In the wake of ‘The Sunday Times’ expose of Nigel Farage’s curious connections with convicted criminal George Cottrell, Matthew Steeples highlights an equally curious crony of theirs, Twitter trolling twerp (‘Ian’) Mowbray Jackson
Like or loathe this definite disruptor, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage MP can now be deservedly branded a hypocrite of the first order.
Prone to slamming political opponents such as ‘Raving Rayner’ Angela Rayner for awkward antics concerning her second home and making a mockery of Sir Keir Starmer over being made a spectacle of concerning Lord Alli and Specsavers, Farage has not only been lambasted for taking a “personal gift” of £5 million from a Thai based tycoon, Christopher Harborne, in recent days, but was well and truly roasted yesterday in a ravaging set of revelations in The Sunday Times.
Whilst the focus of crusading journalist Gabriel Pogrund and his team was on 62-year-old Farage failing to declare being given use of a £4 million Westminster townhouse and countless other benefits by convicted criminal 32-year-old ‘Posh George’ Cottrell (who previously “legally changed his name from ‘Cottrell’ to ‘Cotrel’”), a throwaway paragraph brought in analysis of the involvement a longstanding sworn self-declared enemy of The Steeple Times, a rather tedious Twitter troll who used to go by the name of Mowbray Jackson.
Today, we delve into the details of 59-year-old Jackson (whom fascinatingly now opts for the Christian name of ‘Ian’ on Companies House for records concerning his latest venture, Fispay Ltd), Farage and Cottrell and the links between them their ‘high society’ chums. Be prepared to join the dots between a cretinous collection that jumps from left to right with Adam Boulton, Hugh Grant and Emily Maitlis to one side and Arron Banks, Baroness Meyer and Raheem Kassam to the other.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel at @mjs2781 or become a member even.
If you haven’t done so already, please support keeping The Steeple Times in the business of telling the stories that the mainstream media don’t dare touch by helping fund our work via Patreon. Even a small donation will help keep us going and will be hugely appreciated.
Buy Matthew Steeples a tea (or better a gin) via Ko-fi.
The lavish life of (‘Ian’) Mowbray Jackson… The missing link with multiple names between Nigel Farage and George Cottrell
Friends with definite benefits “No Delay – Simples” – Nigel Farage and George Cottrell with (‘Ian’) Mowbray Jackson lurking behind them in a pair of sunglasses attempting to pull a Tom Cruise-esque look during a ‘Respect the Referendum’ protest. This is a mutually beneficial ‘friendship’ that clearly runs deep.Bombastic businessman Arron Banks, a major supporter of Nigel Farage and Leave.EU, gave evidence before a parliamentary select committee in June 2018. A particularly plump Mowbray Jackson – at one time a data protection officer for Reform UK – was snapped lounging like a lizard behind him.‘Ian’ or ‘Mowbray’ (depending on what day of the week it is) Jackson with George Cottrell and Georgia Toffolo at the long since shuttered Motcombs restaurant in Belgravia, SW1 circa May 2022. Cottrell dated the ‘Made In Chelsea’ and 2017 ‘I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!’ winner from 2019 to 2023 and subsequently married the equally controversial BrewDog co-founder James Watt in Aberdeenshire, Scotland on 1st March 2025. Blundell’s Schoolm educated ‘Toff’ happens also to be a longstanding bosom chum of Boris Johnson’s father Stanley Johnson.On Sunday 5th July 2026, crusading journalist Gabriel Pogrund and his stellar investigative team at ‘The Sunday Times’ published an immensely thorough into the relationship between Nigel Farage and George Cottrell. In it, details of Mowbray Jackson’s alleged involvement was revealed. The paper stated: “One of the companies is owned by Mowbray Jackson, a Reform employee who serves as the party’s data protection officer… Cottrell denied he was heavily involved in the crypto-gambling platform [Tether.bet]. Jackson and Robery declined to comment. A source close to Jackson said he would need to obtain legal advice.”In yesterday’s investigation, “difficult to pin down” George Cottrell was himself highlighted for calling Nigel Farage ‘Daddy’; this was understandably widely mocked on social media. Cottrell was arrested whilst in the company of Nigel Farage at Chicago O’Hare International airport on 22nd July 2016 and federally indicted on 21 counts for conspiracy to commit money laundering, wire fraud, blackmail and extortion. After a plea deal in December 2016 and a guilty plea on one count of wire fraud, he was sentenced sentenced and released by Judge Diane Humetewa after having served 8 months in prison.‘The Finance Guy’ – @OneFinanceGuy on X – has been digging into the ‘interesting’ relationship between ‘daddy’ Nigel Farage and ‘son’ George Cottrell and their associates for many a month. In one post yesterday, 5th July 2026, on the platform he shared a video clip of the latter on a yacht in Montenegro with amongst others Mowbray Jackson and former gambling director and Attorney General of Arizona Mark Brnovich. On 12th January 2026, Brnovich, at one point was nominated (subsequently withdrawn) by Donald Trump to be the ambassador of the United States to Serbia, died at his home in Phoenix aged just 59 after suffering a heart attack.Raheem Kassam with George Cottrell with Mowbray Jackson tailing on their coattails in Parliament Square, SW1A. Kassam has various been worked in finance at Lehman Brothers, at ‘Breitbart’ and ‘The National Pulse’ and been involved in the Henry Jackson Society, UKIP and Reform. In July 2019, the Australian Labor Party called for Kassam to be banned from entering their country and on Wikipedia he is referenced as being “described as far right” given his involvement in a 2018 ‘Free Tommy Robinson’ rally in London.Mowbray Jackson was part of the organising committee for an event Chanel clad charity tin banger Catherine Meyer (now The Right Honourable The Baroness Meyer CBE of Nine Elms in the London Borough of Wandsworth) – a finger wagging woman suspended from the House of Lords for 3 weeks in December 2024 for calling a fellow peer “Lord Poppadom” and touching the hair of black MP Bellavilla Riberio-Addy without her permission – organised courtesy of her mate and then Home Secretary The Right Honourable Theresa May hosted at Downing Street on 23rd May 2012. Others hobnobbing with Cathy Meyer whilst hitting the hooch included the since croaked chippy-not-chirpy ex-ambassador Sir Christopher Meyer, property tycoon turned Reform UK treasurer Nick Candy and his then wife ex-‘Neighbours’ actress Holly Valance, former BBC presenter Sue Lawley OBE, advertising tycoon Sir Martin Sorrell, meddling mouthpiece Clarence Mitchell and the parents of ‘missing’ Madeleine McCann, Gerry and Kate McCann.Social climbing arselicker Mowbray Jackson most definitely celebrates hanging around with what some might turn ‘the great and the good’; pictured from left to right with Petronella Wyatt, daughter of politician and journalist Lord (Woodrow) Wyatt and ex-lover of Boris Johnson, former Sky News anchor Adam Boulton and actor turned Hacked Off press hater Hugh Grant. Jackson’s ‘friendship’ with the Love Actually star is worthy of mention given the latter’s noted involvement campaigning against Brexit and the former’s decided rabid enthusiasm for it. Whether Jackson and Grant still get sloshed together at Brinkley’s in Hollywood Road, SW10 – as they did for many a year – is unknown.Banal braggart Mowbray Jackson has banged-on about his friendship with the rather left-wing television presenter Emily Maitlis – best known for her 2020 ‘Newsnight’ interview that was the catalyst for the downfall of the then Prince Andrew over his relationships with Jeffrey Epstein, Virginia Roberts Giuffre and Ghislaine Maxwell – to anyone willing to listen for many, many years. His union with Canadian born and Queen’s College, Cambridge educated Maitlis is curious given her known enthusiasm for amongst others the Labour peer and alleged traitor Lord Mandelson.Anything-but-camera-shy show-off Mowbray Jackson has been snapped with ‘actress’ Elizabeth Hurley on occasions also. Hurley, of course, forms part of Hugh Grant’s entourage of press haters, Hacked Off, along with amongst others the dim-witted drippy dunce Prince Harry, ‘Saint Doreen’ Baroness Lawrence, Sir Elton John and his titleless husband David Furnish, ‘actress’ Sadie Frost and ex-MP Simon Hughes. A judgment is due in the case brought by this tedious collection of twerps in their case against Associated Newspapers, publishers of the ‘Daily Mail’ and ‘Mail on Sunday’, on Tuesday 7th July 2026.In times past, prior to getting deeply embedded with Reform UK, Jackson was a political agent for UKIP and was snapped in a purple rosette whilst working on journalist William Cash’s failed campaign to get elected for North Warwickshire in Coleshill, Warwickshire in the 2015 General Election.‘Ian’ Mowbray Jackson appears to have deleted his account on Twitter, formerly X, in the wake of ‘The Sunday Times’ expose having first joined the platform in February 2009. His tweets mostly numbered toady responses to society wannabes who’d hosted him at parties and trolling those he loathed – including mostly Matthew Steeples and the likes of anti-Brexit campaigning financier Gina Miller.His @mowbrayjackson account was suspended on occasions given his propensity for abusive tweeting. Perhaps, now, this tedious Twitter troll would simply do best to decide what his actual Christian name is and learn the art of silence.
David Lennox shares the stories of five famous British poker players and what makes them good at their game
Many of our readers enjoy gaming both in casinos and online on sites such as SlotsLV, but most would struggle to name individuals famous for other activities who also happen to be very, very good at games such as poker.
Whilst well-known individuals such as the footballer Michael Owen has also found success on the horseracing circuit and the England manager Terry Venables is now also known for co-creating the detective series Hazell, the following five ‘famous faces’ are the British kings of ‘poker hand’ activity:
Derren Brown
Mentalist, illusionist, painter and author are just a few of the occupations Derren Brown has practicised. A former evangelical Christian turned atheist, this award-winning “master of mind control” is a winner of two Laurence Olivier Awards and in 2014 appeared as himself in the Sherlock episode ‘The Empty Hearse.’
Active since 1992, Croydon born Brown claims not possess any supernatural powers and often begins his shows by stating that what he does is achieved through “magic, suggestion, psychology, misdirection and showmanship.” He took inspiration from the hypnotist Martin S. Taylor and worked as a conjuror whilst studying at the University of Bristol.
Considered a controversial entertainer by some, Brown – who claims to be a “big fan” of parrots and who is a patron of the Parrot Zoo Trust in Friskney, Lincolnshire – is said to have “prowess” also at blackjack and poker. He is considered so good that he has supposedly been banned from several casinos in the United Kingdom.
Stephen Chidwick (Aliases ‘stevie444’ and ‘TylersDad64’)
Aside from being a lookalike of the Marmite-like social media manipulator Andrew Tate, Playa del Carmen based Stephen Chidwick is listed as being the number one on the England all-time money list for poker tournament winnings.
Born in 1989 in Deal, Kent and “popular with the fans,” Chidwick had raked in a grand total of £26.1 million ($32.3 million, €29.7 million or درهم118.6 million) by November 2019 and likely now has well exceeded that figure. At that time, he was eighth all-time and he currently stands at the biggest-earning British tournament poker player in history.
Michael Greco
Best known for having played Beppe di Marco in EastEnders for four years, Michael Greco was born in Sutton, Greater London in November 1970. He has also appeared in Casualty, Celebrity Love Island and Soapstar Superstar, but card games are his true passion.
Wikipedia list Greco’s total live tournament poker winnings at in excess of £890,000 ($1.1 million, €1 million or درهم4 million), but given they only provide dated entries to contests including the Showbiz Poker between 2005 and 2009, his actual total is likely far higher.
In 2022, the actor announced he would be starring in a new Netflix series and also appeared in Aladdin at Wolverhampton’s Grand Theatre. Of this, he observed: “They’re the best parts to play, the villains. It’s the role people remember. I played the boy-next-door characters growing up. As I’ve got a bit older, gruffer and hairier – oh, and greyer – it’s the baddies now.”
Stephen Hendry MBE (AKA ‘The Golden Boy’, ‘The Ice Man’ and ‘The King of the Crucible’)
Aside from having appeared a poor ninth in The Masked Singer as ‘Rubbish’ in 2023, this Scottish snooker player is lauded as “one of the most successful snooker players in history.”
Hendry turned professional in 1985 at the tender age of 16 and went on to become the sport’s youngest world champion when he won his first World Snooker Championship in 1990 aged just 21. He won seven world titles between 1990 and 1999 and retired in 2012, but returned to the professional circuit in 2021.
A father of two, Hendry supports Hearts and Chelsea F.C. and also “enjoys poker.” He has appeared in several televised tournaments and especially “loves” high-stakes games.
Stuart Wheeler (1935 – 2020)
Eton and Oxford educated Stuart Wheeler was once “told to stop playing blackjack for being too successful at Caesar’s Palace Casino in Las Vegas.” He played cards with Lord Lucan two nights before his disappearance, invented spread-betting on shares and gave William Hague’s Conservative Party the biggest donation in British history – a sum of £5 million ($6.2 million, €5.7million or درهم22.7 million).
A regular competitor in the World Series of Poker championships and known for playing bridge with Omar Sharif also, Wheeler lived in the £15 million ($18.6 million, €17 million or درهم68.2 million) Chilham Castle in Kent and counted ‘Model of the Millennium’ Jacquetta Wheeler amongst his trio of delightful daughters.
In September 2019, Quiller published Wheeler’s memoir Winning Against The Odds: My Life in Gambling and Politics and launched it with a glitzy party hosted by Dominic Cummings at Carlton House Terrace. He sadly died of stomach cancer just months later and generously left his Jacobean castle to charity.
David Lennox is a restaurant critic and occasional enthusiast for the ‘Sports of Kings.’ He enjoys the ‘Beautiful Game’ and the odd game of poker as well as backgammon and the roulette wheel also.
Matthew Steeples suggests Jim Davidson should admit he got it wrong in suggesting returned to jail paedophile Gary Glitter was a “remorseful’ man who “looked ready to start a new life”
This morning, the washed-up wazzock and all-round scumbag that is Jim Davidson OBE was trending on Twitter after an interview with the ‘Mouth of the Sewer’ that is GB News’ Dan Wootton last night.
Whilst Davidson – a foul-mouthed ‘5×3’ (five kids by three of his five wives) – used the interview to bang on about “smug” Gary Lineker and how he “never particularly felt welcome” at the BBC, he neglected to comment on his thoughts on the real trending news, that of the filthy paedophile Gary Glitter being returned to jail after just 38 days in a bail hostel after breaching his licence terms.
Glitter – who was caught and photographed by another bail hostel resident using a smartphone to access the ‘Dark Web’ via something called ‘The Onion’ to attempt to snare further victims – had been visited by Davidson at the Isle of Wight prison where he was then housed by the former supermarket shelf-stacker Davidson in 2019.
Afterwards, in June 2021, Davidson shockingly and rather casually shared of his child abusing ‘chum’:
“I spoke to Paul [Gadd, AKA ‘Gary Glitter’] when I visited The Verne [prison] two years. He’s remorseful and he looked ready to start a new life.”
Instead of remarking on this very, very clear ‘error of judgment,’ speaking to Dan Wootton on GB News yesterday regarding the BBC’s #GaryGate debacle, Davidson raged:
“My political interest was cast upon me way before at Thames Television when I had The Jim Davidson Show and a man called John Howard Davis, who was a BBC producer, turned up and got rid of me and Benny Hill overnight.”
“And then, about a year later, I got a little cassette, a VHS, dropped on my desk by my manager and it [sic] said: ‘The BBC want you.’”
“I said: ‘What’s that?’ They [sic] said: ‘They want you to do this, it’s some rotten show about snooker, so me and John Virgo went and did that show and I never particularly felt welcome there.”
“I was a smell under peoples’ noses and then one day Bruce Forsyth went sick and I stepped in and did The Generation Game. I replaced him just for a day and I wasn’t particularly good, but it made Bruce get better very quick.”
“When he went to do his new deal, they said: ‘No, we’ve got Jim Davidson’ and I did The Generation Game for seven years. I did The Big Break for twelve seasons and seven seasons of The Generation Game.”
“Now look at the BBC. I’m totally erased; I am the statue that’s thrown into Bristol Docks… They gave me a million quid to go away. I had a contract with a million quid’s worth of wages and they said: ‘We’ll give you a million quid if you go away; please don’t tell anyone,” but I told you ‘Danny Boy’ [Dan Wootton].”
“I was worse [than anything else] because I was a working-class Tory. I was a traitor and I like to mess about and have a laugh and be rude and stuff on the rehearsals and it was all pretty much frowned upon.”
“They’re more concerned in being woke and ticking boxes. You know, ticking boxes; the man said to me: ‘We have to have 8.9% ethnic minorities on every show’ and so if you couldn’t get anybody that wanted to come on Big Break who was of non-white persuasion, you had to go out and kidnap some poor bugger and throw him in.”
“You know, err, it was daft and do you know what I learnt there, and I’ve been in the business forty-seven years… I’m nearly one-hundred… So, you learn a thing or two about the BBC and it’s full of people that don’t know how to make programmes. I had to tick a box and I had to be silly.”
“Now, I wouldn’t have thrown Lineker off like that and having a boss called Tim. Now come on, how scary is a Tim?”
“Now, anyway, you wouldn’t throw someone off; just turn them off. I can understand that it’s taxpayers’ money and I hate the BBC with a passion. It’s a toss-up between them and the NHS who I hate the most, but I, you know, I wouldn’t have got rid of him because now Tim’s shown himself as lily livered.”
“[Lineker] can now say what he wants, can’t he? He’s won and he’s going to be even smugger. Smug, smugger.”
“It’s upto Tim and all those silly people [what the BBC does next] and now they want to get rid of the chairman ‘cos he arranged some loan or helped Boris [Johnson]. Now, everyone’s just picking on one another. I think the BBC have lost the public; they’ve lost the dressing room.”
“You know, who do we watch now? GB News, anything but BBC. What does the BBC stand for? ‘Bring Back Corbyn,’ ‘Bring Back Communism.’”
“You know, it is a joke and we have to pay for it whether we like it or not. You know, let’s scrap it and watch GB News all day long.
Responding, this morning on Twitter, I asked:
“As Jim Davidson trends, should he apologise for his June 2021 remark: “I spoke to Paul Gadd [Gary Glitter] when I visited The Verne [prison] two years ago. He’s remorseful and he looked ready to start a new life” given the paedo has been recalled to prison after being caught on Dark Web?”
Other Twitter users took up the mantle and amongst comments were:
“I wonder if Jim Davidson still believes that Gary Glitter is remorseful and ready to start a new life?”
“Remember when Jim Davidson was funny? Me neither.”
“Fun Fact: For years the BBC didn’t give a flying sh*t about their right-wing so-called ‘comedian’ Jim Davidson’s racist/misogynistic stage show when he was hosting their flagship Saturday night show ‘The Generation Game’ #IStandWithGaryLineker.”
All that Glitters is not gold; all that is Jim Davidson is utterly toxic and now it is time for the latter to apologise for getting it well and truly wrong about one of the most evil men ever to set foot on this planet.
Editor’s Note – Unlike as is the case in many publications, this article was NOT sponsored or supported by a third-party. Follow Matthew Steeples on Twitter at @M_Steeples.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGGBmDZbfgE
TRAILER – Matthew Steeples will be ‘live’ with Shaun Attwood to discuss his views on Gary Glitter being returned to the clink after breaching his licence terms whilst in a bail hostel on Wednesday 15th March at 6pm GMT. Please do tune in and please do ask away.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylQ6N-_gPRQ&t=0s
FULL EPISODE – This will be ‘live’ for the first time at 6pm GMT on Wednesday 15th March 2023. View here.
As Jim Davidson trends, should he apologise for his June 2021 remark: “I spoke to [Gary Glitter] when I visited The Verne [prison] 2 years ago. He’s remorseful and he looked ready to start a new life” given the paedo has been recalled to prison after being caught on Dark Web?
This morning on Twitter, Matthew Steeples asked: “As Jim Davidson trends, should he apologise for his June 2021 remark: “I spoke to [Gary Glitter] when I visited The Verne [prison] 2 years ago. He’s remorseful and he looked ready to start a new life” given the paedo has been recalled to prison after being caught on Dark Web?” He gave the options: A) “Yes, disgraceful remark”; B) “No, second chances matter”; C) “Cancel Davidson and Glitter” and D) “Couldn’t care less.” By 11:30am on Wednesday 15th March 2023, the majority of respondents favoured the idea of the cancellation of this noxious pair of grifters.GB News is about the only channel that will now accept the weird warblings of these two utter berks. A pair of toerags forever linked by a hashtag.Twitter users have rightly mocked the ‘entertainer’ over his decision to visit a disgraced ‘singer’ who abused children as young as 10 years old in prison. What on earth was it about the paedophile-nonce-monster Gary Glitter that attracted Jim Davidson to visit him in prison? An answer is required. The public should be told.Those that think Gary Lineker was WRONG to tweet about politics whilst working for the BBC should be reminded that both Jim Davidson and the late paedophile Sir Jimmy Savile openly campaigned for the Conservative Party and that both men also worked for the BBC. It is pure hypocrisy to call out Mr Lineker on this basis.
'What does the BBC stand for? Bring back Corbyn, bring back communism…and we have to pay for it whether we like it or not. Let's scrap it, let's watch GB News all day long.'
It is very clear that Dan Wootton has no nous when it comes to questioning Jim Davidson. Mr Wootton is clearly not a journalist prone to drilling into real stories; he just PR peddles for his chums.
Deserved “Public Hate Figure” Jim Davidson OBE’s Worst Moments…
On Great Yarmouth:
“Full of fat children of all colours.”
On London and the UK:
“I am never coming to London again… I may as well go to Dubai and be an ethnic minority there than wait five years till I become one here.”
On former UKIP leader Nigel Farage:
“The Jim Davidson of the political world.”
On beating up one of his four ex-wives:
“We’re like a couple of boxers. On the first occasion, I poked her in the eye by accident. I actually went for the mouth… The second time I gave her a shiner. I threw a bunch of keys which whacked her in the eye. Just for a giggle she kept blackening it up to make it look worse.”
“I took the wife out last night; one punch!”
On supposedly giving up on making jokes about black people:
“I can’t do impressions of Frank Bruno or Ian Wright? That’s racist, is it? But I can do Sven-Göran Eriksson?”
“I’m not going to get on my knee, and I’m not going to go ever black person I see, ‘hail you.’ I’m not going to apologise for the past; the past was the past.”
On Black Lives Matter protestors:
“Pondlife… F**king stupid.”
Of his thoughts about his chum Boris Johnson:
“Don’t listen with mother.”
On Piers Morgan (after he was paid to appear on his Life Stories programme):
“You don’t deserve to listen to anyone’s life story because you don’t f**king listen.”
On the BBC and the NHS:
“I was a smell under peoples’ noses… I’m totally erased; I am the statue that’s thrown into Bristol Docks… They gave me a million quid to go away.”
“I hate the BBC with a passion. It’s a toss-up between them and the NHS who I hate the most.”
Proving himself the ultimate ‘Brain of Britain’:
“People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die.”
After being declared bankrupt:
“My problem is money.”
On himself:
“I could cure Aids and give £1 billion to womens’ groups and people would still think I was a racist, sexist twat”.
After Matthew Steeples called out ‘leaky #lockdownfiles sieve’ Isabel Oakeshott, her ‘chlorinated chicken chap’ Reform UK leader and TalkTV host Richard Tice bizarrely enquired of him: “What kind of monster are you?”
“Let’s Make Britain Great” is the predictably and very clearly ‘borrowed’ strapline used by Reform UK, a ‘political party’ – which actually is just an entity registered in England and Wales as company number 11694875. The Donald Trump-esque mantra is used as part of an attempt to attract swivel-eyed right wingers to an ‘operation’ that didn’t win a single seat in the 2021 London Assembly elections; at that poll, Reform UK laughably finished in tenth position – behind the Women’s Equality, Rejoin EU, UKIP and Animal Welfare parties even.
Tweeting Matthew Steeples, in several rambling rants likely written after a boozy lunch in Belgravia yesterday, ‘considerably richer than yow’ businessman and TalkTV tittle-tattler Tice very generously shared our article (“thanks, Dicky”) and remarked:
“So @M_Steeples is clearly just jealous of Isabel’s success because he is a 2 bit journo of a 2 bit rag that no-one has heard of. Keep going Matthew!”
Turning to COVID-19 itself, the father of three and regular yellow stickered shopper at ‘Celebrity Waitrose’ Belgavia raged:
“So you do not care about the damage to children, the inhumane CareHome restrictions, the awful funeral constraints, the suicides? What sort of monster are you?”
The response to his tweets has been overwhelming, but likely not quite what Tice was anticipating. Aside from being told: “Save your faux outrage, you hypocrite!” one social media observed: “Right back at ya. Stop spreading misleading information” of his ‘monster’ related question. Now Dicky dear, please do go and pour yourself a British beer and please ease your and grubby gym gear-clad Issie’s “jealousy” with that.
Editor’s Note – Unlike as is the case in many publications, this article was NOT sponsored or supported by a third-party. Follow Matthew Steeples on Twitter at @M_Steeples.
Pictured Top – Richard Tice decided to give Matthew Steeples a “Sunday sermon” about monsters yesterday; he did so late afternoon and likely after a few (British beer only) shandies and perhaps a boozy lunch (with non-European wines only) in Belgravia.
This morning on Twitter, Matthew Steeples asked: “Yesterday, Richard Tice of the Reform Party asked: ‘What sort of monster are you?’ of me after I called out his leaky squeeze Isabel Oakeshott. Who is actual monster in story of #lockdownfiles leaking of MattHancock’s WhatsApp missives?” He gave the options of a) Isabel Oakeshott (32.6%), b) Richard Tice, (8.7%) c) himself (6.5%) and d) Matt Hancock (52.5%). As of 11.30am on Monday 6th March the results were as listed.58-year-old Richard Tice ‘bigs himself up’ as some kind of man of the people in spite of having a clearly very privileged past and present. Often spotted in the tony taverns of Belgravia, this former Conservative donor has been involved in amongst other things property development and investment. He was privately educated at Uppingham and is the son the late horse trainer Joan Tice DL OBE. That he claims Matthew Steeples “jealous” of his gossipy girlfriend – a woman who falsely acted as a muckspreader when she falsely shared fake news that David Cameron had performed a sexual act on a dead pig – is proof permanent that he’s the one who is actually off his merry rocker. “Keep going Dicky!”Called out by Steeples after he suggested him a “2 bit journo of a 2 bit rag,” Tice responded: “What sort of monster are you?” He didn’t find a very positive response to his idiotic question from the majority of social media users.
Social media responds to Richard Tice’s rambling rants and questions about monsters…
Responding on Twitter and Facebook to the missives to Matthew Steeples, social media users observed of Tice and Oakeshott:
“Two-bit? Do you mean The Steeple Times? I read it all the time as do all in the know; distinguished and principled journalism – especially compared to the dross trotted out by your squeeze.”
“You’re a professional troll and so is Oakeshott. Who is paying you?”
“[Oakeshott] had these messages two years ago. Why is she only concerned about those issues now? What sort of monster is she?”
“The problem you have is that you are even more wrong than the government were!”
“Don’t try to kid us you care. You’ve tried to exploit the release of that information with your partner in an attempt to inflict political damage & now you pretend you care? You’re a 2 bit crappy grifter like Farage. I wouldn’t trust you with a lettuce, let alone our rights.”
“Save your faux outrage, you hypocrite! What about the damage to children currently suffering from Long Covid? I don’t hear you utter a bloody word about them!”
“If Isabel had been a decent person, i.e. concerned about what is in the public interest, she would have released ALL the information to ALL media without payment. We see you two for what you really are!”
“You are using those examples of wrongdoing and other peoples’ real human suffering to promote your own ends. What’s worse is that you are gaslighting people by cynically pretending that you are doing it ‘because you care,’ when self-interest is always your real motive. Shyster!”
“What we know is that Oakeshott released these messages at a time that was politically convenient but chose to hide the fact that Banks lied until she was exposed.”
“Disgusting you are trying to manipulate peoples’ suicides for your own benefit and agenda.”
“Serialised in the telegraph to maximise the news cycle/exposure. How is this about any more than @IsabelOakeshott and her personal & political agenda? It’s a massive scoop, dripping with tabloid subterfuge, but why dress it up as a crusade?
“She felt it was in public interest, was disgusted… But not before the book was out. And no doubt her leakage has been handsomely rewarded, possibly even legal protection should MH sue her. She’s the reason journalists will be less trusted with confidential matters.”
“They’re insulting your credibility, I thought you’d recognise that given how often it must occur.”
“You are a charlatan… Trying to make political gain out of peoples’ suffering. What sort of monster are you?”
“[You] didn’t care until you and [Oakeshott] could make political hay and a boatload of cash.”
“None of [the things Tice supposedly ‘cares’ about] are remotely true or relevant. File them under ‘things which ill-informed fight-wingers bleat about but never actually happened. No wonder the ‘UK’ is a global pariah and laughing stock.”
“It’s genuinely painful when dead-eyed sociopaths obsessed with political power no matter the cost lecture others about ‘caring.’ Your entire platform exists and feeds only on negative emotion, reactionary populism with power for its own sake as the final and only goal.”
“You would happily send [sic] asylum seekers drown. F**k off with the faux humanitarianism.”
“You do not care about so-called ordinary people. Stop pretending. I suspect you want an authoritarian far right tax haven complete with subservient work force.”
“You can care about all of this and still think your significant other is a wrong’un. Hope this helps, Dicky.”
“Like your partner, you care when it suits your agenda [Richard].”
“It’s you that’s the monster… A Tory monster. The worst kind.”
“Stop using peoples’ deaths for your own financial gain, you ghoul.”
“[‘What sort of monster are you?’]… That last line, have you ever considered looking in the mirror and pausing to think, [Richard]?”
“Right back at ya. Stop spreading misleading information.”
“Nice one… Brilliant… Keep up the good work, Matthew.”
“Oooh, you’ve got your knickers in a twist… Grow up Tice… You should be the leader of the Whataboutery Party.”
In August 2019, ‘The Steeple Times’ shared an image of Brexiteer Richard Tice buying yellow stickered salmon at Waitrose in Belgravia. We asked: “What next? Chlorinated American chicken?” and suggested he find another yellow sticker… That yellow sticker? ‘Bollocks to Brexit.’In September 2019, ‘The Steeple Times’ condemned Isabel Oakeshott as a “fake news creator” and shared a reader submitted photograph of her next to the “lapdance loving MP” John Whittingdale. For once, she wasn’t wearing her grubby gym gear.Reform UK bases its message most clearly on 45th POTUS Donald Trump’s message: “Let’s Make America Great Again.” It’s a message that has yet to resonate at the ballot box with the great British public. Perhaps Richard Tice should focus on that problem before worrying about ‘monsters’ that simply don’t exist.On Twitter, amongst much mockery, this image of a ‘Grifter’ bicycle simply shone out and had to be shared. As Norman Tebbit once argued, it might be time ‘Dicky Boy’ got on it.
As the story of a man who glued himself to a desk in a NatWest in Grimsby is declared “breaking news,” we delve into some other odd things that have gone on in this decidedly grim fishing port; they include it being the birthplace of the ‘Neighbours’ actress who played the bumptious busybody Mrs Mangel and home to the scissor stabber who used to be dresser to Sarah, Duchess of York
‘Grimbarians’ – the decidedly dopey denziens of Grimsby – have a habit of doing curious things. Aside from being the place where the crackpot crazy dresser to Sarah, Duchess of York turned stabber Jane Andrews grew up and supposedly again has resided since leaving the clink (and is hopefully kept well clear of scissors, cricket bats and kitchen knives), it’s a place, as The Steeple Times reported in January 2021, where a resident named Andy found an Argos sign attached to his house on New Year’s Day that year.
Reported on at the time by the clearly on-the-ball, always-got-a-breaking-news-story-on-the-boil GrimsbyLive, Andy told the rag: “I’m keeping it up though I think, it is a bit funny isn’t it? I might just treat it as a bit of a late Christmas present.” He amusingly concluded: “I’ll have to set up my own click and collect.”
Noted as being home to a legendary P.E. teacher named Amy Monkhouse, who the BBC describe as having “won numerous titles in the world of bowls,” Grimsby was also where the actors John Hurt and Vivean Gray – better known as ‘Mrs Mangel’ in Neighbours – were born. Now, this once thriving fishing port – which was home at one time to Maxine Carr, the sidekick of the Soham murderer Ian Huntley – is once again on the map and this time its notoriety is set to stick because of a bit of glue.
Written by not one but two journalists, Luke Green and James J. Turner, this clearly vitally important piece of reporting emphasised the seriousness of what had occured and continued:
“At around 3pm this afternoon (Thursday, November 17th), a man reportedly glued his arm to a table in the bank on Victoria Street. Officers from Humberside Police are already on the scene dealing with the matter.”
“It’s not yet known why the man has done this although it is believed to be linked to some sort of dispute with the bank. Witnesses say his unimpressed wife has been watching on from the side.”
Going further and clearly realising the vital need for updates on this ‘serious situation,’ Green and Turner audaciously added:
“One man said: ‘I was very surprised to see him glued there, it’s not what I thought.’ Another customer said: ‘I didn’t realise that’s what had happened, that’s not what I expected.’”
“GrimsbyLive has contacted Humberside Police and NatWest to find out more.”
“This is a live blog. Follow the latest updates in the blog below…”
Hold the front page; there’s someone glued to it.
Editor’s Note – Unlike as is the case in many publications, this article was NOT sponsored or supported by a third-party (and nor was any glue was used in its creation).
Clear ‘journalist’ in-line for Pulitzer Prize James J. Turner later returned to his groundbreaking feature to add an update. It read: “One woman that came into use the bank said: ‘What an idiot.’” Prophetic.Evil murderer Jane Andrews (pictured left running with Sarah, Duchess of York in attire not exactly suited to such and pictured right in more recent times looking like what one social media user described as “a right old slapper”) is one of the better-known people to have resided in a town that took its name from a Danish fisherman. After battering her poor partner, Tommy Cressman, to death with his cricket bat and a kitchen knife, she went on the run before residing in London with the self-declared friend of the pompous “red socked fop” tw*t Sir Christopher Meyer, Basia Briggs, during her trial in 2001. Later, after being thrown in the clink for life after her conviction for murder, this wicked woman escaped from East Sutton Park Prison in Kent but did not even get charged with absconding.
Whilst Elton John waxed lyrical about Grimsby in his song – with lines including “there’s nothing to compare with my Grimsby,” “Grimsby, oh, a thousand delights” and “I miss your magic charm” – one visitor remarked of it: “The place just stinks of fish.”
“He who sang in the bathtub as the economy collapsed,” former Chancellor of the Exchequer Norman Lamont, was brought up in the port town whilst “Brexit means Brexit, my deal means a deal” Theresa May visited in March 2019 to declare: “I need the support of those who, like me, voted remain… Leaving with a good deal is much than leaving with no deal… The British people have already moved on… So, let’s get it done.” Unsurprisingly, her tenure as Prime Minister ended just a couple of months later.Vivean Gray (1924 – 2016) – better known as the actress to have played the gossiping busybody Nell Mangel in ‘Neighbours’ between 1986 and 1988 – was the daughter of a Grimsby fish and chip shop owner. She never married or had any children, lived in Australia for some years from the 1950s onwards and then returned to England to Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex where she is said to have “lived a quiet and private life.”In February 2015, a UKIP politician named Victoria Ayling from the port town responded to a comment from a Green Party member by asking: “What happens when renewable energy runs out?” This clearly dimwitted dunce had previous been slammed after film a video with her husband in which she raged: “We must basically [re]patriate those that shouldn’t be here. That’s not quite policy yet. Maybe I should soften it a bit … OK, send them back… OK, I just want to send the lot back, but I can’t say that.”Clearly though some people do love this town on the Humber Estuary. In July this year, a derelict Second World War sea fort that had been intended for conversion to an ‘Island of Hope’ for detoxing druggies, sold for 880% above its £50,000 guide price and hammered down for £490,000 at a Savills auction.
Nikolay Kalinin urges readers to support journalist and screenwriter Peter Jukes’ crowdfunder as he commences legal action against mucky madam Ghislaine Maxwell’s moronic mouthpiece Jay Beecher
Far-right twerp Jay Beecher went somewhat silent after The Steeple Times published an article in April about him joining the hellish circle of utterly delusional individuals hell-bent on defending mucky madam Ghislaine Maxwell.
Several days ago, however, this noxious nitwit emerged out of the dark hole that is the Phantom Zone in order to shockingly and without any evidence accuse the talented screenwriter and Byline Times editor Peter Jukes of child abuse in an article for the far-right Politicalite website. According to Beecher, the accuser he wrote of once starred in one of Jukes’ plays after joining an amateur acting group.
Jukes responded on Twitter and announced that he was setting up a legal crowdfunder against Beecher and his associates Jordan Kendall, James Bembridge and James Melville. In another post featuring a screenshot of an email sent to Beecher’s representative, Jukes has denied the clearly nonsensical accusations and stated that if he “actually believed these allegations he should inform the police.”
In another tweet, Jukes stated: “Beecher and James came up with this on the back of a naff Google search on me, having already declared they were going to take Byline Times ‘down,’” which demonstrates that Beecher’s actions are motivated by a desire to bring down a man calling out clear crackpots like him.
Jukes’ complaints against Bembridge and Melville were based on them retweeting the article published on Politicalite – where Beecher is a regular contributor – which reiterated the appalling accusation that Jukes committed child abuse.
Today, I urge readers to support Jukes’ campaign to tackle Beecher’s lies, because his work as editor of Byline Times has allowed people to gain a new perspective on our country, which is important in these divisive times. It is important also that the harmful tosh being spewed by people like Jay Beecher is not allowed to harm anyone else’s lives and it is important also that such individuals are brought to book for their reprehensible conduct.
To contribute to Peter Jukes’ crowdfunder, click here. All donations will be used only to fund the costs of specialist defamation solicitors, Bindmans LLP.
Prior to publication of the ‘Politicalite’ smear, Peter Jukes responded in writing to Jay Beecher’s nonsense with a comment. It read: “These allegations are completely untrue and I believe Mr Beecher to be making them maliciously. Rather than publishing a libelous and contemptible smear – if Mr Beecher actually believed these allegations he should inform the police. I would happily talk to them and prove this is a malicious allegation for which Mr Beecher will be able to provide no proper details or supporting witnesses, because none exist.After ‘The Steeple Times’ highlighted Jay Beecher as an attention seeking desperado devoted to supporting the deviant daughter of the pension pot plunderer Robert Maxwell, Ghislaine Maxwell, in April, the cowardly cretin blocked our Twitter account. Today, we remind readers that what we are dealing with here is an ignoramus with an especially nasty tongue.
Desperate for attention Jay Beecher has pinned himself to a whole array of crackpot ‘causes’ over the years. Aside from having been involved in UKIP (from which he was ultimately and unsurprisingly suspended) and the Tory Party, he more recently created a weird wack job website named ‘The Maxwell Files.’ Here, in June 2021, he published a rambling rant in support of the deservedly incarcerated Ghislaine Maxwell. In it, he quoted the mucky madam’s brother as saying: “One of our favourite games when she was very young was to teach Ghislaine bad words (which of course she did not know the meaning of) and then encourage her to use them in front of our parents when they had guests over which got us into trouble but made Kevin and I hoot with laughter as when Ghislaine, around 4, told a former Principal of Brasenose College, Oxford to ‘piss off’ when he asked her how old she was. We had told Ghislaine that was a form of greeting!” With friends like Beecher, who needs…
Nikolay Kalinin watched GB News’ launch night and found it to be anything but “doing the news differently”
GB News is finally here and I have to admit it’s not as much of a hub of “fruitcakes and looneys and closet racists” as present on Fox News. It surprisingly has a large diversity in terms of the racial origins of its presenters, but some on the channel, such as Neil Oliver – who will be analysing “what it means to be British” – make me concerned, as a few days ago he made the unfortunate decision to deliver a bunch of tosh about coronavirus lockdowns being utterly unneeded.
In an interview with the newspaper The Herald, Oliver stated: “I think it is the biggest single mistake in world history and I’m just horrified by the damage that has been done. People who have had no support, no help, lost businesses, lost livelihoods and all the rest of it.”
In a tone that sounds hilariously dystopian, Oliver claimed that people come up to him on the streets and “lower their voices, because they want to say that they think things are wrong.”
The channel’s lack of awareness can also evidenced in the fact that chairman Andrew Neil has delivered a ridiculous message that GB News is a channel that it proud to be British, despite the fact that most of its backers are from abroad. Neil has also mentioned that GB News aims to cover the “people’s agenda,” which sounds like something that Nigel Farge would say if he launched his own TV channel.
During the introductory broadcast, Neil also stated that the channel aims to provide debate, and don’t get me wrong, I believe in the principle of debate, because without debate we cannot come to an understanding and work together in order to improve society. The idea of allowing presenters to have their own opinions is also fine by me, because if that principle was not allowed on British television, we wouldn’t have amazing shows such as Top Gear and Mock the Week.
During the introductory broadcast, Neil also mentioned that GB News will aim to not solely look at Westminster, but also analyse how the government’s decisions influence Britain’s communities, which is important if the people want to feel represented and avoid putting their trust the likes of Reform UK’s Richard Tice.
However, the problem is that there are lots of people – especially people like Neil Oliver – who don’t want debate and rather seek to divide. This became evident on GB News’ opening night when Neil asked Oliver about how he feels oppressed in Scotland for identifying with the British identity. He did not offer an alternative view in his line of questioning.
It’s concerning to me that GB News will be a safe haven for the likes of Oliver to give the likes of Laurence Fox and Darren Grimes a platform to spread their harmful messages. This is especially evidenced by the fact that a large amount of people on the channel’s roster are ‘beyond-right-wing’ – such as ex-Guido Fawkes contributor and ‘condom campaigner’ Tom Harwood, ex-Brexit Party MEP Alex Phillips and ex-Brexit Party candidate Michelle Dewberry.
The introductory broadcast has given us hints that this is exactly what is going to happen. During Dan Wootton’s interview with Nigel Farage, for example, the ex-politician described Black Lives Matters as a “Marxist organisation… that wants to bring down Western civilisation,” yet the host didn’t bother to even question this suggestion. How is this providing debate and how is this impartial coverage?
Still, GB News has only been just launched, so we cannot tell fully if this is going to be the British Fox News that no one asked for, or if it’s actually going to offer an alternative and revolutionary coverage of news. Let’s wait and see how the whole operation proceeds, and then let’s make our judgement. After all, cancel culture is not really effective and for the most part, it’s pretty daft.
Mic Wright, the man behind ‘Conquest of the Useless,’ observed: “Live from the Pratcave: GB News is Britain’s least-silenced people saying ‘unsayable’ things they’ve said before.”Elsewhere in ‘The Guardian,’ Stuart Jefferies reviewed the launch night of the channel and gave it just one out of five stars. He observed: “The ‘anti-woke’ news channel had Andrew Neil and Alan Sugar, but no Piers Morgan – and the opening night felt like the furthest thing from appointment TV imaginable. I give it a year.”
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.”
Ghislaine Maxwell’s latest supporter revealed to be Jay Beecher, a far right-wing political writer and ex-Ukipper with associations to the quite rightly banned-from-Facebook ‘Politicalite’
Now, today, we can reveal the latest to join Basham’s not-so-exclusive club is a man named Jay Beecher. He claims to be a ‘journalist’ and also the founder of an organisation with a currently defunct site named Vote Watch.
Vote Watch, curiously, according to a Patreon page supported by just 43 people, was something that aimed to “provide groundbreaking reports exposing media bias, left-wing extremism, and corruption.” It set out to “expose crooked politicians [with]… undercover journalism, exclusive news, and in-depth investigations,” but now Beecher has plainly turned to the very, very dark side and is being lauded by RealGhislaine.com for supporting convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged head honcho.
In two tweets that were subsequently shared by the ‘official’ @RealGhislaine campaign yesterday, Beecher announced:
“ONE TO WATCH: The new site has now been covered by the Mail, NY Post etc, & sets out to counter MSM bias & ‘fake news.’ GHISLAINE Maxwell’s Siblings, @RealGhislaine Launch New Website To Counter MSM Fiction.”
“Also worth remembering that they are Ghislaine’s brothers and sisters, so don’t deserve to be attacked simply for doing what anyone else would do – defend a family member they love.”
Elsewhere, Jay Beecher is heavily involved with producing content for the controversial far right website Politicalite – which claims to be a “proudly right-wing website that supports the silent majority of forgotten working-class men and women from across the UK. We back Britain’s vote for Brexit and America’s vote for President Trump.” Politicalite was deservedly banned from Facebook “for violating the company’s hate-speech policies” in May 2020.
Beecher was also convicted of driving offences whilst standing as a Conservative candidate in a by-election for Peterborough City Council in June 2017. He was fined for driving whilst disqualified, driving with no insurance and having no MOT on his car, but in Maxwell-esque ‘innocence’ claimed: “This is a personal matter. It was a misunderstanding. It won’t affect me going forward.”
Beecher’s Muck – Ghislaine Maxwell’s race to try to attempt to stop her trial starting in July looks as likely at succeeding as a donkey successfully jumping Becher’s Brook at Aintree. Here, the now incarcerated mucky madam is pictured with her then ‘bestie’ Prince Andrew, at Royal Ascot in 2000 in the days when she was considered a “socialite” and welcomed to ritzy events across the globe along with her paedophile boss Jeffrey Epstein.According to his Twitter handle, the mucky madam Ghislaine Maxwell’s latest supporter, Jay Beecher, has been called “a journalist with balls” by Rod Liddle and described by the actor Michael Sheen as “an ignorant tw*t.”According to the widely respected ‘Byline Times’s’ Sian Norris and Nafeez Ahmed on March 1st this year: “Beecher has also been accused of racism himself, having sent a tweet to Black Lives Matter activist Natalie Rowe saying that she looked like a ‘cross between seabiscuit and a transexual fish.’” Going further, Norris and Ahmed added: “[He] has been accused of running a sock puppet account known as ‘Rob Daniel’ or ‘The Secret Journalist.’ The account frequently shared posts by Beecher and, when Beecher was challenged by ‘Byline Times’s’ executive editor, ‘Daniel’ sent a ‘troll reply.’ Beecher denies this, inviting ‘Daniel’ for a pint. Bots frequently share Beecher’s tweets.”
Jay Beecher was described as being suspended from UKIP for “being a naughty boy” according to a clip posted on YouTube in October 2016 by a postman and Labour councillor called Darren Fowler.
In June 2019, Jay Beecher was interviewed by controversial journalist Rod Liddle in the context of alleged voter fraud in Peterborough.
Grimsby resident takes with good humour someone attaching an Argos sign to his house on New Year’s Day whilst journalist reporting story of it goes all Miss Marple
“I think if people were all a bit more like Andy, there would be no wars” remarked one Nick Kay on the Facebook group ‘Angry People in Local Newspapers’ of a story about an Argos sign “taking a tour of Grimsby before ending up attached” to the house of someone named Andy.
According to the paper’s Gregory Ford, a journalist with plainly a hell of a lot of other subject matter to sift through as he moves into 2021, “[the sign] first took a stop at the town hall a few yards away” and appeared the next day “at an address in West Marsh where it appeared to have been attached to the side of a house.”
Ford – a man who makes Miss Marple looks like an amateur – continued:
“GrimsbyLive finally caught up with the wandering logo at around 1pm where it was found still attached to the side of a property on Haycroft Street near the junction with Lord Street.”
Speaking to the “resident at the property,” a man whose surname he neglected to include named ‘Andy’ subsequently, Ford gained the following surprisingly witty comment:
“I think someone has put it here as a bit of a joke, we have some banter with the neighbours, one of my friends sent me a video of someone attaching it to the house last night.”
“I’ve got no idea how they got it down or if they were even the ones that took it off the wall in the first place to be honest.”
“I’m keeping it up though I think, it is a bit funny isn’t it? I might just treat it as a bit of a late Christmas present, I’ll have to set up my own click and collect.”
Predictably members of the Facebook ‘Angry People in Local Newspapers’ had fun with the story with one declaring: “Bet Visit Grimsby are pissing themselves over this free advertising.”Another added: “They’ll put a pick-up point anywhere these days” whilst another mocked: “I saw Argos tour in the 80s, before they sold out.”Andy from Argos’ sign is about its only highlight – Grimsby (a grim town whose residents are nicknamed ‘Grimbarians’) is the place Theresa May chose to give her final speech prior to the final vote on her ultimately rejected Brexit deal in 2019 in a hangar for housing life vests (rather appropriately); ditch loving murderess Jane Andrews (pictured with her former boss Sarah Ferguson) grew up in Grimsby and as of November was a Morrisons shelf-stacker in the town; chancellor “best known for singing in the bathtub as the economy collapsed” Norman Lamont was brought up there too and in 1974, Sir Elton even decided to sing about the accursed place. Now, in 2021, it doesn’t even have an Argos.
Whilst Elton John waxed lyrical about Grimsby in his song – with lines including “there’s nothing to compare with my Grimsby,” “Grimsby, oh, a thousand delights” and “I miss your magic charm” – one visitor remarked of it: “The place just stinks of fish.”
In August 2020, Argos announced it would no longer be printing paper copies of its catalogue. ITV1’s ‘This Morning’ responded by interviewing a retail studies expert named Professor Leigh Sparks who’d collected every single copy since 1973. He remarked: “It was a book of dreams in many ways. What a record of consumer tastes they were” whilst Eamonn Holmes intelligently chirped: “They can show you every stage of your life.”
“It’s So Easy” was Argos’ strapline in advertising campaigns in the 1980s. No doubt, ‘Andy’ won’t share such sentiments when he’s bashed his head against the sign after a night out on the razzle dazzle.
