Relatives of the 38 British tourists killed in the June 2015 terrorist massacre in Sousse Tunisia have claimed that Tui, the parent company of travel agent Thompson instructed its sales staff to play down the risk of terrorist attacks in the country, despite warnings from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO).

A coroner has obtained an internal Tui document that was published two days after the Bardo museum massacre in March 2015, when 22 European tourists were shot, which instructed Tui staff to tell customers “Tunisia remains a popular destination for us and customers are enjoying their holidays as normal”.

Three months after Tui’s reassuring words 38 more tourists were shot in Tunisia.

Following our piece in last month’s issue about Liverpool streets, such as Penny Lane, named after slave traders, a row has broken out over a building in another UK seafaring city famous for its slave traders.

Colston Hall, a music and event venue in Bristol was named after Edward Colston, deputy governor of the Royal African Company which got very rich indeed from 1672 to 1698 transporting around 100,000 captured Africans to plantations in America and the West Indies, with thousands dying and being dumped in the sea. Colston, who also has half a dozen streets, pubs, three schools and student flats named after him, as well as a stained glass window dedicated to him in Bristol Cathedral latterly made lots of friends in Bristol with generous philanthropy. His bronze statue in the city centre has a plaque describing the slaver as “virtuous” and “wise”. Continue reading →

Those who admire our pillar of political integrity and judgement, Speaker John Bercow, might well spot him at his favourite curry house, Madhu’s at the Sheraton Skyline hotel, Heathrow Airport.

Bercow opened Madhu’s in 2014, and four weeks later accepted a £5,000 donation from them to his 2015 re-election fund.

Now some unkind Westminster types are saying that the arrangement is a bit smelly, and not specifically in the vindaloo sense.

As if…

The five-star Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Knightsbridge, formerly the Hyde Park Hotel is “as tacky as a plastic Christmas tree in a spray tan salon”.

This is the view of Daily Mail TV critic Christopher Stevens, who gave a one star out of five panning to C4 documentary “A Very British Hotel”, claiming that the title was a hilarious misnaming on account of the fact that none of the staff shown were actually from Britain. This was, according to the GM, because “the work is too hard, the hours too long and the pay too poor to attract anyone but immigrants” Of course it wasn’t because the mainly very rich middle-eastern clientele who drop huge piles of money there are well used to being served by immigrants.

Stevens also opined that the programme proved that “A chav is a chav, no matter how rich they are” and that the hotel “looks like a cheap knock-off from Taiwan”.

Boasting one of the most impressive cast lists in cinema history A Man For All Seasons, the 1966 film of the final years of Sir Thomas More (1529-1535) was showered with accolades, winning six Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography and Best Costume Design.

King Henry VIII wants to divorce his wife Catherine of Aragon and marry his mistress Anne Boleyn and only More stands in his way. Continue reading →