be noted that MacMillan was taken over by Robert Maxwell in November of 1988 for $2.6 billion. Although Maxwell claimed he had no plans to dispose of the company’s assets, one month later he sold a piece of it, Intertec, to an investment group led by Rothschild, Inc – the same company that served as his adviser in the purchase. Robert S. Pirie the Co-Chairman and CEO of Rothschild North America was his advisor in the transaction. In 1993 Pirie went on to became the Senior Managing Director of Bear Stearns & Co.
I thought it interesting that all the people in the Maxwell world circled around to those in Epstein’s world and so I tracked down an old New York Times article. It states, “Bear Stearns hired Mr. Pirie as a senior managing director. The firm, known primarily for trading, is trying to increase its banking business.”
Below is a photo of David dragging a disheveled and unbalanced 22-year-old Ghislaine while holding up her arm attempting to keep her steady on her feet at Annabel’s.
While Annabel’s always maintained a “no photo” policy banishing any member who breached protocol, nowadays with the advent of social media, their house rule has morphed into: “Photography within the club and posting to social media should be discreet and not involve or feature other members and their guests.”
Ghislaine and David began their romance while both at Balliol College, Oxford University. There is a second photo of Faber with Maxwell at the Chelsea Arts Ball during the club’s extravagant New Year’s Eve party on December 31, 1985. And there were probably many more before all things Maxwell began to get scrubbed off the internet after Jeffrey Epstein’s second arrest on July 6, 2019.
Ghislaine’s father, Bob, who had already cozied up to the Royal family and was fond of having his photo taken with Prince Charles, Princess Diana and the Queen would have been delighted to know Ghislaine was dancing up a storm and rubbing elbows with the royals. Prince Andrew was also a frequent guest at Annabel’s which is an 8-minute drive to another one of his favorite clubs: Tramp.
The Chelsea Arts Club is another private members’ club established in 1891. To be considered as a member one needs to be sponsored by two current members. It was known for its hedonism where literally anything was allowed. Nudity, sex, homosexuality at a time when it wasn’t the norm – everything happened behind the ever-changing murals hand-painted by their resident artists.
Ghislaine wasn’t the only woman David romanced. While at Oxford he also dated Sally Gilbert, a leggy blonde, who is said by a contemporary of his to have “pursued him with great determination – he didn’t have a chance.” She became a television weather girl and they married in 1988.
By 1992 Sally had fallen out of love with David finding him to be lacking in warmth and found herself being comforted by the world’s most celebrated cad, James Hewitt. Faber when filing for divorce cited James Hewitt as co-respondent.
Major Hewitt, it should be noted, was Princess Diana’s riding teacher and in the Household Cavalry when tasked to give her riding lessons. Hewitt, while romancing Farber’s soon to be ex-wife, revealed himself as having a five-year affair with Princess Diana that began in 1986. To avoid getting caught Diana used the codename ‘Julia’ when sending mail to Hewitt.
Hewitt told the world, via a book co-authored with British journalist Anna Pasternak, that he was Princess Diana’s lover in 1994 when she was still married to Prince Charles, the future King of England. Diana was bitterly hurt and devastated when she learned he had shopped around the story of their affair. Although there are claims she continued to see him afterwards up to several months before her untimely death in Paris on August 31, 1997.
Ghislaine Maxwell was not considered a good student during her time at Oxford, not by her professors and not even by herself. She did however earn the nickname “Good Time Ghislaine.” This suited her just fine.
From the awkward looking teenager Ghislaine had grown into an adult. She seemed taller than her height, perhaps because of her heels, or how she carried herself. She was thin with broad shoulders and thick black layered hair. Her complexion was pale and according to people who knew her at the time she had “an intense sexuality, an almost androgynous allure.”
Ghislaine learned to use her sexuality to get what she wanted. And what she wanted the most was to marry a wealthy man. This appeared, however, to be out of reach for the girl who had everything.
Robert Maxwell was fond of saying, “I have a “beautiful daughter who is just like me.”
Author, sex abuse survivor and advocate Kirby Sommers previously exclusively revealed the previously unknown name of the 9-year-old child sat on the lap of Jeffrey Epstein on his private jet to ‘The Steeple Times’ in February. To order her latest book ‘Ghislaine Maxwell: An Unauthorized Biography’ click here.
Nikolay Kalinin concludes that both Dominic Cummings and Boris Johnson’s rotten regime come out of this week disgraced
Dominic Cummings’ questioning at the COVID select committee has undoubtedly provoked a tsunami of responses. Cummings branded the PM he once advised as “unfit for job” and condemned Matt Hancock by saying that he “should have been fired for at least 15, 20 things, including lying to everybody on multiple occasions.”
Cummings claimed during questioning that Hancock lied about people getting treatment during the summer and stated: “We were told explicitly people did not get the treatment they deserved, many people were left to die in horrific circumstances.”
Not only that, but Cummings also stated that Johnson did indeed say that he would rather “let the bodies pile high in their thousands” that enforce another lockdown. If true, this demonstrates that the Prime Minister is absolutely not fit to rule a country whose people he has put in peril as a result of his continued incompetence.
There is no denying that the response of government officials to Cummings’ accusations has been plainly childish, including the response of Liz Truss, who stated that she “hasn’t had time to look at it yet” but also then stated: “I’m not going to engage with the false claims that are being made today.”
Meanwhile, Peter Kyle, Labour MP for Hove has decided to try to kill two birds with one stone by releasing a PMQ video from 25th March 2020 where he told the PM about the lack of COVID tests available in his constituency and how long it took to deliver them, captioning it with the words “They knew. THEY KNEW!”
Not only has Cummings’ dropped a bomb on the government but on ‘Costly Carrie’ too. In stating that his resignation from the role of Chief Adviser was linked “to the fact that the prime minister’s girlfriend was trying to change a whole bunch of different appointments at Number 10 and appoint her friends to particular jobs” – which sounds like a totally legitimate claim, especially considering how desperate ‘BoJo’ was to defend Carrie’s friend Henry Newman who got exposed as the man who leaked info about a second lockdown.
A YouGov poll conducted after the questioning concluded that although 55% of people do not trust Boris Johnson and how he has painted the government’s handling of the pandemic, a whopping 75% do not trust Cummings’ claims. This is not surprising considering the fact that he was responsible for the deceptive propaganda of Vote Leave and its “£350 million for NHS” claim.
Another poll conducted by Survation has concluded that even after Cummings’ revelations, the Conservatives extended their lead over Labour by 11 points, which is extremely concerning, because this shows that more people would rather trust the words of a man who throughout this pandemic has demonstrated barely any decent leadership and whose utter idiocy has destroyed the lives of many.
Not only that, but this poll shows that the people of Britain seem more likely to support a man whose fiancé wants to undermine the democratic process on which this country stands on and replace it with a rotten regime and controlled cronyism.
It truly feels as if most of Britain’s population are in the ‘Cult of BoJo’ and cannot stop ignoring all the terrible things he and his lackeys have done. If this is the kind of country that we are destined to live in for the next few years, then I’d argue that we are truly doomed.
Dominic Cummings’ grilling this week told the public what they already knew about Boris Johnson’s rotten regime.Boris Johnson comes out of this sorry saga looking more and more like a puppet and one formerly controlled by Cummings and now most definitely in the clutches of his latest ‘baby mama,’ Carrie Symonds.The court of Carrie Symonds (pictured with her “chatty rat” bestie Henry Newman) holds more sway than anything else currently in the ear of our laughable, not laudable Prime Minister.
‘The Devil’s Advocate’ Giovanni Di Stefano’s life is set to be made into a film following his forthcoming release from jail (and deportation from Britain)
In March 2014, the incarcerated conman Giovanni Di StefanotweetedThe Steeple Times to claim he had cheated “no one” before adding: “Who did I kill?” In spite of the fact that this po-faced prattler and all-round prick had been convicted and jailed for 14 years for “tricking people into thinking he was a bona fide legal professional” when he was anything but in 2013, he’s shortly about to get out of jail and after deportation from Britain will be participating in a film about his life and lies.
For plainly extremely intelligent but completely lacking in any kind of moral compass Di Stefano’s victims – whom include Tricia Walsh-Smith, a lady best known for making a video that went viral after it was published on YouTube during her especially acrimonious divorce from the then president of The Shubert Organization – this film will pile yet more misery on their already substantial losses. The film, which is to be made by six Academy Award nominated director Jim Sheridan, is based on a biography written by this “one of life’s great swindler’s” plainly anything but impartial son, Michael Di Stefano.
Currently titled The Devil’s Advocate – How to Win Fiends and Influence Despots in a plain nod to Dale Carnegie and Toby Young also, Sheridan commented of it: “It’s very easy to see this as a dramatic feature, but I think for now – the documentary form will suit the story better. This is an intriguing story and truly unique. The lead character is simply unbelievable, and we are delighted to have the exclusive co-operation of Giovanni, his family, his long-term assistant and his personal lawyer to tell the story.”
Going further, executive producer Jezz Vernon of Port Royal Media added: “The subject material is jaw dropping, we’re excited to bring Jim’s vision of the story to the screen. It’s a huge coup that Giovanni and his family have chosen to work exclusively with us.”
Summing rotten ratbag “defender of the indefensibles” Di Stefano – whose supposed clients in spite of him having no legal qualifications whatsoever up allegedly numbered ‘Moors Murderer’ Ian Brady, paedo pop singer Gary Glitter, slum lord Nicholas van Hoogstraten, deranged dictator Saddam Hussein, warped war criminal Slobodan Milošević and pensioner slayer Dr Harold Shipman – up in March 2013 before sending him down, Judge Alistair McCreath, the Recorder of Westminster, stated:
“Your victims in this case were all desperate people and people who, because of their desperation, were vulnerable… It is also about something different and great – it is about the real distress you caused to so many people… You had no regard for them nor for their anguish… Your only concern was to line your own pockets.”
Any film that suggests anything to the contrary will be nothing but claptrap.
On 11th May, Michael Di Stefano tweeted complaing his father’s prison sentence to be “arbitrary and unlawful.”In spite of being incarcerated, in April, Giovanni Di Stefano was able to tweet his views on MI5 whilst his son claimed the “UK breaks the rules to hold him.”Also in April, Di Stefano tweeted his sorrow about the death of the Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff and claimed he’d written to President Trump to ask him to put him “on his pardon list.”In February, this prisoner was able to post nonsense on his blog about predictions also.In January, Di Stefano tweeted about his sadness on the passing of the murderer Phil Spector.
Nikolay Kalinin slams the slapdash attitude of the Conservative Party to the sex pestering of both men and women by ‘Randy Rob’ Roberts MP
Welsh Conservatives seem to be a completely different breed; not only is their leader secretly a robot – which can be clearly evidenced from the way he speaks – but their MPs seem to have a problem with texting young women and asking them for sexual favours. First, we had Stephen Crabb, who somehow is still MP, and now we have Rob Roberts, MP for Delyn.
Having been exposed by BBC Wales almost a year ago for sending sexual texts to a young intern and asking if she wanted to “fool around with no strings attached,” Roberts is now on the path to being suspended from the House of Commons, meaning that another by-election could be on the horizon.
On a separate occasion, Roberts – who came out as gay in May last year – reportedly made a male Commons staffer uncomfortable and even made him change jobs after the MP asked him out and the youngster declined.
Roberts has since announced that he is intending to appeal against the decision to suspend him, although his efforts are expected to fail. If the Committee on Standards votes to suspend Roberts for more than 10 working days, this could lead to a recall petition, which possibly would result in a by-election being triggered if more than 10% of constituents sign the petition.
May I just remind you that a few weeks ago, a Conservative party spokesperson revealed that the inquiry into the MP’s conduct had concluded that “Mr Roberts has apologised for his behaviour and was instructed to undertake safeguarding and social media protection training.”
I have several questions: Why was ‘Randy Rob’ unable to avoid accountability for almost a year, and why was his punishment a simple slap on the wrist? Doesn’t this treatment greatly contrast with the principle of accountability that’s so essential to British politics, and why hasn’t Stephen Crabb received the same punishment?
This case suggests that nothing much has changed in regards to the acceptance of the behaviour of MPs, even after people like Stephen Crabb, Mike Hill and Brooks Newmark got exposed for sending sexually suggestive texts had their political careers ended. These people all seem to have ‘David Mellor Syndrome,’ and that is worrying, because those are the people whom we elect to represent us and our interests, not so that they could use their position to get in bed with people more easily.
Randy Rob Deserves The Rod – Nikolay Kalinin believes the likes of Rob Roberts MP have ‘David Mellor Syndrome’ … Now, there’s a political dinosaur most would prefer erased from the past, present and future.Randy Rob Deserves The Rod – The shameless Conservative Party seems to have learnt nothing from the case of the jailing of former MP Charlie Elphicke. After the groping, bottom slapper known as the ‘Naughty Tory’ was convicted as a sex offender and deservedly sent down for two years, the party replaced him with his very own wife – after she took a £25,000 bung for an interview in ‘The Sun’ about the situation – and as of yet has done nothing about her and her colleagues using parliamentary stationery to inappropriately bombard the judiciary as part of their attempt to get him a lesser sentence.
Randy Rob Deserves The Rod – Rob Roberts made his debut in the House of Commons relatively recently in February 2020. It is a shame he hasn’t been able to behave himself at all appropriately during the time since.
Nikolay Kalinin delves into Labour’s success in Wales in the recent elections and suggests if the party wants to win nationwide they should pay heed to what went on there
If there’s anything that the Senedd election results can tell us, it is that the Welsh people are amongst the few that have not gone completely crackers and voted for parties that will make their lives worse at this time.
This can be evidenced by the fact that there are now no seats taken by members of UKIP and the Abolish the Welsh Assembly Party, with the former losing all seven of their seats and gaining a miserable 0.8% of the constituency vote and 1.6% of the regional vote. This is an even more shameful result than AWAP, which gained 1.6% of the constituency vote and 3.7% of regional vote.
However, both the Green Party and AWAP had a high chance of winning a regional seat in the South Wales East – where back in 2016 UKIP came second with 17.8% and got 2 out of the 4 regional seats. Nevertheless, both parties fell short by just over 5,000 votes.
The anti-lockdown Reform UK also failed in their goal to “change politics for good,” gaining no seats and once again showing Nigel Farage and Richard Tice that no one cares about their party.
So far, none of the party leaders have said anything about their predicament, meaning that they have truly been defeated in a literal and mental sense, and hopefully they will keep their filthy noses out of Welsh politics for as long as possible.
How was Labour successful? They avoided focusing too much on attacking BoJo and his sleazy Eton pals and ‘Carrie Antoinette,’ and focused instead on positive messaging, even managing to attract the voters who backed UKIP back in 2016.
Welsh Labour’s leadership during the pandemic has also meant that the electorate feels more comfortable with voting for a party which has led the region during one of the biggest public health crises the country has ever seen, with many describing this attraction to the government as “Stockholm syndrome,” which I personally find to be very stupid.
Another conclusion that we can take from the results is that Plaid Cymru’s dreams of a Welsh referendum of independence is going to be very hard to achieve due to the lack of seats they have. They only managed to gain 13 seats, which is only one seat higher than their results in 2016.
The Welsh Labour manifesto has been seen as a big reason why Labour did not gain a majority, since it has been criticised as over-cautious, although looking at it I don’t see anything too tame there. Labour for example wants to keep prescriptions free in the region, open up a new medical school and develop the Young Persons Guarantee that will give everyone under 25 the offer of work, education, training, or self-employment.
Labour’s results in Wales should be a model for Labour as a whole party; there’s some speculation that by 2040, Labour will have enough support for a coalition government, although I don’t see this as possible if Labour keeps going at this rate.
As I previously mentioned in my article about Hartlepool and when I spoke to Nick Abbott on LBC, the reason Labour won in Wales was because they appealed to the former UKIP working-class voters. So, next, it’s time Sir Keir Starmer applied that same tactic nationwide.
Wisdom From Wales – Two contrasting leaders, Mark Drakeford and Boris Johnson, who’ve both had remarkable success in the 2021 elections. Labour First Minister Mark Drakeford was returned with an extraordinarily increased majority and polled nearly 50% of the total votes cast in Cardiff West. Labour also took back Rhondda from the former Plaid Cymru leader, Leanne Wood. Of the success of this pair and Nicola Sturgeon in Scotland also, ‘Unherd’s’ Freddie Sayers remarked: “One factor that hasn’t been much discussed is that these three characters — Sturgeon, Drakeford and Johnson — have for the past year of pandemic been on the television screens almost every evening precisely calibrating the level of freedom people should expect to enjoy. Sometimes our leaders have been generous, allowing us to have a coffee on a park bench with a friend; at other times, they have been pointlessly capricious, such as when Mark Drakeford insisted that non essential items like birthday cards and books were cordoned off in Welsh supermarkets so that people did not shop unnecessarily.”
Nikolay Kalinin shares his thoughts on Labour’s electoral hiding in Hartlepool
On Friday, came the result that everybody expected: The Labour Party lost the Hartlepool by-election to the Conservatives and for the first time since the constituency was created in 1974, a party other than Labour has the seat.
The outcome is both surprising and not surprising; after all, back in 2016 nearly 70% of Hartlepool voters supported leaving the EU, and the successful COVID-19 vaccine rollout has ensured that the government has the majority of public support. Yet in 2017, the Corbyn led Labour managed to retain the seat, even gaining the majority of the vote, and in the 2019 election Labour retained the seat, even though the party was seen as the biggest opponent of Brexit.
The truth is that there’s no single reason why Labour lost the by-election; Lord Mandelson for example has attributed Labour’s defeat to the “two Cs – Corbyn and COVID,” while casting Brexit as a secondary issue: “Believe it or not, not on one door that I knocked did a single voter mention Brexit to me. The one thing they did raise with me however is Jeremy Corbyn – he is still casting a very dark cloud over Labour,” Mandelson remarked.
Labour’s defeat and Jill Mortimer’s win also lies in the absence of the Brexit Party, now named Reform UK; back in 2019 the party split the vote, gaining 25.8% whereas the Conservatives gained 28.9%, which was instrumental in allowing Labour to win with just 37% of the vote. Had the Brexit Party not run that year, the Conservatives would have definitely won.
The disconnect between Labour and the electorate can be evidenced in Friday’s episode of BBC Radio 5 Live Breakfast, where several callers voiced their dissatisfactions with the party; one Conservative voter and small business owner stated that Labour “have taken Hartlepool for granted” and “chose a guy who was a devout Remainer.” Another caller added that Labour “needs to work on actually speaking to the working classes again” and connect with “small business owners, self-employed, Deliveroo drivers” as they “are the new working class.”
The choice of Paul Williams as Labour’s candidate for Hartlepool was also a factor in the party’s undoing in the by-election, since his choice once again evokes a disconnect between Labour and the voters they are trying to appeal to; not only was Williams an MP for another constituency – namely Stockton South – but he also opposed Brexit when most of the voters in his seat voted to leave the EU. You shouldn’t choose a Remainer to represent a Brexiteer constituency, just like you shouldn’t choose Priti Patel as ambassador for a mental health organisation, would be my conclusion.
Even Sir Keir Starmer seems to agree that Labour has been disconnected with the voters, as he reacted to the election results by saying, “Very often we’ve been talking to ourselves, instead of to the country, and we’ve lost the trust of working people, particularly in places like Hartlepool. I intend to do whatever is necessary to fix that.”
To a lesser extent another reason for Labour’s defeat is the fact that their previous MP, Mike Hill, was a sexual predator, which makes me wonder: “Why was Stephen Crabb, Conservative MP for Preseli Pembrokeshire, not forced out of his seat considering he was shown to be a degenerate with an unrestrained sexual desire.”
So, what is my overall analysis? Labour’s defeat in Hartlepool and the collapse of an important part of the ‘Red Wall’ was brought on by a wide range of factors, ranging from the time of Corbyn’s leadership, the successful vaccination rollout by the Conservative government, and also the issue over EU, which suggests that Brexit is still a prevalent issue among the British public.
Many would blame Corbyn for where the party is now, and I can agree that he dragged Labour down in 2019, but the truth is that Sir Keir might actually drag them down even further; whereas Corbyn tried to appeal to the “new working class” of young workers – which was essential in getting more young people to vote in 2017 – Starmer has decided to go after the older homeowners who are more likely to vote Conservative.
If Labour wants to regain the seat and have a chance at challenging ‘Bosie The Clown’ and his sleazy Eton friends in 2024, they must connect with their core working-class electorate, no matter whether they voted for Brexit or not. The ‘Wallpapergate’ sleaze scandal seems to have no impact on the government at all, so it’s probably best if Labour now instead dedicates its time to connecting with those that actually could get them elected.
Pictured top: Sir Keir Starmer campaigning in Hartlepool with wannabe MP for the Paul Williams.
A Hiding in Hartlepool 2021 – Jill Mortimer didn’t win over voters in Hartlepool. Labour, in fact, lost them.
Nikolay Kalinin suggests that in spite of their crusade against Tory sleaze, Labour’s Sir Keir Starmer is failing to make any inroads and finds himself in a multifaceted mess
A week ago, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer attempted to present himself as the superhero British politics needs in order to rid the country of Tory sleaze. He proffered that his scrutiny at Prime Minister’s Questions and photo-ops at John Lewis illustrated that Labour will annihilate the Tories in tomorrow’s elections simply because the governing party are just ‘no good.’
Yet, the truth for Sir Keir is actually far bleaker and a multifaceted mess, as ever since February the gap between the Conservatives and Labour in the polls has been increasing in the governing party’s favour and this has mostly been due to the UK government’s incredibly successful vaccination programme.
Even after the ‘Wallpapergate’ scandal, it seems like nothing much has changed, as a YouGov poll has projected that on 6th May, Labour is most likely to lose 59 seats in ‘Red Wall’ local councils, whereas the Conservatives are set to gain 90. Furthermore, 38% of people in ‘Red Wall’ council areas have stated that Boris Johnson would “make the best Prime Minister,” compared to just 30% for Starmer.
The by-election in the Hartlepool constituency meanwhile – which has been described as the first litmus test of Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour leadership – has also left many expecting Labour will lose their hold over the area. A poll conducted by Good Morning Britain concluded that 50% of the people interviewed in the area would vote for Conservative candidate Jill Mortimer, compared to the 33% that would vote for Labour candidate Paul Williams.
In even worse news for Labour, another GMB poll concluded that most people in Hartlepool had favourable feelings towards Conservatives (46%), compared to Labour’s 31%. Furthermore, 45% of people expressed negative feelings towards Labour, compared to 31% who expressed negativity towards Conservatives. It seems therefore like Labour is on the path to losing the seat, which has been controlled by them since its establishment in 1974.
Still, there has also been evidence in the last few days that suggests otherwise; a recent UK voting intention poll conducted by Redfield & Wilton Strategies has seen the Conservatives’ lead being slashed by 4%, whereas Labour has gained 4% in the polls, meaning that the gap between both is now a mere 2%.
As expected, Labour London Mayor Sadiq Khan is expected to retain his position as he maintains a fairly stable lead in the polls, with predictions that he’ll get 61% in the first round whereas his hapless Conservative rival Shaun Bailey will achieve a mere 39%.
There’s a dangerously high chance that the Conservatives will be able to use the vaccination success in order to win over the voters in councils and in Hartlepool, who will ignore the fact that their PM has used donated money for his own expenses and didn’t even disclose it.
Why has Sir Keir Starmer, in general, failed to deliver a fatal blow to the Tories in the lead-up to the elections? It’s most likely due to lack of a uniting ideology, but more importantly due to the lack of opposition; because of the government’s role in fighting against COVID-19, it’s possible that the role of Labour as an opposition party has been substantially reduced, as they are actually unable to scrutinise the Tories like they would normally have had had there been no pandemic. In some way, Sir Keir seems to be lacking the appeal that Jeremy Corbyn had as Labour leader, which allowed the party to receive an influx of members after decades of falling membership.
So far, the sleaze scandals have not hurt the Conservatives at all – as a matter of fact support for them has been increasing – and even more surprisingly the Labour Party that has been leading the campaign against sleaze is getting pummeled in the polls. It truly is concerning that a party that has such a large lack of connection with people is leading in the polls, because this should not happen in a country that is supposedly a representative democracy. We’ll just have to wait and see, but a very important first signal will emerge with the results tomorrow.
Starmer’s Multifaceted Mess – Sir Keir Starmer certainly did not help himself when he found himself kicked out of a pub in Bristol in April. His minder’s bullyboy conduct reflected very badly upon him and the fact that his aides had not checked the venue out first shows a shocking lack of coordination on the Labour Party’s part.Starmer’s Multifaceted Mess – Sir Keir Starmer believes: “Another future is possible,” but thus far he has failed to convince he is the man who could deliver such in post-coronavirus pandemic Britain.
Nikolay Kalinin reports wannabe Conservative Mayor of London Shaun Bailey has sunk to 84/1 on Oddschecker; he suggests voters back outsiders such as Max Fosh, Count Binface and Niko Omilana as a sign of protest against the ineptitude of mainstream candidates
Shaun Bailey – the man who once promised to give London “a fresh start” – is once again facing a massive decline in support. This is far from surprising given some newly unearthed remarks he has been found to have made.
If you thought this Conservative Mayoral candidate would stop going after women – whether they be pregnant teenagers of female MPs – then you would be seriously wrong as now this misogynist dullard has gone one stage further and decided to go after female domestic abuse victims too.
In a post found on the website of Conservative Women’s Organisation, Bailey claimed: “If you could get girls to accept less of men’s rubbish then men would have to change because ultimately men are after a girl.” In doing so, all he achieved was invoke the idea that it is the fault of women if they find themselves getting abused. I would love to hear him say that to the faces of the thousands of women who were trapped in hostile environments with abusive partners during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bailey’s campaign spokesperson responded to the criticism, not by saying that he has taken accountability for his statements – or even better that he would be dropping out of the Mayoral election – but by accusing Labour of “taking old comments out of context.” The spokesperson added that they believed his point was that “the only way to end domestic violence is to change the behaviour of men.” This, I’d argue, is a blatant lie.
It should be mentioned that Bailey has a history of speaking before thinking about many matters. In 2017, it was reported that he called the region of North Kensington where he grew up in a “ghetto” – which hugely contrasts with the high house prices in the region, as well as the fact that the very wealthy ex-PM David Cameron is a resident of that very same area.
In the meantime, the mayoral campaigns of YouTuber Max Fosh and Count Binface – both of whom The Steeple Times have endorsed (given there’s little to nothing else on offer) – have been expanding greatly, with Fosh continuing his crusade against blockhead Laurence Fox, calling out his ex-fellow Old Harrovian for failing to debate with him.
Fosh has also created a website where he has written out his election policies. They include a pledge to “put Laurence Fox on the call back list for every acting job in London” and another to build Jurassic parks across the city.
Count Binface has also released a campaign manifesto of his own on Twitter, where he has pledged – amongst many other ingenious things to banish Piers Corbyn to the Phantom Zone, finish Crossrail and get London to go it alone and join the EU.
I would like to encourage readers to vote for Max Fosh as your first preference on 6th May, and Count Binface or Niko Omilana – who has stated he wishes to deport all EDL members to Poland and ban Prince Andrew from going within a 4-mile radius of all London schools as your second preference.
These three people, unbelievable as it may seem, are way more appealing than the three leading clowns Sadiq Khan, Shaun Bailey and Brian Rose, so let’s show them that on 6th May. It’s time to give the Conservatives and Labour especially the kick they well and truly deserve.
Bailey Bombs to 84/1 – Shaun Bailey has been endorsed by the pretty awful Priti Patel. If that’s the best he can do, God help the guy.Bailey Bombs to 84/1 – Even ‘King of Tory Sleaze’ Boris Johnson appears to be distancing himself from Shaun Bailey’s flagging campaign. Frankly, this bombastic bozo might as well give up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-ItPJWU6QQ
Bailey Bombs to 84/1 – ‘The Steeple Times’ urges readers to back independent candidates to send a signal to the mainstream parties that their campaigns in the London Mayoral elections have been dreadful in 2021. Contributor Nikolay Kalinin suggests Niko Omilana as one such option.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcy5V4JwfnA
Bailey Bombs to 84/1 – Max Fosh is the favoured first choice of ‘The Steeple Times.’
Bailey Bombs to 84/1 – We also rather like Count Binface and urge choosing him as your second choice.
