The British Weekly October 3, 2009 : Page 3
The British Weekly, Sat. October 3, 2009 NEWS:The Labour Party Conference Squatters move in next to Thatcher Squatters have taken over a multi-million pound house in a plush district of central London, doors away from the home of for- mer prime minister Margaret Thatcher. The group have vowed to stay in the three-storey mansion in Chester Square, in the Belgravia district, where homes are currently on sale for up to £12.5 million. “We knew it was really close to Margaret Thatcher’s house. It’s hard to believe we’ve ended up living so near someone like that,” one of the group, a builder who gave his name as Jake Tag, told London’s Evening Standard paper on Wednesday. Chester Square has also been home to cele- brities such as Roman Abramovich, the owner of Chelsea Football Club, while “Frankenstein” author Mary Shelley lived there for a period in the mid-19th century. “This is the richest place to live in London. Living here is a dream come true. We’re going to keep the place clean and tidy and we won’t do any damage,” Tag said. “It’s all perfectly legal and we just want to set up a nice home in an abandoned house.” The squatters put up a notice on the gates of the house warning that “we live in this property, it is our home and we intend to stay here”, and saying they will prosecute anyo- ne who tries to forcibly remove them. They have reportedly even invited Thatcher, who led Britain from 1979 until 1990 and is now in her 80s, around for a cup of tea. Page 3 Sun sets on Brown as Cameron profits from Labour woes Opposition leader David Cameron took a step clo- ser to power this week after Prime Minister Gordon Brown was roc- ked by a series of set- backs during his party conference - perhaps the biggest of which was the news that The Sun news- paper has switched its support to the Tories. Brown’s party gathe- red in Brighton looking for a fresh direction for the election, which is due to take place by June. But it seemed that whatever Brown and his ministers could produce on stage at the conference, it was undermined by events elsewhere. First Brown had to fend off allegations in a BBC interview that he is dependent on prescrip- tion pills — a line of ques- tioning condemned by his aides. Then, on the morning he was to give what was billed as the most impor- tant speech of his career, a poll was published sho- wing Labour had slid into third position among British parties for the first time since 1982. The Conservatives were way in front, with 36 percent, followed by the Liberal Democrats, who polled 25 percent and Labour on 24 percent, the Ipsos Mori survey of 1,000 adults showed. Unhelpful voices offs- tage were not helping eit- her. John F. Welch Jr., the former chief executive of General Electric, noted to his 900,000 followers on Twitter that: “Gordon Brown looks like a failing businessperson on way out — a ‘dead man wal- king’.” Brown delivered a speech packed full of policy pledges, which commentators said show- cased his decent, hard- working qualities, but not enough to win back the voters who have deserted the party. “We are not done yet,” he told the party faithful. But then came the bombshell. Having bac- ked Labour since 1997, Britain’s top-selling daily newspaper The Sun announced it was dum- ping its support for Labour and putting its money on the Conservatives to win the election. Under the headline “Labour’s Lost It”, the paper set out its reasons for deserting the party after 12 years. The paper said the “real story” of the Labour years was one of “under- achievement, rank failure and a vast expansion of wasteful government interference in everyone’s lives.” Tony Woodley, leader of the Unite union whose members help fund Labour, showed his dis- gust with the decision by tearing up a copy of the paper during one of his speeches. But Even in an age of plunging newspaper sales, no political party can ignore the patronage of a newspaper with an estimated daily readers- hip of ten million. Brown tried to brush off the decision, but he appeared visibly tense in TV interviews as he digested the news, at one point accusing his Sky News questioner of soun- ding like a “political pro- pagandist”. As his anger at the questions grew, Brown looked all of his 58 years. Cameron, in contrast, will be just 43 when the elec- tion takes place. Senior Labour figures spent the hours after The TEARING INTO THEM: Union Leader Tony Woodley shows his disgust at the latest issue of Britain’s favorite tabloid on the podium in Brighton this week Sun’s announcement loudly proclaiming their lack of concern. But they were privately shell-shoc- ked. Five Cabinet minis- ters, including Alan Johnson and David Miliband, went to a party thrown by The Sun’s parent company, appa- rently to keep their own lines of communication open. A senior MP told THEY THINK IT’S ALL OVER: The Sun this week reporters: ‘People are saying the most unpopu- lar man in town is the editor of the Sun but actually it’s Gordon Brown. That’s the pro- blem. He has only him- self to blame for this.’ Mr Brown tried to play down the setback. ‘It’s the British people that decide the election,’ he said. IMMIGRATION ATTORNEY STEVEN R. 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